I learned to knit in 2013 because my partner at the time wanted, and I quote, ‘a cool tea cosy’. I couldn’t find such a thing, and came to the extremely logical conclusion that I must therefore make one. I rummaged about on the internet and found this unique Bobble-less Tea Cosy (Ravelry link) by Amy Evans (Designer’s site).
The recipient and I both love Doctor Who, so I went with a TARDIS blue yarn, and I ordered super cute buttons from Etsy (neither buttons nor shop are there any more). The yarn was absolutely not the right weight – I ordered 200g of Royal Blue Marriner Double Knit (DK! Why am I so obsessed??) and I only just used the last of it in 2022, almost ten years later.
I spent a whole angry Sunday trying to learn to knit the little square lid, watching and rewatching the same YouTube video. I was pulling the yarn over the needle at the end of each row, creating two stitches out of one, because it ‘looked neater’. So I was making a polygon, not a square. Plus it looked a bit like a fishing net. Stubbornness got me through, and by the time I’d finished the lid, then knitted the body, I was ready to re-do the lid. You know what they say – four hundredth time’s the charm.
In some ways it was a good project to start with, teaching me as it did to purl and knit, work with two yarns held together, cast on and off mid-row to make a buttonhole, and make increases and decreases. If I had to guess I’d say I used the suggested needles, 5.5mm, and that it was sheer luck that the finished item fit the teapot so well. I think it was well received and, more importantly, started me on the path to what seems to be my One True Hobby. Nearly ten years on and I’m still utterly delighted by what I can make with sticks and string.
The Crafty Yarnster 