Knitting Rekindled

I knitted this cosy for my Mum, as a Christmas prezzy. I haven't made anything at all for absolutely ages (much too busy simply dealing with 'real' life, which is all too dull to bother writing about, hence the lengthy silence). It was a soothing pleasure to get back to it.

The colours blend with, rather than match her home (I hope!!!). The golden colours appear in a painting of straw bales in a harvested wheat field, and the blue and deep purple are a nod to her middle eastern rugs. Not literal, just a suggestion. Plus, a tea cosy should turn out jolly in the end. I look forward to seeing it on my father's head. I believe it's compulsory?

Classic And Frivolous

Pete's Mum asked me to make a cosy for a friend who likes blue and white china and always makes her tea in a pot (the proper way, right?). So here it is, more restrained in colour than usual but with a generously oversized pom pom to make up for it. I think a tea cosy should be frivolous in some way.

This bank holiday weekend, with the rain we have come to expect, has proven to be perfect for staying in and knitting whilst watching old movies which we have probably seen too many times already.

Still Cosy After All These Years

This tea cosy inspired me to knit. Just look at it. Isn't it perfect? Clearly made from brightly-coloured scraps jumbled together, it is the word 'jolly' manifest in wool. It used to belong to Pete's grandmother and it brought a bit of crazy colour to our neutral-hued home for a few years before being put into storage at the beginning of our Airstream travels. We weren't going to have a teapot, taking up space and payload (weight allowance). Well that soon changed. Tea and coffee are important to me and they have to be made properly - brewed and infused rather than scalded and wrung out!

We recently had a bit of a sort through of our stored possessions and this little cosy came to light again. It has been brought aboard, even though I had just made a new one. A bit restrained in colour perhaps, but in keeping with the Airstream's interior.

My own grandmother showed me how to make cosies, carrying the yarn across the back and keeping the tension. She was a speed knitter. She used to make some dodgy things though, like ladies in crinoline dress toilet roll holders, and lacy tissue box covers. All of these unnecessary disguises would be in whatever garish wool she had stashed. Every time my parents redecorated the bathroom a new crinny lady would be produced, whereupon ( yes that is a real word, heathens) it would be hidden out of sight until she visited and it was ceremoniously placed on the toilet cistern, as if that was where it always lived. More grateful recipients were, hopefully, the charities to whom she donated her wares to raise money.

Anyway, I shall be making good use of one or other of these cosies today. Pete has gone to Wembley to see the NFL game and I will be indulging in a new knitting project, lots of tea and biccies and repeats of Sherlock Holmes and Poirot. More about the project later. I'll just say that it's a pair of hand warmers with a cable stitch. Hand warmers? Like gloves, but without fingers. I was assured by the enthusiastically helpful woman in the wool shop that there's nothing to a cable stitch, much less complicated than it looks. We shall see. Now, time for a brew.