Give your mug a hug

A friend of mine once commented, when round at mine eating cake and drinking tea, 'wouldn't it be good if you could buy mugs with coasters attached?'.  At the time, we all scoffed at the idea because of course, it's ludicrous!  But it did get me thinking and I decided to make a mug hugger that has a base in order to act as a coaster and sides to act as a cosy.  And here it is =)

If you can crochet in the round and in rows, you can definitely make one (or more!!!) of these.  If you can't, then this is the prefect project for practising!  The two end ones were worked in trebles and the middle three in doubles.  This pattern is for a straight sided mug.  I used less than 20g of an aran yarn with a 5mm hook, but you can use any yarn and hook you are comfortable with as tension is not important.  In fact, for the teal one with pink border, I worked holding together two strands of a finer yarn.

I have worked hard creating my original patterns and am happy for them to be used for free.  Please do not sell the patterns.  If you do sell the end products please state clearly that they were made using my design, and that the pattern came from www.craftymamasanchez.blogspot.com.  Thanks, and enjoy!


Terminology used:

ch:  chain
dc:  double crochet
inc:  work 2 dc into next stitch 


Circular base:

Round 1:  Ch 2 and work 6 dc into 2nd chain from hook (or work 6 dc into a magic circle)
Round 2:  2 dc into each st round [12]
Round 3:  (1 dc, inc) x 6 [18]
Round 4:  (2 dc, inc) x 6 [24]
Round 5:  (3 dc, inc) x 6 [30]

Continue increasing 6 stitches per round in this manner until the circle is just bigger than the base of your mug.  I needed 8 rows (48 stitches).  It seems such a shame to cover my gorgeous Coco Monkey as Totoro mug from Tokyo Toys!

Work one round using only the back loops then one round using both loops.  Working through the back loops only makes a nice little ridge giving the hugger more structure.


Switch to working in rows:

Turn and start working in rows.  In the example below, I worked in doubles, allowing a turning chain of 1.  You may of course, use any stitch you wish, just remember to allow the correct length turning chain.  Do not work all the way round.  I left a 3 stitch gap to allow for room for the handle.

Stop approximately 3cm from the top of your mug.  I like my button to be on the right-hand-side so work my button loop on the left.  Sew on your button, then work a length of chain long enough to loop around the button then back again.  Alternatively, you could add a contrast border by changing to a contrast yarn, working across the top, working 3 dc into the last stitch. Change to a smaller hook (I used a 4mm hook) and work down the side of the mug hugger and all the way back to the first stitch of the border, working a dc into that stitch.  Work a chain for the button hole. 

 
Fasten off, sew the button hole loop securely in place and sew in loose ends.

It's a great first crochet project because it doesn't use much yarn and uses both the in-the-round technique and working in rows.  Indeed, you could make stripey ones to practise neat colour changes =)

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