Just Cozy–A Felted Beer Can Cozy
Now I can drink beer out of a can with class! I hate the foam cozies, but I like my beer to stay cold. I can also tell my beer from everyone else’s this way! I may try to embellish it with a little needle felting. DD bought a little felting kit when we were at a fiber festival a couple of years ago, so I have the needle and a bit of dyed fleece.
Embellished with Needle Felting– A Posy Cozy
Here is Just Cozy, a pattern for a Felted Beer Can Cozy
1 skein Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky (this color is Limeade)
(you should have enough yarn in the skein for two)
Size 15 (or thereabouts) Circular needle with a long enough cord for magic loop (or size 15 DPN’s if there is such a thing!) A 15 was the largest in my Denise circ. set, so that’s what I used.
very large crochet hook (I used an 11.5 mm size P)
Your fabric should be loose and floopy, if its seems tight, you may want to use bigger needle or try to knit more loosely.
With yarn doubled (I pulled from the inside and outside). Begin with a circular cast on such as Emily Ocker’s aka pinhole cast on in Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook (don’t pull it tightly closed, it will close up in felting)
or just cast on six stitches and join to knit in the round on your long circ (magic loop) or your DPN’s. (Divide on 3 needles.) The hole should close up enough in the felting process.
Rnd. 1: K around
Rnd 2: KFB around (12 stitches)
Rnd 3: K
Rnd 4: KFB (24 stitches)
Rnd 5: K
Rnd 6: P (This creates a turning round)
Continue knitting each round thereafter until the cozy is just short of the top of the can. (4.5 to 4.75 inches).
finish with a little garter stitch for a couple rows
P 1 round
K 1 round
P 1 round
Bind off loosely with a SC bind off
(or if you are crochet phobic, just make sure you bind off very, very loosely.
Drink a beer so that you have an empty can. (You don’t really need it empty…but what the heck!) Felt the cozy in a zippered pillow case or laundry bag so you don’t ruin your washer with the fuzz. Use HOT water with a very small amount of soap. Add some towels of a pair of jeans to add friction in the agitation cycle. After agitating for about 8-10 minutes, check it often, every five minutes or so. I shocked mine with cold water everytime I took it out to check it. Mine took quite a while 20-25 minutes and I had to felt the dickens out of it to get it small enough, but felting is not an exact science. Rinse and spin out. Dry for a day or two with the beer can inside to keep its shape. Placing it on a heating or air conditioning vent may speed the process a bit. I am not sure you could get this too small since I really had to felt it a long time to get a snug but not tight fit. If you do overfelt, you have a very nice pencil holder.
K = knit
P = purl
KFB = knit into the front and then the back of the stitch for an increase of one stitch
SC bind off= single crochet bind off
Copyright JustKnittingAround.com 2007, all rights reserved. You may not reprint it on your site (but feel free to link to it) or sell this pattern in any printed form.
