Winter is Coming - Will You have Coffee?

It may only be November 7th, but winter is coming.  There's no stopping it.  Soon we'll be seeing winter storm warnings, blizzards, and ice storms.  If you follow me on Facebook, you'll see that I posted a tip from the National Weather Service about how to outfit your car to be winter ready.  However, in this blog post, I'd like to focus on something a little bit more mundane, coffee.

With any winter storm comes the threat of power outages.  Once you've got your firewood stocked, food stored up, and plenty of flashlights, there are the creature comforts to consider.  How will you have hot coffee when there's no power?

My parents ran into the coffee problem in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley back in 2004.  Dad grinds his coffee fresh every morning using an electric coffee grinder and makes a pot of coffee in the electric coffee pot.  After Charley though, there was no power. Mom and Dad ended up driving quite a ways inland to find a coffee shop to have coffee.  They were able to do this because Charley was a small hurricane, in terms of diameter.

However, if there's a blizzard with 24 inches of snow on the ground and roadways, you probably can't hop in the car and drive to where there wasn't a blizzard and get coffee.  Winter storms can cover entire states and more, and it could take days or longer for power crews to come out to restore power.

I propose that with proper prior planning and the ability to boil water, you can have your coffee and drink it too.  First of all, if a blizzard is coming, get some ground coffee, or grind up a whole bunch of coffee before it gets here.  I'd grind a whole pound of it.  You can store it in a sealed container in your freezer to keep it fresh.  Then, you can either use a French Press or a Single Cup Coffee Maker (pictured below) to make your coffee.

A French Press is pretty self-explanatory, but the single-cup coffee brewer is pretty cool.  You put a #2 coffee filter in it, set it atop your coffee cup, put in your desired amount of coffee, and then you pour boiling or hot water through it slowly until your cup is filled.

If we had a blizzard and no power, I'd clear off a portion of our back deck and set up an outdoor kitchen.  I have a Coleman camp stove, fuel, and camping pots/pans/etc. already for camping.  They'd be very useful in such a situation. We'd have no problem boiling water for coffee or cooking anything we desired.

Crochet Blanket Edgings

If you're in need of an easy gift idea, try crocheting an edging onto a blanket.  It's super-simple, and it took me about 3 hours total.  That's not a terrible amount of time from start of crafting to finished object.  Above, you can see the full blanket with edging and cat for scale.  Below is a closer shot of the edging around the blanket.

What you will need to make a similar blanket, which I think could be a great gift idea is the following:

• a fleece blanket with a sewn edging
• Red Heart Super Saver yarn or equivalent worsted weight acrylic yarn
• crochet hook - I used a size J - Pick a crochet hook that allows you to single crochet around the blanket without any tugging or puckering

I made a slipknot, stuck it on my hook, tightened it down, and inserted the hook under the sewn edging, then made a single crochet.  I continued in this manner, using the sewn edging as the basis for my single crochets around the entire blanket.  I started in one corner, and you will work left to right.  When I reached my first stitch, I made a slip stitch to join.

Then it was time to make shells.  You could make any border stitch pattern you'd like, but I chose shells.  For my border, I made 5 double crochets into that first single crochet where I had just slip stitched.  Then, I skipped 3 single crochets and made 5 double crochets into the 4th single crochet.  Skip 3, make 5 double crochets, skip 3, make 5 double crochets all the way around the blanket until you reach your very first stitch.  Then slip stitch to join, sew in ends, and viola you have a completed blanket.

I will be washing my blanket to remove the cat fur and donating it to Project Linus.

Crochet 1: Basic Stitches

I'm teaching Basic Crochet on Wednesdays, November 6, 13, & 20 at 6:00-8:00 pm

Join us for this introductory crochet class where we'll learn all the basic stitches - and leave class with a great, basic crochet booklet.  This class is great for those who have never crocheted, or for those who would like a refresher.  We'll cover basic stitches, pattern stitches, reading instructions, increasing and decreasing and some finishing techniques.

$45

At the Sow's Ear - Verona, WI

About a Sweater

Yesterday, I received a request to have a picture of my sweater featured on a pattern page.  Having your sweater featured is quite an honor, and I am suitably honored.

What's funny is that this turquoise sweater is more than a sweater to me.  It has matching socks too!

All kidding aside, I made the sweater and sock set for a special occasion, and the memory of that special occasion is linked to this sweater.  I made it to wear to my nephew's dedication ceremony at his church in April of 2011.

The pattern is "Jukebox Jingle" and can be found in the book, "The Ultimate Knitted Tee."