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06-23-2004, 06:25 AM
Wool isn't just good at keeping your baby's bum a comfortable temperature - it keeps beer at the perfect temperature as well. My dh likes to brew his own beer so we drink beer out of bottles, which don't fit very nicely in the beer can coozies we seem to have collected. So here is a pattern I designed for making beer bottle coozies from leftover wool yarn I used to make soakers.
Since you're using leftover wool, you already know your gauge or you can figure out what it is by looking at the soaker you made with the wool. Get a beer bottle and measure the circumference around the main part of the bottle and the height from the bottom of the bottle to where the neck begins. The bottles we happen to use measure 7 3/4" in circumference and 4 3/4" in height. My gauge is 5.5 sts/7 rows per inch in the stockinette part of the soaker I just made (not the ribbing part).
If I multiply the number of stitches in my gauge times the circumference of the bottle (7 3/4 times 5.5), I get 42.625. However, I want the coozie to fit snugly, so I'm going to subtract 10% to an inch from the circumference. I also want an even number of stitches so I can do ribbing around the neck area.
As for needles, your larger needle needs to be the same size as the one you used the the body of your soaker if you're going to get the same gauge. Otherwise, you would need to recalculate using your gauge with whatever size dpns you have. The smaller needles just need to be smaller. I have a set of size US 3 dpns that I use for the ribbing and then I use my size US 7 dpns for the body of the coozie.
So I cast on 38 sts onto my larger needles. Then I switch to the smaller needles and do 1.5 inches of K1P1 ribbing (say 10 rows). I switch back to my larger needles and knit 4.5 inches - this part is the body of the coozie. When I get to the bottom, I knit one round k2tog all the way around (decreasing the number of stitches to 19). I cast off as I knit the next row.
In the body of the coozie, feel free to insert any pattern you want. I did 6 rows of knitting, 2 rows of purling. You could do garter stitch all the way. Whatever stitch you choose needs to stretch about as much as regular stockinette stitch or you need to adjust the number of stitches you cast on (e.g. ribbing stretches more, seed stitch stretches less).
To put the beer bottle in the coozie, you stretch the ribbing around the bottom of the beer bottle (you don't stick the neck of the bottle into the hole at the bottom of the coozie because it won't make it all the way through).
Happy knitting!
Since you're using leftover wool, you already know your gauge or you can figure out what it is by looking at the soaker you made with the wool. Get a beer bottle and measure the circumference around the main part of the bottle and the height from the bottom of the bottle to where the neck begins. The bottles we happen to use measure 7 3/4" in circumference and 4 3/4" in height. My gauge is 5.5 sts/7 rows per inch in the stockinette part of the soaker I just made (not the ribbing part).
If I multiply the number of stitches in my gauge times the circumference of the bottle (7 3/4 times 5.5), I get 42.625. However, I want the coozie to fit snugly, so I'm going to subtract 10% to an inch from the circumference. I also want an even number of stitches so I can do ribbing around the neck area.
As for needles, your larger needle needs to be the same size as the one you used the the body of your soaker if you're going to get the same gauge. Otherwise, you would need to recalculate using your gauge with whatever size dpns you have. The smaller needles just need to be smaller. I have a set of size US 3 dpns that I use for the ribbing and then I use my size US 7 dpns for the body of the coozie.
So I cast on 38 sts onto my larger needles. Then I switch to the smaller needles and do 1.5 inches of K1P1 ribbing (say 10 rows). I switch back to my larger needles and knit 4.5 inches - this part is the body of the coozie. When I get to the bottom, I knit one round k2tog all the way around (decreasing the number of stitches to 19). I cast off as I knit the next row.
In the body of the coozie, feel free to insert any pattern you want. I did 6 rows of knitting, 2 rows of purling. You could do garter stitch all the way. Whatever stitch you choose needs to stretch about as much as regular stockinette stitch or you need to adjust the number of stitches you cast on (e.g. ribbing stretches more, seed stitch stretches less).
To put the beer bottle in the coozie, you stretch the ribbing around the bottom of the beer bottle (you don't stick the neck of the bottle into the hole at the bottom of the coozie because it won't make it all the way through).
Happy knitting!