Coffee and Yarn Talk

Hi all: came across this on Sarah's blog yesterday - have no idea if it relates to some contest or not... but I thought it was cool. So, lucky you - you get two posts from me today!

Beware the Ides of March... and beware procrastinators with finish-itis concerning lovely lace stole patterns! Sigh.

(Sarah, by the way, is obviously a very kind person.  She had some very flattering things to say about me on her blog:

...Kristina is zany and irreverant, and knits like a fiend! She posts every day and you just never know what she's going to present you with next. Plus she's just a darn great gal - last year she heard my cry for help when I lost one of my favourite sock needles on the transit bus and within days I had a extra set of the same needles waiting for me in my mailbox from her.

Or, is it just snow madness from living in Winnipeg? Hmm... )

Coffee

1. Whole beans or ground?
I would say whole, but I'm too lazy for that. I had a grinder once and destroyed it by trying to grind whole nutmeg in it. (Why? Why do we do anything, really?). I then tried what I thought to be a very creative method of grinding the whole beans I had left. It involved a huge IKEA cutting board, a heavy-bottomed saucepan and lots of noise.

After the policemen that my neighbour called in left, I got out my Nescafe instant coffee and my shaker and made a frappe.

Who needs hot coffee, anyway?!

(Oh, in case you wonder what the word in Greek is above: it's "saykerrr". This is Gringlish for "shaker". Most Greeks cannot pronounce "sh" as it is not a sound used in most Greek dialects. They cannot pronounce "ch" either. This leads to some funny sentences if you ask someone who talks like my father where the shaker style church with the cherry trees in front is.

Now I want a frappe. However, that would entail ice, wouldn't it? Hmm. Must organize myself better.)

2. What kind of coffees do you enjoy? A rich, bold roast; a light, fresh one, or something in between? Leaded or non?

I've never quite understood the point of decaf, myself. I don't really care what kind of coffee it is as long as it's black and has caffeine.

3. If you were headed out right now to buy some coffee for the house, what would you be picking up?

Espresso from Italy:

or
This is Greek coffee, which Wikipedia insists on calling Turkish coffee for some reason. I should write a strong letter. Sheesh.

For those unfamiliar with it, think of espresso mixed with mud.

Why bother? Well, it's very easy to make. You use this boiling tin called a briki:

...put in coffee and a LOT of sugar (my sugar/coffee ratio is 1:1)!...

...then boil the hell out of it bring it to a boil until it foams up.

(The person who took this photo must be some kind of photography wizard - managing to capture the foam in that .25 second envelope before it boils all over this stove. And JJ wonders why the smoke alarm goes off any time I try to fry an egg! He has probably never seen me make this - it is a highly secret ritual - they're probably going to take away my membership card now that I've shown you what to do. Sigh.)

JJ doesnae drink coffee anyways, only this:

Er. Wrong photo...

This is the tea equivalent to greek coffee. Strong as all hell. Guid stuff!

4. Do you drink for caffeine, pleasure, or both?

It's the drug, man. I need it.

5. Do you enjoy flavored coffees? How about add-ins or flavored creamers?

I like the odd flavoured coffee - preferably vanilla. Fresh and Wild down the street from my office sometimes have one called "Fireside" which smells like it is half Cointreau, half coffee. I love it, but am afraid to take it to work lest I get fired for drinking.

I hate add-ins. Why would I muck up a guid cuppa coffee with petroleum product?! Plus, I detest milk. Too healthy.

6. A large, lovely mug or a small, dainty cup?


7. Describe your perfect cup - not JUST the coffee, but how you'd enjoy it!

Half cold, sitting by my desk at work. It's an essential. I can't work without it. The half hour I have to spend waiting for it to get to the right cool temperature is sheer hell. I usually have to go out for about three cigarettes.

8. You're sitting down to enjoy a nice cup in the local coffee shop, knitting bag in hand, iPod all tuned up - or maybe you're there with a few friends for knit night! What treat do you pick up to enjoy with your coffee? A sweet, rich brownie, or something more healthy?

Healthy?!? Was ist "healthy"????

How about a salty treat? What goes best with that great cup and company?

I'm partial to cheddar tea biscuits or scones myself.
I skip the apple, though, and whatever the other blobs are at the right side. Too healthy.

