Yarn Cozy Knitting Patterns

I’ve been toying with the idea of making a yarn cozy or yarn ball holder on the circular knitting machine, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. In the meantime, here are some yarn cozy knitting patterns you can make with knitting needles. Use yarn to hold you yarn!

In its simplest form, a yarn cozy is just a sleeve or a little basket that holds your yarn when you’re working with a center-pull ball so it doesn’t fall apart when you knit. The easiest ones I could find are from Love in Stitches KN, which has a regular size and a mini size. They’re worked with sock yarn and there are options for making them with ribbing, faux cables and with self-striping yarn.

For bigger cakes there’s a project called We call it the “bail holder” from Nicole LeBlanc. This pattern is available on Ravelry and you can use any yarn and make it any size you like. It features an I-cord edging that has a loop in it so you can thread they yarn through the loop to keep it extra contained as you knit.

Another large one that has a slightly fancier pattern is this one by Mareike Meye. You can use any yarn and any gauge, and slip stitch pattern worked in different colors on the sides makes it a little more fun and uses a bit more stash. A strap buttons across the top to hold the ball in place and you can add a buttonhole to the middle of the strap to thread the yarn through. Check this one out on Ravelry.

Adding lace to a yarn cozy makes it fit a wider variety of balls and expand or shrink a bit as needed. Jennifer Sugarman’s Ball Sack uses sock yarn and is made to hold sock yarn. It has the option of making I-cord or using ribbon or cord you already have to make a drawstring at the top. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

Another lacy option is the yarn ball holder from Frugal Knitting Haus. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has an easy mesh lace pattern and an I-cord drawstring that’s sewn together at the ends so you could loop it over your wrist while you knit if you like. This pattern is also on Ravelry.

Speaking of wrist yarn holders, I also found this one form Knituition. This one uses sport weight yarn and has a spiral rib pattern on the body. The strap is attached to the bag with D-rings, or you could make it a little longer and just sew it into the bag.

Sometimes when I’m scrolling through Ravelry a pattern will catch my eye as much because of the name as the look of the design (which is a little hard to see in those little thumbnails sometimes, anyway).

So it was with the Stellify shawl by Paola Albergamo. Stellify means to turn into a star, and the name and the story behind the shawl come from the story of Ariadne. The better known part of her story is that she helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur, but he then abandoned her. What comes after in many stories is that Dionysus found her, fell in love with her and later married her.

When he threw her jeweled crown into the sky, the Corona Borealis constellation was formed.

What does all this have to do with shawl knitting?

The shawl itself looks like it has a scattering of stars on it, as if it, too, has been stellified. The shawl begins with an I-cord tap and is shaped into a triangular shawl with both lateral and central increases. I-cord edging is incorporated into the sides, and the colorwork is done with mosaic knitting, which means this shawl is easier than it looks.

Mosaic knitting has you working with just one color per row, slipping stitches that appear in the other color to make the colorwork visible. Even better for people new to this kind of colorwork, the pattern includes written and charted instructions throughout so it should be easy to follow along.

The pattern comes in two sizes (the larger one is shown here) and calls for two colors of fingering weight yarn. It looks great in black and yellow, but don’t miss the other projects on Ravelry to see other fun and beautiful color options.

You can find the pattern in English and Italian on Ravelry.

[Photo: Paola Albergamo]

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