Is it a Tea Cosy or is it a Hat?

A friend, actually it is a friends sister, works with children and her trademark is hats, she tells me she has a whole range of them from funky to funny. It all started a few Christmases ago when she wore a santa hat for work, it caused such amusement that she has been collecting hats ever since.

It started with this colourful stripy Ripple Tea Cosy.

Anyway this lovely (slightly crazy lady) saw this Tea Cosy and asked me if I could make her a hat in the same style. Well it does look rather like a hat doesn’t it?

Easy peasy.

That’s what I thought, that is until I sat down to make it! The Tea Cosy is made in two halves but I thought the hat would look better with just one join, sounds simple enough, just add the number of stitches and off you go. But when I tried to put the cosy on as a hat it was a little on the tight side so  the hat would need to be bigger.

That’s when it took a bit more thinking about, to get the right size and the pattern to join in a continual zig zag. I do find it quite taxing to work these things out, it all makes sense on paper but then in practice………not always so.

I have been trying to find some software for crochet pattern writing but sadly have yet to find anything that works well. If anyone knows of anything I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime I will be delivering the hat this weekend, I hope she likes it.

 

Large and Small Hot Hibiscus Tea Cosies

Tea cosies to brighten any afternoon tea party.

I found the Hot Hibiscus Tea Cosy pattern on Ravelry amongst a myriad of designs. It was hard to decide which one to make there were so many, there were flowery ones, plain ones, tea cosies with just about every kind of animal either crawling out of or sitting on top.

This one shows the smaller of the two a little better but it is before the flower was attached to the top.

This is such a clever pattern, the braiding effect is so simple to do yet so effective. The tea cosy is made in two halves as many of them are, you work along the stripey rows adding chain stitches periodically between the single crochet.

Then you thread them through each other from the bottom to the top and secure them whilst doing the decrease rows. You can see above I have looped the vertical braids on the far left and the far right hand sides leaving the two centre rows so you can see the chains.

How simple is that?

Once both sides are completed and sewn together you can make and attach the flower for the top. It really finishes it off nicely.

I made the larger of the two in a couple of evenings then a friend asked if I could make a cosy for her little one cup tea pot, the only stipulation was could it include yellow to match her little tea pot. I picked out thses colours and got straight onto making a second one.

The pattern kindly incldes instructions for both the large and small sizes. So here they are side by side until the little one goes to it’s new home.

 

Knitting for a Change

Last weekend I decided to pick up a pair of knitting needles, not that hooks are out of favour or anything I just fancied a change and it’s ages since I have knitted anything. Yes you might have guessed, my continuing love of tea cosies now has another added to the growing collection.

Have to admit it was lovely to get my hands onto these lovely rosewood knitting needles once again, I have a whole set of these beauties bought for me by my lovely hubby a few years ago. It’s simply bliss because now I no longer have to wade through a pile of cold metal needles to see if I actually have the size I need when I undertake to knit a new pattern. I bought some funky needle cases too so they are neatly stashed when I am favouring my hooks and they temporarily decommissioned.

Anyway, enough rambling and back to the project, here is half of it.

This one is made to resemble a beehive. My plan is to make some nice chunky bees to go onto it too. The pattern is from Yarspirations website, they have a couple more cosies that I intend to make too.

If you fancy making one too here is a little tip I found helpful. Can you see where I have knitted in another colour on one of the rows? This was to highlight the pick up row, you see to create the hive effect you knit a few rows then double back to pick up a previous row and I got a bit muddled on the picking up bit and ended up with a wonky hive, adding the contrast thread kept me on track so I have nice neat ridges in my cosy.  I had to undo it a couple of times in the beginning.

Here is the finished Beehive Tea Cosy, love the rippled hive effect but looks a bit empty don’t you think?

After much trawling online I settled on this Bee from a free pattern generously shared by Crochet ‘n’ Play, thank you so much for sharing.

Here they are my ‘five on the hive’, all buzzing and nicely settled onto their new home where they can make the honey for the tea and muffins.

 

Crochet Ripple Tea Cosy

I am having an affair, yes a hot and steamy affair.

No sillies, not with a person but with tea cosies, I have developed a strange affinity for these rather old fashioned woolly creations. I bet everyone of us can remember going to grannies for tea and following a scrumptious meal the teapot would arrive at the table proudly sporting a it’s jacket, perhaps a little stained here and there from the years of faithfully keeping the brew warm.

Do you remember the ones that were rippled? Looked a bit like an old fashioned jelly mould. I think they were knitted, usually in two colours, each vertical roll in an alternate colour? I have been in search of a pattern for such a tea cosy and ripple was one of the search words I used when I found this pattern, being a lover of stripes I couldn’t resist whipping one up.

Isn’t it a bit sad that so many of us just stick a bag in a mug instead of making a proper brew? Is it because of the pressures of life today and we are always in a hurry? Tea drinking should be an art to be savoured and swooned over. You coffee drinkers have enjoyed a revolution in how your beverage is served with a choice in variety coffee beans not to mention the flavoured syrups, full fat/non fat milk, frothy, with chocolate on top or cream, hot or cold. Need I go on to make my point?

You might have guessed by now that I am not a coffee drinker at all, tea is most definitely my favoured beverage. The first year I went to Yarndale I wandered into Skipton and came across The Russian Tea Shop, I was in heaven. The front of the shop was filled with gifts and there was a range of teas that you could buy like I have never seen before. Each variety was displayd in a little pot so you could see and smell it before deciding what to buy.

Once you had made your choice your chosen leaves would be decanted from one of these beautiful wooden cannisters. At the back there was a tea shop where I enjoyed the best cuppa I have ever had. I selected Russian Caravan tea from the menu and it was served on a tray with a sand timer, I had to let the sand run through twice before pouring out my tea to ensure that it would be perfectly brewed.

When I went to Yarndale this year I was saddened to see the Russian Tea Shop had closed, I had been looking forward to visiting this lovely establishment again and trying a different tea.

Anyway back to the project in hand.

I feel obliged to show you a close up of the giant pom pom atop my Ripple Tea Cosy as it took me a whole afternoon to create this.

I had the idea in my head that in would be funny to finish this project off with a huge fluffy ball. So I set too using the largest size in my pom pom set and using all the colours from the stripes wound the yarn to make a pom pom. It was so HUGE! It was beyond amusing. The reason it took me all afternoon was I had to cut in down and if you have ever had to do this you will know that you have to snip, snip away reducing the size and keeping it circular as you go. Have you ever tried to cut a circle in 3D free hand?

I know that it’s not really a giant now but if you could have seen it, it was half the size of the tea pot itself!

The pattern is free on ravelry here if you fancy making one for your own brew.