Free Crochet Pattern - Extra Chunky Tea Cosy

I'm taking a break from pattern-writing for a little while (I just had 2 babies within a year, phew!) but here's a pattern I wrote a couple of years ago for a ribbed tea cosy. It's been available on Ravelry and my etsy shop for a while, but here's the pattern for free:

Extra Chunky Tea Cosy Pattern

Use extra-chunky yarn to work up a super-quick tea cosy. It fits an aberage 6-cup teapot.

UK / British Crochet Terminology. For USA terminology, click here.

You will need:

9mm crochet hook

100g Extra Chunky Wool (I used Sirdar Denim Ultra). Any super chunky will work, as long as it has an approximate tension of 9sts x 12 rows = 10 cm square.

Yarn needle

Stitch key:

dc = double crochet

bldc = back loop double crochet (crochet in the back loop of each stitch).

Instructions:

Chain 16

1. Dc in 2nd ch from hook. Dc across to end of row (15sts). Ch1, turn.

2. Dc in 1st st. BLDC in next stitch and all stitches to end of row. Ch1, turn.

3–18. Repeat row 2 until you have 18 rows (or until your work loosely covers one side of your teapot.)

19. Dc in 1st st. Ch 13. 1dc in last st of row. Ch1, turn.

20. Dc in 1st st. 13DC in chain space. 1dc in last st. Ch1, turn.

21-38. Repeat Row 2 until you have 18 rows starting from Row 20 or until your work loosely covers your teapot.

Break off yarn leaving a long sewing length.

Joining:

Fold work in half. Sew together first st from first row to last row, leave 13 sts open, and sew last st to last row.

Alternative method – crochet together first sts, slip stitch across 13 sts on one side only, then crochet together last sts. Leave a long sewing length then weave this in an out like a drawstring, pull tight.

Making the pom pom:

Wrap the yarn around your hand until you have lots of layers of yarn, approx 20 times. Cut off.

Cut a length of yarn about 10 inches and tie this around the middle of the bundle. Put scissors through the loops and cut so you effectively have a lot of short lengths tied in the middle. Attach this to the tea cosy using the long sewing length. Trim your pom pom to desired size.

Sew in ends.

strange days...

My baby was due 4 days ago! I closed my online stores a couple of weeks ago, but my patterns are still available at Ravelry, and there are some free patterns there too.

I've been nesting, organizing, sewing, but not really crocheting. H is standing up (and toppling over!) so all my time is spent watching him and catching him at the last moment, he is suddenly very hard work. But lots of fun, and really starting to communicate a lot. He'll be 1 in a couple of week's time. The spd pain is worse than ever, some days I can't stand up long enough to make a cup of tea (which is a disaster for me, as I drink gallons each day!). I'm so looking forward to having this baby, getting back to normal and going on long walks along the canal with the double pushchair.

I made a 'cheat' patchwork quilt for the baby, out of the tablecloth fabric we used at our wedding, and some other scraps. In the evenings I've been doing cross stitch, sometimes I like to do a project that doesnt involve any thinking, its quite therapeutic. I have to do something to stop me going insane from being trapped in the house. I pretty much only leave the house for midwife appointments, even walking to the car is torture.

And a kitsch 70's tapestry for H.

Maybe next time I type here, I'll have a baby!

Waiting...

 

It's kind of a strange time here, I have 3 weeks until my due date so I'm tying up loose ends with work, making sure my website is up to date, sorting out baby clothes, packing my hospital bag, and just generally nesting, but not making any plans and trying not to start any new projects. We're in the middle of having our loft converted, and in the meantime all our junk is piled in heaps in H's bedroom, (which is soon to become 'the boy's room!'). So until it's finished, I wont feel I'm ready for our new little boy. I still think I'm denial about having another baby!

I guess its time to enjoy H being on his own for the last time, but I'm still pretty much housebound, I can just about walk to T's car but managing stairs, or picking up H are getting harder all the time. I can handle constant pain (just about!) but I can't handle having to ask my husband to do pretty much everything for me.

Here's H, falling asleep halfway through lunch! Probably my own fault for keeping him in his PJs all morning.

I finished my hexagon blanket, the colours I chose were just scraps of yarn I had, but I really like how it turned out. 

 

I'll be turning off my online shops in 2 weeks, so now's the last chance to buy my crochet patterns until autumn.

Happy New Year! (A bit late...)

I have decided that 2012 is going to be the year of COLOUR! I always used to like dark, earthy colours, greens and browns and the colour of trees and woodlands. Most things I crocheted for myself were sludgy organic earthy 'Rowan' type colours. I would never, ever choose pink. Even though my vintage shopper bike is pink. When I worked in a fabric shop, new yarn would arrive and we would all choose which where 'our' colours, and mine were always the natural undyed organic yarns, or deep jewelled shades. But gradually bright colour has been creeping in more and more, especially now I've been crocheting a lot for babies. Lots of bright colour in my etsy shop! 