(Oh, by the way, Emeril has a fabulous recipe forham and cheese lard biscuits - one of the very few things I have been bothered to bake in recent years. I had to stop making them, though, as my @$$ was starting to resemble the ... well, never mind.)


Yarn

1. Do you knit or crochet?

I think we all know the answer to that, don't we?!

2. What are your favorite types of yarns to work with?

Silk silk silk silk handmaiden silk ooh aah swoon silk silk.

Er, silk. Sorry, got carried away there!

3. What do you have on the needles right now?

The SOTSii Mystery KAL Stole, the Icarus lace stole from IK Autumn 2006, and the Bespoke Jacket from No Sheep for You.

4. What are your favorite colors in yarns?

My favourite colour changes on a hourly minutely - is that a word?! - basis. Right now it's fuschia purple lime green.
What about those that you'd never find in your stash?

That's easy. Beige.

Hold on a minute! What about all this???



Um... all right then. White!

Er... foiled again. Evil Kristina has a LOT to answer for.

Umm... I don't know, then.

5. What sort of needles or hooks do you enjoy using?

Addi Turbo or Addi Lace circulars.

Any you just detest?

Those weird hollow metal coloured ones from Lion Brand. The noise they make is like fingernails across the chalkboard to me.

6. Are there any particular notions you absolutely do NOT need? Some of us swap a lot - are you sure that you have enough tape measures, for example, to last your lifetime?

I don't understand the question!!

What I want, though, is a ball winder and swift. With the 10 kilometres of laceweight yarn in the house, they would come in handy.

7. You walk into the yarn shop and have exactly and only enough money to purchase 2 skeins of yarn in their 2 for 20 special they have going..The choices are a soft, thick cotton/viscose blend in your favorite colors, slightly variegated..a beautiful sock yarn that's just squishy and sproingy in your hands.. a soft, worsted weight wool like malabrigo.. and a lovely bamboo blend with colors to just die for. Which do you walk out the door with?

I go back out the door, stab the first passer-by I see with my lace needles and take their wallet, and go and buy it ALL. Hmm. I'd probably go with the bamboo. I could take or leave the cotton/viscose - not fussy on viscose, particularly.


Spring

1. We're starting sign-ups on the first day of Spring -

A-ha! The origin of the questionnaire is revealed. All is clear. Is there some knit-a-long that I don't know about?!? How did this happen?!?!?

Is it already truly Spring-like where you are?

Hah!!!



Sob.

2. What's your favorite spring flower? Do you have one? 

At this point, anything living would do  Daffodils. 

3. What do you most look forward to about springtime? 

The fact that it means winter is OVER.  And, sitting on patios. 

4. They've predicted a gorgeous day tomorrow - Sunny and about 65 with a nice breeze - how do you spend your day? 

On the balcony (at home) or in the smoking area (at work) or on a patio with a pint of Keiths or three.  

5. The day after, it's going to be cooler and pouring down rain - does that impact your mood? How do you spend that day? what helps cheer you up? 

Knitting!  

Odds n Ends

1. Do you collect anything BESIDES yarn and needles? 

Stained glass and old plates and tiles to make mosaics with.  

2. Are you allergic to anything? 

Penicillin, and cheese Ritz crackers for some weird reason. 

3. Do you have pets? 

Nope.  That would involve work. 

4. Is this your first swap, or are you an old pro? What are the last 2 swaps you participated in?

Oh - now ALL is truly revealed.  Not missing a KAL.  Phew.  Have not done official swaps at all, although have swapped with people I've met on Raverly and Knittyboard.

5. List 3 of your favorite blogs - craft related or not - and tell us why you love them.

This is a hard one - there's a lot of great ones out there!  Right now, I'd say these three:

(a) Three blogs I love are as follows in no particular order:

Rick Mercer



Rick completely cracks me up. He is my favourite comedian and I like his thoughts on politics as well. Plus, he has funny photos!  There is also an older version of the blog here.

2. Clarabelle

Clarabelle's writing, I find witty - although I should hate her because she is a Lace Queen supreme. If you visit her blog and look at her stuff and do not take up lace knitting immediately after that, there's something wrong with you.

3. Fizzy Fibres

Susie is a champion freeform knitter and crafter from the Land of Oz. I love her blog because I never thought that one could write freeform until I saw it - check it out and you'll see what I mean. I laugh out loud when I read it - every time she posts.

