Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Tea & Me & Hats

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the stole, you know how to make a girl smile! I've been wearing it out and about and it's warm and cozy.  Just perfect as the temperature starts dipping lower.  So...what's next?  Cath sent me some lovely Mama Llama yarn in the colorway, "Rivers" but I call it Ireland, gorgeous shades of greens.  It's perfect for a diamond fantasy scarf by Sivia Harding.  If you didn't know Catherine has just started hand-dying yarn, go check out her etsy shop.  The colors are so rich and gorgeous.  In between projects I started and finished a few hats.  First was a small pink one in debbie bliss baby cashmerino for an acquintance in the FRG that I put together a small package before.  Baby hats are so quick and easy, this one was 80 stitches at 6 sts an inch gauge.  The next was for a friend, her baby boy is just about 3 months old and his first halloween is coming up so I made up a quick pumpkin hat pattern.  This was knit in just a few hours, made up off the top of my head and knit in bernat chunky.  She tried it on last night and it was sooo cute! (Ok, so the pic is kinda ugly.  I debated about posting it here, since the lights all wrong but ah well.  You gotta put it all out there.)  Try picturing it with a little baby head in there.

I received a lovely package from my Tea Swap 2 Pal who is in Korea, how exciting!  That is the farthest place I've ever received a package from, and how fun to get to try local treats, I love stuff like this.

The package was wonderful, it contains all sorts of yummy tea, including both loose leaf and bagged (wow!) and a really, really neat tea infuser/containter that I can't wait to try.  There was also wonderful korean pancake snacks that I haven't tried yet, I'm waiting for the perfect time to sit and relax for a few minutes and drink a cuppa tea.  And who can forget the yarn?  It's the perfect sky blue color in 5 ply wool that is quite soft and pretty.  I can't wait to find the perfect pattern for it, I'm thinking cabled scarf.

Thank you so much tea pal, I really enjoyed my package!

Tea!

I'm a little behind schedule, everyone already posted a picture of their tea last week but I figured better late than never.  So, here's my "stash" in all it's glory.  You can see from the picture I don't have too much tea in my cupboad. 

There's some green tea, lemon zinger and assorted herbals and chai.  As well as the HUGE jar of lipton which I keep for my MIL when she visits.  Myself I prefer the herbal although during the summer I drink a lot of Passion Tea by Tazo which brings me to....

Summer Passion Tea Lemonade Recipe
Sidenote: You may remember a while back Starbucks used to make a Passion Tea Lemonade.  Well they stoppped selling it and I missed it so much I had to make up my own.  I think this one is very tasty and perfect for a hot summer day!

1)  Brew a big pot of passion tea (12 cups) with 2 tea bags and sweeten to taste
2)  Make one jug of raspberry lemonade from concentrate (you can find it in the frozen foods section)
3)  Mix the two to your preference (I prefer 50/50) and serve over ice with a mint garnish.

Enjoy sipping it on your porch on a hot summer day, with some knitting!

I also wanted to say a big HI!!! to my tea swap pal who has been teasing me already in the comments.  This is so much fun!

I have been out of touch on internet and email lately.  Last week was one of those weeks where the internet is down and the computer keep crashing (memory leak and driver issues) and I was just about to burst from frustration.  The past weekend I went up to visit my hubby in North Carolina.  He's back up training there again and yes, this is the second time this month.  Anyhow, so we went exploring and saw a few yarnstores, more on that later and we ran into this really neat tea at a boutique near Duke, pictured above.  The tea is loose-leaf and wrapped in a pyramid shaped silk infuser.  It's so unlike anything I've ever seen before, I couldn't resist!

Anyhow, better run!  Knitting wise, seraphim is done and waiting to be photographed.  My entrelac wrap is 2 repeats away from being done, and I have a few socks on the needles.  Happy Tuesday!