Loani Prior - How Tea Cosies Changed the World

Arty stuff

So here we are again. Book three.

What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.
Eugene Delacroix

Mr Delacroix may have been talking about the art of the French Romantics and Im no genius, but I reckon there is plenty still to say about the little old tea cosy. Some opinionated folk have suggested that I must be done now and what about a beanie book or, heaven forbid, toilet roll covers. One wouldnt suggest to an artist she had done enough portraits, and that she might move on to landscapes! Would one? Harrumph!

My publisher couldnt care less about MY not being done with tea cosies but it seems YOU are not done with them either. It is likely that you will never be done with them. We could end up with the Golden Hands Encyclopaedia of Tea Cosies. Now theres a thought.

The secret of the tea cosy

It was Joan that let me in on the secret of the tea cosy. I met Joan at the launch of the first book, Wild Tea Cosies, at the book-signing end of the evening. She handed me her copy and then pulled out her own tea cosy to show me. It was old and more bare than threadbare but she held that tea cosy like it was her favourite thing in the world and she told me a story.

Joans grandmother had knitted the tea cosy with her own young hands when she was a new bride. She had used it every day of her married life and when she died, Joans mother had taken the cosy and used it too and now that she was dead, it was Joans. That funny old thing was almost eighty years old and it was filled with all the love and memories of three lifetimes. A proper heirloom.

And that is the secret of the tea cosy.

That, and the fact that they are completely ridiculous. Even when they are not meant to be ridiculous, they are ridiculous. And funny. I already knew that bit deep down in my belly. You know, like babies are cute. How can you not love a cute baby, or a funny tea cosy? Oh alright, so there are some of you who dont love cute babies. But not many. A minuscule minority. Hardly worth mentioning. But everyone loves a tea cosy.

But is it art?

Anything can become an objet dart, stuck in a glass cabinet with a label and some good downlighting. Even a tea cosy. And mine have been in such a place! But do I make art? I ask the question here only because I get asked that question myself, often. What can I say? A wild imagination tempered with that old counterpart, boundaries, helps to produce something in-tress-ting and I do enjoy a lustful passion for colour.

Divining design

Ideas are miraculous things. The more ideas you have, the more ideas you have.

I see tea cosies in everything. The most important thing about design is to be game. Game to get it wrong. To discard the flotsam and jetsam and concentrate on the jewels. I have a mountain of prototypes, design duds, bugger ups, all made without any disappointment, all leading me somewhere new. Good design wouldnt be good design without attention to form AND function. No point in having a tea cosy that looks wild but wont stand up by itself, is too heavy to lift or cant be washed. I follow the old rules, like three is better than two, off to the side is better than in the middle. But then, what is a rule if it isnt for breaking?

Sometimes less is more and sometimes gloriously camp exuberance is more. That is good advice to follow.

If I were to impart any gem at all, it might be that the difference between something artful and something Blue Rinse can be as inoffensive as a plastic bee. Be very afraid of the plastic bee I say, yes I do.

Ah! See what happens when you get to book three? One imagines Ones advice might be highly sought after and One ought not to be stingy, and give it.

Remembering Grandma

None of that REALLY matters. What matters is that my wild and woolly tea warmers might just entice you to pick up your needles after twenty years. It matters that they make you smile. It matters that you might be game to try your own mad designs.

And it matters that they remind you of your grandmother.

Portraits of a tea cosy

After Joan brought that first cosy to show me, Tea Cosy Fetishists have been turning up in droves to have their portraits taken with their own favourite tea cosy. Yes they have. Young and not so young TCFs. Women AND men. Yes men! And dogs.

Mark Crocker photographed the first book, Wild Tea Cosies, and this year, in the year of Our Lord 2012, he and I are collecting portraits and tea cosy stories to add to our stash and to exhibit on the national stage in 2013. (Errr, that would be the Australian national stage.) When you see us in your town, be sure to come and say hello and get snapped for posterity, and for fun. You can tell a great deal about a person by their tea cosy, did you know? A great deal.

The technical bit

Knitting in the round

So! You havent ever knitted in the round before? I cant recall ever knitting in the round myself, before starting all this tea cosy madness. Nup. Not for the life of me. Not one recollection. Now I want to knit everything in the round. Everything. It just seems very clever. I feel very clever knitting in the round, but then, Im easily pleased.

Knitting on the straight

I use circular needles for everything, even when knitting on the straight. It is so much easier to measure the fabric mid project. It is easier to try on. If it is a great big weighty thing Im knitting, like a brown jumper, it rests easily on my lap. Straight needles are for the birds and for vintage collections and for sticking in your French Bun like scary old Mrs Frogmorton who lives above the corner store smoking foul-smelling cigars and shouting at little children from behind her stained lace curtains.Gawd! Where did that come from?

The patterns in this book

For each of the patterns knitted in the round, I have given MY preferred method for that particular job. Any method is valid.

Methods for knitting in the round

Double-pointed needles (dpns)

EQUIPMENT

6 double-pointed needles: 4 for holding the stitches, 1 for working the stitches and 1 for sticking in your dreadlocks. No dreadlocks or nose piercings? So make that 5 dpns.

GETTING STARTED

Cast on 8 stitches onto one dpn. Arrange the stitches evenly onto four needles. and use the fifth needle to knit the stitches from Needle 1. Needle 1 then becomes the working needle, knitting the stitches from Needle 2, and so on.