Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Dr. Who Tea Cozy


This is a project I had loads of fun doing last year. It's a reversible tea cozy with designs from Dr. Who. I adapted the design from Lorraine Condatta's Exterminate Hat that is available as a free pattern on Ravelry. I finished it in October or so, but didn't want to show it until now because it was a Christmas gift.  It's been received, so I can share it now.  (I've put up more details in my Ravelry projects; my name there is Marjel3)

I learned a lot doing this project. I began it with double knit ribbing. I learned mostly from the blog WIP Insanity. I look forward to doing more double knitting projects. I love the smooth edge it gave at the bottom and that all the ends from all of the colorwork are hidden inside--no need to weave them all in!  I hadn't done color work from a chart in many years--that was fun, too. 

I couldn't figure out how to do the two separate designs in double knitting so I separated the inside and outside and knit them up separately to the top green rows, then I double knit again for a bit to link it all together, and then separated it again to do the top decreases.  I consulted at the local yarn shop (Sheep's Clothing in Valparaiso, where I bought the yarn) and they agreed that I should do that separately.  The hanging loop is a long i-cord loop, "stitched" through the cozy, knotted on each side and the ends stitched together.

I used Cascade 220 superwash so it's machine washable and dryable.  It will keep the teapot quite warm, I'm sure.