Cup Cozy

What to do:
1. Take one end of the wool about 30cm from the end and form a pretzel shape shown in the image on the left.

2. Pull the yarn through the pretzel shape to form a loop.

3. Keep pulling until there is a tight loop.

4. Take the end that is attached to the ball of wool and pull to shorten the loop.

5. Place one knitting needle into the loop.  Pull the loop so that it is snug onto the needle. 

6. Take your other needle and place it into the loop.

7. With the wool that is attached to the ball, wrap the wool around the needle on the right hand side.

8. Take the needle on the right hand side and use it to pull the wrapped wool downward into a loop which you will place back on the left hand needle. Continue until you have 14 stitches onto the needle. This is called 'Casting On'.

14 stitches produces a width that fits within the handle nicely….if your mug handle is smaller or wider just decrease your stitches or increase your stitches to get the correct width.

9. Now begin the seed stitch. This seed stitch is one knit stitch followed by one purl stitch.
These two knitting stitches are continued like this: knit 1, purl 1, knit 1 purl 1 etc. until you have completed all 14 stitches.

To learn the knit stitch go to this link.

To learn the purl stitch go to this link.

10. Continue knitting the seed stitch for each row until it is long enough for your mug.  To determine the right length, just place the knitted strip onto the mug and make it long enough so the ends meet. 

11. Now keep knitting rows of seed stitch until you have added an extra 1cm to the length of your cozy (to create the overlap part).

12. BUTTON HOLES: In the next row and still using the seed stitch, create two button holes for your buttons.  Here is a video on how to make a 3 stitch button hole. Knit the button holes so that they are evenly spaced across the row.

13. Now knit three more rows of seed stitch.

14. To complete your cozy you need to remove and fasten off the stitches from the needle. This is called 'Casting Off'. To learn how to 'Cast Off' your wool go to this link. Cut the wool 15cm from the end of your cozy to leave a tail.

15. Attach the 2 buttons. With thread the same color as the wool, sew on the buttons so they line up with the button holes.

16. Now all you have to do is weave in the beginning tail of wool and the end tail of wool with the embroidery needle. Watch this video to learn how.

What you need:
- wool (linen colour / grey)
- buttons crystal / silver
- two knitting needles size 4.5 mm
- embroidery needle
- thread to match wool color

ref: settingforfour.com