Fruit Cozies

When Hobbies Collide! I love to knit, and I love to pack lunches, so what could be better than knitting things for packed lunches?

This summer I've been knitting fruit cozies: cotton jackets made to keep fruit from getting bruised in a lunch bag or purse. So far I've made (clockwise from bottom left) an orange cozy, a banana cozy, two apple cozies, and a pear.

If any of you knitters are wondering how it's done, I got the original Apple Sweater Pattern from a seller on etsy. I wouldn't feel right sharing the pattern since it belongs to someone else. But I will tell you I made a few modifications:

• I left off the collar on the apples, because I didn't like it.
  
• I added a little leaf to most of the fruit (CO 3 st; Row1 knit; R2 purl; R3 K1f&b, K1, K1f&b (5 st); R4 purl; R5 knit; R6 purl; R7 K2tog, K1, K2tog; R8 purl; R9 Sl 1, K2tog, psso; weave in ends and attach to the cozy).
  
• I knit an extra 5 rows before casting off to make the pear.
  
• I knit the same cozy pattern in seed stitch for the orange.

I'm still playing with it and will probably go back and make the cozies bigger (especially the orange -- man, the oranges I found at the market today were bigger than the grapefruit!) and change the construction. If I do, I figure at that point I will have gotten far enough away from the original that I'll feel safe posting the new pattern here.

Of course, I also needed a banana for my collection, and since I couldn't find a pattern for a banana cozy, I made one up! Go ahead and download my Banana Cozy Pattern and make your own. And don't worry, there's plenty of time to get it done before school starts again!

Tags : health insurance,health care,medical insurance,private health insurance,health insurance quotes, health insurance companies,individual health insurance,health care reform,affordable health insurance,obama health care,best health insurance,cheap health insurance

Share this article please, on :

Share on fb Tweet Share on G+