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As I work more with a circular knitting machine I’ll often wonder “can I make that with a machine?” Which is how this circular knitting machine coffee cup cozy pattern was born.
I’m a big fan of making coffee cup cozies even though I don’t use them that often (most of my coffee is consumed at home, from a mug, lukewarm). They’re great for keeping coffee warmer on the go and protecting your hands from a hot cup.
You can also use a coffee cup sleeve on a small water bottle to protect your hands from condensation when it’s hot out.
Materials
I made two sizes of this circular knitting machine coffee cup cozy — one using two colors and one using scraps that ended up being four colors.
The larger version used about 37 yards of yarn and the smaller is about 28 yards of worsted weight yarn. The two colors on the larger one are Lion Brand Wool Ease (Oxford Gray and Dark Rose Heather).
I used a bit of the rose in the second one as well. The lighter pink is Big Twist in baby pink, and the orange is Caron Simply Soft in pumpkin. I don’t know what the maroon is.
You’ll also need a 22-pin circular knitting machine (mine is a Sentro but an Addi Express is great, too), a bit of waste yarn, two circular knitting needles in a size similar to what you’d use to knit with worsted weight yarn (anything from a US 6-8 is fine). You may also want a size 8/H/5 mm crochet hook, and you’ll need a yarn needle and scissors.
Size
The size of your knitting machine coffee cozy will vary depending on the yarn you use and your gauge with it. My small coffee cup sleeve is 3 inches/7.6 cm tall and the larger one is 4 inches/10 cm tall.
Making a Knitting Machine Coffee Cup Cozy
The pattern is the same on either cozy, but we’re going to talk about the larger, two-color cozy first. To begin, cast on with waste yarn and crank two or three rounds.
Switch to your first color and crank 20 rounds.
Change to your second color and crank 20 rounds.
Crank one more round, picking up the stitches and putting them on a circular knitting needle as you go.
Turn the project inside out and weave in the ends from where you changed colors.
Use another circular knitting needle to pick up the right leg of each stitch in the first round of the first color of your cozy.
Remove the waste yarn.
Bring the first color section up inside the coffee cup cozy so that the cozy is two layers with the sides that look like vs facing out on each side (aka wrong/back sides together).
Work a three needle bind off as loosely as you can.
Test the cozy on a cup before you cut the yarn to make sure it fits. It will be a snug fit but it should slide on. If it doesn’t try doing the bind off again or try the variation for finishing below.
Cut yarn and weave in ends.
Coffee Cup Cozy Variations
Of course you can make your knitting machine coffee cup cozy any size you like. I wanted to try a scrappy version with random balls of yarn on and around my desk.
It’s made exactly the same way except it’s only 27 rows total.
Also for this one I did a slip stitch bind off with a crochet hook. It’s basically the same as a three needle bind off. Just grab the loop from each needle, yarn over and pull through a loop. Repeat, pulling through the loop that’s already on the hook. Repeat around.
I found this bind off to be a little looser than the three needle bind off but it’s still not super stretchy.
You could make yours in a single color for both sides, work more consistent stripes, use multicolored yarn…there are tons of variations you can do with this knitting machine coffee cup cozy pattern.
If you try it I’d love to know what you came up with!
