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This week’s Iron Craft challenge was all about fruit and flowers.
It took me a long time to come up with something I wanted to do, but I finally landed on a knit apple cozy, which could certainly protect an orange, too. It’s a simple little bag that I jazzed up with a stitched on flower motif, but you could also leave it plain or work it in stripes or a multicolored yarn.
This is a project you can easily finish in an afternoon (ask me how I know) and is really useful if you like to take fruit in you bag and don’t want it to get all bruised up.
Materials
- about 33 yards of medium/worsted weight cotton or cotton blend (I think mine is actually Lion Brand Cotton Ease, but it was unlabeled stash)
- a couple of yards of contrasting medium weight yarn for the flower motif
- set of size 7 US (4.5 mm) double-pointed knitting needles, or needles of your choice for working in the round
- yarn needle for stitching the flower
Gauge
About 17 stitches and 26 rounds per 4 inches/ 10 cm in Stockinette Stitch in the round; Gauge is not all that critical but you want it to be firm enough to hold your fruit
Size
My finished bag is almost 3 inches/7.5 cm across the base and almost 4 inches/10 cm tall, to fit small fruit; increase more to hold larger fruit
Knitting the Apple Cozy
- Cast on 6 stitches. Divide onto needles and join in the round.
- Knit 1 round.
- Knit in the front and back of every stitch. 12 stitches.
- Knit 2 rounds.
- Knit in the front and back of every stitch. 24 stitches.
- Knit 3 rounds.
- *Knit 1, kfb. Repeat from * around. 36 stitches.
- Knit 1 round.
- Purl 1 round.
- Knit until piece measures 3 inches/7.5 cm from purl round.
- *Yarn over, knit 2 together. Repeat from * around.
- Knit 2 rounds.
- Bind off.
- Weave in ends.
Flower Embellishment
I added a little flower design in duplicate stitch, which you can probably make out just from the pictures. It takes 7 stitches and 7 rows to complete and involves two rows of three stitches and one row of two stitches on each side, plus a stitch in the middle.
You can, of course, embellish in any way you like, or not at all.
I also used some of the contrasting yarn for a drawstring, but you can use a ribbon, hemp cord or whatever else you like.
I think this little bag is really cute and I’m sure to find more to use it for than fruit. Hope you like it!
OMG, this is so cute! It would be the perfect incentive to get kids to have an apple in school 🙂 Pinned and shared!