FO: Dad's Topo Chico Cozy

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.

Today was my Dad's birthday. Along with some stuff to use for stamp collecting, I got him some of his Topo Chico sparkling mineral water and a felted cozy for the bottles.

A while back I saw my Dad drinking his Topo Chico with a napkin and a rubber band around it. While I wish this had turned out a little better, I know this is better than what he was using before.

I used plastic US Size 9 dpns and Patons Classic Merino Wool in Rich Red, Old Gold and Peacock. I only needed a very small amount of each color.

I cast on 30 stitches in the round and knit about 15 rows of each color. I'm positive I took a pre-felting picture, but I can't find it.

Getting this thing felted was a hassle. I actually knitted it very quickly last night. Then I went out to the laundry area in my apartment with the old blue jeans I use for felting. I placed everything in the washer along with detergent. That was when I realized that they raised the prices and I didn't have enough on my laundry card to cover the load.

The laundry cards at my apartment suck because:
1)They are the only way to pay for laundry.
2)You can only refill them in the office, which was closed last night when I wanted to do felt this.
3)You can only put increments of $5 on you card.
4)You have to use a $5 bill or larger in the machine.
5)If you ask for a $5 bill in exchange for five $1 bills, The management will tell you to go to the gas station and ask for change.

So I had to wait until this morning to felt the cozy. I didn't put in additional detergent, just what had soaked into my jeans. I just did one cycle on the hottest setting. No tennis balls or dunking in ice water. I was expecting it to shrink more. Instead it went from about 7.5 inches in length to about 6.5 inches in length. Also, the width (lying flat) seems to be staying steady at about 3.5 inches.

I wanted to felt this more, but I was running out of time. Besides, if it had felted too much, it wouldn't fit the bottle. I still wish it was either shorter or shaped to fit the top of the bottle.

Dad didn't seem to mind that it wasn't felted perfectly. Honestly, I think he was more excited that I had found Topo Chico with a twist of Tangerine.