In addition, my mom was very specific. She wanted a chocolate brown colored cozy with a hint of red, like a chestnut brown. This being the perfect colour to hide tea if spilled. I figured, since the cozy exchange didn't require knitting specifically, she might get some kind of amazing cozy that I couldn't provide.
For my part, the person I was making the cozy for was indeed suitably vague. "I like all colors", and as for size - "I have a 6" teapot". This seems intuitive at the time of receipt of the e-mail. Only later as I started shaping my kInitted cozy did i realize I had no idea which dimension she was referring to.
Mountain Colors Bearfoot is what I settled on; the yarn, a deep blue with purple bits, superwash wool and nylon. Held double so that I could knit the "Tea Mitten" pattern.
As it turns out, after knitting the ribbed base and beginning to knit for the spout, I didn't understand what the pattern said, and forged on anyway by looking at the picture and improvising. As I knit, I had the sinking feeling that the lady's teapot was smaller than mine, and that sadly, it might be too big. With the deadline looming, and my double stitches snagging, I sped towards the finish line.
In a panic, I decided to purchase an extra sewn cozy at Mattick's Farm. I settled on a lovely flowered option; kicking myself that I'd just spotted the thermal quilting material not a few days before and had tucked away the bag someplace unaccessible, so that sewing one myself became just a small passing thought. Luckily, fortune stepped in an determined that I still had a week to finish. It tooks me only a couple more days to finish the cozy, sew on the buttons, and snap a few pics.
The front:
and I'd knit a tab that swung around back, and settled in place around 2 small turtle-shaped buttons with a blue-purple finish on black:-
The exchange was at the Victoria Handweaving and Sewing Guild Christmas Party. As each teapot was unveiled, I grew more uncomfortable with the tea cozy I'd made. Each one seemed bigger than the last. Large rectangles of padded joy for covering over any sized teapot. Due to a clerical e-mail error of some kind, my gifter turned out to not attend due to sickness, and there was in fact a single cozy left over without a recipient. Sarah, the kind organizer decided I should have one, and so, I opened the bag and behold, a handspun handwoven teapot with sewn cushy insides, suitable to hide the largest of hideous teapots and keep it warm and cozy underneath. Luckily or unluckily the colors chosen were pinks, purples, just my colors...but never could be further from the reddish-brown my mother longed for. In the end, Sarah said we'd work it out later.
My blue tea cozy was suitably homed; luckily, wendy, the recipient claimed to have many teapots, and tested the cozy-ness of mine against a sample pot that Sarah had brought. A hug of reassurance later, I left knowing that it at least fit two teapots, the sample one that Sarah had brought, and my own, suitably tested on.
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