Cable Tea Cozy

You will need:

• Red Heart worsted weight acrylic yarn, "warm brown"
• 4mm circular needle, plus some double ended needles for the ribbing

Directions:

1. Cast on 49 stiches. Knit a couple of rows of K1 P1 ribbing, before deciding that this is a bad idea.
2. Switch to doing four stitches of moss stitch, followed by two ribs, and repeating. Each rib is separated on either side by a perl stitch. The moss is the one where each stitch is different from the one in each direction. The ribs are two stitches twisted over the other two stiches, every four rows.
3. When it seems like it's time to do some shaping, start doing short rows, on every other row. Each short row ends at the outer edge of the inner pair of moss panels, and the perl stitch on the outside of that gets slipped, with the yarn passed across the far side of it.
4. Count furiously, and work out how many regular rows to do after the short rows are done, so that both sides are symmetrical. (Total, I end up with 22 twists on the middle ribs, and 15 on the side ones.) Knit these rows.
5. Realise that ribbing done in either direction isn't entierly symmetrical. Feel offended by this. Rip out initial ribbing, pick up the stitches on both sides, and do a row of purls, then do regular ribbing in the round.