Beehive Inspired Tea Cozy.

Beekeepers have a long history of making ingenious homes for their bees. But before the days of moveable frame hives and bee space, beekeepers’ material of choice was often straw coiled and woven to form squat coneshaped baskets.

Inspired by these iconic straw bee skeps, I made a beehive teapot cozy that takes its design cues from these traditional coiled baskets. It’s constructed of two layers of wool, quilted together. Unlike some teapot cozies that allow the handle and spout to stick out the sides, this one is designed to cover the teapot completely—simply lift off the cozy, pour the tea, and then replace the cozy over the pot. Here’s how to make your own beehive inspired tea cozy.

What You Need:

  • Teapot (mine’s a 22 oz. carrot-colored Bee House pot)
  • Tape measure
  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Fabric for the Interior Base Layer: ½ yard of woven wool or wool felt (I used a remnant piece of dark brown wool suiting from my stash)*
  • Fabric for the Exterior Coil Layer: 2 fat eighths of Mary Flanagan’s hand dyed felted wool in a shade of gold or light brown (available at purl; I used a shade called gold mine)*
  • Straight pins
  • Scissors for cutting paper
  • Scissors for cutting fabric
  • Sewing machine or needle and thread**
  • Sewing needle (with an eye large enough to accommodate embroidery floss)
  • Embroidery floss in a color of your choice (I used a little less than two skeins of DMC cotton floss, color no. 3046)

*You might need more fabric if your teapot is larger than mine; I’ll give my teapot’s dimensions below and you can work from these basic numbers to see if you will need more fabric.

**You can do all of the sewing by hand. Or, if you prefer, you can complete the Interior Base Layer on a sewing machine and then switch to hand sewing for the Exterior Coil Layer.

1. Measure your teapot.

Circumference: Use a tape measure to measure the circumference of your teapot, including the spout and handle. I found that by placing a loop of measuring tape on a table, setting the teapot in the middle, and then looking down upon my teapot from above to be sure that it was entirely within the measuring tape circle, I got an accurate measurement of the circumference.  Add 1” seam allowance to the circumference.

Height: Use a ruler to measure your teapot’s height. Add 1” seam allowance to the height measurement.

Point Height: There’s just one last calculation needed, in order to plot out the tapering pointed beehive shape. Figure out what 2/3 of your Height calculation is (height measurement + 1″ seam allowance) is. This will be your Point Height.

My teapot’s measurements and final calculations are as follows:
Circumference: 20” (including the spout and handle)+1” seam allowance=21”
Height: 5” + 1” seam allowance=6”
Point Height: 2/3 of the Height=4”

2. Make the Interior Base Layer.
Use the measurements you calculated in step 1 to draft your pattern for the interior base layer.  The pattern will be the width of your Circumference, and as tall as your Height + Point Height. Divide the width of the pattern into 6 roughly equal sections, making the sections on each end a little bigger to accommodate the seam allowance.
Along top edge, mark the center point of each of the 6 sections. Then, draw a gentle curve from each center point down to the dividing lines of the six sections. You’ll now have six pointed tops.  This is what my pattern for the Interior Base Layer looks like the drafted pattern pictured here.

Cut out this pattern.  Use this paper pattern to cut one of the fabric you have chosen for the Interior Base Layer.

Placing right sides together, sew the fabric piece (you can do it by hand or machine) into the basic beehive shape. First, sew the two side edges together (right sides together) to form a squat tube, and then sew each point edge to that of its neighbor, almost but not quite closing up the tapered top. Last, turn 1” up toward teh seamed side of the bottom edge and sew down this hem. Press all of the seams with an iron.

3. Add the Exterior Coil Layer.

Prepare the fabric strips that will form the coil design around the exterior of your hive by cutting a series of long strips of felt on the bias, 3/4” wide and as long as possible using your fabric. Cutting on the bias (at a 45 degree angle to the weave of the fabric) will allow the strips to stretch and curve around the beehive shape. Then, sew these strips together end to end, making sure that all seams face the same direction, so that you have one long, continuous strip. I needed about 8 yards to complete my beehive. Mary Flanagan’s hand dyed felted wool is ideal for this project because its luxurious flexibility allows it to drape and bend around curves handily.

