Anyone who has looked at my other Mango patterns will know that they were inspired by the adventures of a rather naughty Tortoise who caused her family a lot of worry when she set off on her own to find fame and a change of grass!

The unusually hot weather we had here in the U.K. earlier in the year reminded me of the importance of keeping our bodies well hydrated and I treated myself to a reusable double-skinned sports water bottle. It is made of stainless steel with a lovely rose-gold satin finish and this is one of the designs I came up with for a cosy to protect it from scratches and knocks whilst in my bag when I’m out walking.

The bottle sock features Mango and her mate Orzo on the main part, with a frieze of their (fictitious) family: eggs and hatchlings, around the neck.

It will fit a 500ml Chilly’s, Balhvit, and similar makes, and will help to protect the outside of the bottle, as well as looking good. The pattern is knitted from the base up, and uses a 72 stitch chart, which means that many favourite stranded colour work sock pattern charts could be substituted if desired.

The circular base is started on 2mm needles with Judy’s magic cast-on making the base very smooth and flat. A garter ridge gives a little welt, again ensuring stability, then the chart is worked on 2.25mm needles.. It is very much like knitting the interesting bit of a sock, without having to shape toes, and heels, and of course, there is no Second Sock Syndrome!

The bottle cosy uses around 40g of fingering weight sock yarn. You could use up leftovers from other projects. The bottles shown used three contrasting colours, but the cosy could be knitted with two 20g contrasting mini-skeins if desired.