I think this is my favourite of the tea cosies I’ve made for my friends; it’s got a “Roly Poly” base, (pattern from Wild Tea Cosies, by Loani Prior), but the three chickens in a nest on the top are my own variation. I did this one for my friend C because she keeps chooks.
Here is the tea cosy I made for my friend T for her birthday. It is the Roly Poly pattern (again!) from Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior. I know, I know, so many Roly Polies, but they are cute, no?
Here is the tea cosy I made for my friend S, the very first cosy I made form the book “Wild Tea Cosies”by Loani Prior. S couldn’t find her teapot on the day I arranged to photograph it, so I brought it home and set it up on my coffee table with my teapot! The mug in the photo was made by my brother, and I like the rusticity of the rough wooden table and the handmade mug against the soft garden-y colours of the cosy. This was a very easy cosy to make. The pattern in the book is called “Red Comet”, because the sample is a red cosy. I guess this one must be a golden green comet…
Here is a photo of the tea cosy I made for H. Apologies for the excruciatingly bad photography; its actually quite a cute cosy. With my poor little old camera the following equation applies:
indoors + no daylight = crappy photo.
Using the flash just seems to make matters worse. With my fairly limited editing skills I sharpened up the picture and tried to get the colours true, unsuccessfully. (Regular visitors to this blog will notice that this isn’t the same photo that was there two days ago. Truth is I couldn’t bear the hideous photo that I had there before and nipped back to H’s house today to get a better photo! Here it is, and much improved!!!!)
It looks grey in the photo but it is actually made mostly of a fantastic yarn of variegated grey and pink fluffy bits, with a bit of baby blue thrown in. There is also some baby blue, purple and pink used for the lining and balls on top.
This is was the second of the Roly Poly cosies I made from Loani Prior’s book “Wild Tea Cosies”.
This is the tea cosy I made for my sister-in-law S; another version of the Roly Poly from “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior. I love the colours of this tea cosy; before giving it to S for her birthday I had it sitting up in our lounge room because the colours were so, well, cosy is the best word I can think of. Sort of toasty and reminiscent of the colours that are associated with an afternoon tea of cakes and sweet nibblies… Picture this in the middle of plates of fruit cake, and strawberry tarts and lemon curd tarts and you get a feel for the foody comfort factor I’m visualising here… My sister in law is a wonderful and dedicated cook which is a quality I greatly admire in others as I am so sadly lacking in this area myself. She even makes her own meat pies. And her own pastry. And a sponge cake which is always the object of awed admiration at any gathering. Respect.
I photographed this on their dining room table, with their china tea set which has a teal blue/purple/gold decal strip nicely picked up in the cosy also.
This is my version of the Chicken Little tea cosy I knitted for my friend L from “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior. I chose these colours for L because she often wears soft browns, olives and greens such as these (and looks lovely in them too), and because she is very artistic and I knew she would appreciate the lumpy rustic beauty of this tea cosy. This look is due completely to the nature of this lovely multi-coloured fleecy wool which varies from sometimes very skinny to sometimes very fat! A bit of a challenge to knit as you try to avoid getting “patches” of fat or skinny areas appearing, but are aiming for an overall even spread of thicknesses somehow. However managed this successfully and I think the outcome is rather gorgeous, if I say so myself!
The cosy is photographed on L’s outdoor table, with her china.
My husband and I had breakfast and went for a lovely walk along the beach this morning with friends, and did masses of housework this weekend also, so a mixture of fun and drudgery; but I’m looking forward to doing some more dressmaking this week and making a start on the fabric I bought on Friday! Also I’ve nearly finished a dress I’ve been working on for a few weeks, so will post pictures of this in a few days, with luck. I’ve even remembered to take progress pictures this time, a first. Getting out the camera and snapping pictures of my stuff has never been something I’ve ever done in the past, but it’s been fun even if my pictures are less than professional! Well, can only improve with practice….
I’ve resolved to include in this blog more pictures of projects in the making; however my latest project had to be kept a secret as my Dad reads this blog! I chose this coloured wool for a scarf for him because I think Dad is an Autumn like me, or more accurately I should say I am an Autumn like my Dad! This lovely wool leapt out at me as soon as I laid eyes on it at Calico and Ivy and I knew it would be perfect to complement his wardrobe as I see him wearing dark brown or green jumpers a lot during winter. Also my husband bought himself a scarf recently which he has been wearing a lot even in this hot weather, and I am quite liking the look of scarves on men just as a decorative accessory and not necessarily as a functional neck warmer.
I used three balls of Lang Mille Colori, made in Italy, colour 914, and 3mm needles (if you plan on making this, bear in mind that I knit quite tightly and a “normal” knitter will probably be using 4mm or 4.5 mm needles, check your tension if in doubt)
Cast on 24 stitches (incidentally the age Dad was when I was born!) and knit 1, purl 1 until end of row.
Next row; Purl 1, knit 1 until end of row.
Repeat these two rows until wool is finished.
Easy peasy!
This, of course, is moss stitch. I debated over using moss stitch as I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it. I love the look of it, but hate doing it. All that wool forward, wool back; breaks up the easy flow of knitting and requires concentration. However, scarves only really look any good if the back looks the same as the front, and I think garter stitch can look a little amateurish. I wanted Dad’s scarf to look smart, so moss stitch it was.
When it comes to knitting scarves where there is not really a defined front or back, the knots and joins can sometimes be a problem as you can’t just hide them in at the back. I usually just tie a really tight and tiny knot and then weave the ends in a best I can (see close-up picture). If you can hide the very fluffy end bit inside a strand of wool in the knitting, so much the better. I know this sounds nit-picking (or should I say knit-picking?!), but these little finishing touches can make a big difference between an obvious homemade job and a smart and beautiful piece of wearable art.
Many thanks to Dad for agreeing to pose for the blog!
Here is my friend D’s tea cosy. Looking back I think it was the first Roly Poly one I made out of “Wild Tea Cosies” by Loani Prior, the first of many (future posts to feature subsequent examples) Her birthday was back close to Easter time, so it seemed fitting at the time that her tea cosy looked a bit like a little basket of Easter Eggs in pretty pastel colours. It was photographed on her outdoor table with her tablecloth and china (and we had a cup of tea after). Unfortunately I didn’t realise when taking the picture that the cosy’s mauve underskirt had rolled up underneath and so is not visible here.
Tea cosies seem to be such old-fashioned concept, that is experiencing an inexplicable resurgence in popularity and “coolness”. People are currently knitting the most funky and glorious tea cosies imaginable.
The wool for this tea cosy came from all various sources; the green from Calico and Ivy (I’m currently knitting a jumper from the same), the pink and mauve from the now sadly defunct Cottonfields, and the blue I bought in Paris from Anny Blatt, a truly adorable wool store. The grey is leftover from A’s tea cosy.
