When writing this I could not decide on whether I should write cosy, cozy, or cosys or cozies. I think Uk English is cosy and cosies. Anyway last July I was in a charity shop and saw some tinsel yarn which is made by King Cole.
I bought 2 red, 2 green and 2 white balls, as well as 1 black, 1 gold and 1 purple so 9 x100g balls for £2. Its currently on sale for £2.29 a ball so I think that was a bargain. I could have bought more. They had several £2 bags but I could not think what to do with it other than it was a good buy and a bit unusual. Then it sat by my sewing area for about 2 weeks at which point I thought "why did I buy that!" being as it was very hot so I found it difficult wearing long trousers for work when I had to. It went into my stash which I leave in a storage chest in the loft.
Fast forward to last week when I kept thinking about it and my partner
kept on about we need a new tea cosy because the old one is tatty now.
Its about 10 years old though so has done well and tea cosy knitting is really not my thing - at least till now. So how about a tinsel cosy?
After all we have the Christmas tree up and house decorated and a nice tinsel Tea cosy might work thinks me. So I begin knitting the red and white one. This is for a Tu ( Sainsburys) white modern design T pot. Cast on 28 stitches and 7mm needles ( the yarn band reccommends 6mm but I wanted this fast and its just for Christmas) and knit till tall enough. This one I did garter stitch for the white edge but then stocking stitch on the red. I did 2 identical rectangles then sewed it together allowing for the handle and the spout then made a very rubbish white glittery pompom - you cannot see just how glittery this is unfortunately! The pompom is shedding a bit cos I decided to trim off the uneven strands. I tried hoovering but nearly sucked the whole cosy in so have given up with that. It will fall off in use.
Then when sewing up it was so hard to tell which side is the right side and I have ended up with one side the wrong way up. Well you cannot tell at all other than by touch so next up is a coffee cosy/ sleeve which is basically just a mug cosy with a hole for the handle in the side. Again 28 stitches but this time just the one rectangle and its all in garter stitch.
Here its on my sewing table. Please excuse the background mess. Its the lightest place this time of year to take photos.
For this one I did a mostly red pompom and just added a few odd bits of green and gold to it. This pompom is half the diameter of the red and white one because that falls sideways a bit so is not ideal.
I really love these! I suppose though after Christmas I will now need to knit some more because I cannot go back to my old tatty one after all this new sparkle!
Finally a word or two on the yarn. Though it looks like tinsel it really is not the same stuff. Its a kind of very soft glittery tinsel so you could wear this. For me at 57 years old thats just too much for a jumper or garment, but if you are younger or have kids this could make a lovely jumper or top or even a hat. I might handle a hat if I was going to a party maybe. I think as a child I would have loved to wear this stuff. You could use the white on the edge of a plain red yarn jumper or similar. I am considering as edging for an all white shrug but thats just an idea at the moment. I still have some left of this - the black and purple I am keeping for me though not yet sure how to use them. Maybe a pixie hat? The rest will now go back into my stash probably till next Christmas.
You could though also use this round parcels instead of ribbon and it would make a cost effective present decoration so that could be a great reason to buy some it you happen to come accross it and it would even work on a smaller sized christmas tree!
Have a great week and thanks for dropping by
Bracken
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