How to... Crochet a made-to-measure plant pot cosy

I picked up a lovely pot of apricot coloured chrysanthemums from my local supermarket for a bargain price of 60p the other day. I do hate to see a good plant left to die so naturally it came home with me.
All it needed was a good water and a bit of dead heading to look as good as it's full-priced sisters.

Oh, and something HAD to be done about it's somewhat dowdy pot...




I love upcycling jam jars with little crochet covers so I though that would be the perfect way to spruce up the 'mum pot too. Thing is, unlike jam jars that tend to come in a pretty standard size, most pots are NOT the same so here is a little 'how to' for making the perfect, made-to-measure crochet plant pot cosy... (please note this cosy was made for my much loved Echeveria plant so I could take step by step photos for the purpose of this post...)

First thing you will need to do is take three measurements - the bottom of your pot, halfway up your pot (as most are tapered) and around the rim.  For my pot the measurements were 27cm (base) 30cm (halfway up) and 37cm (rim)

Now hook up a length of chain stitches to fit comfortably around your base. I used Drops Bomull Lin yarn I had left over from a bag I crocheted earlier in the summer and a 4.5mm hook - for my pot I needed 46 chains. Slip stitch the last chain to the first to create a ring. Ch 1 then 1dc into each chain all the way around, slip stitch into first ch.

For the next round I hooked trebles - so ch3 then 1tr into each stitch all the way round, slip stitch into top of first tr. Repeat until you get halfway up the pot - on this cosy it was only 2 rounds of trebles, on the 'mums cosy it was three as the pot was taller!
Now you need to increase your stitches to accommodate the widening of the pot. You can work increases by hooking 2 trb in one stitch.  My halfway measurement was 3cm larger than the base. I measured my work to see how many trebles there were in 3 cm and it was 6 - this is how many stitches I need to increase on the next round. I spaced them evenly around the circle - every 7tr is an increase.

After the increase round check the cosy on the pot again for fit. As you can see on this pot the increase row takes me quite close to the rim. I want to add an eyelet row below the rim for some ribbon trim so my next round was just dc into each stitch to give me room for the eyelet row which comes next...

for the eyelet row you need to leave a gap between each tr to thread the ribbon - the easiest way to do this is tr1, ch1, miss a ch then tr 1 in next ch, ch1, miss a ch, tr 1 and so on... all the way round. Don't worry too much if you end up with 2 tr stitches next to each other at the beginning/end of round.

 Try it on the pot for size again...

 ...then hook 1dc into the top of each stitch for next round.

Now we need to increase again to get the cosy up over the rim.  Again check your measurements. This time I needed to increase the round by 7 cm (rim measurement minus halfway measurement) which meant approx 14 stitches. I did a 2 tr increase every four stitches which actually gave me a 13 stitch increase which was close enough!

Try it on for size again - a tall rim may need another row of trebles, a row of dc's may be enough for a smaller rim.
Finally you may want to add a pretty edging. I used a simple picot stitch for this cosy (*1dc, ch 3, 1 dc in same stitch, 1dc in each of next 2 ch* repeat from *-*) but you could use any edging you prefer or just finish off with a row of slip stitches in a contrast colour. It's your custom made cosy - make it your own!!
Again don't panic too much if the pattern doesn't match up perfectly at the end!
Thread some pretty ribbon through the eyelet holes - I used Jane Means Narrow Stitched Ribbon in sage for the 'mums cosy and the gorgeous Vibrant Turquoise stitched ribbon for the Echeveria pot cosy.

And there you have it - how to create a made-to-measure crochet cosy to pretty up your plants.

Happy Hooking xx