ShabbyShe

Homemade Gift Ideas: the mug cosy

These heartwarming little numbers are the perfect gift for the tea lover or coffee addict, and you can knit or crochet one up in a jiffy. I made them for teachers and a colleague for Christmas – ideal gifts for busy ladies who probably never get to drink a warm cup of tea 😉

Lovely pattern created by smocked stitch

Button closure with i-cord

Felt tag is used to personalise the gift

Moss stitch cosy

Smocked stitch cosies

I knitted mine using 2 different methods with interesting results – the reddy-pinky one is a simple moss stitch (knit one, purl one) and the blues are knitted in a smocked stitch which I found on this excellent Youtube tutorial by iKNITS

For both styles I cast on what I thought would be the right number of stitches (around 60) and knitted vertically until I liked the height of them (rather than fewer stitches and knitting it long enough to go round the mugs). The result was that the smocked stitch cosies were perfect as I followed someone else’s pattern, and the improv moss stitch was way too long!! I panicked as it was a gift and had to be given the next day (the previous attempt went wrong too!) My level-headed hubby then suggested just wrapping it further round the mug and adding a big button. It worked, hurray! (and phew!)

The felt labels are decorated with embroidery silks and stitched onto the cosies. I added a ‘string’ of wool to complete the tea bag look. The buttons, in true ShabbyShe tradition, are reused from my button box.

For my next cosy (for me, obviously!) I’ve pinched my sewing circle friend Heidi’s suggestion and knitted horizontally. Now that is good advice 🙂