2011 PRIME TIME KAL - tracy van wormer --Another April Project

BlueBird of Happiness Tea Cozy

******This one comes with a story!!

It starts with a previous project -- the Coming up Roses Tea Cozy. I knit it for an 87 year old friend of my mother in law. My m-i-l had been looking for a cozy for her friends tea pot for quite some time...without any luck. So I knit the Coming up Roses Tea Cozy(http://www.ravelry.com/projects/meadviewmarket/coming-up-roses-tea-cozy) and sent it to her. I am not really a tea drinker -- mostly coffee. So I even bought a teapot for the photo. M-I-L gets the package....and loves the tea cozy. Really loves it. Loves it so much that she doesn't want to give it to her friend. I, of course, am extremely flattered. Could I knit another one...for the friend.

So I think to myself... and tell my m-i-l .....maybe I will knit another cozy, but make it different. then the m-i-l can choose between the two, and send one to her friend. So I come up with a theme -- bluebird of happiness, and start looking for stitch patterns to use. I decide to make a nest out of I cord, and saw a pattern somewhere for a cute little bird, and then make the body of the cozy with a cable and leaf pattern( because...of course...birds nests are usually in trees....hmmmm...could have done a birdhouse...that would be really cute -- but it will have to be another project {Red Red Robbin keeps a bob bob bobbin????} Back to the project at hand.... Anyway...I am thinking, that if I knit the lining in a darker color, then the lacy leaf pattern will show up better.

Then on Wednesday...my husband decides that he will have Easter off. Good, I say, because then you can take me to Church. How about going to see his mom...he says...in Phoenix. Great...I reply. Then I think...I will have 5 hours in the car to work on a project. I should round up the yarn, etc, and start the tea cozy NOW...and I can finish it up on the drive to Phoenix.( and maybe even have some time to work on my Coquille!!)

So I start the project at home -- and round up all the stuff. On Friday, I start the body of the cozy -- because I don't want to knit an unfamiliar lace pattern with my husband talking to me -- which he always does when I have a new stitch to learn (somehow....he just knows....)

I get the outside done. Then Saturday,after work, I knit the little bird, and the I cord nest.... and stick them in a baggie to be attached later.... So now I just have the lining to pickup and knit, and the birds nest w/bird to sew onto the top, and the openings to sew shut. 5 hours will do it.

One thing I didn't think about until the next morning.....in order to get to Phoenix to the 7 am Mass, we have to leave at 1 am. At 1 am....it is dark.

Not a problem....I have a little light. Sometime later... It is now light outside....I show hubby...my progress. I am just ready to start the decreases on the lining...Looks great...he says...but when do I "cut in" the little holes for the tea spout and handle.................Oops. I have knit the lining like a hat...not split into front and back like...well the lining of a tea cozy.

(Look ma...no holes....)

Rip...Rip...Rip...
So I couldn't fininsh my cozy on the way down, and didn't want to spend all my time knitting at Easter...(and no...I didn't take it in to Mass -- like my husband suggested!)

But I had a wonderful Easter, until my stomach started gurgling like mad. Take some immodium...my m-i-l says...two of them. So I do. Take them again when you have an episode...my husband says. So I do. ( And, by the way...he thinks I got "contaminated" from the chalice at mass & why can't we use indvidual cups like the Methodists????) Take them again before getting in the car for a 5 hour drive...I think....so I do. I have now taken 12 immodium in 4 hours. I did make it home without "discracing" myself. But I still don't feel too good. I don't get a ton of my knitting done....

I did finish my tea cozy.....and knit a little headband with the left over green yarn -- to bump up the yardage. I figure that I am over the yardage with the bird & nest yardage added in, plus the headband...but added another headband made of the brown yarn..... Link to Rav for headband & free pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/meadviewmarket/easy-cable-headband
The cozy came out really cute....and I am thinking about keeping it......but then....I would need to knit another one!!

That' me with my new headband!

So that's my story, and I am sticking to it.
Hope you all had a happy Easter.

--Tracy