Here is my completed Sheep Carousel Tea Cozy, a birthday present for my good friend, Lawrence. I had started a different project for him, however, I quickly realized I would not complete it in time for his special day. I adore Kate Davies delightful patterns and remembered that I had given Lawrence a teapot years ago. I downloaded the pattern and got started.
This design is for a much larger teapot so I adjusted the pattern for a smaller teapot. I changed the Latvian Braid to a two-color garter stitch pattern. I also added a column of white stitches on edges of the second pattern repeat (each pattern repeat has two sheep in it and each half of the cozy between the steeks has two repeats of this pattern repeat). I used 2.5 mm needles instead of 3 mm and eliminated the ribbing and the i-Cord edging at the bottom. The yarn is handspun dark 2-ply yak for the background and 2-ply wool for the sheep. I wish I had made the spout steek as long as the handle steek.
I crocheted the steeks before I cut them following Kate Davies helpful tutorial found here and they worked out very nicely. I used my knitting thimble with the dark yak yarn as the background (so on the right yarn holder) and the white wool on the left, except for when I worked the sheep faces, then I switched yarns, as per Kate's clever recommendation, to help the sheep faces stand out better.
Lawrence inspires me with all of his wonderful creations and I hope he is having a fantastic birthday!
Wow, it looks fantastic. All the details & your modifications work so well. You are so good with fair isle. I love it.
Posted by: Ann | July 29, 2012 at 01:47 AM
OMG, can't wait!! I love it!
It was a nice birthday this year, went to my family's. I'll have to tell you all the gory details :) Johnny was bad and got me an iPad...!
Posted by: Lawrence | July 30, 2012 at 09:28 AM
I generally don't use the word "cute", but that teapot cozy is just too cute. I haven't seen anything like it. And with your handspun that you used, it sounds rather luxurious.
Posted by: textillian | August 13, 2012 at 07:22 AM