Good Morning Teacosy

Here is the pattern for the Good Morning tea cosy. I called it this as I hope that it's excess 'bright happiness' will help even the most recalcitrant breakfaster off to a good morning.

You will need:

• 4 balls of Patons Jet (new Jet 70% wool and 30% Alpaca) (ball band tension is 16st per 10cm)
• 6mm circular needle (60cm long)
• set of 6mm double point needles
• coloured wool felt and matching embroidery thread for decoration (I used Papoose wool felt from Colour of Australia in South Melbourne and DMC Cotton Perle thread in weight 5. Winterwood also have nice wool felt.)
• 30cm cotton fabric for lining and matching sewing thread

Cast on 134 stitches in the round using 6mm needles. Place a stitch marker at the start/end if you wish.

Note: the ball band suggests 5.5mm to give correct tension. I always knit items I am intending to felt a little bit looser than I would normally knit.

Knit 6 rows in garter stitch (normally on two needles this would mean knitting every row, but in the round this requires knitting the first row and purling the second row, and repeating these two rows for required amount).

Commence stocking stitch (knitting in the round means that you can knit every row to obtain stocking stitch, rather than the knit / purl alternative rows required when you knit on two needles).

Knit in stocking stitch for approximately 59 rows, or until work measures 10 inches or 25 cm from beginning (including garter stitch rows).

On the last row place a stitch marker between the 67th and 68th stitch (ie half way around).

Start top shaping:

Note: at some point during the shaping of the top the reducing number of stitches will make it too uncomfortable to continue on the circular needle and you will need to change to a set of double pointed needles.

Round 1: *slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over, knit to 2 stitches before stitch marker (63 stitches in Round 1, note that this number will decrease by 2 every time this round is repeated in following rows), knit 2 together.* Repeat between * and * for the second half of the round.

Round 2: Knit

Repeat rounds 1 and 2, three times more (8 rows all together) (118 stitches remaining).

Round 9 and 10: repeat Round 1

Round 11: Knit

Repeat rounds 9 to 11, two more times (9 rows all together) (94 stitches remaining).

Round 18: repeat round 1

Repeat round 18, fourteen more times (15 rows all together) (34 stitches remaining).

Round 33: *Knit 2 together, K1* repeat between * and * to one stitch remains K1. (22 stitches).

Cast off.

To finish:

Sew together top (I used matress stitch). Weave in any loose threads.

Felt in the washing machine and dry flat.

Notes on felting:

This piece looked HUGE before I felted it!

I put my teacosy in a front loader using a normal wash cycle with normal detergent at 40 deg c. I also put the fabric for the lining in to wash and pre-shrink too. It felted perfectly in one cycle. But different yarns felt at different rates and I also know that other people recommend a hotter wash (ie 60 deg c) and/or putting more items in to help with the felting. For this project I didn't find that was necessary.

Decoration:

I used felt cut outs and appliqued them onto the teacosy using blanket stitch. I used fern stitch in the centre of the leaves. The centres of the flowers are felt balls cut in two.

You could use different or similar shapes to make your own design. There are plenty of books that offer templates, but you can also use items around the house and garden as templates. For instance, my leaves are from rose leaves.

You could also use embroidery with thick thread or yarn to decorate it.

I used a different design on the back:

Lining:

I used the cosy as the template for the lining. I traced around it onto kitchen baking paper and then added about 5mm for a seam allowance. I sewed it up using about a 75mm seam allowance (because the lining needs to be smaller). I needed to fiddle a bit to get the right fit and then I tacked it to the cosy all the way round the seam, so it fitted in snugly. I then tacked up the bottom edge hem.

If you have any questions or find any mistakes in the above pattern please email me. Much thanks.

a whole lot of stuff

It's been some weeks since my last blog post. Lots of life, not much time for recording.

I've discovered etsy, via Ravelry. Nice Pear Studio advertised. I was tempted by the pictures, had a look and ended up buying! Janice was very very helpful. She had never posted internationally before. But went out of her way to make it all happen. Here is one of two sock yarns I bought:

It's called Cherry Blossom and was hand dyed by Janice.

And of course I have been busy knitting up a few things for the Red Hill Show. I entered four items this year: a toy, socks, a teacosy and a toddler's cardigan. I was lucky enough to pick up three firsts this year and a second for the cardigan.

I love the feeling of participating in a community event. It's quite special to see your handmade items displayed regardless of whether they have received a gong or not. It' s really interesting to see what other people are making too, including k girl. I think we have both entered various bits and pieces for the last three years. Long may it continue!

Last year my plum pudding teacosy didn't get a place. I think it's a great teacosy and very amusing. I love the leaves and berries on the top. This year my cosy got first place. I love this one just as much as last year's one. They are very different but they both had an equal level of skill and effort invested in them. I cannot really work out the judging. Ranking items must be difficult, because beyond a certain level of skill and complexity which can be assessed, how do you differentiate? I think that there must be a certain amount of subjectivity, but who knows.

I knitted it in Patons Jet and then felted it. It felted brilliantly in one go! I then sewed on felt flowers and leaves. I'm only learning to embroider - hand sewing is really not my skill - but I really want to be better, so I am trying to find opportunities to practise.

Here is the back:

And here is the orange aran cardigan with hood. It's an amalgam of two patterns plus a some of my own invention. I learnt a lot about design by knitting it. It's knitted in Naturally's Loyal DK. 100% wool and machine washable. The inspiration is a Zoe Mellor pattern called Robin Hood Jacket which is knitted in Rowan Cork. It's a discontinued chunky weight yarn. So to produce something close required dramatic changes. I'm pleased with the result and I think it'll be great as a winter woolly for Mr S.

And the socks - they are knitted in Tofutsies soy blend yarn. The pattern is a basic lace. The socks are a modified version of Rainy Day Socks. You can find the pattern on Ravelry. I used a different weight of yarn and really just used the construction method I always use (cuff down).

And I entered the hedgehog. It's knitted from a Fiber Trend pattern and is felted too.

New projects

Yes, yes, yes! I've still got two unfinished Mr S cardigans on the needles, but I'm so sick of them and have to do unpicking and fiddling around with both of them. So, what's a girl to do? Buy new yarn of course!

A quick visit to Sunspun yesterday and 'hey presto' two new projects!

New Project 1 for 2008:

V&A Lion (see earlier post). Knitting it with Rowan's Scottish Tweed 4ply (Sh 018 - Thatch).

New Project 2 for 2008:

Plum Pudding Tea Cosy. I saw a picture of one in an English 'lifestyle' magazine some time ago and have been lusting after one ever since! I've bought a mixture of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK and Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed.