I have seen a picture of a teapot cozy on Facebook, and fell in love with it. My copy was ready in two days. I was able to trace back the photo I saw to this Etsy shop.
Some people have asked me how I did it, so here is my pattern:
I used fingering weight yarn (Anny Blatt Baby Blatt and/or Bouton d’Or Baby Superwash – I bought them together for one project in 4 colours and now cannot remember which colour was which yarn). They are 179 and 200m per 50g. I chose grey for the body, beige for the tummy and tassels. I also took bit of orange sock yarn for the beak, and a bit of cream for the eyes (you could also use white or cream felt, if you don’t want to fiddle with knitting in the round). I used black felt for the eye centre, you could also go for two buttons. Needles are 2.5mm/US 1 1/2. I used circulars with long cord, so that I could do magic loop for the eyes which are knitted in round.
My teapot looks like the picture below. It is 16cm tall (including the top of the lid). The half circumference at the bottom is 13cm, and 16 cm at the widest part of the “belly”.
Gauge: 25 sts and 39 rows for 10×10 cm (4x4in)
The main part of the cosy is made of two rectangles seamed together. Make each rectangle as follows: cast on 40 sts. Knit in stockinette stitch for 62 rows.
To shape for ears, next row: k18, skp, k2tog, k18. Next row: p17, p2tog, p2togtbl, p 17. Next row: k16, skp, k2tog, k16. Next row: p15, p2tog, p2togtbl, p 15. Next row: k14, skp, k2tog, k14. Next row: p13, p2tog, p2togtbl, p 13. Knit one more row. Bind off.
I aimed to have my rectangles so that the finished cozy would fit snugly around the wider part of the teapot (stretched a bit) and wouldn’t be too wide at the bottom. I could have made it a bit longer, so that the roll at the bottom (natural curling of the stockinette stitch) would rest on the table. On the other hand, having two kids means frequent messes on the table, and a shorter cozy is probably safer.
When you have two rectangles, sew them together at the top (where shaping is), and on the sides, leaving appropriate openings for the nose and the handle of the teapot.
For the belly, cast on 24 sts and knit in stockinette stitch for 37 rows. Bind off.
For the beak, cast on 3 sts.
Row 1 – k3. Row 2 – k1, m1, k1, m1.
Row 3 – k1, m1, k1, m1, k1, m1, k1, m1, k1.
Row 4 – k 1, m1, k7, m1, k1
Row 5 – k 1, m1, k9, m1, k1
Row 6 – k all
Row 7 – k1, k2tog, k 7, k2tog, k1
Row 8 – k all
Row 9 – k1, k2tog, k 5, k2tog, k1
Row 10 – k1, k2tog, k 3, k2tog, k1
Row 11 – k all,
Row 12 – k1, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, k1
Row 13 – k all
Row 14 – k2tog, k 1, k2tog,
Row 15 – k3tog. Finish off
Eyes:
Cast on 6 sts. Join in the round.
Round 1: kfb six times
Round 2: (kfb, k1) x6
Round 3: (kfb, k2) x6
Round 4: (kfb, k3) x6
Round 5: (kfb, k4) x6
Round 6: (kfb, k5) x6
Round 7: (kfb, k6) x6
Bind off, increasing 6 more times.
I then used safety pins to mark where belly would go, pinned belly and other parts on the main body and put it on the pot to see how it all looks together.
Sew the belly, then the beak and the eyes to the cosy.
I used 4 bunches of 3 strands for ear tassels.
Abbreviations:
k – knit
p – purl
k2tog – knit two stitches together
skp – slip, knit, passover (or any other left slanting decrease)
p2tog – purl 2 together
p2togtbl – purl 2 together through the back loops
k3tog – knit 3 together
m1 – make 1
kfb – knit into front and back of the stitch
Please feel free to ask any questions.
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