Japanese Pagoda Tea Cosy

I have a love of gardening and I love to visit Japanese gardens because I love the little bridges, stone lanterns, kyoto arch, tea houses and pagodas.

To be honest I wanted to knit a tea house tea cosy, because of the tea association, but tea houses aren't so beautiful and eye catching, but Japanese pagodas are just fabulous. Heavily decorated and detailed and brightly coloured. I love the jade green roofs against the red paintwork and gold guilting.

So I have sketched out a Japanese pagoda tea cosy. Now I know they are supposed to be five stories high to represent the five elements (earth, wind, fire, water and sky/heaven) but I thought that that might be a bit too much for the tea cosy.

I shall try to add gold detailing into the knitting as I knit the main parts, without using Fair Isle or intarsia. I know some knitters are put off by Fair Isle and intarsia. But I do think that knitting detail in is preferable to stitching lots of little bits to the main parts at the end.

Obviously my teapot is round, but I want to give the pagoda a square-like appearance. The top stories above will be easier to make square, but I shall need to work on the lower level to give the impression of a square building.

I'm not sure how I shall be making the roofs at the moment. They do need to be flattish but also self supporting and I love the way the corners curl up. I also like the texture of the upper side of the roofs. There's lots to think about.









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