A year ago, I wrote about my love for hot water bottles, started as a child, but reinforced by living in a damp house without central heat in Wales. So I was delighted to see that the Chris Hacker, the chief designer at Johnson & Johnson loved water bottles.
In what is a regular feature in the Thursday Home & Garden section of the New York Times, Hacker talks about some of the water bottles he’s found.
From Switzerland, fun and colourful.
From Japan, not something you’d snuggle up with.
From Germany, lovely and coppery, but not too cuddly.
From The Netherlands, a little too anatomical, and it’s velour.
From Scotland, where they really need these things at this time of the year… and even in July, this one ticks all of the boxes.
A felted jacquard lambs-wool cover for your old-fashioned hot water bottle. Almost perfection. Perfection would be a cashmere cover!
Love the ones from Switzerland and
ReplyDeleteScotland. I let P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins use one of
my hot water bottles once. She was in town for an a book store visit in the early 80's. She sent me a cover in shape of a lamb as a thank you. Thank you for bringing
back good memories.
Those stripy covers at the top are an inspiration! I think I already know what I'm making for my handmade Christmas gifts with my scraps of yarn! Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteAnother use for those cashmere sweaters!
ReplyDeleteHe Meg, Helen Mirren, as The Queen, hugs a water bottle in one scene, I think the one where she is woken during the night for bad news.
ReplyDeleteShould I put my order in now for a cashmere bottle sweater? My daughter's birthday is around the corner and she will love it!
ReplyDeleteOh yes Meg as soon as I saw the 1st image I knew you could make these!!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
Oh elseinwmsb, if you have a photo of your PLT lambie cover I would dearly love to see it. What a treasure.
ReplyDeleteThese are truly inspirations, Meg, and I'm already thinking ahead to Christmas gifts also. Three cheers for the humble hot water bottle.
How ingenious! I love seeing how they heat their feet/beds in other countries. Fab. post. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteHA! Who knew??!!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a hot water bottle, but in practice I find that they don't last very long. Am I doing something wrong? I find they don't stay warm past thirty minutes. Meg, if you make yourself a cover from moth eaten old sweaters, I will embroider the holes for you. thanks for the references to the NYTimes. My husband gets it on his iPad, but never has time to add me to his subscription, so I usually am blocked. Ann
ReplyDeleteNutbird... i think that the water temperature makes a difference. i heat the water in the microwave for about five minutes before i pour it into the waterbottle.
ReplyDeleteThe only time I ever used a hot water bottle was on safari in Kenya. Each night when we got back to our "tent" with all of the rustling in the bushes and the crazy, crazy sounds from all sides, it was a little startling to find something warm and furry under the covers.
ReplyDelete