Easter craft egg cosy

 I love eggs.  We use them quite a lot, and with 4 hungry, active teenagers in the house, they are a healthy and cost effective way of filling the gaps.  When we went to the tournament on the weekend, the ONLY food for sale was sugar laden baked treats (don't get me started).  Fortunately I'd had the foresight to pack some boiled eggs as well as making sandwiches for the kids.  I often boil eggs for them to take to school.  Ella, in particular loves having boiled eggs.  She still asks me to draw little faces on the eggs like I used to do with all of them when they were little.  This morning, as she packed her egg into her lunch bag, she said that she wished she had a way to stop the shell from cracking as it rattled around in her bag.  

Thus the egg cosy was born.  Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I haven't tested these out yet, so I'm not going to make any guarantees that eggs will be totally protected in these, but if nothing else, it's a fun little project that is a good way to bust my tiny little wool scraps stash, and surely no more frivolous than all those apple cosies that are out there.  UPDATE:  Ella took an egg to school in one of these yesterday and she said it made ALL the difference - not a crack in sight.

And, for those looking for a little sugar free gift for easter, wouldn't this be be cute?  You could even decorate a boiled egg and put it inside.

And since Easter is fast approaching, I made up a quick little tutorial for these this morning.  Should give those inclined enough time to make a few of these. 

Warning, I'm not so good with crochet terminology and language - please feel free to ask me what I mean, if I haven't explained it clearly.

Egg Cosy

To make these, I used wool scraps that were fairly light DK /worsted weight yarn.  I played around with both a size 4.25mm/G/6 and 5mm/H/8 crochet hook as that's what I had on hand.  While both work, I prefer the look of the smaller hook.

To start, I made a magic loop.  ( If you are unfamiliar with how to make a magic loop, there are good online tutorials which can be found here and here.  It's well worth learning as it is such a useful thing to know in crochet- I tend to use it all the time now.)

Start by chaining 2 and then continue to crochet 9 half double crochet (hdc)/half treble UK (htc) around the circle.

 Join at the end of the round, and chain 2 stitches.  In the next round, increase by making two hdc/htc stitches into each of the loops from the previous round.  (You should only make one stitch into the last hole, as when you join it to your chains, it counts as two). Join at the end of the round.  You should now have 20 stitches making a nice flat circle.

 Place a marker at this point and continue to crochet around for about 6 rows.  You don't need to join at the end of that first round, just keep going in a spiral.  This is what starts to give the piece its shape.

At this point it is helpful to get a boiled egg to measure your work.  When it reaches just past the fattest part of the egg  (roughly 6 rows), you will need to bring the shape in a little.  To do this, in the next row you will decrease.  Skip 1 stitch, crochet 4, repeat 3 more times until you are at the end of the round.

Continue to crochet with the last 16 stitches for 1 or 2 rounds.  When you get to the end of the round, chain 7 stitches and join to the following stitch in the round.  Weave in your end.

The little loop may be unnecessary, but I liked the look of it.  If you made it long enough (maybe by making 10 chains), you could use it with a button and make a closure.  I felt that these were snug enough that they didn't need it and I like that this has something you can get your finger through when stuffing that egg in.  And they'd look cute hung in a tree or a bush for Easter...you could even put a chocolate egg in them.

Now, can you guess what I'm having for lunch?