My Morning Cup of Tea: Yunnan Gold Style!

Good Morning, friends!!!

So in my cup this morning is a lovely blend of tea. It is not a flavored tea, it is simply tea. Yunnan Gold is a beautiful black tea with a rich, delicate, soft flavor. I am not going to lie; I was nervous about this one as it had no distinct smell while brewing. So I took a sip and am in love. It is so stunning a brew that it makes me smile. It is light and you can drink the whole cup without even realizing it.

It doesn't have a distinctive flavor, it just is a beautiful tea. It receives a 1/5 for aromatic quality, 5/5 for flavor, and a 5/5 for the Josh factor. This is a tea I could literally drink all day. It is simply amazing.

So onto life things. Today I (hopefully!) get to go meet up with my friend Hayley at the Mall of America or StevenBe's! (or both!) I am SO excited and can't wait for it to happen! :D

However, apparently my plans may be for nought, as I have to go pick up a stupid trailer this afternoon at the repair shop. Here. In my hometown. NOT in the cities... ARGH!!! So while I'm hoping to go, I may not be able to. Which makes me sad. Makes me angry. Makes my frustration abound...

So I plan on going, but I may not be able to go. I am accepting this, but it is SO frustrating! I seem to make plans and get ready for them and then the phone rings and the schedule changes. But rather then end this post on a whiny, teenage-esque angst, I will end it with this:

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!! :D

Raising my glass to you all!!!

Josh

My Morning Cup of Tea: Mango Green Style!

Good Morning, Friends!!!

I am currently enjoying an AMAZING cup of tea and a red velvet cinnamon roll while typing this!

The cinnamon rolls turned out BEAUTIFULLY and while they aren't mind-blowing, they are really good!

So onto my cup of tea! I am LOVING this cup this morning! I am drinking Mango Green: a delightful green tea with beautiful, fresh, floral mango pieces. The cup brews a beautiful golden color and is simply STUNNING in the taste and smell! It makes me want a second cup right after drinking the first.

I give this amazing blend a 4/5 for aromatic quality, 5/5 for taste, and 5/5 for the Josh Factor!

So onto my morning cup of thoughts, life, and anything else.

I am currently getting ready to bind off a new design today and it is going to be FANTASTIC to have it off the needles. I made quite a bit of progress on another new shawl design and on my Megalodon shawl. I also got quite a bit spun up yesterday and it makes me giddy to think of all the things I can do today! This is day 2 of vacation and I'm LOVING it! :D

So, Cheers, my friends!

Have a great day and I raise my cup to you!

Josh

My Morning Cup of Tea: Ginger Peach Style!

Good Morning, Friends!!!

I hope your day starts off with a fantastic thing, whatever it is! :D

So in my cup this morning is Ginger Peach tea: a black tea flavored with bits of ginger and peach. It is unfortunately my least favorite of the box o' tea (so far!) and I am not in love with it... sad panda... The ginger is too overpowering to be able to taste the fruity undertones of the peach flavors. :( So my rating is 1/5 for aromatic quality, 1/5 for flavor, and 1/5 for the Josh factor.

So my cup of tea was bad this morning. BUT that doesn't mean my day started off bad! :D

I woke up and was in relaxed glee of NOT having to work for the next 5 days! It made my morning even sweeter! I rolled over, checked my phone, and answered my good morning texts with a big grin, albeit groggy and with much eye rubbing. Then I logged onto my social outlets and checked in with everyone. After checking all the sites, I played quite a few Nonograms - which happen to be one of my favorite number-based puzzles. I CONQUERED all, except one that was broken... I swear... ;)

But fast forward to breakfast. I made a quick breakfast nacho (which is a DIVINE way to start the morning! :D ) and began to make the dough for my red velvet cinnamon rolls (recipe here). The dough is still rising, but now begins the long wait of waiting for the dough to rise...

While I was beginning to down the last dregs of my tea, a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless, though she knows who she is! :D ) sent me a pattern as a gift! Slade, which is a knit sweater that I LITERALLY just saw yesterday, is now my newest pattern acquisition! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to my Random Pattern Giver! (RPG!!!) I LOVE it and THANK YOU!!! :D

So now to be to conquer my list for the day and to make some EPIC cinnamon rolls!!! :D

Cheers, Friends and I raise my cup of tea to you! :D

Josh

My Morning Cup of Tea: Casablanca Twist Style!

Good Morning!

