Why did you start making tea cosies?
It was a Christmas show off. There is a point in every grown up family where everybody really does have everything they need and the present giving becomes a bit perfunctory. I thought to liven things up. I started making the same present (but personalised) for each member of the family. The first year it was crazy coat hangers, the next year it was embarrassing photos hand framed. Then faux fur throw cushions.
All the presents were wrapped exactly the same as each other, handed out for opening at the same time with everyone oohing and ahing and comparing and laughing. It became a sort of performance art.
The year I did tea cosies? That was the last year of the Crazy Aunt presents. I haven’t wanted to make anything else since.
Where do you get your ideas from?
Everywhere. Sometimes it is as simple as colour shouting out to me “Knit ME. Knit ME!” Sometimes voluminous, curvaceous shapes want to be knitted. Much more so in book number two – REALLY Wild Tea Cosies – to be released in March 2010.
I have just now sent the manuscript off to the publisher and we will photograph 20 new designs at the end of the month. They really ARE wilder than the first bunch. I have become more game, more sculptural, more critical, and more discerning I think.
There just aren’t enough tea cosies in the world.
How do you turn a concept in your mind into a physical tea cosy? Do you make practice tea cosies? How do you decide which method to use?
Sometimes I make practice tea cosies. Prototypes. They don’t start out being prototypes. They start out being the real thing. They only turn into prototypes when they go horribly wrong. Sometimes I make drawings. Very bad drawings but they are good enough to record an idea until I can get to it to knit up. Sometimes I go to bed dreaming about how to manifest a design idea and I wake up with the answer. I know. Sad hey.
How would you encourage others to let their tea cosy imaginations run wild?
At the time this article goes to print, I will be in freezing cold Mittagong at the Sturt Contemporary Craft centre giving a Wild Knitting workshop as part of their Winter School. Many knitterly people just aren’t game to leave the safety of a pattern. Knitterly people with years of experience and excellent technical skills, cringe at the idea of designing something themselves.
Tea cosies are the ideal garments to go wild on. My advice? Be game. That’s all. Have a go. Try things out. You can always pull it out or toss it aside for another idea.
And have a look around you. Art students are not just encouraged to look at other people’s work, they are expected to devour it. I am of the mind that there really isn’t any such thing as a new idea, just an infinite number of variations.
Anyway. Tea POTS are very accommodating. They aren’t about to complain if a cosy isn’t quite right are they. They will love and wear it day in and day out whatever you make for them.
What’s the craziest tea cosy you’ve ever made?
The last one. You’ll have to wait and see.
Can anyone really make tea cosies?
Of course. They can be as simple or as tricky as you like. They make fabulous gifts you know. Gifts that last many lifetimes. Some people have brought their own old tea cosies to book events, for me to admire. They want to tell me their tea cosy story, which is never about the tea cosy and always about a much-loved grandmother or a best friend. I love that about tea cosies.
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