The other night, treasured friends came round for dinner and brought with them someone I hadn’t met before. She saw the display of tea cosies and loved them. She collects. The honest truth is, I don’t even drink tea. Nor does my beloved. I just buy random teapots at the op shop and make them cosies for my own entertainment and the joy of giving them away.
Naturally, I said ‘would you like to take one home?’ She struggled to choose and I offered that she take two, but that wasn’t happening… it is difficult to make people understand just how far I am from having a yarn or tea cosy shortage. So a particularly ugly teapot was disrobed and a corespun cosy with recycled sari silk threads went home with her. That had me in a tea cosy frame of mind… So I delved into the stash and came out with this the very next night:
The yarn is felted wool blobs spun onto crossbred wool from a sheep known by the glorious name of Macchiato the Mongrel. I believe the epithet was added after Macchiato ate the neighbour’s pea crop and had to be found a new home. That fleece came to me from a friend of a friend who lives in the hills. The pattern is a fast and loose adaptation of Funhouse Fibers’ Fast and Fun Tea Cozy.
This twining vine yarn (commercial wool top, felted leaves) was in the same bag. I started in on a cosy and the audience decided it was too cute and really should be a child’s hat. I guess we’ll wait to see who it fits come winter! I started with a three stitch i-cord and made the rest up, ending with a stitched cast off for stretchy edge…
And, some silk cocoons went off to be reeled by a friend with a lot more patience than me, and here are the rest. I have no idea why they are in two colours, but if anyone else knows, please tell. I keep thinking I will finally get back to the nettle stems, but I fear it won’t happen today…
Local & Bespoke 
What a magnificent tea cosy!! I love it!
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Thanks! I finished another, if somewhat tamer one, last night….
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Love them both! Instead of being jealous that I have no time to craft at the moment, I feel inspired and content that you’re doing it – in a connected kind of way. If that makes sense…
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Thanks Sabine! I hope you can find some time for craft soon… The beauty of projects like this is that they are so quick to complete.
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Hrm. I don’t see any way to edit that comment of mine to fix the error in the HTML. Lets try again….
Thanks so much for those coccoons! I spent a fair chunk of the day attempting to reel the silk off them. Here’s what happened, if you want to see the gory details.
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I have deleted the comment with the broken link to save folk going to the entertaining but fruitless 404 page.
This is a great documentation of the process! I love the filament you have ended up with, too. What an achievement! I am far from sure I want to try reeling, mostly because I don’t think I could sit out all that frustration… I just can’t picture myself doing this easily. Thanks for the links, and you’re so welcome to the cocoons!
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wow. soooo adorable.
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Thanks!
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amazing two coloured cocoons!!
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I agree! I wish I understood why this happened… but I have not been able to find out so far.
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I still have no idea why they are different colours…
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