Mason Jar Covers

January is such a bleak month.  It's cold and gray and all of the excitement of the upcoming holidays are long gone (even if it's only been a week!) and there's nothing to look forward to until Valentine's Day.  I needed a project to cheer myself up.  I made some brightly colored mason jar covers to brighten up the kitchen.

You guys know my love of mason jars.  In fact, I would rank my metal punch as my #1 craft purchase last year, just so that I could add straw holes to the jar lids and make 'to go' cups.  Dishwasher and microwave safe, AND environmentally friendly?!  Awesome!  Add on some covers to serve as a way to identify who's cup is who's and it's a perfect party cup too!  

I use the wide-mouth quart sized mason jars, because who wants to have to keep running back and forth to the kitchen all the time for refills?!  The only one who uses the smaller pint-sized jars is Mims, because I'm afraid if she drops a giant jar of sweet tea on her toe she'll break both the jar and her toe!

This pattern is for a cover for the quart-sized jars.  I used cotton yarn so it would be absorbent and could be tossed in the washing machine when needed.

Cotton Mason Jar Covers
to fit quart-sized canning jars, preferably widemouth! :D
Supplies:
100% cotton worsted weight yarn - approximately 25 yards each of two different colors (I used a variety of Lily's Original Peaches N Cream 100% cotton yarns)
Size G crochet hook
Yarn needle
Scissors

**I changed color every row, alternating between the two colors, and carrying the non-working yarn up the inside of the piece as I went to avoid having to cut and weave in ends.  I have not included this in the pattern for ease of reading the pattern.**

R1: In a magic loop, make 6 sc, pull loop tight and sl st to first sc to join round (6 st)
R2: ch 1, 2 sc in each st, sl st to first sc to join round (12 st)
R3: ch 1, (2 sc in next st, sc) 6 times, sl st to first sc to join round (18 st)
R4: ch 1, (2 sc in next st, 2 sc) 6 times, sl st to first sc to join round (24 st)
R5: ch 1, (2 sc in next st, 3 sc) 6 times, sl st to first sc to join round (30 st)
R6: ch 1, (2 sc in next st, 4 sc) 6 times, sl st to first sc to join round (36 st)
R7-19: ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st to first sc to join round (36 st)
Fasten off.  Weave in ends.  Put it on a mason jar and you don't have to worry about using a coaster!

Okay, so you guys know my love of iced tea, it's the official drink of Crochet Dynamite!  I've updated my Perfect Microwave Iced Tea recipe HERE to reflect my new standard of perfection.  A couple of months ago, I was browsing around Pinterest and a recipe that my friend Kaitlyn pinned (she's my charity-working friend Kristy's daughter) caught my eye.  It was for Iced Tea with a secret ingredient.  Whaaa?!  Of course I had to check it out.  The ingredient was baking soda!  A tiny pinch added to the water as you brew the tea takes the bitterness out of the tea, and it comes out perfect every time (except for the time I added a nice litttle SHAKE of baking soda from the box and it was undrinkable. LOL!!)

So go check out the newly updated recipe, if you're into iced tea, because it's my go-to beverage of choice, once I've gotten my 8 cups of just plain water in for the day.  The mason jars look cute holding water too, so if you drink 2 of the big jars of water in the morning, you can enjoy your tea all afternoon! :D  The lemon slices are completely optional!

xoxo