Holiday Cozy

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If my sources are correct, Starbucks is releasing their famous holiday cups today, which means that it is officially The Holidays (TM). And more importantly, it's cozy knitting season! 

Behold! To get into the holiday mood, I've made these festive little cozies to protect your hand from whatever piping hot drink you prefer this time of year.


These knit up quickly in plain 2x2 ribbing. I used Lion Brand BonBons, which are mini-skeins of sport-weight yarn. These in particular are each plied with a metallic thread that adds sparkle. I knit these on US 3/3.25mm double-pointed needles, with a gauge of 9 stitches per inch of slightly stretched ribbing (meaning that the knit columns overlap with the purl columns, but the center of the purls are still visible) — but you can get away with a gauge that's slightly off due to the stretchiness of ribbing. After about 5 rows of the pattern you'll be able to tell if you will or will not struggle to put the thing on. As long as you do not struggle it will be fine — be careful with those hot drinks! Pattern is as follows:

  1. Cast on 52 stitches. This will require a multiple of 4 for the rib pattern. If using a fingering weight, I’d suggest 56 Stitches instead. I used size US 3/3.25mm double pointed needles and divided over 4 (12 stitches per needle) and worked the pattern with the 5th needle.
  2. Work in the round. *Knit 2, Purl 2* all around. Repeat for 30 rows, or about 3-3 1/2 inches (or, 8.5 to 9.5 cm). This is where you can play with color. Above I have changed color about every 5-10 rows.
  3. Use a stretchy bind-off to finish. I used this one. I'm not fond of the flare it gives so I went down a couple of needle sizes (and still had a flare, and it was still very stretchy), but the flare should not be visible while on the cup.
  4. Weave in ends and it's ready to go!
Below are prototype versions I made that vary slightly. The green one is made with Lion Brand Bonbon yarn, but I casted on 56 stitches. It worked fine but was slightly too big for my tastes. The red one is made with Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer yarn in a fingering weight, which required slightly more cast on stitches. With 58 stitches it fit perfectly — but it was a miscalculation as 58 is not a product of 4, so I ended up with one column of 4 knit stitches where the beginning and end of the row meet instead of my perfect 2x2 rib. Still, I believe these will have a spot in my cozy rotation this year.


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