Pattern: Hot Water Bottle Cozy

Download the PDF here.
Errata available here.

You guys...this is my first pattern! :-D I hope you like it, and I hope it's clear. Please feel free to email me if anything isn't. Also, if you do knit one of these cozies, feel free to share pictures with me! I'd love to see what people wind up doing with this pattern.

I do request two things, however, of those who make use of this pattern. First, please don't use this for commercial purposes. Make it for yourself, make it for your friends, but don't put it up on your Etsy shop, right? Second, I'm offering this pattern for free, so you're welcome to share it with your friends, but please don't alter the document in any way. By all means make alterations to the pattern as you knit, and tell your friends (and me!) about them if they work, but leave the PDF itself intact. That way my pattern stays my pattern and your innovations stay your innovations. :-)

This pattern is knit in three pieces, and I like to think there's a little something for everyone here. The front and back are knit flat, and the cap is knit in the round. If you really hate seaming, you can easily adapt this to be knit entirely in the round. If you're not comfortable knitting in the round, you can skip the cap. It's pretty much a cosmetic feature - the opening of a hot water bottle doesn't get particularly hot, I find.

The bottle is held securely in the cozy by the flaps that button over the "shoulder" of the hot water bottle. I find that it's easier to slip a bottle full of scalding water into the cozy given this nice, large opening than given the tighter, neck-sized ribbed opening common to a lot of other patterns. There's some subtle shaping around the shoulders that keeps the cozy snug around the bottle, instead of sticking out under the flaps at the corners.

And now, further remarks on seaming: Ok, I hate seaming too. I suck at it. The beauty of this pattern is that the edges are reverse stockinette, so even if your seams are ugly as sin, they'll be lost between the big, pretty cables and no one has to know! Also, the cables make for handy guides to keep the front even with the back while you seam. What could be better? For a very clear and thorough seaming tutuorial, see this article from Knit Simple.

Anyway, I hope you like it, and I do hope you'll be in touch with me if you have any comments, questions or ideas. Again, this is my first pattern, and any feedback I can get from the knitting community out there will only make my subsequent patterns better!


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