Starting at the base of the Interior Layer (with its seams facing out), begin to attach the coiling strip (with its seams facing in, against the Interior Layer) along the lower edge using a running stitch and embroidery thread along the lower edge of the strip. When you get all the way around once, begin to incline the start the second layer so that eventually it runs parallel to the first round, just overlapping by ¼” or so. Continue round and round, stitching the lower overlapping edge of the coiling strip.

When you get within one round of reaching the hive’s top, stop attaching the coil and make a handle.

4. Make the handle, and complete your hive.

Take a scrap of leftover felt measuring 3” long and ¾” wide, and fold it in half so it measures 1 ½” x ¾”. Insert it through the top of the tapered top of the Interior Base Layer so that the folded edge sticks out the top by about 1”. Secure this handle to the hive with a few stitches using the embroidery thread.

Now, complete the last round of coiling at the top. To complete the hive, stitch through the top edge of this last round and cinch it closed around the handle, securing it with a knot inside.

It’s completed!  This hive will keep your teapot warmer longer on winter’s draftiest days; you can curl up with a pot of tea while you immerse yourself in the wonders of armchair beekeeping.

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Flannery O’Connor, Seamstress.

In Flannery O’Connor’s high school home ec class, “all the other girls busily sewed aprons, or underwear, for weeks on end, while O’Connor sat idly off to the side, not particpating.” On the day the big sewing assignment (to make a complete outfit of clothing) was due, O’Connor astonished her teachers and fellow students by bringing her pet duck, along with a complete set of clothing tailormade for it, to class. The students all worked together to dress the duck up in his handmade finery, and of course, Flannery passed the course!

I learned this tale and many more in Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch. If you are a fan of Flannery O’Connor’s stories and are interested in learning more about this reclusive writer’s craft—literary and otherwise—I recommend this biography. Gooch uncovers telling details of this talented and disciplined eccentric’s subtle and surprising creative energies. Gooch also does the unexpected—he shows her to be a ham in home ec.

(You’ll find the duck tailoring anecdote on pages 77-78 of Gooch’s biography, and Gooch himself found it in an unpublished memoir by Barbara Beiswanger, held at Georgia College & State University’s Ina Dillard Russell Library).

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Savoring the Language of Lost Crafts.

Over Christmas I received a copy of Una McGovern’s Lost Crafts: Rediscovering Traditional Skills. From its cover (with evocative art by Rob Ryan) and all the way to the last page of its lush interior, illustrated with scenes of handicrafts both past and present, this book is a treat. McGovern’s approach is part history, part how-to, and a wholehearted homage to those who do the hard work of creating useful objects and edibles by hand. All in all, I love this book.

There are six main sections to Lost Crafts: Farming, Hunting & Gathering, Food & Drink, Home & Garden, Practical Crafts, and Decorative Crafts. Within each of these sections McGovern has collected dozens of short essays in which she discusses each skill’s history and techniques and tools, accompanied by advice for places and organizations to turn to to learn more.  Reading about candied peel, for instance, I found two recipes—one from 1718 for “China Chips” and the author’s own guide to the confection. And the fascinating discussion of beekeeping includes mention of the English church’s appetite for beeswax (for candles), the discovery by Lorenzo Langstroth of “bee space,” the practice of “telling the bees” household news, and a recommendation to turn to the British Beekeepers Association for further guidance.

While reading Lost Crafts, I had the unanticipated pleasure of encountering the specialist vocabularies that come to life in discussions of these forgotten skills. My eye would halt over certain words–like inkle, proggy, crusies, Scotch hands, cobnuts, conkers, guddling, sniggling, and smoots—and lead me to wonder about the many such terms that have fallen from familiarity because the skills they describe have also been lost.
And perhaps it’s because I’ve been studying guides to English walking holidays lately, but McGovern’s book also struck me as a way to get to know the rural corners of that country.  Lost Crafts offers a means of better understanding what a hedgerow is and how to guess its age; how much work goes into a thatched roof; the way that dry stone walls are constructed and why.

