After giving away most of our projects so far this year, the Happy Hookers turned their attention this month to a more personal, practical make in the shape of this stylish water bottle holder I'm modelling. We also finished off last month's crochet chains to send of to Yarndale whilst enjoying the cool breeze and shade out on Gill's deck.
With the hot weather we've had recently, I wanted something for my water bottle which meant I didn't need a sweat inducing backpack whilst remaining hands free on my walks. This has proved to be just what I needed! I adapted CAAB Crochet's trellis bottle holder pattern - she has plenty of others to choose from via the link if you fancy making a different one. Note the pretty trellis stitch part seems a little tricky at first, but the detailed photos in her post really help to get you on the right track. Once you have the basic stitch, it's repeated a lot, so you soon get into a rhythm. There's also a link to a video tutorial if you get stuck. Note that the pattern is in USA terms - here's a link to their conversion to UK terms if needed).
NB I used a cotton mix yarn to minimise the holder's stretchability.
Here's what I did, including the adaptations I made (feel free to adapt further to suit you!):
I used a smaller 4mm hook, so that my stitches were fairly tight. This meant more rows were needed than the pattern to form the base. I simply continued to increase the circle by six stitches per extra row, until it was just slightly wider than my water bottle (this made it usable for the pictured bottle, plus a slightly wider one I use for Zumba)
I then continued with 5 extra rows of double crochet to form a 'cup' before going into the trellis part of the pattern - this makes the holder more secure
I needed to make more rows than given in the pattern, partly down to the hook size used, plus the size of the bottle. I also decided to make it almost the full length of the bottle, and decreased the row by six stitches at the point where the bottle narrows
Before making the strap I made one full row of double crochet on top of the trellis pattern to make a secure base for the strap. I then continued with double crochet (to minimise any stretch), with just 8 stitches needed to form lots of rows for the strap. I thought this is more secure than given in the pattern which made it separately then stitched it on. My strap is 8 stitches wide instead of the 6 given in the pattern, to make it more comfortable.
As the strap got longer, I fitted a full water bottle into the holder to try it out for size. I decided I needed enough length for a cross body strap and using a full water bottle also meant the strap stretched to its fullest extent so I got the fit exactly right for me
I then folded the empty holder in half so I could find the right point to fix the strap on using slip stitch, I continued with slip stitch all the way round to make sure the strap stayed secure and to create a neat finish
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