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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

WIP Wednesday

I have two WIPs on the go at the moment. They are both gifts, so I'm getting some unselfish knitting done. When I finished my last big project for myself, I was at a loss for what to make next. You might think that having a lengthy ravelry queue would prevent such dilemmas, but no. Right now I'm knitting for others to cleanse my palate, or something, and I think it is working.

First up is the Little Sister's Dress by Tora Froseth. This is a gift for my newest little cousin-in-law born recently. I'm now further along than the photo, working on the stockinette body portion.

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I'm using some cotton yarn leftover from when I made Decimal years ago. I don't often work with cotton, since I live in such an excellent wool-wearing climate. As it turns out I'm really enjoying it, and I haven't experienced any issues from cottons inelastic nature. If it keeps up there will be more cotton knits in my future.

Next up is a scarf for my mom. Last month we visited my family in Canada and I brought along a skein of Lioness Arts King of the Jungle Sock that I bought at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. My mom picked the pattern Drachenschwanz after trawling through Ravelry. I love semisolid yarns and garter stitch.

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The original pattern is in German, and the English translation didn't make much sense to me... Luckily a helpful raveler, Amilouna, has basically rewritten the pattern in her project notes, so I am following those.

Because it is Wednesday, you can find more WIPs at Tami's blog.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Magical.

It's not as warm out today as it was a few days ago, since Scotland's participation in the UK 'heatwave' was rather brief, but I am still enjoying a very magical iced coffee.

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This is Magical coffee - cold-brewed coffee with cinnamon and brown sugar. My first time cold-brewing, but definitely not last. Delicious!

I did the whole thing in a cafetiere / French press, and the press seemed to do enough straining on its own. (We normally use a cafetiere for coffee, so all our coffee is coarsely ground.) I used less coffee - 3 coffee scoops (which I think are tablespoons), since I only used just over two cups of water. I also used less sugar - more like 2 tblsp, but next time I might use even less. I kept the cinnamon the same, because I love cinnamon. I used coffee ice cubes, since I made some the other day when it was rather warm and hadn't had a chance to try them yet.

Edited to add: the combination of cinnamon and sugar kind of gummed up the French press, so next time I might add the sugar afterwards. This wouldn't be an issue with straining, I guess.

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Oh, hello, by the way! I ATEN'T DED and all that.