Eureka!

It's been a crisp but sunny day in London today. I've noticed we've had almost an extra 30 minutes of light in the late afternoon and can't wait until spring. Speaking of which, my Spring Explosion tea cosy is progressing really well. Today I made three more flowers: two daffodils – which I am delighted with –and an elegant lily.

Apart from making an i-cord (see third party YouTube clip in previous post for a tutorial on these), I haven't quite mastered using double ended needles yet so worked all the flowers flat. Where possible, I also prefer using regular needles to circular needles. Fingers crossed, I'll have the tea cosy finished by next weekend!

I firmly believe we have our best ideas when we are relaxed and our minds are free. At the crack of dawn this morning I had a brain wave: I still had the little blanket squares I made when I first experimented with knitting a year ago and realised that one in particular would make a fabulous coffee cosy. Wasting no time at all, I frogged an inch or so of it to make it fit our six cup cafetière, and to remove the uneven pattern at the start. When I first knitted the square I hadn't even decided where I was going with it so it was a bit freestyle until a few rows in, where a raised spotty pattern starts to emerge. It took ages to frog as I unpicked the cast-on end (where the pattern was uneven). I've never done this before and it was hard to find and pick up the stitches again to cast off. It's not as neat as the other end, but, in a light bulb moment, I decided I could add two sets of ties, the Isamo Crochet bows I made before and some shell edging and it could look really pretty. My first original design!

Remember the pouffe I made? Well, a lady got in touch on Friday to express her total joy at seeing mine; she is going to have a go at making one herself. All credit goes to the Pickles for supplying such an inspiring pattern, thanks girls!