Whenever I go out, I nearly always take along my water bottle. I don’t like it when my water bottle gets all sweaty, which always happens when I add ice and especially seems to be a problem with my stainless steel water bottles. I used to stick my water bottle in a sock which helped, but wasn’t very attractive. A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that a wool water bottle cover would be perfect. It absorbs/prevents the condensation on the bottle (which keeps everything else in my bag dry) and also keeps my water cool for hours. My most-used water bottle and cover were getting shabby, so I just finished knitting up a replacement:
This particular cover was knit for my 18 oz. Klean Kanteen water bottle, the one I use most. The same pattern works for the 27 oz. bottle with a few more rows added on. This also fits lots of plastic water bottles, with the height adjusted to whatever is needed. I’ve found that if it’s knit for a taller bottle, it’s easy enough to roll over the top like a cuff to fit on shorter bottles.
The pattern is pretty simple:
With worsted weight wool, cast on 40 stitches- I usually use size 10 or 10-1/2 needles. Divide onto 3 double point needles Purl the first round and then knit around until desired length is reached. For this water bottle, this was about 9 inches- about two inches more than the finished height I wanted. I probably could have gone a few more rows as the wool shrunk a bit more than I expected, but I was able to stretch it out to the length I wanted.
When desired length is reached, begin decreases for the bottom as follows:
Round1-(knit 6, knit 2 together) all the way around (35 stitches).
Round 2 and all even rounds- knit
Round 3- (Knit 3, knit 2 together) all the way around
Round 5- (Knit 2, knit 2 together) around
Round7- (Knit1, knit 2 together) around
Round 9- Knit 2 together around.
Break yarn and pull tail through remaining 7 stitches. Weave in loose ends.
To felt the cover, I just throw it into a nylon bag with whatever else I happen to be washing for as many loads as necessary to get to the point of shrinkage that I like. This cover took 4 trips through the washing machine. I then pulled it into shape on my water bottle and let it dry. It can be pulled and shaped quite a bit when it’s wet.
I use up all sorts of odds and ends of yarn with these, creating stripes or different designs. For this cover, I held a strand of lace-weight merino yarn along with the worsted to add a little color.
