Tea Cosy - Knitting

Another knitted Christmas Present! This time for my mum, who found very similar tea cosies in a shop in Wareham, Dorset, at the same time I bought material to repair my jute bag (see earlier post). She said the pattern reminded her of the old-fashion tea cosies she grew up with, so when I found the pattern via Ravelry I got to work!

My mum wanted "bee" colours, so yellow and brown acrylic were in the recipe, and I have to say this pattern is probably one of the fiddliest things I have ever done!!! The result was a success however, and cosy has been in constant use since Christmas. What's more, it looks spookily similar to the cosy on Mary Poppins' laughter-powered floating tea table in the Disney film!

Little Socks - Knitting

I had a quest: to make kilt hose for my (now ex-)boyfriend. I didn't have time to finish them for his birthday.
The pattern which he found required the hose to be made on circular needles, so I made a trip to Stash in Putney, a luxury yarn shop, for some wool and the necessary needles. This was where I was introduced to Ravelry!

I thought I ought to practice making socks on circular needles, and found a pattern at Mind's Eye Yarns . So that I wouldn't get too confused I made one sock at a time, and made little baby ones so that I wouldn't spend too much time on them. The pattern is easy to follow, and the socks simple to make and nice when finished. The two prototypes now form part of the birthday present, on a toy giant anteater.

I used some blue acrylic DK I had lying around for the prototypes, and they look quite nice now, what do you think?!

Banana Cosy - Knitting

A very silly project but also a lot of fun! When visiting Stash, a yarn shop in Putney, I picked up a postcard with a pattern for a banana cosy, from a pile of postcard on the desk. It was an advertisement for "The Rebel Knitter's Guide" to be published in The Guardian that Saturday, which I duly bought. The Monday after the guide was published I started and finished it!

It's simply stocking stitch to the length of a typical banana, with a bit of increasing at one end to get a tapered shape, and a few YOs at the other end to thread a ribbon (or, in my case, an icord) through. Check out the pattern on Ravelry!

I got a lot of funny looks from people watching me knit it in public, I think the shape of the item was suggestive! ;o) My cosy is constructed from yellow acrylic yarn, left over from Tom's Watford United scarf (see earlier posting). The guide I've kept, and the post card I've given to my grandmother, who is planning to make cosies to sell to raise money for a charity "Containers of Hope", who fill boxes with useful items to send to places of conflict/famine/natural disastors etc..