Cosies
Knitted tea cosy
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Before
the advent of thermal teapots, in the days of the Brown Betty or other ceramic
teapots, and even in the early metal teapots, one way to keep the tea hot for
longer was to use a tea cosy. This would usually be knitted or made of some
quilted, padded material to insulate the pot. I didn’t use tea cosies but one
day decided I would. I can’t remember how I came by it – it may have been a
gift.
I was in
the kitchen with my son-in-law, my late mother-in-law Dorothy, and my granddaughter,
Kiri, who was then about two and a half years old. I made the tea and we all
chatted as we waited for the tea to brew. None of us noticed that Kiri was
pulling the teapot towards her until she screamed as the boiling liquid spilt
onto her leg. My stomach turns over even
now, more than twenty years later, as I recall that tender flesh being scalded.
Kiri with her oldest boy cousin, Elliot. She is now married with two small children and he is 6'5" and breaking hearts.
Quickly,
we dumped her into tepid water and tried to comfort her, while waiting for an
ambulance, which came mercifully quickly and whipped her off to hospital. She
returned later that day, skipping along, high on painkillers and then went down
with a fever that evening, quite unrelated to the incident, along with her
brother and sister. No serious damage had been done and the scar eventually
healed and faded.
I don’t
know why I used a tea cosy that day – I never had before and I certainly have
never used one since. I didn't even use table cloths, knowing that they could be pulled off. Without the cosy, Kiri would simply have felt the heat of the
teapot on her fingertips and pulled back.
Knitted egg cosies
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Sometimes, egg cosies are used to keep boiled eggs warm.
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