Plus, as you can see, she has a fabulous fashion sense.

Brouhaha's guide to surviving the northern winter

What's a girl to do when the temperature dips way below zero, the sun never shines and daylight only takes place for a few hours a day?

(Yes, yes, I know... it looks sorta pretty, actually. Well, let me tell you, the sight of me arriving at work with trousers splashed up and down with brown slush by passing cars is a damn site less than pretty!)

I realise there are all sorts of pioneer guides written by those far more experienced than I (Jack London and Susanna Moodie come to mind) - and I certainly don't intend to go roughing it in the bush to figure out how to write a better one. So, please treat this as my Six-Point Plan for the Modern Crafting Pioneer.

1. Knit things that cover as much of your body as possible while knitting them.
When you live in a 55 year old building with a heating system that most likely predated the building, you learn very quickly to dress warmly inside. At least, you might. I prefer to dress as though I were heading to the beach in Hawaii, myself. So, it's imperative that my knitting projects meet my need to stay warm.

Here's a good example:Now, I cannot tell you how $#&*@($&*#@( sick I was of this project (the Nina shawl from the MDK book) when I took this photo. However, it does keep me warm.

2. Knit other cold-weather stuff.

At the present time, as usual, I have too many ideas/projects on the brain and too little time. Right now I'm making a sweater.

For the next project, I'm trying to decide between the Jess gansey sweater featured in the Winter 2007 IK mag:

(and yes, yes, I know - it has short sleeves. But it is not a cotton T-shirt, so give me a break already!) using this yarn:(the Rowan Calmer I bought for the Morrigan by Jenna Wilson, which I recently acknowledged that I will never actually make...sigh) and the Bespoke Jacket from No Sheep for You:

using CotLin in a few colours.

As a quick and easy project, I'll also be making another Moebius scarf with this lovely Noro Silk Garden yarn:I also have another project mission on the go, which leads me to:

3. Think Pink!

Now, I'm not ordinarily a pink sort of gal, but when hunting through the stash today I was surprised to learn that my Pink cup runneth over:

Which is a good thing, because it means that I am prepared to undertake the Freeform Pink Fragment Challenge posted by Jenny Dowde on one of my listserves today. Essentially, we've been asked to create some knit/crochet fragments out of pink yarn for future assembly into an art piece to be raffled off for a breast cancer charity. A venerable cause... ! And, just look at all this pink yarn!

If interested, by the way, check out the Freeformations group on Ravelry or contact me for more info. Also, there is a Freeformations yahoo group.

(I know, I'm cheating... there is one there that isn't all pink. However, the pink in it is very shiny so I thought it should go into the mix. And, speaking of shiny things...)

4. Make sure that your surroundings are as bright and cheery as possible.

In this regard, while cleaning this past weekend I came across some odds and ends and assembled the following display:

The vases both came from the Goodwill some time back and cost about $3.00 each. The flower bouquets are from the dollar store and were left over from my Homage to Carmen Miranda. Aren't they cute? (Oh - the flower in the middle was the place card holder at a friend's wedding.)

5. Use extra lighting when needed to keep you sane.

This lamp was an antique/junk shop find from a couple of years back. It is Art Deco, but I got it for $20.00 because there is a crack in it somewhere. The vase to its left is from the Goodwill. This colour cheers me up immensely, I must say.

The candy stash (which you can see in the standing ashtray at the far left of the photo, with Werthers caramels having a place of honour at the far right) doesn't hurt either. And on the general topic of nourishment...

6. Eat nourishing cold weather meals.

Now, I don't know about you... but I spend much of the summer foraging for exotic treats to stash away to keep us going through the winter...

This means that on winter weekends when I am snowed in (or alternatively, when I am too lazy to get any further than the gas station up the street for smokes and chips), I don't have to worry about coming up with something better than stale bread and olive oil for dinner (actually, I have become rather partial to stale bread and olive oil over the years, but JJ will insist on eating a hot meal... ! Ingrate.)

Particularly in the winter months, the item on the left below is the Modern Crafting Pioneer's best friend.

