Friday, May 20, 2016

Coffee Sleeve with an Enormous Heart Pocket

Continuing my obsession with coffee sleeves, I found this pattern on Ravelry (link: Open Heart Pocket Hot or Cold Drink Sleeve) and tested it out.



Materials:
  1. Yarn, two colors - I used acrylic yarns, with the red yarn thicker than the cream one
  2. Hook - I used a 5 and a 5.5mm hook
  3. Tapestry needle
Tips:
  • Use a smaller hook and yarn for the heart pocket, unless you want the pocket to be big.
  • The pocket I made has a tendency to spill its contents, so be careful when sewing on the heart applique.
  • Be creative, try other appliques as a pocket.

I won't go into the specifics of the pattern since I didn't deviate from it while I was working on my sleeve. Follow the link at the top of the post for the pattern.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Basket Weave Coffee Sleeve

My current fetish right now: coffee sleeves. They are extremely helpful, especially when I buy frappuccinos. I already made a couple of coffee sleeves, refer to this post, but I wanted a larger coverage on the cup. So I scoured the Internet and found this pattern: Basket Weave Coffee Sleeve.


So, this is what I made, but I made a couple of mistakes on this one. I'll expound on that one in a few.



Stitches used in the pattern (US terms):

  • chain (ch)
  • double crochet (dc)
  • slip stitch (sl st)
  • front post double crochet (fpdc)
  • back post double crochet (bpdc)

What you need:
  1. yarn - I used a thick acryclic yarn
  2. hook - I used 5 mm
  3. tapestry needle
  4. scissors
Notes on the pattern:
  1. Your base chain should be in multiples of 6 (or you can change it, depending on the weave size you want to make)
  2. Each "weaved" layer is composed of 3 repetitive rows.
The pattern:

Row 1: Make your base chain. Sl st to make a round. (I did 35. Yes, this was my mistake number 1. Please don't make the same mistake as I did. LOL) 
Row 2: Ch 3, this will be stitch 1. Dc on remaining stitches (base chain count - 1).
Rows 3-4: Ch3, fpdc in next 2 stitches. Bpdc on next 3. Continue alternating between 3fpdc and 3bpdc until you reach the end of your round (ending set should be 3bpdc). Sl st to top of ch3.
Rows 5-7: Ch3, bpdc in next 2 stitches. Fpdc on next 3. Continue alternating between 3bpdc and 3fpdc until you reach the end of your round (ending set should be 3fpdc). Sl st to top of ch3. (My mistake number 2: I only made 2 rows for the second layer.)

Repeat each layer until you get your desired length/height. You can also change the set of rows for each layer if you want.