Autumn Tea Cozy

You asked for it! Here’s my pattern for the Tea Cozy I made for my K1T2Swap pal.

Autumn Tea Cozy

This is just the right thing to keep your tea nice and hot while you curl up with a cuppa and a good book after a stroll through the autumn leaves.

Materials
~ 1 skein Noro Kureyon (or other worsted-weight yarn)
~ 5mm small circular needle and some 5mm dpns (or 2 circs, or a really long circ. for Magic Loop, what ever suits your fancy!)
~ 2 3mm dpns
~ 1 stitch marker
~ tapestry needle
~ crochet hook (opt.)

C/O 80 sts.
Join in the round — remember not to twist them! Place a marker to show beginning of rounds.

Picot hem
Rounds 1-3: knit all sts.
Round 4: *yo, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Rounds 5-7: knit all sts.
Round 8: Folding right side inward at yarn-over row, pick up 1 cast-on stitch and knit it together (as K2tog) with the corresponding live stitch. Note: If you don’t want to be this fancy, you can simply ignore this round and whip stitch the hem up at the end.

Body
Next round: knit all sts.
Continue in St. st. until you have approx. 2″ (more for taller teapots) from picot hem.

Make handle opening:
Knit 1 round. Turn.
Purl to marker. Turn. Note: You are now effectively knitting flat!
Repeat these two rows until work measures approx. 3-3.5″ from beginning of handle opening.

Make spout opening:
(RS): K38 sts, k2tog, yo twice, ssk, k38sts, turn.
(WS): P39, drop double yo on needles, yo twice, p39, turn.
(RS): K39, drop double yo on needles, yo twice, K39, turn.
(WS):P39, drop double yo on needles, yo twice, p39, turn.
(RS):K40,p1, k39. (80 sts total, as ever.)
Note: Just let these dropped double yarn-overs dangle for now. Trust me!

Spiral Decrease:
Note: you will now resume knitting in the round. Re-place your marker if you’ve dropped it!
Next round: knit all stitches.
Dec. round 1: *K8, k2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 2 and all even rounds: K all sts.
Dec. round 3: *K7, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 5: *K6, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 7: *K5, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 9: *K4, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 11: *K3, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 13: *K2, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 15: *K1, K2tog* (rep. to end)
Dec. round 17: *k2tog* 8 times. 8 sts. remain.
Break yarn leaving a long tail. Thread yarn through all sts. and pull tight to close. Sew one or two tack stitches inside cozy by spiral join.

Top Loop
Thread yarn tail back up through center and either make a crochet cord or i-cord approx. 2″ long. Bring end of yarn back down through center, sew a few tack stitches, and weave in end.

Knitted Leaves
You can use 5mm needles, or smaller ones, your choice. I knit 2 small leaves and 1 large leaf.

C/O 3 sts.
Row 1: Knit all sts.
Row 2: Purl all sts.
Row 3: K1, yo, k1, yo, k1
Row 4 and all even rows: Purl all sts.
Row 5: K2, yo, k1, yo, k2
Row 7:K3, yo, k1, yo, k3
Row 9: ssk, k5, k2tog.
Row 11: ssk, k3, k2tog.
Row 13: ssk, k1, k2tog.
Row 15: Sl1, k2tog, psso.
Thread tail through last stitch, pull tight. Weave in ends.
Note: to get colour variation for the leaves, I broke the yarn where I liked the colour, knit my leaves, broke yarn from leaves, and then rejoined the two ends with a spit-felted join.

Finishing
Your top loop has already taken care of one end! If you don’t want a top loop, though, just pull your yarn threaded through the 8 top stitches tightly and weave in the end.
If you did not knit your picot hem together, then sew it up now, folding it in at yarn-over row and whip-stitching around. (Be generous with your sewing yarn, you want the cozy to be stretchy!)
Snip the dropped yarn-overs at the center of the spout opening, pull the little tails tightly, and weave these ends in.
Artfully arrange your leaves and tack-stitch them where ever you choose.
Go make a pot of tea!

The Fine Print:
This may be my first written-out pattern, and it may have some problems, but it’s still mine and I’m kind-of proud of it. Please don’t repost or reprint it (in whole or in portion) without my permission, lest you suffer a terrible fate. Likewise, you may not make items from this pattern for sale, or doom shall fall upon you.

You may, however, print up as many copies for personal use as you like! Make cozies for yourself, or for gifts! Feel free link to it from your own blog/website; that would make me happy! And of course, I’d love to hear back from any of you who make one, and hope to see your photos!

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

ED: My pattern is already linked up in Ravelry! How cool is that?

ED: There was an error in the math for knitting the spout! It has been fixed above. (Dec.17, 2007)

ED: Wow — hello all you folks from Rachel’s Knitting Room! You’ve certainly played havoc with my stats :) I hope you enjoy the pattern! (Jan. 16, 2008)