This slow cooker gets a lot of use in these parts. It is pictured here with the ingredients for tonight's dinner, which, as I type, is merrily bubbling away:

Kristina's Desperation Lamb Mexi-Mediterranean Chili

1/2 kilo (1 lb) ground lamb (thanks, New Zealand! I love ya!)
1 large jar medium salsa leftover from a party this past autumn
1 small jar garlic tomato pizza sauce
1 can chick peas (I don't like those red beans)
Frank's hot sauce to taste
(not pictured)
juice of 1/2 orange
cumin powder (probably about 2 t.)
cinnamon powder (probably about 1 t.)
salt and pepper

Make sure the lamb is thawed. Throw everything into the slowcooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serve with lots of crusty bread.
By the way, you may have read in some fancy cooking book or homemakers' mag that you should brown all the meat, etc. before putting in the slowcooker for better flavour. I'm here to tell you I've tried dishes with and without browning, and there is NO difference in flavour at all. I shouldn't have thought there would be, giving that you're cooking the hell out of the dish in the slowcooker anyway! So, a time-saving tip from Brouhaha - more time to knit!!!

(Oh - you can also add the beer if you want to. The beer in the photo was intended for the chef, actually - left there from the cooking effort last night.)

Nothing to it, eh? So - anyone from the South, consider moving on up here next winter. It's really not as brutal up here as we like to let on. At least not in Toronto... now the people of Winnipeg or Angus, I suspect, would be laughing at me were they bothering to read it!

And, upon sober second thought, it is kinda pretty after all!

how the fashionable urban professional goes to work...

...when it looks like this outside:


First off, accessories are very important, particularly when they help to keep one sane during the pushing/shoving/noiseridden commute:

Check out the fuschia earphones. And the iPod colour should always coordinate with the winter coat:

Would you believe that this coat is 20 years old? (I shake my head in disbelief that I'm actually admitting to this!!) I bought it on a trip to Toronto (at Simpsons, long gone now) when I was 17 and still living with my parents in Kingston. It cost $175.00. My mother nearly had a heart attack, but I had pinched my pennies and I wanted this cost. If my math is correct, the cost has worked out to $8.75 per year. Not too shabby (although you don't want to see the lining and the insides of the pockets!)

This is the pin that lives on my coat, given to me by a dear friend about 10 years ago.

And now on to some little known secrets about the life of Brouhaha.

It is imperative to start off the day with a healthy breakfast, of course:

And have you ever wondered what top-flight lawyers carry with them in those boxy briefcases?

Well, I'll show you. First, some essential tools of the trade:


These are my implements which I use to stab recalcitrant landlords.

Oops - I just realised that I also managed to bust a Christmas surprise. Sorry, Mom (who will truly be surprised when she finds out that the gift card is only worth $20!!!!).

Also, there are other essential secret things, carried, of course, in a Prada bag:

(Dang - did I leave the Prada at home again?!? Damn and blast!)

And of course, one should always have documentation in the event that one is summoned off to a top-secret international mission:

(Besides, you never know when the Bathurst tram might have to change its route due to construction, and decide it's a good idea to access downtown Toronto via Buffalo!)

Other essentials:
... cash and housekeys...

(How do you like my bright money carriers?! Cute, eh? And of course some evil eyes for luck.)

Best also to have extra supplies of medication on hand...

(A friend bought this for me during my last period. Do you think she was trying to tell me something? But look - it's medicinal. Really.)

I keep telling people, "Chocolate is good for you!". This, I think, proves me right.

Getting down to the bottom of my bag of tricks:

This is something that I was given as a gift this past week. 100 grams of chocolate covered stale bread cubes. Calabrese bread, mind you. (At $5.00 for 100 grams of stale bread, I should think it was flown in directly from Italy. I paid $2.25 for a 650 gram loaf of Calabrese bread on the way home from work last night - and it was even fresh.)

And, finally:

But I haven't even shown you how to dress for success yet!! Sigh.

This is my new top which I made from my Montego Bay scarf. It was a big hit at the staff lunch!

And finally, a very rare insight into the deep intellect of Brouhaha:\



(This is what I do when I'm not allowed to knit at the 5th website meeting this month...deep, eh? I'll tell you a big secret - I actually wrote The Da Vinci Code. Yes, little old yarn-addicted me. Can't you tell by this mystical diagram?)

Happy Wednesday... and a very very happy birthday to Bill Nighy, whom JJ suspects I have a raging crush on. Really I don't. It's just his acting. Really...