Knitted and felted hot water bottle cover

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You may have seen a luxury-fibre hot water bottle cover offered through an exclusive catalog for several hundred dollars. Not to be outdone, I chose an angora blend for my luxury cover. If you are more the woolly type, substitute any wool that will felt to about the same gauge.

Materials
Size
10" by 14" (25.5 by 35.5 cm). The st count may be adjusted to accommodate other sizes.

Yarn
Light to medium worsted-weight yarn, 300 yards (274.5 meters). Always test your yarns to be sure that they felt to a nice fabric at the gauge given. The hot water bottle cover is shown in Classic Elite Lush (50% angora, 50% wool; 123 yd [112.5 m] 50 g): #4434 wine, 3 skeins.

Needles
Size 10 (6 mm), 24" (60 cm) circular. Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.

Notions
Markers; fine waste cotton thread for basting; 18" [46 cm] of waste cotton to thread through eyelets of bottle cover while felting; silk ribbon to thread through eyelets of bottle cover after felting; tapestry needle.

Gauge
Unfelted: 14 sts and 21 rows = 4" (10 cm) in Stockinette st (St st).
Felted: About 18-20 sts and 26-28 rows = 4" (10 cm). Gauge will vary with the amount of felting and is not critical for these patterns.

Felting
Follow basic felting instructions (see Page 2), felting to desired size.

Directions
Loosely cast on 90 sts. Place marker and join, being careful not to twist sts.
Knit in rnds of St st (knit every rnd) for 85 rnds or about 16" (40.5 cm).
Dec rnd: *K1, k2tog; repeat from * -- 60 sts.
Knit 2 rnds even.
Eyelet rnd: *Ssk, k1, yo; repeat from *. Knit 22 rnds even in St st. Change to garter st (purl 1 rnd, knit 1 rnd) for 5 rnds, ending with a purl rnd. Bind off loosely knitwise. Cut yarn and fasten off.

Finishing
Sew cast-on edges together to close bottom of bag. Weave in loose ends on WS. Thread a length of waste cotton through the eyelets to hold them open during felting. When felted and dry, brush the surface lightly with a stiff bristled brush to bring up more angora. To maintain an air of luxury, thread a matching silk ribbon through the holes after the cover is felted and dried.

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Excerpted from Felted Knits by Beverly Galeskas. Copyright 2003 by Beverly Galeskas and Interweave Press, LLC. Excerpted by permission of Interweave Press, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.