The Rational Seamstress

The computer is fixed, and now I can deal with the backlog of chores that are so much more difficult on a phone!   First off, an update on the Baby Sweater of Doom: As you can see, the left sleeve was sewn on inside out. The yarn is KnitPicks Shine Sport in Green Apple. The color is much brighter than it appears on the website; it really is almost the color of a granny smith. In the photo above, the sweater is very washed-out; the green embroidery floss is a much truer representation of the sweater's actual color. This is my third project from Weekend Knitting , and, so far, I've had trouble following all of the patterns. (I did make a fourth project while the sweater was sitting in purgatory, waiting for my anger to cool, but it deserves its own post.) I like the idea behind the book, but I've been disappointed in the pattern instructions. More on that later. Over last weekend, I made myself sit down, rip out the sleeve, and sew it back on, correctly. Here it is, with but...

In the cold depths of winter, the harsh truths of thermodynamics are brought home to us more starkly than at other times. In other words, my tea has been cooling far too quickly of late. Obviously, it's time to make a tea cozy! A tea cozy has one purpose: to keep the tea in a teapot warm. As long as that criterion is met, all other attributes of the thing are secondary, and so there are a plethora of designs, ranging from the simple semi-circular quilted cover, to the cozies designed to look like little cottages, to the ribbed, knitted sort, tied at the top with I-cords. A Pinterest search will reveal a multitude of tea cozies in a wealth of innovative design. I want to make the sort that allows the tea to be poured without removing the cozy. In practical terms, this is a bit of a trade-off, since the handle and spout must be exposed to the cold air. (There is probably a pattern somewhere for a tea cozy with a buttoning flap over the spout to avoid this problem, like those converti...