Fly Me to the Moon Hot Water Bottle Cover Knitting Pattern Sketch

What do you get if you cross Brian Cox, Frank Sinatra and a naked hot water bottle? Well, you’ll need to toss in a ball of Stylecraft Special Aran and a knitting pattern designer for good measure; then things start to get interesting.

Every so often a design idea arrives that feels like it’s been quietly orbiting for years, waiting for the right moment to land. This one has been tugging at me ever since news broke about the upcoming NASSA mission and the first woman stepping onto the moon. What a moment that will be. And then, as if the universe wanted to nudge me further, I found myself listening to Frank Sinatra again; the soundtrack of my grandmother’s living room, her favourite voice drifting through the house while she knitted or made tea. I think that’s why his music feels so comforting to me; it’s stitched into memories of her. Romantic, dreamy, timeless… and suddenly Fly Me to the Moon, felt like the perfect spark for a hot water bottle cover.

So this page is the beginning of that journey; the sketching, the planning, the imagining. I’ve popped in a photo of my little inspiration trio; a Brian Cox DVD (because you can’t beat a bit of cosmic enthusiasm), a Frank Sinatra CD, and a bare hot water bottle waiting patiently for its mission suit.

The design itself is going to be a proper celebration of space travel and stargazing. There’ll be a rocket taking off, stars scattered across the sky, a couple of planets, a comet swooshing by, a satellite keeping watch, and of course the moon itself. And across it all, the words fly me to the moon; because how could they not be there.

The cover will be knitted in intarsia, which is the colour‑work technique where each block of colour has its own little ball or bobbin of yarn. It’s perfect for pictures and motifs because it keeps everything neat and flat without floats across the back. It looks complicated but once you get into the rhythm, it’s wonderfully methodical, like painting with yarn.

For practicality, the cover will have no fastenings at all. No buttons, no zips, nothing that can pop open at the wrong moment. Instead, the hot water bottle will be rolled up and fed down through the neck of the cover. The neck itself will be a cosy polo‑neck style; a tube of ribbing that folds back on itself, snug and secure.

I’ll be using Stylecraft Special Aran for this project. It grows quickly, which is exactly what you want when you’re working on a larger piece with lots of colour work, and it creates a lovely thick fabric, perfect for protecting toes from overly enthusiastic hot water bottles.

The biggest challenge will be getting the charts just right. Colour placement, shaping the rocket plume, making sure the lettering sits nicely, balancing the planets so they don’t look like they’re drifting off… all the fun fiddly bits that make a design come alive. I’ll share the sketching process in the video so you can see how it all evolves from scribbles to something recognisable.

It feels like a design full of heart; a little bit of space history, a little bit of family nostalgia, a little bit of romance and a lot of yarn. Exactly the sort of project that makes me excited to pick up my needles.










Tags: Stylecraft Special Aran project