Disclaimer from Aine
I haven't knitted this yet, so there may be mistakes!
It's more of a longwinded formula than a pattern, mainly because, like
tea-drinkers, teapots come in all shapes and sizes !
I suggest starting at the top. At school, we made the teacosies in 2 flat pieces, so that we could sew the 2 halves together and leave holes for the spout and handle.
It's up to you whether you want to do it in the round, in 2 flat pieces, or as 1 big flat piece. Just remember to leave holes, or you'll have a wet teacosy ! (possibly weird idea: I'm half-considering doing it in the round and steeking it- it'd be a good steek practice ! See below.)
You could use 2 colours, or 2 separate balls of wool.
For clarity, I'm assuming 2 colours: mc and cc.
Use any weight yarn / any size needles you want.
I'm planning to use Aran weight wool and 4mm needles.
I think wool would be better than synthetic yarn.
Pattern:
Cast on 5 stitches in mc.
inc. in every stitch (10 sts)
work 1 row in mc.
inc. in every stitch in mc. (20 sts)
Work 1 row in mc.
[k1 in mc, drop wool, k1 in cc, drop wool.] Repeat between
[ ]'s
Work 1 row, using same colours as previous row.
You should have 1-stitch columns of alternating colours.
Continue, repeating previous row until you need to increase. (*)
inc in every stitch, again following colours. When you're changing colour,
give the yarn a good tug so that the "columns" bunch up.
Now you should have 40sts in 2-stitch columns in alternating colours.
If you tugged the yarn at colour changes, the columns should be like
corrugated cardboard.
ie, if you imagined a horizontal cross-section, it'd be like this:
inside |D outside lumpy
smooth |D
|D
|D
The "floats" are tight and are on the inside; the outside puffs out in vertical columns.
keep going, keeping the colours in columns.
Increase the column widths as you -or your teapot's shape- see fit.
(*) If you have a roundy teapot, you'll be increasing frequently.
If you have a pointier one, you'll have to work more rows between increases.
I have a few of each :)
This is my steek idea:
Beginning:
When you reach the top of the spout / handle, cast off one of the columns.
Cast on about 10 stitches. These will be the steek sts.
Next row: Work to steek sts and use your favourite steek st. pattern.
I've never steeked, but I gather that the best way is to work 1 st
in mc, 1 st in cc for 1 row. Next row: use cc in mc sts and vice versa.
Ending: At the end of the handle / spout, cast off the steek sts.
Cast on the same amt. of sts that you casted off at the start of the
steek (ie the column stitches).
After Steek:
Go back to the pre-steek pattern and continue in normal pattern
until you reach the bottom of your teapot.
Reinforce steek where you want to cut holes.
Make tea..........Cut steek !
Put cosy on teapot......Drink nice hot tea.
(**) Tip: To avoid twisting the 2 yarns round one another, it'd be a
good idea to adopt something like this convention:
When stranding and working mc, make sure the cc is hanging at the inside
of the teacosy.
When finished with mc, bring mc over work to hang on outside. Tug cc,
then work cc stitches.
You don't really have to switch the cc to the other side - it's just
handy as an illustration that one yarn always goes "over" and the other
"under" when switching colours. It's hard to explain!