Tea pot cosy

I know I've been doing a little more baking than crocheting around here lately but I'm back on track!

My boyfriend's mum told me about the St John's Ambulance campaign that is taking place at the moment, the BIG Tea Cosy. Basically, to raise money for the charity they are looking for people throughout November to host tea parties in their area. They also have some downloads for you to make and sell knitted tea cosies and cupcakes at your party. I took some patterns from online to crochet mine because I can't knit and I made the cosy above which is more like a tea pot cardigan and also the kitty cat cosy below, miaow!

If you fancy making some tea cosies your self I'd recommend taking a look at the list of free patterns on Crochet Pattern Central.

Floral bag

I've been working on the Floral Bag pattern from Helen Ardley's Crocheted Accesories book for a while now.

Firstly, I started it with some Wendy Fusion yarn in the Bouquet Garni colorway and I finished one half of the bag (and all my ball) before I realised that the shop I originally bought the yarn from had sold out AND, worse than that, the range has been discontinued!

So, I went to John Lewis and dribbled over the Rowan Felted Tweed that the pattern suggests you use. But at £5.50 per ball and eight balls required I thought it was a little too much money to justify.

However, the Rowan knitting consultant at John Lewis (and my Blue Kitty knitters friend), Helen pointed out that Rowan have just released an Aran and Chunky weight!! The pattern uses a pink / lilac colorway called Melody which isn't stocked by John Lewis. So, I opted for a nice teal - turquoise goes with everything, IMO!

So I bought two balls and almost finished the pattern in one night. I went back the next day to buy a third ball and the purple and green Felted Tweed to make the flowers. I was planning on using only two colours for the flowers and leaves but seeing it all come together makes it irresistible to buy more colorways! I was especially pleased with the fact that I had finished with only three balls of Aran weight, instead of 8 balls of standard.

I'm so pleased with the results - I just need to finish some of the beading on the red flowers and find a handle (so hard to find 8" handles!!)


While all this was taking place I had trawled the internet for some more Wendy Fusion in the right colourway. I find ONE shop, JUST ONE, that had any Bouquet Garni in stock still. So I ordered three balls and managed to finish the other half of the original bag. I don't plan to make flowers for this bag, but I plan to use some vintage buttons that I have. Then I'll have a matching hat and bag set ready for autumn.

Baby hat and blanket

I made this set for someone at work who recently had a baby boy with his wife. Unfortunately there were some complications with the birth which meant the baby was born 11 weeks premature. Thank God everything has worked out ok, mother and baby are absolutely fine and baby is putting on lots of weight! That is why you'll notice there are two hats; one normal size and one teeny tiny one.

I made it using the Seija Set pattern from Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker book. I made it up with Cashmerino Aran yarn from Debbie Bliss. As the baby was a boy I've used a light blue (018), beige (102) and a creamy-white (002).

The gauge for the blanket was 13 rows and rows of DC = 4", but mine turned out at 3". As the baby is so small at the moment I figured it didn't matter that I had such a difference in gauge and the blanket might turn out just right! I started the hat realising that it probably won't be the intended size for a 6-month old due to my tight tension but it may in fact fit my friend's baby in six months time as he was premature.

However, I wanted the gift to be wearable straight away so I made a smaller version of the hat. In fact, I halved the pattern; half the number of stitches, half the number of rows. Which has worked out great. I'm really pleased with the result! Hopefully the smaller hat will be just the right size!

I have the set all wrapped up for when my friend next pops into the office. It was such a lovely item to make, I hope that he and his wife (and the baby!) enjoy them.