Knitting a tea cosy: it's not a sock

Sometimes it takes being really tired of something to push you out of your routine, or maybe just having a little more mental space than usual?

Either way, I did not knit socks yesterday.  After more than a week of nonstop spinning I was sooo tired of my wheel, I looked at knitting patterns on Ravelry and braved the Filing Cabinet of Doom (aka, the drawers where I stuffed all the vacuum-packed yarn I am sure I will never knit with but hang onto just in case) to find yarn to cast on a tea cosy.

The situation is really that desperate: waiting to find the perfect one to buy is no longer an option.  It's less than ideal to come back to the teapot for a second cup only to find the tea is now tepid, especially at the cottage, where the drinkable water comes in bottles and it's easy to run out.  It's awful to waste a drop of delicious hot tea under those circumstances.

(there is probably drinkable water coming out of the taps, but it will take another two rounds of water testing on the new well to be sure.  So far, so good!)

Choosing viable tea cosy patterns is an art unto itself: Ravelry lists 728 matches for 'tea cozy' in knitting alone, not to mention the 694 patterns tagged 'tea cosy'.  Even taking into account the likelihood of cross-posting, that is a lot of knitting potential.

The one I ended up with was, unsurprisingly, at the top of the list - the simple but elegant Seed Stitch Tea Cozy from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.  All the Churchmouse patterns are fabulous (check them out if you don't already know them) and, bonus: this one is free!  Plus, I had suitable yarn, and I'd sensibly left it out of the vacuum sealed bag at the front of the drawer.  Meant to be.

I don't love this orangey yellow for the cottage, but in addition to being already in the house and ready to go it's superwash wool which is important for the job, and Cascade yarns have never done me wrong on standing up to wear.  Thankfully, the point of this tea cosy is the opportunity to embellish a panel on one side, so I am thinking I can use that feature to make it a little more kitchen-matchy.

Meanwhile, there I was knitting away at the first half of the cosy until it was done, then dragging myself away from it to do the day's spinning for Tour de Fleece...

... and then I stayed up a bit longer to photograph it and post it in the daily threads at Ravelry because it's the one way to ensure I don't Not Spin, and

guess what?

Yesterday was a rest day.

GAH.

Well, regardless: it's good to try something new even if it's something practical.  What might you do today that's new?