The Coffee Sweater

Item used:

UPPHETTA coffee press

Coffee presses are a quick and simple way to brew up caffeine and way cheaper than a Keurig. What’s not to love? One objection is heat loss–a standard coffee press has no insulation. Fortunately this is simple to remedy.

The UPPHETTA coffee press sells for $8.99 and is the perfect press to hack: its flanged base curves outward and its handle has only one attachment near the top of the apparatus. All you need to insulate it is a slightly stretchy cylinder of cuddly fabric. It’s pretty much a tea cozy but for coffee (you could also brew tea in the UPPHETTA, in which case it really is a tea cozy). The coffee sweater stays in place during use and a little tug pulls it off for washing. My completely unscientific testing found it keeps coffee tolerably warm for an hour and a half under normal indoor conditions.

I used chunky weight acrylic wool (Bernat Softee brand) with a 6 mm hook. This yarn is warm, inexpensive, and widely available. Cost for the yarn is $5 and one skein can make two coffee sweaters. Cost for a hook is $1.50

These stitches are so basic a beginner could make the project; takes one hour from start to finish. Begin with 37 chain stitches. Work in the round and make the second and third rounds in the half double stitch. Then 5 rounds of double crochet, one round of half double, and finish by working in the loose ends. If you want to give it the extra touch you can smooth out the starting and ending transitions by making one flat stitch and one single crochet while starting the project, then finishing the last of it with one single crochet and one flat stitch.

coffee sweater compressed

~ Lise Broer