Tea cosy hats for kids

MIAMI member Angela recently shared her instructions for making traditional tea cosies.

Angela has just sent us these photos to show how she's adapted her pattern to make a child's hat. She's done one for a girl and one for a boy. She asks

"Now... HONESTLY.... is this a snuggly, warm, can-be-pulled-down-over-ears child's hat.... or is the poor kiddo going to be laughed at mercilessly... 'ha ha ha... you're wearing a tea cosy!' (Or maybe nowadays, young kids don't even know what a tea cosy is... or what it looks like!)."

We think she's done a great job and these cosy hats should keep any child warm in the playground come Winter. And it's so rare you see a proper tea cosy these days that there's little risk of being accused of wearing one! What do you think?

The boy's hat (above) has a bobble and the girl's has a crocheted flower on the top (petals lift up separately)

To adapt the hats from Angela's tea cosy pattern just cast on 84 stitches instead of 98 then work as for the tea cosy pattern, but instead of doing 4 repeats of the 12 row pattern just do 3 repeats then work as for the original for the reducing rows. Add your bobble or crochet topping. 

 

>> Get the pattern from our website
>> Read about Angela

Sun, sea and MIAMI

Okay, it wasn't Florida but but there were palm trees along the seafront and the sun shone in Eastbourne for Local Life 2011 and we had a great day there.

If you didn't manage to get along - don't worry. We sent Anne round with the video camera to catch some of the highlights - enjoy.

We're off to the seaside - come and join us!

Next Saturday 19th March, the MIAMI team will all be at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne at the Local Life show there - between 10 am and 5pm. Entry is free.

That's us in the picture - left to right - Anne Caborn, Clare O'Brien, Clare Flynn and Hilary Bruffell.

If you are in or near the area please come along and say hello. We're bringing lots of our stuff along - from done-up dining chairs to garden planters and we'll be sharing tips and ideas such as how to make sourdough - starters and bread as well as making everything from marmalades, jams and chutneys to decorative tealight holders.

So if you can spare the time, and are in the area, please come along and meet the four of us behind the MIAMI movement.

Clare F

Update on my quilting progress

I haven't posted anything recently about my efforts at making a sampler quilt - but I'm still at it and really enjoying it.

I've completed the sample blocks, sewn all these together and today started the slow process of doing the quilting of the three layer "sandwich". I've decided a thimble is definitely in order - I never usually use one but pushing the needle through the three layers can be painful work.

So far I've just quilted one block so I think it's going to take me a while to finish. I'm glad I'm only doing a small nine block quilt as I'd be at it for ever - I'm doing it all by hand.Rather than tacking the layers together before quilting i used curved safety pins - it makes it very quick and easy.

I'm going to put up some instructions for making the quilt sandwich on the website - and there's also instructions for the Rail Fence block and instructions and template for Maple Leaf. Hilary and I plan to publish instructions for all the quilt blocks featured in my quilt on our main website - but right now I'm too busy making it!