Kwaffee

Some days I am bored. Those days I am prone to starting new projects which generally means rooting around in my yarn stash for a while, but sometimes means going to the interwebs for some other ideas.

The other day I had one such moment and decided to try making cold brew coffee.

As a child I always enjoyed watching people make coffee. Whether it was a cafetiere, a French Press, or an espresso machine, I found the process fascinating. Maybe it was because I grew up in a tea-brewing family who generally did not touch coffee or maybe it was because I’ve always had a thing for any kind of comforting ritual.

Since I’m now a Grown Up™, I thought I may as well try out buying my own coffee-making device, especially since I can’t drink caffeine in that amount and worry about Tim Horton’s giving me normal instead of decaff. It’s happened.

I bought a French Press and a nice fancy grinder that I may marry in an elaborate wedding ceremony. It makes me feel fancy and good at adulting to have a coffee in the morning, even if it’s not for energy like many people use it.

Using the grinder I made some coarse brown mush with cold water, put it in a mason jar previously filled with my girlfriend’s mum’s delicious tomatoes, and put it in the fridge overnight.

Man, it was delicious.

Now, I don’t have a proper filter since I use a French Press, so I couldn’t filter it well enough. I’m going to try again once I buy some filters (or cut up an old t-shirt) but for now I highly recommend trying this.

Next up: cold brew tea!

The Rescued Mitts

Remember those mitts that got an unintentional coffee bath? They are looking good these days. The coffee may have stained but thankfully the colour suits it.

It took three washes in my unscented Soak and most of a day before these mitts smelled anything resembling good. Twelve hours doused in sugary, milky coffee does not lend itself to pleasant odours.

They were a modified version of the Sojourn mitts which is one of my favourite patterns. It’s simple and fun and taught me how to make a nice balanced and even thumb gusset. I finished my first pair in that pattern back in 2011 and still use them all the time.

I didn’t have enough yarn to make the full pattern this time so they’re much smaller and not nearly as pretty. Besides, the yarn I used (Malabrigo Sport in Jupiter, I believe) was too thick and they’re slightly too large for my tiny wrists. I still love these mitts though because they’re perfect for work.

And you can’t even tell they had a coffee bath. Result!

The Coffee Fiasco

Normally I am one of those obnoxious morning people. I wake up perky and ready to go. Last Friday I didn’t find it quite so easy thanks to the cold weather making bed seem like a much better choice than anything ever so by the time I got to work I was barely alert.

When I’m tired I get clumsy. I really should have known better than to put my (large) coffee next to my handknit fingerless gloves.

You can see where this is going.

Thankfully the impressive amount of milky, sweet caffeine avoided my kindle and my work computer but it soaked my headset and the gloves. I spent the first ten minutes of my day mopping it up. Because I was at work I couldn’t dump the gloves in water so by the time I had the chance to clean them they had been stewing in coffee for hours and hours.

Best thing is I don’t usually take much milk in my coffee and very rarely take sugar. Of course I had to spill it that day.

It has taken three separate washes in Soak scentless to get rid of the smell. Fortunately the Manos Del Uruguay I used for the gloves was already a deep brown/red/purple so if there’s a stain it looks deliberate. I can’t tell the difference. Imagine if it had been my pale blue shawl or my sparkly pink cardigan!

Please tell me I’m not the only one this happens to – share your spillage/ruined knits disasters with me below. We can commiserate in our clumsiness together.