This cosy is a simple, chunky knit piece worked both in the round and in two separate parts. Circular or DPNs with both work fine for this project. You will also be doing some simple circular crochet for the eyes, although circles can be knitted if preferred. The piece is designed to fit a standard 6 cup English teapot, however it can be very easily modified to fit a larger or smaller pot. You’ll know if it’s worked because you will have the unremitting urge to run around making owl noises both at the teapot and your friends and family.

Shout out to Tasia Block who made the original Hoot! Owl hat on which this pattern was based.

You will need:

2 x 50g Sirdar Kiko 412 or other super bulky yarn of your choice

6.0 mm / US 10 Circular and DPNs

Small amount of white or pale DK yarn

Small amount of any orange/yellow yarn and suitable needles for stockinette

4.0 mm crochet hook

2 x 2cm diameter black buttons

Small amount of black tapestry/embroidering thread

Tapestry needle

Gauge:

11 st and 17 rows = 4in using 6mm needles

Adjust needle size for correct gauge

Body:

CO 50 st

Working in the round:

Round 1: k50

Round 2: p50

Round 3: k50

Round 4: p50

Round 5: k50

(you can add or decrease the amount of garter st rows here to fit around the bottom of your teapot, the top part of this piece should reach the bottom of the handle)

Now you will split the knitting and knit two sides separately and flat, leaving the un-knit side on it’ s needles or a stitch keeper:

Row 6: k25, turn

Rows 7-15 stockinette

Transfer to a stitch keeper or leave on needle

Rejoin yarn to other side and repeat rows 6-15

You should now have two flat pieces of knitting joined at the bottom. We will now rejoin the sides to knit in the round, make sure to check the splits are tall enough for the teapot handle and spout to peak through. If they are a little tall, don’t worry too much as this can be fixed at the end.

Working in the round:

At the end of Row 15 on the second side, continue to knit stockinette for a further 15 rounds or until the top of the square is at the desired height. Remember that you will lose some height when you create the ears. Turn the piece inside out to bind off.

Binding off:

You will now transfer all your stitches onto 1 needle in a ‘zip’ fashion and use decrease bind off.

First, make sure that your stitches are split evenly – 25st across two needles (12 and 13 or 11 and 14). Due to the yarn being super bulky, it’s very difficult to transfer all 50 stitches onto one needle, so we will bind off half the piece at a time. You will therefore transfer the stitches from the first two needles of each side onto a single DPN, bind off, and then do the same for the rest of the stitches. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does work.

Holding the first two needles together, use a third needle to transfer stitches, one from each needle at a time. Think of this as zipping the piece together You should end up with all 25 stitches on one needle and then the remaining stitches to be bound on their original needles (or you could put these on stitch keepers).

Decrease bind off works by knitting 2 stitches together through the back of the knit stitches and then passing the resulting knit st back onto the left hand needle. You then repeat this until you’re left with one st on your needle.

Now you can repeat this process for the remaining stitches – zip up the remaining 15 stitches onto the third needle and complete the bind of. Cut yarn, pull through and weave in end.

Now you can turn the body right side out and push the corners through into points.

Phew. Aren’t you glad that’s done?

Eyes: (make 2 – unless you want your owl to have more or less than 2 eyes. I’m not judging.)

Using a 4.0mm crochet hook and your white/pale yarn, CO and make 4ch. Join this chain together by pushing through the first loop, making a third loop and pulling it through the first and last loop on your needle. The centre of this circle will be the centre through which the next rounds of double crochet will be pulled.

Make 3ch and work approx. 12 rounds of double crochet through the centre loop to make a circle. Once you have a full circle, join the ends together, make another 3ch and then repeat another set of double crochet – one for each round in the existing circle.

Confused? I hadn’t crocheted before so I was. There’s an excellent tutorial on YouTube here

Beak:

I used some waste bulky orange yarn on 6mm needles to make the beak on mine, but it really doesn’t matter. If your yarn is more a DK weight then use 4mm needles instead.

CO 1 st

Row 1 (WS) and every other odd row: purl

Row 2: inc1

Row 4: k1, inc1

Row 6: k1, inc1, k1

Row 8: k1, inc1, k1, inc1

This should be large enough using bulky yarn. For lighter yarn, simply continue to increase evenly across each even row until you reach a beak size you are happy with. Bind off and weave in end.





Finishing:

Using white yarn and a tapestry needle, sew on the white crochet circles.

Using black tapestry yarn and a tapestry needle, sew the buttons into the centre of each white circle – or you can make it look goofy and cross-eyed or something for extra giggles.

Using the yarn you made your beak from and a tapestry needle, stitch on the beak.

If one or both of the splits in each side of the body are a little tall or could be a bit more snug, turn the piece inside out and use some of the body yarn and a needle to make a few stitches in mattress stitch. This will be invisible on the outside – hooray!

Now make a pot of tea and feel smug. Then run around making owl noises. Hoot.