Carmen Miranda

For years my sole associations with Carmen Miranda have been fruit, frills and, for some reason, the dastardly United Fruit Company. Then along came Loani Prior's Wild Tea Cosies, and I knew that I had to make Carmen! During Lloyd's long cold 2am feeds when he was a new born, I mentally sorted through my stash, hoping to be able to create something gorgeous out of ill concieved purchases of novelty yarn. And surely enough, Loani's inspiration lead me to whip up Carmen. Who thought knitting and crocheting fruit could be so much fun!

The joy of a newly rediscovered old finished object

I was in a colleague's office today and there was this little beauty I made sitting on his tea pot! Gorgeous huh? He wanted "the gayest tea cosy ever" and when presented with this said it was "the gayest thing I've ever seen"! High praise indeed.

The idea came from a similar cosy on Yarnstorm. The pattern is from Rowan Classic Home book five and I crafted it from some cheapo five ply cotton from Lincraft and then sewed on rows and rows of glass fake pearls. I went with glass because I was worried the hot tea could potentially cause melting and lead to loss of shine.

Here's another shot. Isn't she photogenic?