Koala Tea Cosy
This little fella didn’t quite make it in time for the Fifties Fair last weekend, which is all the better really because now I get to keep him! He’s awfully cute, isn’t he? (Until you remember that he has a teapot up his bum, at which point it becomes disturbing.) The pattern is free online and purports to be from 1937. That might explain why I had so much difficulty following it. It reads like it’s supposed to have a picture, but since it doesn’t (except for a random illustration) you’re knitting blind most of the time. You also have to do weird things like knit the two body pieces sideways. Anyway, I had to change a few things: 1) The nose. The shape they give is just perplexing and it didn’t look at all like a real koala. So I went with more of an egg shape. 2) The neck. The opening at the top of the cosy is waaaay bigger than the head, so I had to cinch it up a lot. That’s why I knitted him a patriotic scarf to hide the ugly join. 3) There’s an error when you get to the second row of openings on the front. It should be on rows 67-68, not 66-67. Lastly, this makes for a pretty big tea cosy. I had to pad ours with a dishtowel just to get it to fill out his shape. Using 4ply and smaller needles would give you a smaller koala.

And that is IT for tea cosies for about the NEXT TEN YEARS!

Christmas Robin Tea Cosy
Number five is done, folks! This one took less than a day from start to finish. The pattern is free online and I think it’s just about the funniest thing I’ve ever knit. I used scraps of 8ply yarn (held double throughout) on 5.5mm needles. It fits a fairly small teapot, so you’d have to size up the pattern for a bigger pot. The eyes and beak are cut out of felt, and the white pupils are buttons.

Christmas Tea Cosy
This is officially Number Four, folks! This pattern is actually called “Delphie” (no idea why) and it’s from Patons Craft Book No. C.18. The book actually belongs to Ma Snook, who purchased it way back in the 1950’s, I believe. I’m still using up oddments of 8ply yarn on 4mm needles. This cosy was mostly knit while watching the TV movie of Pratchett’s Hogfather; hence the Christmas colours.

Well, the Great Tea Cosy Challenge was on shaky ground there for a while, as it looked like Auntie Linda might not do the stall after all. Happily, I’ve just found out we’re back on… and I’ve just finished my third cosy! This is another one I found on Ravelry, and it’s a free pattern from Bernat (though you do have to register on their site). I used less than two balls of Cleckheaton Country 8ply on 4mm needles, and the only significant change I made in the pattern was to knit the top shaping bit in the round (rather than sewing it up). I also used i-cord to make the loop at the top rather than crocheting one. Onwards and upwards!

I’ve just finished my second tea cosy for the aforementioned Great Tea Cosy Challenge. I also found this one on Ravelry, and the pattern is available online. (There are two mistakes though; see below.) It was kinda fun knitting something without a picture to refer to. I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to look like! I also had my first go at making pompoms. This cosy features an open top with a drawstring, which is nice if you’ve got a particularly odd-shaped lid or a handle on top. Even using 4mm needles and 8ply yarn, this is still a fairly large cosy. We only have small teapots, so I fudged the photo by propping our little pot up on a dishtowel. In terms of yarn, I again used some random cheap acrylic that I found in the bottom of my stash. (I’d never purposefully buy acrylic now that I’m a yarn-store-workin’ fiber snob!) Anyway, that’s two down!

Pattern Errata (as posted on Ravelry):

In the Popcorn Panel, row 1 should read:
Row 1: P2, P3, turn, K3, turn, P3 tog, P1, P3, turn, K3, turn, P3tog, P2.

In the Diamond Panel, row 11 should read:
Row 11: P1, slip next stitch to cable needle, hold in back of work, K1, P stitch from cable needle, (K1, P1) 4 times, slip next stitch to cable needle, K1, K stitch from cable needle, P1.