Colorwork Christmas Coffee Cozy Knitting Patterns

For someone who never really leaves the house, I sure like knitting coffee cup cozies. I guess I could use them in the house, but I usually drink from a mug with a handle, which these sleeve designs don’t really work with. Maybe I need to knit a cozy that buttons on so I can use it at home?

Coffee cup cozies are fun, fast little projects and a great way to try out new skills. I’ve actually recently designed two different ones with Christmas trees on them, using different colorwork techniques.

The intarsia coffee cup cozy has a single Christmas tree on it and is a great first intarsia project because you only need three strands of yarn to work it. You can also embellish the tree with beads, surface embroidery, buttons, whatever you like, to make it even more festive. (If you’ve never knit intarsia before, I’ve got a how-to here.)

The stranded knitting cozy is a little more technical, because it uses three colors per round in the colorwork section, and you have to catch the strands on the back because the space between colors can get pretty long. I’d say this is more of an intermediate stranded knitting project. But the colorwork section is only 11 rounds, so it’s over pretty fast even if you have to take it slow. The key on this one is keeping those floats loose so it will fit on your cup when you’re done. (Learn more about stranded knitting here.)

Both of these are quick projects that would be great to give as gifts along with a new travel mug and a gift card to a favorite coffee shop. Or if you’re out of the house more than I am, you can deck your mug and spread holiday cheer wherever you go.

Easy Knit Gift: Coffee Cozy Sweaters

Bon Bon Coffee Cozy Knitting Pattern

Knit a Sweet Coffee Cozy with a Woodland Creature

Knit a Cozy for Your Coffee with a Twist

Knit a Super Simple Coffee Cup Cozy

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

Have you read?