Asian Tea Pot Cozy, The idea and pattern in the works

I got my tea cozy all made.  It is only a prototype as I had to figure out the pattern for this.

It turned out pretty cute if I say so myself.  I just picked random colors and all from bits of yarn scraps I had sitting around.  When I make another and perfect this into a workable printed pattern I will make a little better color choices for it.  I grabbed one of the largest balls of yarn I had sitting close to me and got busy, as I figured I would be ripping it out over and over again, but once I got going I was committed to this color choice.  Then the rest was just sort of random, by grabbing whatever yarn I grabbed first without looking from my yarn basket. 

I searched and searched online for a tea cozy pattern that would fit an Asian style teapot and none were available.  I did manage to find a few photos of cozies for an Asian style pot but they were just like a flat scarf that wrapped around the base like a scarf and fastened at one end.  They did not cover the pot and they did not hold the lid securely.  All I could find were patterns for a western style pot.  Those slip over the top like a had with a slit in each side to allow for the spout and handle to poke out each side.  I drew this little illustration to demonstrate the difference between the two style of pots so you know what I mean about the handle.  You know what they say about necessity being the mother of all invention right?   I had to sit and figure out how I would make one to fit and allow it to slip under the handle and form to the teapot itself.  This is what I have come up with so far. 

First I made a ring so it would slip down over the lid and hold it in place and fit around the knob on top.  I kept going round after round until I got to the base of the pot.  Then I had to just keep stitching until it fit, increasing and decreasing and counting stitches until I had one piece that would fit around the pot.  It had to secure on both sides of the pot somehow to hold it snuggly in place.   I wrote down row by row what I did so that I can go back later and perfect this as a pattern to publish here on the blog.  The pattern needs a bit of tweaking still.  It is slightly off on which rows I increased and decreased and I don't want to drive anyone into OCD overdrive with that being slightly different on each side, even though it fits both sides perfectly.  The pattern needs some fine tuning before I can publish it.  I will fine tune it and make a nicer tea cozy from it to publish a pattern here at some point.  

I made a bunch of little flowers and leaves to put on the pot to make it festive.  I will need to also write out a tutorial on how to make these little flowers and how to make the leaves at some point too.  I am not sure if I should just make 2 different posts because putting them all in one post might make for one very very long blog post, but I digress...  I will get this all organized somehow when I get to that point.

The post uses buttons to hold it on nice and snug, and I gave it a test run with a pot of tea last night and the cozy was easy enough to put on and remove while the pot was filled with hot tea.






The front uses a loop system over a button and the back side has 2 large buttons to hold everything in place.  This way you can button it up the back and then quickly just loop the button over the front while the pot is filled with hot tea and not have to fiddle with it too much, making it easy to slip on and not worry about splashing hot tea about.

Here is the tea cozy off of the pot after all the flowers are put on it.  It kind of squishes up the flowers when it is not stretched over a pot.  I assembled/sewed the flowers on while the cozy was on the pot.  This allowed for proper flower placement while securing them.

I can't wait until I have the chance to offer this as a free pattern.  I just need to sit down when I have the chance and work out the details a little better.  And, it is going to take some time to snap photos for a tutorial, write out the pattern, etc.  So, it is still in the works and might be a while before I can do so.  I just need to use the cozy for a while, and see what areas I can improve it, and let ideas swim around in my head for a bit, before I perfect a pattern.  

Anyway... This is the beginning of a great little tea cozy for an Asian style tea pot.