What is a Teapot cosy / Tea cozy?

According to Wikipedia, a tea cosy or tea warmer is “a cover for a teapot, traditionally made of cloth. It insulates a teapot, keeping the contents warm.”

Tea / teapot cozy or cosy?

Well, that depends on where are you from. I was researching this very issue to check if I was spelling it right and find that in the US is common to refer to this as Tea / teapot cozy whereas Brits use tea / teapot cosy. You know: tomato, tomato, potato, potato 🙂

I have no idea how it is spelled in other english speaking regions, but I’m curious to know! If you want to share that, please comment below 🙂

What is the best material to knit a tea cozy?

We need to use yarn with heat retaining properties, so wool is the best option. Then pure wool or wool blends are perfect, but if you have to choose between different wool yarns, go with the superwash for easy washing. Each time your teapot cosy gets dirty, wash it  with a few drops of gentle soap for wool (like Outback Gold Wool wash or Eucalan unscented or Eucalan lavender), and lay it flat over a towel to dry.

Are they difficult to knit?

Absolutely not! You can knit a teapot cosy easily (although you can knit some complicated patterns or embroider them if you like), quickly (great last minute gift!) and even use leftover yarn.

Only one thing before grabbing the needles: you need to take the measures of your teapot to make sure your work is not in vain. I’ll explain more below, where you can find two pattern versions of teapot cosies, both Valentine’s day inspired.

Fun fact

In the Harry Potter book series, Dobby the house elf wears a tea cosy for a hat. Well, that is until Hermione learns how to knit, remember?

HOW TO MAKE A TEA COSY

Materials

• Measuring tape
• 2 knitted squares or rectangles. For the tea cosies in this post I used my VALENTINES and LOVE patterns for the beginner version, and both CABLED HEARTS for the other.
• Tapestry needle to sew and weave in yarn ends.
• Scissors.
• Safety pin.
• Approx. 28” (71 cm) of ribbon, or extra yarn to make a cord of that length.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR A BEGINNER TEA COSY

To be honest, the main difficulty of a tea cosy will be given by the difficulty of the knitted squares.

But since I consider that a beginner knitter only dominates 4 techniques (casting on sts, knit, purl, and binding off sts) I excluded of this version the eyelet rows to close the cosy at the end. And I also included a step-by-step photo tutorial to guide you when sewing. Please let me know in the comments if you find it useful or need further help to master this fifth technique!

1) Before starting, you need to measure the circumference of your teapot, in the widest point. The width of your knitted squares should be around half of that measurement.

The length of your squares should be at least 1.5-2” (4-5 cm) longer than the measurement from the base to the middle top of your teapot.

2) Knit 2 squares taking into account the previous measurements. Don’t lose the yarn ends: you can use them to sew 😉

I was lucky enough that all my 52 Square Pickup sized squares fit perfectly for this! I decided to use my VALENTINES and LOVE beginner dishcloths for this one.

3) Join together the top and bottom parts of your squares, leaving holes to accommodate the handle and the spout of your teapot. The length of each seam will depend on the teapot, but usually you’ll need to seam around 1” (2,5 cm) at the bottom, leave 3.5 or 4” (9-10 cm) of open space, and seam around 3.5 – 4” (9 to 10 cm) at the top. 

Since my squares have a garter stitch border at each side, the best and easy way to join them is using an “edge-to-edge” seam. This is a flat seam that uses the little side knots left by the garter stitches at both edges. I’ll walk you through each step.

a) Place both squares side by side, with the right side of your knitting facing up. 

 

 

 

 

b) Thread your needle with the yarn end of one block and insert it front-to-back into the first stitch of the second block.

 

 

 

c) Insert the needle back-to front into the first stitch of the first block.

 

 

 

 

 

d) Pull the yarn tightly to secure.

 

 

 

 

e) Now sew both laterals together using the side knots on each one alternatively: insert the needle right-to-left into the first knot in one square…

 

 

… and then right-to-left again into the first knot of the other square. Pull the yarn tight and repeat.

 

 

 

 

f) Stop sewing when you think you reach the needed lenght. 

 

 

 

 

4) Place your joined squares over the teapot to check that you reach the right length for the seam. If so, secure the seam, lose the yarn end and make the other 3 seams.

 

 

–> This seam looks great. 

 

 

 

 

–> This seam needs a little more work. 

 

 

5) Your teapot cosy should like like this when all seams are done:

6) Using a safety pin, insert some ribbon or yarn cord at the middle of one side, around 1.5” (4 cm) below the top edge:

7) Work a running stitch around the circumference of the cosy…

…until you almost reach the starting point:

8) Pull the ribbon or cord to secure the tea cosy, make a bow knot, and enjoy!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR A TEA COSY with EYELET ROW

1) Take the measures of your teapot as instructed in step 1) of the beginner version, and knit 2 squares or rectangles with the pattern of your choice. I used both my CABLED HEARTS dishcloths for this one. But before binding off the stitches, work as follows:

• (Eyelet row): k2, *yo, k2tog* repeat from * to * until you have 1 or 2 sts left, and knit them normally.
• Knit 5 more rows.
• Bind off all sts, leaving a long tail for sewing.

2) Join your squares as explained before.

3) Use a safety pin to pass a cord or ribbon through the eyelet row you did, starting at the middle of one side:

4) When you reach almost the starting point remove the safety pin, pull the cord to secure, and tie a bow.

 

I hope you enjoy this tutorial. Happy crafting!

 

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ABOUT AFFILIATE LINKS: DISCLAIMER

In this post you will find some links to products useful for washing wool that are sold at Amazon. I have used them and firmly believe are of good quality and worth your money. If you buy some of those products following my links, I’ll receive a little commission that will help me keep OhLaLana!’s site going. Thank you.