Two Way Tea Cosy, Ladybird and Lady Grey

You'd think that deciding to decorate a red tea cosy to make it look like a ladybird wouldn't be too hard, right? Well, it turned out to be a lot more difficult than making this reversible tea cosy in the first place!

Reversible Tea Cosy - Lady Bird

The idea for this tea cosy is based on the first one I did in a sunshiney yellow. But that was only one layer, this one has two layers for added warmth. Because it has two layers, why not make it reversible, right? I wasn't sure I would be able to do it, but it turned out to be fairly straight forward. I know the recipient requested neutral tones, which is why the first layer is a tasteful grey, but it's for a red tea pot, so I couldn't resist some fun! And I had a good roll of nice red yarn to do it with. I started off with 4 squares, 2 in grey and 2 in red. This time the ridges are vertical, not horizontal like in my yellow tea cosy, so there is more stretch. I don't have the intended tea pot here to test the size, so hopefully it will fit with the extra stretch. For the body I used a 4mm hook, and medium weight yarn. I ran out of the thick black, so had to start using a finer black wool for the edging, as that was all I had. Because at least some of the black is pure wool, as well as the grey which looks like it might be a sock wool, this tea cosy will need to be washed as if it was wool, just in case there is some shrinkage. Another idea I have for a tea cosy, is making one side green and decorating it like a garden with butterflies and flowers.

Lady Grey side of reversible tea cosy

Joining up the squares and neatening off the edges proved to be fairly straight forward. Making the final decision on how to make the red side resemble a ladybird was trickier. Do you think it looks like a ladybird? I hope the recipient does, and gets a nice surprise when she turns the grey tea cosy inside out!