I'm blaming blog-land for this tranformation, in particular, Nina and Lucy! I think it's safe to say that i have been Lucy-fied. Her blog is so warm and comforting and colourful, I love the photos of her sofa covered with about a bazillion brightly coloured crocheted blankets. I still shirk away from pink though! Insired by Lucy, I am making her crocheted hexagon blanket for my armchair. 



Look, it even has pink in it. It isn't finished and it still needs to be edged. I spend a lot of time in my old-lady armchair, I'm 7 months pregnant and find my sofa impossible to get up out of. We bought it from a junk shop when I was pregnant with H (I had SPD then, too). So, inspired by this post by Cecily Mae (she makes gorgeous colourful cushions by the way), I have transformed my dull and practical armchair!

Before & After:

        


Yellow shawl I crocheted for my wedding (but never wore!). Mini cushion is from Needful Things at folksy. Definitely helping to make dark, dank, dismal January a bit cheerier!

Christmas Crafting...

Inspired by this gorgeous post at TeaWagonTales, I decorated some baubles. After trawling ebay for vintage glass baubles which cost a fortune, I managed to find a set of 12 in a charity shop for 50p. 

I used narrowboat style flower decals. A really easy and fun project! Got a bit addicted to making them. Our house is too small for a real tree, so I just used twigs in a jar.



Crocheted baubles from a pattern by Lucy at Attic 24. I love her patterns!






Crocheted Santa and his helpers, from this Gnome pattern.



Stocking pattern from my etsy shop. We put the decorations up early because it's H's first christmas and we're a bit over excited. Must calm down...

Other things...

Experimenting with Vegan Cupcake recipes, because our hens have stopped laying for winter.

These are Coconut Heaven Cupcakes, from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes, from somewhere on the internet. The coconut ones were amazing, the vanilla ones not so great, although the 3 children I made them for managed to wolf down a couple each...

Frome Flea Market & Christmas Artisan Market, so lovely, but you can't actually get to any stalls because it's so crowded. The Flea market was much quieter. If I was rich I'd buy everything. 

What's happing here? We stumbled upon a rabbit show, it took us a while to work out what was going on. Really bizarre! I dont really like 'pets'. I only like things like chickens and goats. I am absolutely terrified of dogs.

 

I'm looking forward to a couple of quiet weeks of present-making, baking, avoiding christmas shopping, snuggling on the sofa, and crocheting.

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Hurrah! Finished Socks.

I seem to have about a hundred crochet projects waiting to be started, mostly for other people, so I'm glad I finished my cosy autumn socks last night. Now I can start on something else...

They are made from 1 ball of King Cole Zig Zag yarn, (bought from ebay for less than a fiver) and I went up a hook size because my feet are bigger from being pregnant. I also added a few more rows to the main foot part. A really nice project to carry around because they're so small, I worked on them a lot during our 3 and a half hour car journey to see my grandmother, it was the first time she had seen her new great-grandson. The pattern is on Ravelry and Etsy.

Hurrah!

It's time to start thinking about making things for Christmas; the raspberry gin is getting nicely pink in the back of the cupboard, I've made my little H his first stocking, and today I baked the Christmas cake. I've used this Delia recipe for the past 5 years and it always comes out great, the only change I made was, after soaking the dried fruit in sloe gin (instead of brandy) overnight, the mixture still seemed quite dry so I so added half a cup of strong black tea and let it soak for a few more hours. This will be my first christmas at home with my husband and baby, (we got married in July), I usually go to my parents in Worcester, so I'm getting really into the idea of making it really special. After 4 and a half hours in the oven this is what came out:

Really moist and yummy looking. I will wrap it in foil, feed it every now and again, then decorate it with fruit and nuts.

Northern Star Christmas Stocking

I wanted to make a stocking for H's first christmas, but I couldnt find an interesting pattern I liked, so I decided to make one up! I chose traditional green and red, and used a granny square motif. The stocking is made as two motifs, and then worked in the round, just like a sock. I had great fun decorating my fireplace for Christmas to take these photos when it's still only September!

   

The pattern is available at Ravelry and The Tree Bridge etsy store.

Simple Pleasures

I think people can be divided into two categories, those who thrive on interaction with others, and those who get exhausted by it after a while. I'm definitely the latter. I like people for a couple of hours, and then I want to go and hide in the bath with a good book. I think its why I found school hard, you have to be around hundreds of people all day long, and there isnt much energy left for learning after that.

The best job I ever had was being a gardener, I could have my mp3 player on all day and just get on with my daily taks. At the same time, I worked in a fabric shop, and it was tiring talking to customers all day long. My husband could always tell which job I'd been to that day. If I was energized but calm, it was gardening, if I was exhausted and grumpy, it was the shop.

So now I get to be at home with H a lot. I love it! I've gradually come up with a routine so I get my housework done quickly (one room per day). It just makes me really happy doing quite mundane things like hanging H's nappies out to dry in the sun. Or rearranging the food cupboards. I think I was meant to be a housewife! Then in the afternoon we go for a walk or I do an hour of crocheting. I do go to baby groups and things, but sometimes its just lovely to just have time at home.

So my simple pleasures are:

   

Nappies drying in the sunshine

     

Organic veggies from the farmers market

  

and baking. Yum!