On the way out to CA-NV borderlands for our high and dry near-Sierra camping weekend, I used the long car drive to create a couple of custom beer coozies to keep our Full Sail Pale Ales cool. I can’t give you perfect knitter-person instructions since I don’t know all the notations. I started with some fancy and pretty coozy instructions, but couldn’t figure out how to follow them and also didn’t have the same yarn or needles (size two? that seems tiny. I didn’t have any, and wouldn’t feel confident knitting with tiny pins for knitting needles anyhow.) 

So I was inspired by inspiration from the pattern here  but of course as soon as I got in the car, I realized I had neither the correct needles, the correct yarn, nor the correct knowledge to know what a SSK was, especially without my trusty internetz to look it up (and no data service!) so I invented my own pattern. 

Yarn: I think the type is called “worsted” and it’s 100% wool in a variety of fun jewel tones, which are leftovers from a project my mother donated to me

Needles: size 5 double pointed needles, in bamboo. I guess you are supposed to use five since there are five in the set, but I knitted on three and used the fourth as the “knitting/traveling” needle

Make a coozie: I cast on 28 stiches, I figured since it’s stretchy and it’s ribbed at top it wouldn’t matter too much and would probably fit. I think the guage I got was four stitches per inch. 

• Knit 2, purl 2 around and around until you’ve knitted about 6-8 rows of rib
• Leave about three inches of yarn and clip and switch to your other color. Knit around in a plain knit stitch until the whole thing is long enough to cover your beer of choice. I made mine short enough to cover a can, which is just about perfect to go up to the curve of a longneck bottle. I didn’t have any beers handy in the front cupholder so I “tried it on” on the bottom of a .75l Klean Kanteen (ugh I hate that it’s spelled with a “K”). 
• When you get to the bottom, knit one round of purl/garter stitch. On the next row, knit two together, then knit 7, and repeat until you reach your marker. 
• Purl one row
• Knit two together and knit 6, repeat until marker.
• Purl one row
• Knit two together and then knit 5, repeat until marker
• Purl one row.
• At this point, you might feel it’s close enough to cinch the last few stitches. Otherwise, go for one more round, knit one together then knit four, repeating all around. 
• Using a yarn needle, clip the last five inches of yarn off and thread through the needle – gather through the remaing 8 or so stitches and knot/weave in from the inside. Done!
• You can monogram, or embroider with a cat, or perhaps an abstract design, using the leftover yarn if you like. 

P.S. They work tubularly. They keep the beer sweat off your hand and off the table and they feel awesome in your mitts.