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The Story:
How many times have you thrown a banana into your lunch bag only to find it bumped, bruised, and smushed by the time you get to eat it? This has happened to me enough times to inspire this week’s project. It all started with the banana cozy. Then I thought, “Why not protect all my favorite fruits?” So, the pear and apple cozies were born.
To test the cozies before exposing the patterns to the world, I filled them with their intended fruits and carried them around for a few days. Of course, not all projects turn out to fulfill perfectly their original intention, and often other uses arise. This is what happened with the banana cozy. While the thickness of the crochet protected the banana from bruising, it also did something I didn’t expect. It ripened the banana, too!
Now, you don’t understand… my boyfriend and I eat bananas SO fast that they are rarely ripe by the time we eat them. Our supermarket rarely has anything but mostly green bananas, so we often have to wait a few days before they’re ready to eat. We’ve tried using paper bags to speed up the ripening, but it never seemed fast enough. This cozy totally solves the banana dilemma, but I haven’t noticed any speedy ripening of the pear or the apple.
Also, I’ve learned something interesting about the numbers stuck on supermarket fruit. A five-digit number beginning with a 9 means the fruit was grown organically. A five-digit number beginning with an 8 means the fruit was genetically modified, and any four-digit number means that the fruit was conventionally grown with pesticides. Thought you might like to know.
The Yarn:
Soft Linen — 35% linen, 35% wool, 30% baby alpaca
Clara Parkes wrote up an informative review of Soft Linen on Knitters Review. She has a lot to say about the benefits of knitting with this beautiful transitional yarn, but Soft Linen has many crochet-worthy aspects that I think also need to be noted.
Soft Linen is a DK weight yarn. Thinner yarns can be used to create delicate and drapey fabric. Soft Linen creates a wonderful drape when crocheted loosely. I’ve been inspired to crochet more designs with this yarn. It has TONS of potential for beautiful garments and accessories.
It’s smooth. The alpaca blended with the wool and linen helps this yarn slide easily through your fingers and around your hook, providing for fast hooking without worrying about splitting.
This yarn is versatile, and can be used for cool or warm weather garments. A lacy pattern crocheted in this yarn would provide enough ventilation to keep you cool. A garment in a denser stitch pattern would keep you a bit warmer but also allow your body to breathe.
The Stitches:
I opted to crochet these fruit cozies because crochet is generally a more dense fabric than knitted fabric. The delicacy of a knitted fabric might not be as protective as the density of the crocheted fabric. They are worked entirely using the half-double crochet stitch, which is sturdy, yet still works up quickly.
In both knitting and crochet, working in the round prevents a seam from being placed anywhere around your project. In the case of the fruit cozies, a seam might bruise the delicate skin of your fruit.
Learn more about crocheting in the round.
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