Creative Compendium: TMNT Can Cozies

These cozies were actually made as a commission for someone who decided AFTER I had made them all that they didn't want to buy them. Maybe I overcharge on my Etsy Store, but then again, Maybe I'm just someone who values their time more than most people. I never call in sick, but I do request days off for no reason sometimes. I don't spend my days off getting things done, I spend them doing things that make me happy (if I didn't, would I have a blog dedicated to crocheting and crafts?)

All these things are so important to me, having more happiness than money, having more time to take walks and pictures of wildflowers than doing laundry and fretting about things. I occasionally do laundry and fret, but more often than not I'm cuddled up in a nest crocheting something big and fuzzy. Why, then, did it take me so long to deal with the fact that I was hating what I was doing 40 hours a week?

Until recently, I worked at a movie theater. I didn't work at your typical movie, theater, either. It was a more upscale theater with higher prices, and better commodities (also a theater that has jaded the word 'amenities' for me forever. More on that later). The customers were so mean to me that in the past I have gone home to cry, drink, and Gabe and I have even had some rough times when I came home to scream and scream and scream about how my day went.

I had been called stupid, a 'fucking idiot'. I've been told I will 'never go anywhere in life'. I have been called a liar after telling someone that our theater has won awards. I have been literally screamed at for telling someone they had to wait in line. I have been told our salt is 'too salty'. I have been personally blamed for mistakes made when a person ordered tickets online, then promptly yelled at. I have been scoffed at and had my eyes rolled at me countless times. I could go on, believe me. Is it because I'm a mean or rude person? No, it's because people are used to getting the things they want, no matter what, and I was actually holding our policies up. I got yelled at, berated and degraded for doing my job, properly.

I stayed there for two years, and some change. I stayed there because I was convinced I couldn't find another job, because this was the best I could do. It wasn't until the incident in Aurora, CO that got me to quit.

It was a strange feeling, to feel so close to something that had nothing to do with you. Maybe it was the fact that it was a movie theater, and so is Sundance, or the fact that it was so random and isolated of an incident that it very well could have been me, at my theater. It may have even been the fact that that weekend, customer after customer scrunched their faces up and scoffed at me when I told them we would have no additional security in our theaters, and I was just about done. But honestly, it was very little of that, it was the fact that the tiniest part of me thought for one millisecond that I kind of maybe understood where he was coming from.

No, not the deranged Joker persona and the killing of many innocent people. No, not that part. The anger part. The part where people treat you terribly for no reason to a point where you do something drastic and irrational.

People are mean. People make you cry, and run you over, even when you're being nice, and even when they know you're having a rough time. In that moment, I realized how much faith I had truly lost in humanity, and I couldn't deal with it!

I left early that Saturday, having a crisis with myself. Do I stay, stay unhappy and comfortable, or leave and go out into the big scary world of job hunting, potential unhappiness on an even deeper level, and maybe even a pay decrease? Yes, yes I would. Without having a job lined up, I quit. I quit the hell out of that place.

Exactly two weeks after putting my notice in, I was hired on the spot at a place where I will be able to serve my favorite thing (espresso) to people doing my favorite thing (being creative). I will be working at Traveler's Hearth Cafe & Games, a cafe and board game shop, where people can get away from their TVs, phones, twitter, and whatever other time-wasting machines to be social, and have fun with their time. My kind of place? I hope so.

So, I may have wasted some time making these cozies, but I suppose the least I can do is make the best of it, and share the pattern with you guys. And yes, I'm going to do my best to take some things with Sundance with me, and leave the negativity behind.

These cozies were rather easy enough to make. I adapted them from my TMNT Mug cozies, and I actually like them better. I think they look nicer, even though I have no use for can cozies...I hope someone else does.

So here's how to do it.

Base worked in continuous rounds.

R1: With green, ch 2, 6 sc in second ch from hook (6sc)

R2: 2 sc in each sc around (12sc)

R3: *2sc in next st, sc* 6 times around (18sc)

R4: *2sc in next st, 2sc* 6 times around (24sc)

R5: *2sc in next st, 3sc* 6 times around (30sc)

R6: *2sc in next st, 4sc* 6 times around (36sc)

R7: ch 1 (does not count as stitch now and throughout), in back loop only hdc in each st around. ss to first hdc. ch 1, turn (36hdc)

R8 - 15: Working in both loops, hdc in each st around. ss to first hdc, ch 1.

R16 -20: With Color B (Bandana color), hdc in each st around. ss to first hdc, ch 1.

R21 - 22: With green, hdc in each st around. ss to first hdc, ch 1. Fasten off after row 22.

Eyes (Make 2):

R1: With white, ch 2, 6sc in second ch from hook. Do not join to first st. (6sc)
R2: 2sc in each st around, ss to first st, cut white. (12sc)
R3: With Color B (Bandana color), *2sc in next st, sc* 6 times around (18sc). Fasten off, but leave a long tail.

Pupils (Make 2):

With black, ch 2, 6 sc in second ch from hook, ss to first sc. Fasten off, but leave a long tail.

Using the long tail, sew the pupils onto the eyes. Then, using the long tail, sew the eyes onto the mug cozy.

Weave in all ends.