Knitted Cabled Bottle Koozie

My latest koozie design is knitted with cables and a button flap closure. It also has a full bottom, unlike the crocheted bottle koozies.  I'm planning to write up the pattern, but I might make a few changes first.

Koozies and coffee sleeves

Here are a bunch more koozies and coffee sleeves I made a while ago and never posted.  The coffee sleeves are all hand-spun wool.  The blue one is dyed with food coloring, the other two are natural wool color.

Fabric Coasters

I made some fabric coasters recently.  This set of 4 went to my friend, Jenni.

And this set went to my living room.

The fabric for my coasters was left over from the pelmet box curtains I made (and blogged about here).

To make these coasters, I cut 5" x 5" squares of the fabric.  You need 8 total so for the ones that have different fabric on the front and back, you need 4 of each.  I also cut 4 5" x 5" squares of batting that was left over from a quilt project.  Sandwich the fabric right sides together with the batting on top.  Sew around the edges with a 1/4 inch seam leaving an opening to turn them right side out.  Once they are turned right side out, iron them and stitch 1/8 inch seam around the edge making sure to catch the turned in edges that were left open before.  Then quilt however you want.  For the first set I did parallel lines every 1/2 inch or so.  For the others, I made concentric squares.

More crocheted can and bottle koozies

New can and bottle koozies.  All for sale in my etsy shop!

More koozies for Plaid Peacock

Here are the latest koozies to be sold on consignment at Plaid Peacock. I just stocked up on yarn so I'm planning to make a bunch more to sell on etsy and maybe at a craft fair in March!

Baa Baa Black Sheep

I found out that one of the summer students working in our lab grew up on a sheep farm.  She was going home one weekend, so I asked her if they had any black, grey or other colored wool that I could buy.  She brought me back an entire garbage bag full of black and grey wool (for free!)!

Here it is before any washing.

Here are some clean, carded rolags ready for spinning.  The white is from my other fleece that my dad got me, and the lightest grey is a blend of the white and the lightest grey.  The other 3 shades of grey and black are all from this fleece.  

I spun the different colored rolags in the order they were in the picture and then plied it back on itself to make this skein that goes from black all the way to white.

 This one was actually my first skein of spun yarn from the black and grey fleece.

And, here is a coffee cozy knit from the first skein.  This might have to go to the summer student as a thank you for the wool.  I can't wait to make something from the other skein. I've carded a lot more of this wool in preparation for my new spinning wheel, so there might be enough for a scarf or something when I am done!

Hand spun, hand dyed, and hand knit coffee cozy

Back in November I took a small amount of yarn I had spun (double ply on the top and a singles on the bottom of the picture below) and dyed it with food coloring.  It has been sitting on my shelf since then and I had no specific plans for it.  I had just done it to try out dying.

The color was so bright that I couldn't imagine wanting to make anything out of it. In fact, it is even hard to get a good picture!

Well, this weekend I finally got around to knitting up a coffee cozy with the singles yarn.  It seems like the only thing that you might not mind being that crazy color.  It looks better than I expected.  I actually kind of like it now.  I'm considering putting it up on etsy.

Iowa Koozy - Hayden Fry

Another koozy. These are some of my favorite projects - someone made a joke about wanting a koozy with Hayden Fry on one side, thinking that would not be possible. I surprised him with this koozy and he was adequately surprised and excited!

Christmas time means finishing old projects and starting new ones

I took this week off and am spending it at my parents' house. My sister is here too and brought her cat. Between her cat and my dog, I think you will see an animal in almost every picture! I have had lots of time to work on crafting and have finished up several projects and started a couple new ones. My next few posts will show of some Christmas presents I made for others and some that I got! Here is another koozy with a new type of embellishment - the hand-stitched patch!

PS: I didn't try to get the cat in the picture - he just jumped into it and posed!

Texas Tech Koozies

A set of 4 koozies special request from Andrea are complete and going to the mail! Enjoy!

Magnet Update

So...it's been a while. But, here are the beer bottle cap magnets I said I was going to make. The glue took a long time to dry and then I was too lazy to take pictures. I finally took some pictures, so these will all be going in my shop soon (with the exception of the Blue Moon magnets that will be going to my friend Andrea). I have several projects in progress and several more new project ideas so I hope to have a lot more to post soon!

More team spirit

My husband was jealous of the Nebraska koozy I made for my friend so I had to make one for him too. His friend wanted an Iowa koozy so this will be going out in the mail soon. A few more are in the works too.

I learned several lessons from this project:

1) Fusible webbing makes applique so much easier.

2) Related to #1: Even though I often think that I'll just skip a step (like using fusible webbing) to save time, it usually makes it harder, more frustrating, and ends up taking even longer.

3) Hand stitching is not actually the worst thing that I could ever have to do (like I previously thought).

4) Practice makes you better at things (like hand stitching - don't get me wrong, I am no pro, but I am a little less bad now that I have done it a few times).

Husband craft!

My husband came up with this craft idea. We glued magnets to beer bottle caps. Now our fridge is covered with these beauties. We have a nice variety, but I decided to post the classy ones! We have too many so I will be posting some in my shop!

Nebraska crocheted bottle koozy

Ok, I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of in love with this, my latest creation. An old friend special requested a crocheted bottle koozy with some Nebraska Husker spirit so I hand appliqued this N onto a red bottle koozy. I should have used the fusible webbing to stick the N down before I started stitching because it got a little crooked, but I was lazy and didn't bother. Before I started, I wasn't sure how this would look, and at first I was concerned about my inability to nicely hand stitch and how it was looking kind of tattered and unprofessional. Now that it is done, I think that it just adds to the overall look of the koozy . In fact, it reminds me of a vintage letterman's sweater! I may have to try this again!

Felted coffee cozy

I crocheted this coffee cup cozy from wool yarn and washed and dried it to felt it. Now it works great as a replacement for those cardboard ones that you get at the coffee shop. I need to make a couple more to work out the pattern. This is actually not my first attempt at this. I made one about a year ago that was much too large, thinking it would shrink a lot when I washed it, but it didn't. Then I started making a second one, but made too many increases too early so it was okay at the bottom, but huge at the top. This one is about the right size, so I'll have to see if I can replicate it!

Quilted fabric coasters - lime/stripes

I made these coasters from the same fabric as the sunglasses case. I made one set of 3 that I took to work for my desk. The second set of 4 is now posted in my shop. For the first set I did one coaster each using lime green, navy, and chocolate thread for the quilting. I really liked the green on green, but preferred the navy or chocolate on the striped fabric. For the second set I used lime on the top thread and navy on the bottom so that I could have the best of both worlds!

Crocheted can and bottle koozies

In college a friend suggested I crochet a beer koozy. I thought the idea was so silly because it was such an oxymoron, so I had to try it. I can't believe how many people have asked me where to get them when I use one. So, I decided it was time to put some in my Etsy shop. These 4 are all posted there. I plan to continue to post more there regularly. I have a few more multi-colored yarns and a bunch of solids that I am planning to use. I have done some custom designs in the past (Dean's Beer embroidery) and have some ideas for more customization for the future. I'll be posting about those once I try it out.

Last night, my husband suggested a bottle koozy. Here is my prototype. It is listed in my Etsy shop as well. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I just hope I can re-create it! The bottom is open so it slips over the top of the bottle. I haven't tried it out, so I am hoping there isn't a problem with the bottle slipping out the bottom.

Matching can and bottle koozies!