Birthday coffee cosy

Striped cafetiere cosy with flowers This coffee cosy was made at the request of a friend for her husband’s birthday.  She chose the colours but I have to say that I approve of her choices.  The cafetiere in the photo is the same size as the one for which the cosy was made but not the same colours; I would have used different shades for this blue and red cafetiere.

I actually made this in August but could not post it until after the birthday. The flowers were a late addition but not conventionally masculine so I hope that the recipient likes them!

The cosy is made from acrylic yarn (washes easily) and is a mixture of Hobbycraft WI  DK and Stylecraft Special DK crocheted with a 4mm hook.

Writing group coffee cosy

Writing group coffee cosy At work we have a writing group that meets weekly.  Writing is an integral part of our work as academics but some people (like me) struggle to find the time for writing so the existence of the group helps me to block time in my diary.  The promise is that laptops and coffee are always available but sometimes the coffee gets cold so… yet another coffee cosy! This one is made from leftover scraps of New Fashion DK.  I started with the light blue stripe that is at the top in this picture but after the  red it all started to look a bit West Ham, or maybe Aston Villa (or even 1970s at Freddie Osborn school) so I added a fairly broad stripe of the pink and then the dark blue.  I’m still not sure about this colour combination and think it would have been better with three or five colours rather than four.  The coffee cosy was a little wonky so after adding the buttons I blocked it.  Mistake! What I learned from this project is block  before buttons!

Sue’s seawater coffee cosy

Sue with her coffee cosyMy lovely colleague Sue kindly watered my plants whilst I was away in Jordan (for work) so I made her this blue-green coffee cosy.  Sue asked for turquoise but half of her clothes are lime green so I could not resist adding stripes of lime. Today it matches her cardi very well but Sue said that she would have worn a turquoise scarf had she known that there would be a photoshoot with her new coffee cosy.The yarn is an acrylic DK from the new range by Hobbycraft and the WI. I love the seawater colours  but found that the yarn had a tendency to split. This was a surprise: after all, the Women’s Institute is something of an authority when it comes to knitting, crochet and other domestic crafts so I expected that a yarn sponsored by the WI would be particularly good.  However, I probably wouldn’t buy the WI brand again (unless I just happened to be in a Hobbycraft shop and it was on a 3 for 2 offer in sea colours). Hmm…

 Sea colours coffee cosy  Sea colours coffee cosy buttons

Coffee cosy

Cafetiere Cosy The pink and lime yarns were sitting next to each other in my scrap yarn box and I thought they looked good together.  The lime is also an exact match for my cafetiere so I added some leftover blue and made this coffee cosy.  I didn’t use a pattern; the only pattern I’ve seen is from a book by Nicki Trench but it is for a cafetiere with a handle attachment point in the middle of the jug which allows the cover to button above the handle.  On mine, however, the handle attaches at the top.  The cosy is made with double crochet throughout (DK yarn with 4mm hook) and this has produced a fairly stiff  fabric which supports its own weight.  If  I originally planned to use poppers rather than buttons which is why there are tabs for fastening: they were an afterthought!