I’m a believer…. Double-knitting is the holy grail of knitting in my very humble opinion. It’s colorful, can be dramatic, or subtle; design options are seemly endless; it’s doubly warm and best of all there are no yarn floats on the back side as in stranded knitting.   Because I ABHOR locking floats….. well perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration…. but no not really.  As an English-style, “thrower” it slows me down by a PAINFUL amount, and the strands are constantly wrapping around each other and have to be untangled, and then there’s the tension that you have to try super hard to maintain throughout the stranded and not stranded sections, because you don’t want the color changes to be too tight, but heaven forbid they’re too loose because then you have space between stitches and other colors showing through where they shouldn’t be…. and thus stranded parts of a pattern produce a consistent, low level stress that pervades my knitting….

But with straight Double-knitting, it’s just K1, P1 the whole way. Your skeins don’t twist as much and, when you’re done, you have two finished sides that make a super warm, reversible piece of clothing, blanket, what have you…. perfection♥

In my evangelical passion to spread the good news of double-knitting to the world, I fashioned this  pattern for a tea mug cozy (or coffee mug cozy if that is your libation of choice). It uses sport weight yarn and size 4 needles. It’s double knitted as a rectangle from the bottom and is finished off with a pretty button.

It is great practice for double-knitting especially if you want to get ready for a more complicated project. And though you can finish it off in a couple of different ways, if you’re a ambi-crafter like me (knitting and crochet) you can do a nice single crochet edging and chain stitch loop to secure it with a button as I did here.

The pattern is also available as a pdf download from my Ravelry store here!

So, without further ado, here we go!

A simple Tea Mug cozy

Supplies: 

• Yarn:  Sport weight yarn in two highly contrasting colors
  • Yarns used in the photos:
    • MC- Classic Elite Cerro # 7148 (Dark Blue)
    • CC-  Classic Elite Cerro # 7172 (Green)
• Circular or long straight needles- Size 4
• Size B/ 2.25 mm crochet hook
• Small stitch markers
• One button (~ 1” diameter)

Gauge: 18 st/ 4”

Finished size:  Approximately 11.5” around and  6.5” high

Instructions: 

• Holding both strands of yarn together, cast on 50 stitch pairs using the two-color cast on method.   (Total stitch count will be 100)
• Round 1: *Knit first stitch with MC through the back loop. Purl second stitch with CC.* (Remember to bring both strands to the front or to the back for each stitch even though you are only using one color at a time.)
  • Note: Knitting through the back loop on Row 1 prevents twisting of the knit stitches and helps the first row lie flat and look neater.
• Round 2-22: Double-knit chart.

• Bind off loosely by slipping the first set of stitches together, * knit the next pair of stitches together through the back loop and then pass the first set of stitches on the right needle over the second set*. Continue * to * until all stitches are bound off. Cut yarn. 

Finishing:

• Sew button to top right hand corner of the cozy.
• Option 1 (Crochet): Attach one strand of MC yarn to bottom left corner of cozy (when looking at the right side. Single crochet 3 times in the first stitch (this makes the corner). Single crochet all the way along the bottom edge, 3 sc in the corner stitch, sc up the right side, 3 sc in the corner stitch, and sc across the top of the cozy. (See Diagram below)
• When you get to the top left hand corner, chain stitch enough for a loop to go around the button (place your cozy around a mug to test placement and snugness).
• Once you have enough chain stitches, sc in the same left hand corner stitch at the base of your chain stitch loop and continue to sc down the side of the cozy and join back to the starting stitch. Fasten off and cut yarn.
• Bring the two bottom corners around to touch each other (RS out) and sew them together.

• Option 2 (Sewing): If you don’t crochet, just sew the bottom two corners together as previously instructed and sew a simple loop or braided loop onto the upper left corner to secure the button.
• Cut yarn, weave in ends, block, and you’re done! Now brew some English Breakfast tea, turn on your favorite period drama and enjoy the coziness ♥