Whiteley Creek Homestead

When some friends stopped by recently, I prepared tea to go with some apple crumble I had made. The problem was I had recently taken all but two of my cups/mugs to the thrift shop because I had grown weary of them and planned to replace them with yard sale finds. All I could do is use glass jars and ask my guests to hold them near the rim so as not to burn their fingers from the heat of the water. I haven't stumbled upon any mugs that excite me yet, so I made two jar cozies to fit over some almond butter jars that I had saved to store leftovers. Perfect… just perfect.  

To make the cozies, I cut off the ends of two cuffed sweater sleeves, turned them inside out, then reinforced the existing seam by machine stitching over top of the seam line. With a running stitch, using a double length of crochet thread, I cinched the bottom just enough to coax the sweater underneath the jar. You won't want to wrap it completely under the jar because it will be too bulky to sit flat. Alternatively, you can make a band style that doesn't wrap under the jar bottom. The cozy is enough thickness to be able to feel a slight warmth as you wrap your hands around it… just the way a cup of tea should be.