Cozy Mug Jackets

Tags

home accessories, mug jacket, smocking

This was a fun little project that I made after my bff from high school saw a similar project on pinterest and said she would buy some if I made them. Well of course I offered to make her some as a gift, and decided to go with the rather popular pattern Mug and French Press Jacket by MK Carroll.

I started out thinking that I would just knit a generic mug size and let Kristin put them on whatever mugs she wanted, but after looking at a few mugs I realized that there may not be such a thing as a generic mug size.  So I decided to pick up a couple of these cute white mugs and make the jackets to fit.  I used Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Squirrel Heather, which I liked for this project because I think the color goes well with the white mug and the yarn is nice and lofty so the smocking looks great!

I think my only modification to the pattern was the increase rows for the base of the jacket – instead of working the offset increases described in the pattern, I just knitted one more stitch between increases on each round until I had reached 80 stitches.  Oh, and I used knit through front and back of loop increases the whole time.  I wet blocked the jackets on the mugs by fitting them on their mug and placing rubber bands over the jackets to hold them in the shape I wanted.

Full disclosure – I will be receiving some hot chocolate from Kristin in exchange for these mug jackets.  Sounds like quite a fair trade to me!  :)

Fall . . .

Tags

brooklyntweed, mohair, red, shawl

Is the perfect time for renewed dedication to one’s knitting blog. I’ve been absent from here for a few months, and I’ve really missed it. The thing is, this summer I finished the research for my dissertation, wrote my dissertation and defended my dissertation. To say I was stressed out doesn’t quite capture it – I’m pretty sure my family was afraid I was losing it. In April I finished knitting a ruby red shawl for my grandma, and then had an unusual experience. I found the “stress” of planning a new project – choosing a pattern, finding the right yarn for the project, making sure I got the correct gauge – to be something I couldn’t handle until some of the other things I was juggling were completed. Which is sad, since knitting is so therapeutic! In any case, once I was able to tick a few things off of my to-do list I picked up my needles again, and now that this whole summer of stress is over I feel ready to start posting again. So why don’t we start off with the last project I finished before the summer?

When Sasha and I were visiting his family over last Christmas, we of course went yarn shopping and I scored some ruby red Wagtail Yarns Fine Kid Mohair. I originally planned to make the Willoughby scarf from Brooklyntweed’s Made in Brooklyn, but once I started knitting that pattern, I realized the mohair wasn’t the right yarn for it – the bobbles weren’t anywhere close to full enough! So I decided to save that pattern for later and use the Wagtail yarn for a different Brooklyntweed pattern – the Juneberry triangle shawl.

I’ve been wanting to try out this pattern for a while, and this yarn seemed like the perfect color for it. Since my grandma loves red, I decided to make this one for her.  The pattern has some complicated lace in it, with the pattern worked on both sides, not just the right side of the work.  There is also a wide knitted on edging that creates this beautiful sort of faux cable pattern (with a bobble!) and a pretty open lace edge.  I love knitted on edgings – they seem like the perfect way to finish anything like a shawl or blanket – and this is the loveliest I’ve ever worked.  I’ll definitely be using it again, maybe as a fancy edge to a simple garter stitch throw.

The mohair yarn worked nicely with the pattern, although it’s still not quite lofty enough to make big, full bobbles.  I like the sheen of the yarn and the color is perfect.  I hope grandma likes it!