I wanted a cozy that had a knit bottom, both to protect anything I set it on from the heat, and to help keep my granite countertop from drawing heat away from the teapot. I also wanted one that I could open up quickly after steeping to remove the infuser, then easily close it back up to keep the tea warm.

I didn’t bother with a gauge swatch - it’s a tea cozy, and my teapot is a different shape than most, so I figured I’d be knitting to fit anyway.

This is for an 18-oz Beehouse Saturn teapot. It’s wider and shorter than a typical teapot, with a wide handle and small high spout.

To accommodate the handle, I bound off 4 sts at center back. That made each side piece 2 sts narrower. When the ribbing started, I just kept the outer ribbing section (just next to each garter stitch edging) with 1 less stitch than the pattern called for.

I added some extra rows throughout, because of the size/shape of the teapot, and more at the top to use up the yarn. As a result, I have more fabric at the top, which makes the teapot look a little bit like a rooster head - which makes me laugh. The tea cozy by itself when opened up looks like a moth or butterfly. I call it two-faced, because each side is completely different in color.

After I was done knitting, I ended up seaming the side pieces together on the spout edge for about 6 rows (3 garter ridges), since the spout on my teapot starts so high.

For the ties, I didn’t have enough yarn to do I-cord, and I didn’t really want to knit that much I-cord anyway. I just crocheted a foundation chain of the appropriate length and then single-crocheted across. For the button end, I made a small crochet button using this method, but with only 6 sts. For the loop end, I did 8 chain sts, and fastened the chain into a loop.

I found the pattern to be very unclear about how to use the ties. I assume that since it says to have the button and loop ends at the spout, that it’s so you can unbutton it and open up the top of the cozy without having to untie it. That lets you remove the infuser, add water, etc., without removing the cozy from the pot. (Otherwise, why have the button and loop - you could just have one long tie.) But it wasn’t clear how you were supposed to tie the i-cords or ribbons at the handle end. The instructions tell you use the eyelets near the bottom of the handle, and to refer to the photos, but the photos don’t really show how the ties work. Tying a bow where the eyelets were put the bow right inside the handle, which made it difficult to use the handle. I ended up criss-crossing the ties at the top, threading them through the eyelets, and then tying a bow under the handle. (Note: my eyelets are higher up the pot than they should be - I raised them because I didn’t really understand what was going on when I was knitting it, and thought they should probably be more centered under the handle. But I think they’re supposed to much lower so that they’re below the handle, which wouldn’t work with my teapot.) Of course, I could be wrong - but at least it works.

I found the pattern a little difficult to follow in general. More photos and instructions would have been very useful, but I maybe the pattern has to fit into Knitty’s pattern style. The schematic makes it look like the side pieces are symmetrical, but they aren’t since there are increases along the handle edge of the side pieces, but not along the spout edge. That made me wonder if there was an error when the increases were only happening on one edge.

The whole tie thing is a little fussy - for my next cozy, I’ll probably try a scaled-down version of “A Tea Cozy for Bilbo”, which just uses a single drawstring at the top. It’s knit in the round (optionally) and steeked, so it wouldn’t end up two-faced.