Tea Cozy Quidditch

I was just about to head upstairs to bed, when I realized that I hadn't posted today.

This month I participated in the Spring Quidditch Challenge in the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) Group on Ravelry.  There are lots of regular classes each month, more about that in a later post, but I guess as well, there is Quidditch!

This term (Spring2012), Quidditch started with mini-socks knitting/crochet.  The second part was a "House Colors" scarf competition.  I did not participate in either of those, but the 3rd challenge was a Tea Cozy Race.  Each House had a team, hopefully made up of people spread over the various years, so there were new as well as seasoned veterans.  The exception to this was the NQFY (Not Quite First Year) group, which had our own team.  We were not really in the competition for points, but just for fun.  There were 2 tea cozy patterns chosen, one knit one crochet, and they were named about 1 week before the race began.  The challenge was to make the cozy, and embellish it.

I was in California at my nephew's wedding in the days leading up to the challenge, which started on July 2 at midnight (or July 1?  well, 12:00 am July 2).  I had just returned home that afternoon from the airport, and was super tired.  I actually tried to take a short nap, so I could start my cozy at midnight.

I decided to make the crochet cozy as I am a super slow knitter.  I worked on the cozy for about 1 1/2 hours, then just had to go to bed.  Of course, Team NQFY is not really in the competition, so I wasn't letting anyone down by getting some sleep.  Still, I got up at 7 am the next morning (July 2), and immediately got to work.  It only took me about 30 more minutes to finish the cozy, but the embellishments took quite a bit longer.

I hooked the cozy in some Sugar N Cream cream colored cotton yarn, and made rose colored roses (I know they look a bit violet here, sorry) and light green leaves for the embellishments.  The roses ended up being a bit big, but I still love how it all came together.

I don't actually own a teapot (I know! heresy), so I had to pose mine on an upsidedown bowl.

I think I will give mine to my sister, S, who lived in Ireland for a while and DOES own a teapot.

Here is a link to a fabulous slide show of all of the creative cozies made.  Way more creative than mine.

It was really fun.  This is one of the many reasons I love Ravelry.  I made something I have been thinking about, but not really finding the energy to research and start.  The HPKCHC pushed me to try a new project.

Stay safe and well.

yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with some ginormous roses