DIY: Ground Rules Coffee Sleeve for your to-go hot drinks!
While I was writing Double Shot Death, during the production of the first book in my Ground Rules series, I realized series narrator Sage Caplin would love to offer handknit coffee sleeves in her coffee cart. So I created a campaign and gave away handknit coffee sleeves to everyone who pre-ordered Fresh Brewed Murder from my local book store, Annie Bloom’s Books. The sleeves have become a popular giveaway item at events and bookstores. Just know your friends might want you to make them a coffee sleeve once they see yours!
These sleeves are a little over 3 inches (about 3¼), which is slightly wider than the specs on commercial cardboard sleeves. But I like the feel of the extra fabric of the sleeve. You can adjust the width of the sleeve by adding or decreasing stitches.
Stitch-wise, I knit most of the sleeves in a basic garter stitch. This allowed me to do something (like watch crime shows, including foreign shows with subtitles) while knitting. But if you want to play around with a new stitch, a coffee sleeve is a great, low-stakes way to practice. Fisherman’s rib, for example, makes a fun coffee koozie. Keep in mind that if you use a stitch that isn’t stretchy, you’ll want to make the sleeve a bit longer.
Yarn:
For my pre-order campaigns, I used Lily's Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. It's affordable and comes in a large selection of colors, including a fantastic sage and a teal. It’s frequently used for household items (like dishcloths), so it holds up well to potential coffee spills. One skein makes multiple coffee sleeves. If you have leftover yarn from previous projects, it’s a great way to use up random leftovers.
Tools needed:
Size 7 Knitting Needles, including an extra needle for the three-needle bind off
Worsted Weight Yarn
Yarn needle to weave in ends
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Using whichever method you're most comfortable with, cast on 14 stitches using scrap yarn. If you know provisional cast on, it's an excellent choice. Break yarn.
Switch to primary yarn and knit. Be sure to choose a scrap yarn that contrasts with your primary color.
Knit until you reach seven inches from the first row of your main yarn. Make sure you don't stretch out the sleeve when measuring, else it'll be too short.
Now for the fun part: carefully remove the scrap yarn from the beginning, taking care to pick up the live stitches in your primary color.
You'll end up with live stitches at either end of the coffee sleeve. Make sure your needles both point in the same direction.
Bind off using a three-needle bind-off (what I did), or, if you want to get really fancy, use Kitchener stitch. The bind off edge fits in with the ridges of the garter stitch.
Weave in ends.
Add a button, and you're ready to go!
Note: if you don't want to use a three-needle bind-off or cast on with scrap yarn, you can also knit this in one color, bind off like usual, so you'll knit a rectangle, and then sew the two ends together using a mattress stitch. Or, if you want to practice picking up stitches, you can cast on with your primary yarn, knit seven inches, and then pick up stitches on the cast-on edge and then bind them off with the live stitches.
A Ground Rules Mystery, Book 2
Sage Caplin is taking her Portland coffee cart on the road to a sustainable music festival, but murder is an unwanted special guest…
At Campathon, an annual eco-friendly festival held on a farm outside of Portland, fans celebrate the Pacific Northwest’s music scene in quintessential PDX style—with gourmet food carts, reusable utensils…and lots of coffee. How else to get through three days of nonstop entertainment? Sage has scored a coveted place for her Ground Rules coffee cart thanks to her new-ish boyfriend, Bax, who’s friendly with Maya, one of the musicians performing.
The festivities begin with a stream of customers, friends, and acquaintances stopping by for Ground Rules’ world-class blends, expertly brewed by Sage and her newest barista. But there are tensions between Maya and her former bandmates, who are on the cusp of making it big, and with Ian, the band’s manager. When Sage stumbles upon Ian’s dead body in the nearby woods—his hand still clutching one of her coffee mugs—it’s clear that someone’s grudge boiled over into murder. Can Sage work out who’s responsible before another innocent life fades out, and the curtain falls on Campathon, and maybe her own future, for good?
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If this book is as good as Fresh Brewed Murder then it will be another great read.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read this book in print
Would love to read & review this book in print