The Tea Cosy Story

Well it's been a long time in the making. Mum and I visited a wool shop in Shortlands called Little Woollie, London. Mum fancied getting her knitting needles out again after a long break and was inspired to look up a wool store nearby. What a lovely little shop, full of great project samples and wool, together with their own patterns. The lady serving was very helpful and friendly.

Mum was taken with a tea cosy sample in the window and I agreed to make it for her as a Mothering Sunday gift, as this event was two weeks away I felt I had plenty of time to knit it. I planned to buy the pattern and sort out wool from my stash, the lady explained the pattern was £2.00, but free with the kit for the project which was only £6.00 - great value. I decided to buy the kit so I could get straight on with the project and I loved the colours. We purchased a few other items as well and were very pleased with our shopping trip and eager to get on with our knitting.

I made a start and the pattern turned out to be easy to follow, you knit two sides then joint together to knit the top. I finished one side, and as I started the second side it became clear there would not be enough wool to finish the job. I studied the pattern and checked my work and could not see any errors, so I emailed the shop, explaining it was a gift for mother's day. They were quick to reply and promised to send more wool.

Time went by and I thought I would have enough to make the flowers for the top, while waiting for the postie to arrive. No matter how I tried the pattern did not make sense! In the end I stopped trying and planned to have another go the next day - I thought maybe I was not reading the pattern properly.

The next morning I had an email from another member of staff to say she had designed the tea cosy and just realised she had made an error in the pattern. She sent me the corrected version and I was able to make up the five flowers in no time.

A few days before Mother's Day and no sign of the wool, so another email was sent, this time the reply informed me the owner was at Ally Pally and not able to get to a post office, she apologised but she had missed the point that I needed it for mother's day. On the Monday morning I received another email to say the wool had been posted first thing and it arrived the next day, so I was able to finish the cosy off.

Mum is now the proud owner of her tea cosy at last.

Little Woollie London is well worth a visit and have some great products and designs. As well as wool they sell fabrics and they run classes too.
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

I Love My Teapot

My layout for the Online Scrapbook Weekend From The Heart challenge.  Shimelle set the challenge by saying "create a layout with I love… or I heart… as your title. Your page design can be anything you fancy and please be encouraged to have fun with your topic. What certain something really makes you happy but you haven’t really recorded in your albums?"

One of my very first blog posts back in 2009 was about this polka dot tea pot, which I purchased from Whittards, not an expensive pot, not an antique or valuable - but I love it. I love the shape and the colour, it makes a great cup of tea and it even pours well. At the time I said it would make a good subject for a layout, so here it is over two years later!

For the layout I used:

Patterned papers - Basic Grey's Lime Rickey Collection - Boston cooler, howdy doody, tart & tiny, element stickers.

Letter stickers - Sandylion birthday alphabet, Making Memories black puffy alpha, American Crafts foam daydream, Me & My Big Ideas and Doodlebug Designs.

Rub-on's - Doodlebug Designs, Kaieser rustic elements, Urban Lily framed fill ins,Basic Grey.

Other - felt, brads, flat backed gems black pen, price tag, blossoms.

Some elements from ideas I have seen created and used by Gabrielle P. 

P.S. Sad to say this pot is now destined to be a flower pot as the lid went the same was as many others. My hubby has a knack of breaking them! But I now have a lime green one!

Love my tea pot

I love my new tea pot! Since the last good pot we had broke, we have had several that have not poured well, and many that DH has dropped, breaking the pot or the lid.
I saw this pot in Whittards it was calling to me from the back of the store, asking me to take it home! Well it has proved to be as good as it looks and it makes a lovely cup of tea and pours well. I love the colour, shape and the spots!. Will make a great scrapbook page too.