Betty takes up yoga tea cosy

Betty Takes Up Yoga Tea Cosy

What Is Being Made

Betty Takes Up Yoga is an original tea cosy design by Alison Davis, specifically engineered to fit a 6-cup hand teapot. This is an intermediate-level knitting project that creates a decorative and functional cover for keeping tea warm, featuring a charming yoga-themed character design.

Craft and Primary Technique

This project uses knitting as the primary craft method. The tea cosy is constructed using a combination of knit and purl stitches worked in the round and flat sections, with shaping techniques to create the three-dimensional form needed to fit snugly around a teapot.

Stitches and Stitch Techniques Used

• Stockinette Stitch (SS) – The main stitch pattern used throughout the tea cosy body and various component pieces
• Garter Stitch (GS) – Created by knitting every row, used for specific sections
• Knit (K) – Basic knit stitch forming the foundation of the fabric
• Purl (P) – Used in combination with knit stitches for texture and shaping
• Knit Two Together (K2tog) – Decrease technique for shaping the cosy
• Purl Two Together (P2tog) – Purl-based decrease for structured shaping
• Knit Front and Back (KFB) – Increase technique for expanding sections
• Make One (M1) – Increase worked by picking up the horizontal bar between stitches and knitting into the back of it for seamless shaping
• Bind and Tie (B&T) – Finishing technique where yarn is threaded through remaining stitches, pulled tight, and tied off, leaving a tail for sewing seams

Materials: Yarn and Needles

This pattern uses DK (double knit) weight yarn throughout, though in varying applications:

• Main cosy body – 2 strands of DK yarn worked together on 4.5mm needles, creating a fabric with tension of 15 stitches and 24 rows over a 10cm square in stockinette stitch
• Skin section and vest – Single strand of DK on 4mm needles
• Hair and all other pieces – Single strand of DK on 3mm needles, with a finer tension of 25 stitches and 34 rows over a 10cm square in stockinette stitch

Difficulty Level

This project is rated as intermediate difficulty, making it suitable for knitters with some experience who are comfortable working with multiple needle sizes, managing tension changes, and executing various increase and decrease techniques to shape the cosy components.