With its images, language, and respectful approach, Lost Crafts offers an appreciation for traditional everyday arts that remain well worth understanding and valuing today.

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Pennants Fly at the BiblioBall.

Last Friday was the Desk Set’s BiblioBall, and in my role as a crafty volunteer I created a string of nearly one hundred snowy white pennants to hang from the rafters at The Bell House.  You can see them here, alongside lovely trapeze artist Jean Loscalzo (who is also hanging from the rafters):

What you can’t see is what they’re made of: a lacy white cotton eyelet, threaded onto forest green jute twine from the hardware store.  I liked the look of the fraying jute paired with the pennants’ raw edges.

The BiblioBall was a smashing success and raised over $7,000 for Literacy for Incarcerated Teens.  I was proud to have my pennants play their small part there.   But I am confident that they’ll have other chances to shine in the future.  I can picture these white eyelets swaying in a breeze over a picnic, or perhaps an easy-going summer wedding too.  I’m hopeful that they’ll have a long life and watch over many future occasions of good fortune.

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Seams Inspired.

Sometimes when making something (sewing, knitting, whatever) I’m content just following along with the pattern and doing as told.  But more often, I want to fiddle with things, make stuff from scratch, or tackle a new skill along the way.  A new book has just come out—Cal Patch’s Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified—and Liesl’s excellent review over at disdressed convinced me that this book is just what I need when I’m looking for both know-how and inspiration to make up projects from scratch.  And really, how can you not trust an author who introduces herself like this:  “My name is Cal Patch and I love making things and teaching people to make. I am working toward wearing mostly clothing made by myself, or other handmakers.”  She might be my new heroine.  And on Thursday evening Cal will visit one of my favorite indie bookstores in the city—Word, in Greenpoint—to talk about her new book and give us all some measuring tips.  I’ll be there clutching my new book—I can’t wait!   (Here are the event details, if you want to come along too!)

Speaking of inspiring people, and speaking of Liesl, I’m over the moon about this weekend’s Handmade Crafternoon at the Library.  Liesl of Oliver + S and disdressed, quilter/artist  Denyse Schmidt, and Heather Ross of Weekend Sewing will be our special guests, and they will share with us a little about what they do and what inspires them.  With the help of these three modern women of sewing, I’ve gathered a collection of inspiring books to share.  And when you add to the afternoon’s agenda some little sewing project ideas and plenty of crafty socializing, it’s without a doubt going to be the best way to spend your Saturday afternoon.   So do join Maura and me for this event—our last Handmade Crafternoon of 2009—if you are in the city on the 12th!

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This Is Your Brain on Yarn.

I’ve tried knitting lace before, and I’ve had modest successes with small repeats and with patterns of just a few rows.  But after admiring the intricate and elegant sweater patterns in French Girl Knits and deciding to try my hand at one, I knew that I was in for a challenge.  And I’m here to report that I emerged triumphant—and that I have the writer Jonah Lehrer and his new neuroscience book to thank for my success.

You see, during the same days that I was struggling to understand just how to stack up my stitches correctly to get a horseshoe lace pattern, I was also reading Lehrer’s How We Decide, a highly readable and really intriguing book on the neuroscience behind decision-making.  And though he mentions no knitting in his book, he does provide stunning examples of how our  brains, by comparing expectations and outcomes, can learn how to make better choices.

So I took his discussion as a general encouragement that I could make my brain learn lace. I kept retracing my stitches and studied and identified my missteps. And sure enough, the old gray matter (as Bertie Wooster would say) eventually did its job. The Wrenna is completed.

I came away from this project with a basic but sturdy sense of how to read lace charts and how to choose the correct yarn-over between different combinations of stitches.  It was both humbling and satisfying to learn these new skills.  And I’ve already put them to work in taking up an old sock project that had thwarted me in the past.  More news on these socks later this winter.  For now, they have to wait while I make decorations, and maybe even a new dress, for the Desk Set’s Biblioball.

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The Completed Quilt.

seaquiltcompleted

This picture’s a bit belated (my fault; I have some real problems with digital clutter right now). But without further ado, here’s the previously discussed quilt!

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