Hand knits for bottling day

A knitted bottle carrier protects glass in two places: the shelf and the walk to the shed. Use a tight gauge, a sturdy handle, and a yarn that can be washed. Covers and cloths do the rest of the work.

What protects glass bottles in storage and in transit?

Glass fails from impact and from sudden temperature change. A knit does not stop a drop onto concrete. It does stop bottles knocking against each other on a shelf, and it stops the clink that turns into a chip at the shoulder of the bottle.

A carrier is a bag with dividers. The simplest version is a tube of knitting with a base, sized to one bottle, with a strap long enough to go over the shoulder. For four or six bottles, knit a flat base and add internal walls: a strip of knitting the height of the bottle, sewn in at the base and at the rim. The walls take the knocks so the glass does not.

Measure your bottles before you cast on. A standard 500 ml crown-cap bottle in the UK runs about 24 cm tall and 6.5 cm across the body. A 750 ml champagne-style bottle for cider is closer to 30 cm tall and 8.5 cm across. Add 1 cm of ease all round for the knit, then add the thickness of the fabric. A carrier that fits one bottle size will not fit another, so pick your bottles first.

For transit, the handle matters more than the body. A short handle carried in the hand puts the swing right against your leg. A long strap worn across the body keeps the bottles vertical and close. Knit the strap in one piece with the body if you can. Seams are where a carrier fails.

If you bottle beer at home, the same logic applies to the shelf: bottles stand upright, shoulder to shoulder, and the knit keeps them apart. Sites that cover bottling in detail, such as homebrew bottling guides, treat storage as part of the process rather than an afterthought, and the same is true of the knitting.

Which stitches give a carrier strength?

Stockinette is soft and stretchy. It is the wrong choice for a carrier body. It sags under load and the fabric thins where the bottles press.

Garter stitch is the workhorse. Every row is knit, so the fabric is dense, lies flat, and does not curl at the base. It also has a little give in both directions, which is what you want when a bottle is pushed in and pulled out.

Seed stitch, also called moss stitch, is firmer still. Knit one, purl one, and on the next row purl the knits and knit the purls. The fabric has no long vertical columns to stretch, so it holds a cylinder shape well. It is slower to work and harder to keep tidy, but a seed-stitch carrier keeps its shape after a year of use.

For the base, use a double thickness. Knit the base as a flat rectangle, then fold it and knit the two layers together on the last row, or sew a second rectangle underneath. A single-layer base is the first thing to wear through.

For the handle, a narrow strip of garter stitch will stretch. Work a three-stitch i-cord, or a four-stitch tube, and thread it through eyelets at the rim. A tube handle spreads the load and does not cut into your hand.

Ribbing has its place at the rim. Two by two rib pulls the opening in slightly, which keeps bottles from sliding out when the carrier tips. Do not rib the whole body; it will stretch where the bottle is widest.

Which yarns survive repeated spills and washing?

Bottling day is wet. Beer foams over, cider drips, and the cloth under the fermenter gets soaked. The yarn has to take water, sugar, and repeated washing.

Wool is warm and elastic, but untreated wool felts in a hot wash and holds smells. Superwash wool is better: it can go through a gentle machine cycle. Even so, a carrier that gets beer on it will need airing, not just washing.

Cotton is the practical choice for cloths and covers. It is absorbent, it takes a hot wash, and it does not felt. It has no memory, so a cotton carrier will stretch under a full bottle. Use cotton for the cloths and for the base lining, and a wool or wool-blend for the body if you want the carrier to spring back.

Linen is stronger than cotton when wet and dries faster. It is stiff to knit and hard on the hands. A linen cloth lasts for years.

Acrylic is cheap and washes well, but it pills and it holds static. It is fine for a cover that sits on a shelf, less good for a cloth that gets wrung out.

A blend of cotton and linen, or cotton and a little wool, covers most needs. Avoid single-ply yarns: they wear through at the base. A tight ply, knit at a firm gauge, is what lasts.

How do you wash a beer-soaked carrier or cloth?

Rinse in cold water first. Hot water sets sugar and protein into the fibre. Cold water lifts most of it out.

Then wash by hand or on a gentle cycle at 30 degrees Celsius with a mild detergent. No bleach. No fabric softener, which coats the fibre and reduces absorbency.

Dry flat, out of direct sun. A carrier hung by its handle will stretch. A cloth can be laid flat on a towel and turned once.

If the cloth smells of hops or yeast after washing, soak it for an hour in water with a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda, then rinse. That is the same trick used for fermenting vessels, and it works on cloth.

What about covers and shelf cloths?

A bottle cover is a tube that slips over the bottle and stops light reaching the contents. Brown glass does most of this work already. A cover helps for clear glass, and it keeps dust off the cap.

Knit covers in the round, in a light colour, so you can see when they need washing. Leave the neck open. A cover that covers the cap traps moisture.

A shelf cloth is a rectangle of cotton or linen, knit in garter stitch or woven, that sits under the bottles. It catches drips, it stops bottles sliding, and it can be lifted out and washed in one piece. Make it 5 cm wider than the shelf on each side, so it can be tucked or folded.

A small cloth for wiping the neck of a bottle before capping is worth knitting too. Ten centimetres square, cotton, garter stitch. Keep two on the shelf.

Sizing notes and a short list

Measure your bottles. Write the numbers down. A carrier for four 500 ml bottles needs a base about 15 cm by 30 cm, with walls 24 cm high. A single-bottle carrier needs a base 8.5 cm across and a body 26 cm tall, with a strap 90 cm long for cross-body wear.

Use needles one size smaller than the yarn label suggests. The fabric should be firm enough that you cannot see light through it when held up.

A short list for the shelf: two cotton cloths, one shelf liner, one four-bottle carrier in a cotton-wool blend, and one single-bottle carrier for taking a bottle to a friend. That is a weekend of knitting, and it will outlast the beer.

Sources

For reference, see food.gov.uk.