Tea is one of my most favourite things. It's a bit of recurring theme with my friends and family - there are few things I love more than afternoons with a pot of tea with lovely people and quality conversation. This afternoon I'm meeting up with some of my top girlfriends to quaff tea, help plan a veggie patch in my friend's back yard and make some lists of things to do before we all turn thirty.
I started this cosy in January as a housewarming gift for my lovely friend Sonya. However, while I managed to finish the sides and sew it up quite quickly, it did languish in various parts of my house for months until I got round to making the pompoms (and overcame my desire to keep the it for myself!). The pattern was from the same book as the Sheep, I am very pleased with the finished result. When parcelled up with some chocolate buttons from Greensmiths, Sonya was also quite chuffed. One of the reasons I like it is that before poms were added, it did look very like a sea anemone: I see more anemone/sea urchin cosies appearing in the future...
I knit it in Sirdar Click. While I don't usually knit with acrylic, I did want something very washable. I bow to the very sensible advice from Abby, Annabel and Ellen who helped me buy the wool: I think it helped to create a nice springy effect and I liked the effect of the floats on the inside.
All details are ravelled here.
If you haven't already seen it, I thoroughly recommend Kate's marvellous post on tea and the
exploitation of female knitters on Shetland. Well worth a read.
It's lovely!.. but what gave me a start about this post is I immediately recognised this cosy because someone is selling them on Etsy. I'm pretty sure selling items made from a copyrighted patterns in books is a no-no... what do you think?
Posted by: katie | 08/15/2009 at 08:06 PM
Hurrah! I love the beauteous pom-pom encrusted tea cosy. x
Posted by: Felix | 08/16/2009 at 01:43 AM
Very jolly. I love it!
Posted by: Kate | 08/18/2009 at 01:16 PM
Lara, that's too cute! A friend of mine made one similar years ago and I've been secretly covetting it ever since... I need you to email me, please (I can't seem to fidn your addy), for great big Loummsy purposes!
Posted by: emmms | 08/24/2009 at 06:32 PM
That is the most adorable thing I've seen all day :)
Posted by: Dottie | 12/06/2009 at 05:15 AM