let me talk to you about my hot water bottle
Because I’m obsessed with it.
I didn’t know that it was something I needed in my life—I’d never had one before a few years ago—but truly I would not want to live without it. It was actually a gift, from Mohair South Africa, and it was in a lovely felted gray case with mohair in it. I put the water bottle aside and kind of forgot about it, to be honest. But then one month I had bad cramps and thought to fill it up with super-hot water, and I was immediately hooked. I probably use it every month of the year. It turns out mine is kind of on the small side, but I like it just fine. Someday I’ll upgrade to a big one like this.
It also comes in handy when I’m chilled and just can’t get warm, something that’s been happening a lot this winter. It’s fitting that I’m writing this on the first day of spring—when it snowed all day and we got a few inches of snow! I fill it up and put it in my lap, or at my feet, under a blanket, and within moments I’m toasty warm. When we went on the knitting retreat to Cape Cod for Presidents’ Day this year I brought it along because I was terrified that the summer-oriented rental house would be cold. I made the right call, and I tucked it, full of fresh boiling water, at my toes every night, like Laura Fricking Ingalls Wilder, only less potentially flammable.
(Turns out you’re really not supposed to put boiling water in a hot water bottle, and you’re not supposed to fill it to full, so now I’m pretty much terrified that it’s going to combust at any minute. But I like it nice and plump and verrry hot!)
I decided it was time to knit it a special cover. Scraps of Malabrigo Worsted in fluorescent pink and yellow fit the bill. I used this pattern as my template, ultimately casting on 32 stitches on a side using Judy’s Magic Cast On and increasing to 36. (Confession: I cast on for this about three hundred times, fussing over the right number of stitches and then getting the math wrong several times once I’d decided on a course of action. It was something of a comedy of errors.) I wanted the colors to transition in a random ombre, which meant a little more fretting. Pam suggested I use an ombre stitch chart she’d worked up for one of her patterns (which I cannot find on her Ravelry page), and it is lovely but wasn’t as random as I wanted, so I used it as my jumping-off point… I’m so pleased with how it came out!
5 Responses to let me talk to you about my hot water bottle
Looks great to me! I am a massive hot water bottle fan. Love love love them!
I keep thinking I need to: a) buy a hot water bottle, and b) knit it a cover. You’ve confirmed my hunch. Yours is lovely!
I’m going to have to adopt using a hot water bottle. I hate wearing socks but I get cold feet.
I’ve always used an old microwaveable buckwheat pouch thingie but I hate the smell of the heated grain so I avoid using it unless I’m super desperate… This looks like a a better (and much prettier!) option. The softness and squishiness of the Malabrigo must make it that much more comforting.
You’ve totally sold me. The cover is pretty fabulous, too.