Tina Sharpe from Essex is a lady who loves a cup of tea. In fact she loves it so much that when she saw a giant shed in the shape of a teapot she simply had to have it. But the story doesn’t stop there. Tina had the teapot taken apart and transported to France where she has a home and she opened it as a tea room. And… the tale goes on, because now she’s aiming to create the biggest tea cosy in the world to help raise funds for charity.
The Tea in the tearoom café in France is spectacularly quirky and very big. Since it opened in 2015, the 30-seater two-level teapot has become a treasured landmark in Castelnau-Magnoac in the Hautes-Pyrénées in the far south of France. Coffee drinking locals have been persuaded to try tea and expats in the area love that they can get a good cuppa and a cream tea with real clotted cream. Tina has made the Teapot into a real communi-tea meeting place where French lessons can be enjoyed and knitting and art classes held over a natter and a cup of rosy lee.
Making the biggest tea cosy in the world
Tina says that she started knitting squares for blankets for charity and had one of those Eureka moments. “It just struck me that we could create the world’s biggest tea cosy with the help of family, friends and customers, and then I thought, why not get everyone involved!”. Tina supports Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and children’s charity L’Association Dominique in Toulouse.
The idea is to create the cosy from knitted squares – either 6, 10 or 12 inches square. Once the cosy is completed the squares will be de-constructed, made into blankets and sold online to raise funds. This is no ordinary cosy after all, it is likely to be the biggest cosy in the world and Tina hopes it will make the Guinness Book of Records. The current record holder is an 11.1m in circumference by 3.9m high cosy made in Leeds, UK. Tina’s tea cosy will need to be considerably bigger than that to cover the 4.7high teapot.
Help Create a World Record
Everyone can enjoy getting involved says Tina. “You can knit squares, donate wool or contribute on our Just Giving Page… the response so far has been fantastic and squares and wool are being sent in. Friends, family, customers and followers of the Tea in the Teapot tearoom from as far away as Australia and the US are all getting involved. All the people who come to our knitting club, “The Knitting Pot”, which is held every Thursday afternoon at the Teapot, are knitting away. But we need a lot of squares! So we would like to spread the word and get more people on board. Especially those around the world who have supported the teapot and followed its progress but are not able to visit.”
Tina hopes to complete the giant tea cosy by late autumn 2016. “We plan to invite everyone involved to an Afternoon Tea Party to celebrate the completion of the cosy and see it in place before we de-construct it and make it into blankets/throws and sell on online in an auction type of style and raise further money. The blankets are sold with the idea that they are a special momento of a great big cosy which raised awareness and money for the charities.”Read more about Tea in the Teapot
