Felted Coffee Sleeves
February 6th, 2009 | Link
This is the last of my Christmas knitting. I had some leftover Cascade 220 wool from the Habitat hat I knit for my dad for Christmas, so I decided to experiment with felting it into a coffee sleeve.
You can work the rows in garter (alternating knit and purl rows), stockinette (knitting every row) or seed stitch—I tried all three, and you can see the slight difference in texture in the photo between the stockinette (on the cup) and the seed stitch. Most of the stitch definition is lost during the felting process, but the garter stitch version seemed to produce the thickest of the three.
Pattern
You will need:
Needles: 4.5mm double-pointed needles (set of 4)
Wool yarn—Cascade 220 wool, Malabrigo, or others. Some yarn felts better than others so you might need to experiment. It doesn’t take a lot—I got three sleeves out of the remainder of the ball of Cascade 220 from the hat.
A coffee cup that you want the sleeve to fit over. Mine is a Starbuck’s tall cup. The sleeve stretches a bit, so it also fits the next size up.
Gauge: 18 stitches / 32 rows to 4″, in stockinette stitch in the round.
Knitting: Cast on 36 stitches and distribute evenly on three needles (12 stitches per needle). Join, making sure not to twist the stitches. Work 9 rows in the stitch of your choice.
Row 10: Work 12 sts, increasing one stitch in 12th stitch; repeat twice more. 39 stitches in total.
Work 9 more rows.
Row 20: Work 13 sts, increasing one stitch in 13th stitch; repeat twice more. 42 stitches in total.
Work 4 more rows. Cast off.
Felting: Fill sink with hot water (as hot as you can stand—rubber gloves help—and add enough detergent to make some suds. Wash the sleeve. Agitate it, rub it between your hands, rub it against itself, swish it around. Keep doing this until the wool begins to felt. It will shrink a bit, especially in the length, and it will thicken. You might have to drain the sink and add more hot water. Once the wool is felting, check that it fits over your coffee cup. Keep felting until it’s a firm fit. Leave the sleeve on the cup to dry.
Cool!
love ’em! such a great way to use up the leftover yarn, too.
[and grey is my favourite, of course 😉 ]
Maaaan, this really makes me want to learn how to knit. I love how simple you made the sleeves.
If you want to learn to knit, Alissa, this is a great project. You could knit it back and forth on two needles in simple garter stitch, and then sew up the one side, if you weren’t ready to tackle a project in-the-round. And it’s a great project to try some simple felting.