Although Elsie Winter has never had much of a taste for tea, she has been collecting teapots for more than 40 years.
"My mother-in-law had a little bird [teapot]. You could never make a cup of tea in it, but it came out from Scotland in the 1800s," Ms Winter said.
"That's what started the collection for me."
Ms Winter, from the New South Wales mid-north coast, has been sharing her passion with a brigade of volunteers who are making tea cosies that are about more than just pom poms and knitting.
She said tea had been a staple part of every Australian household, and so had the tea cosy.
"You never sat down to the table without a pot of tea with a tea cosy on it," she said.
"Everybody can relate back to their younger days when they had tea cosies … people do prefer a pot of tea."
Hundreds of knitted gems go on display
Ms Winter has donated the majority of her extensive teapot collection to the Taree Craft Centre for an exhibition that is part of the local winter festival.
"I'm getting on in years. The teapots have got to go and the kids don't want them," she said.
The unique display shows that even teapots need winter woollies, with owls, sheep, koalas and an octopus on display.
Nearly 40 volunteers have stitched together the display of cosies.
While some of the showcased tea cosies are newly knitted, while others have a history.
"Some of these are probably 70 or 80 years old … they're getting very frail, we all are, us oldies," Ms Winter said.
She said the cosies had evoked a lot of nostalgia for visitors passing through the town.
"One lady came in and burst into tears because her grandmother had one similar," she said.
"It's brought a lot of good memories back for people."
Most travellers drive right by
Since the construction of the nearby service centre and changes to the Pacific Highway, most tourists now bypass the Taree Information and Craft Centre.
Ms Winter said this had meant a decrease not only in customers, but also in the sharing of stories.
"They stop at the service centre and then go straight back onto the freeway, like most country towns where the freeways go straight through," she said.
"It's sad because they don't see real life in the country."
Along with the other volunteers, Ms Winter hopes the teapots and crafted cosies remind people of their past tea times.
She also hopes to bring knitting back into fashion.
"I'm not really good knitter, so if I can knit and follow a pattern anyone could do it," she said.
