Monday, 2 March 2009

Staying Cozy...

Imagine a cold, blustery day. Brrr. You are shivering. What is better than being cozy? Curling up in warm comfy pants and a sweatshirt, fuzzy socks and a cup of tea. Not much says I! 

And if you need to be cozy, then so does your tea! (Okay, so by the picture and the greenery outside you might not believe me when I say it was a rainy weekend here, but it was. I promise. Well... Sunday was. And definitely a good day for tea.)

One of my pet peeves? When I don't finish a cup of tea before it goes cold. Cold tea is not cool. I actually generally pre-warm my mug with hot water before pouring tea, so that the tea doesn't lose heat in warming the cup. So when I saw this pattern, I thought: 'Perfect!!' and it is.
It was a quick knit that I did over a few lunch breaks and then brought home to add on the button. And it was great because it used up all of the leftover yarn from my latest baby afghan and the button from a sweater I bought. (You know how they give you an extra button in case one on the sweater/pants comes off. I used that!) So it was cheap to make! Perfect for me. (I'm very cheap...)

And after one day of use, I am happy to report that I'm pretty sure that it really does keep my teacup warmer for longer! It's great. The engineer in me wants to set up a test with a thermometer of some kind and measure temperature gradient of the cup with and without the cozy and compare them. Wait! I could use my candy thermometer! Why didn't I think of it until right now? I will! And I'll let you know how it goes. 

About the pattern: Easy! I had a counting problem, but I think that had something to do with the fact that I hand copied the pattern since it was so short. Also differing from the pattern, I made it for a big cup and had to repeat it 4 times, rather than the three that is proscribed by the pattern. Then again, I didn't check my gauge so maybe with different yarn/needles it would have worked out differently. 

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