Here is a little tea cosy I made for my parents for Christmas. It's will not, I think, be the only one I make for them. I think I need to do something more outrageous and embellished. But they have at least three teapots (I went round one day while they were out of town and measured them all) so there is plenty of scope for that to happen.
I think I am a bit too easily tempted by small projects. I have several bigger projects on the go, as well as certain garments I'm just dying to make (and have the yarn lined up for). But between the felting - another deadline/opportunity looms and I need to get in gear to make the most of it - and the tempting little gifts here and there, those bigger things spend so much of the time waiting (then becoming mental blocks).
Back when I was knitting my second ever tea cosy (by request), I was cranking it out at a party and someone said, with a pleased tone, 'oh, do you knit tea cosies?' Not if I can help it, was my instinctive response.
And it's not true, cause of course I can help it and yet here I am doing it again. I'm perfectly happy knitting a tea cosy. I just want to also make a variety of other things in between tea cosies.
Anyway, this is made from Noro Kureyon, using the Lizard Ridge afghan/blanket pattern designed for just this wool. I just started a square as written in the pattern, and when it was almost tall enough, did a couple of rows with decreases to taper it, and a row of eyelets. Did it all again for the other side and sewed the two together. It is a bit baggy, but my stunt teapot is a bit smaller than the target. Also I couldn't take the time, in the madness of late December, to reconfigure the pattern to be narrower.
I'd love to work out a feasible way to make a tea cosy in the round - so much of each side is the hole for the handle or spout that it seems easier to make two flat pieces. But the way this pattern works with the self striping wool meant that the two sides look very different to each other. The only way I can think of making it in the round would be to steek the slits in either side. I've never done a steek - could be a good opportunity to try it, though it seems like a lot of fuss for a tea cosy!
3 comments:
And it's a beautiful tea cosy and I'm so lucky to be the recipient of it. Want to see you getting done what you want for yourself now! thank you ily ma
I don't own a tea cozy and keep telling myself I should make at least one (I have 3 teapots which I use regularly). I wonder if you could knit it in the round and then bind off a few stitches for the handle/spout and pick them back up like you do for button holes? Hmmmm.
I have thought about that, but you tend to need a long vertical split for the handle, and even for the spout it would need to be more than a one-row hole, so I can't see how to make it work. I think I should look at some published patterns and see how others do it.
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