Crochet Plant Pot Cozy

We recently something new to the shop, Cotton Fabric Rag Strips! It's an eco-friendly 100% cotton. It's created from materials trimmed during the process of making cotton t-shirts, so it's a great way to recycle material that would otherwise be thrown away. I haven't worked with a t-shirt yarn like this before so I wanted to play around with it and get an idea of the kind of projects it might be good for! 

I wanted to try it out with crochet right away because as a 100% cotton super bulky yarn, it's pretty ideally suited to homewares projects. I used a 10mm (US N/P) crochet hook but you could use anything in the range of 9mm to 12mm. While working with it, my mind was overflowing with possibilities for making homewares with this yarn! After crocheting a nice sturdy flat circle in no time at all, I was having visions of making everyone trivets/hotpads as Christmas presents. 

For this project I settled on a plant pot cozy because my cat recently knocked over my snake plant and chipped it's pot. This is a great way to cover up boring plastic pots too, just pop a saucer in the bottom of your cozy so the cotton doesn't absorb any water from the plant. Here's how I made my cozy! 

Crochet a single crochet circle slightly larger than the base of your pot. 

Ch 2. Join in ring with sl st to 1st ch.

Rnd 1: Ch 1. 6 sc in ring. Join with sl st in 1st sc. 

Rnd 2: Ch 1. 2 sc in each sc around. Join with sl st in 1st sc. (16 sc) 

Rnd 3: Ch 1. *2 sc in next sc. 1 sc in next sc. Rep from * around. Join with sl st in 1st sc. (24 sc)

Rnd 4: Ch1. *2 sc in next sc. 1 sc in each of next 2 sc. Rep from * around. Join with sl st in 1st sc. (30 sc)

Continue to work in this manner, adding one more regular single crochet between your increase stitches. For example Rnd 5 would be working 1 sc in each of next 3 sts inbetween increases.

If you're a beginner and have never crocheted a circle before, The Spruce Crafts has a great tutorial on how to make flat circles that you can find here.

Once your circle is large enough to fit around your pot, it's time to start working the walls of your cozy upwards. I like to give a nice crisp edge to the wall of my cozy by only working in the inside loop of the first round. 

Notice how the hook in the photo above is only going into 1 leg of the "V" of the single crochet. If you work into both legs on this first round your cozy will have a more rounded bottom. I like to mark my rounds in crochet with a removable stitch marker or safety pin because I'm a knitter who gets confused about how crochet rounds work. 

Now all you need to do is work in a spiral single crocheting into every stitch and watch the walls of your cozy grow! 

Just under halfway through building up my cozy walls I thought, "Wow this would be a pretty great yarn bowl!" If you're crocheting a 6" plant pot cozy or smaller you will definitely have enough Ribbon yarn left over to make a yarn bowl too! 

If you have two colors of Ribbon yarn, you can add an accent color at the top like the project shown in our photos. All you need to do is stop working with the original color of yarn about 1 inch from the top of your pot, end working with the color by doing a slip stitch and then cutting the yarn. Then work 2 rounds with the accent color. If you only have one color of yarn, keep working until your cozy is tall enough. Once your cozy covers your whole plant pot you can finish it off by slip stitching into the last stitch and weaving in your ends. 

One cake of yarn will make 2 plant pot cozies in this 6" pot size. 

This project worked up in just a couple hours, and I'm a really slow crocheter! If you're looking to make a bunch of handmade gifts in a short period of time, Rosie's Ribbon Yarn would be a great option. You could also use the above pattern to make a really big circle (12-24"), then just spiral crochet around the same way and make a very nice basket. The t-shirt yarn is so sturdy when worked up that it would make a basket that would hold it's shape much easier than other cotton yarns. I can't wait to work up more hard wearing homewares with this yarn!