Coffee Mug Sleeves

Knitting all sorts of mug sleeves and mug hugs for one's favourite cups has been very trendy lately. I keep seeing lots of projects like these around in books, magazines and on the internet. I'd been thinking of having a go at it so not so long ago I knitted one for myself and recently I've knitted another one :)

Basically the story is: at work for the children's safety we have got to use the so called safety cups (they can be plastic or ceramic, anything as long as it comes with a lid) so I got myself a "hearty" ceramic mug and knitted my first mug sleeve using a knitting magazine. The turquoise colour was a random acrylic yarn I took to knit "a prototype". It looked acceptable so it stayed and I started using it. The mug despite the double walls which are supposed to act as insulation gets too hot to hold it in hands so a coffee mug sleeve proved to be very much needed. In the meantime my bf presented me with another lovely ceramic coffee mug with a knitted pattern on it (!!!) Collection: The Nordic Pantry from Sainsbury from around Christmas last year. (He knows so well what I love! Bless him! x x) 

My cat, Cookie, has been posing for you as a live background for the mugs :)

However with time and through the frequent use and under the hot temperature, the turquoise mug sleeve has stretched  and became too loose a bit so I had to make another one. This time a different pattern - lace. I've learnt a lot new knitting steps with this pattern: yarn over, pass the slip stitch over, knit into the front and back and slip the stitch purlwise :))) It's not 100% ideal and it probably won't impress someone who knits laces for years but I'm proud of myself as until now I've considered myself unable to read the knitting patterns from the books and mags ;) I'm definitely getting more confidence about it now. 

This is the source of my inspiration: Simply Knitting magazine of 2013 with lovely 3 patterns to knit.

The chequered pattern turned out to be very easy. The lacy one is more complex but with a bit of help of the books and YouTube tutorials I managed well :) Now the remaining pattern is a cabled variant. I can't do the cable knitting right at the moment so I'll have to practise a bit before I have a go at this one.

In the meantime I keep on knitting Easter eggs using my cotton yarns. I enjoy this activity a lot as it's a chill out for me after work. I knit for pleasure and with no rush :)

For the knitted eggs "shells" and small balls of yarn I found at home this wooden bowl. It's not a real yarn bowl but will act as one for the time being until I get a real one for myself one day. It turned out it is a bowl made by my bf years ago at DT lessons :) How unusual! Forgotten, unnoticed and under dust for such a long time! I think it looks good with these natural colours, don't you think so?

This week is going so fast! It's Friday tomorrow and then WEEEEEKENDDDD!!! :) Looking forward to some crafting and chilling out in the comfort of my home.

Have a good  evening x X x