There is a particular kind of afternoon — soft light in an English garden, a teapot wrapped snugly to keep the warmth in, a plate of scones at hand, and a mystery unfolding just beneath the surface.

Agatha’s Tea Cozy belongs to that world. Inspired by a vintage photograph from a 1940s British magazine and the compelling intrigue of Agatha Christie’s Golden Age mysteries, it is both practical and fun to knit. Two colors contrast in simple stranded and textured stitches that are easy enough to make this a good first stranded colorwork project. The squishy double thick fabric keeps your tea warm while you get lost in the mystery you are reading, while the endless possible color combinations make you convince yourself that one can never have enough tea cozies! The two steeks add a small thrill (cutting your knitting like the Countess stabbing the Butler with her scissors in the back passage!!), a secret beneath the surface, like a clue tucked into plain sight. One can almost imagine Miss Marple pausing mid-sip, noting some small inconsistency, the answer beginning to take shape as the tea stays perfectly warm.

Knit it once, and you may find yourself dreaming up another — each color combination a new story, each cozy a companion for long, lingering cups of tea and mysteries waiting to be solved.

Notes on Gauge and Yardage:

Agatha’s Tea Cozy uses about 220 yards of non superwash (because of steeking) worsted weight yarn, divided as follows: 150 yards Main Color (MC) and 70 yards Contrasting Color (CC). The samples were made out of 2 skeins of Cascade220 which was enough yarn to make 2 cozies.

GAUGE: 2 full stripes (purl and knit) equals 1.5 inches, but the fabric has a great deal of stretch so small variations in gauge may not matter, but can impact finished size and yardage needed. The stretchiness allow this cozy to fit many sizes of tea pot, but if your pot is particularly large you may want to increase the length in the initial striped section before the decreases.