So no cup of tea yesterday due to me feeling down in the dumps yesterday. It had no apparent reason, no logical source, nothing. I just woke up on the sad side of life. But today, I woke up to a dark morning. Literally. It's cloudy and POURING rain and I LOVE it! :D

I've always had a fascination with thunderstorms and rain in general that has led to me wishing to be curled up with a cup of tea, casually reading a book while watching the orchestra of clouds, rain, thunder, and lightning as they compose a beautiful symphony of organic quality. It is simply wonderful to sit here curled up with a cup of tea, writing away while the storm plays on.

So back to yesterday. I felt down all day with no apparent reason why. It was odd as I just finished a new design the night before and should have been celebrating the completion of a project. However, I woke up in a sad state of mind. Maybe it was my inner knitter mourning the loss of working on a project, but I think it was something else entirely. My inner AND outer knitter was quite ecstatic to be free from that particular project and quite relieved to have it finished.

The project? A shawl design I've been working on for about a year off and on. I've designed QUITE a few things in between working on this project and I FINALLY finished it. It was dragging my knitting soul down with the feeling that it was quite alien to me, yet it wasn't. In essence, I pulled out a sketch from early Josh, sat down, cast it on, and found that it was dreadfully simple. But this was exactly what I needed for this design. A yarn store had given me a skein of their exclusive shop color way in the Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Silk +. The color way is STUNNING and grey and black and white and GLORIOUS! However the yarn has been stubborn and not cooperating with me, leading to many failed design/yarn combinations.

But I soldiered on and finished it (Thanks to Briar, Heather, Hayley, and Jenna), resulting in something that I'm actually proud to call my own! I had hated it for a long time due to it feeling like a third arm and completely unnatural to me. It didn't feel "Josh-like" to me, yet I was re-assured that it was. So I went on and BAM! I finally figured out how to add the "Josh" twist and the "Josh" factor I had been looking for in the entire shawl. So now that it is done, I have something I'm proud to call mine.

So as you can see, no logical reason for me being sad yesterday and yet I was. Why? One might ask that question and yet you would still get the same answer from me: I'm not sure and I don't know. It was just one of those days.

Now onto today. I woke up to the orchestral sounds of nature and wind and rain and thunder and lightning and clouds. It seemed fitting for my mood this morning, until I thought about it. Why be down? Why? And with those words, I became pro-active in changing my thought process this morning.

I began my journey with a cup of tea, a VERY good place to start, and set out to change this human's mind and feelings. My tea of choice this morning? I selected a green tea blend from my box o' tea and that blend was Casablanca Twist - a green Darjeeling tea from India, mixed with a potent peppermint tea blend. It brewed a golden amber and smelled of mint. The taste is simply divine and BURSTING with fresh minty flavor! I LOVE this and it makes everything fresh and refreshing!

My rating for this cup of tea? 3/5 for aromatic quality, a 5/5 for flavor, and a 5/5 for the Josh factor! I LOVE this tea! :D

So now to go and begin to proactively change my day for good! Cheers friends and here's my cup of tea to you!

Josh

My Morning Cup of Tea - White Symphony Style!

Good Morning!

This morning there exists in my cup a blend of white tea that is simply scrumptious! Truly!

My blend of choice is the new-to-me flavor of White Symphony.

It brews up to a delightful pale amber and the flavor is subtle and light. At first taste, the flavor seemed to be very earthy and vegetal. However after the third sip, it becomes a light, almost surreal floral accent with a touch of fruity flavor comes through and is simply... a symphony of flavors. It starts with the tuning of the violins and ends with the beautiful, tear-producing note that makes you stand in awed wonder as you applaud the performers.

I give it a 1 out of 5 for aromatic quality. It has little to no scent while brewing. A 5 out of 5 for flavor and a 5 out of 5 for the Josh factor!

I am in love with it and it makes my tastebuds happy!

Now onto life things. Yesterday I had to go into work and it was not something I was looking forward to in the least. I said as much on Plurk and one of my dear friends gifted a pattern to me on Ravelry as a "something to look forward to coming home to" gift. I was stunned and truly appreciative of all my friends and how much they care for me, love me, and accept me. I really am one lucky guy and to have just even one friend like that would make me a blessed soul, but to have a whole huge group of them, makes me sit in wonder and thankfulness for all they do and that they are there for me.

I've been going through a lot lately and hit many a rough patch. My days turned into sad, dark, despairing days where nothing seemed to help pull me out of my funk and get me going. My friends have been there to comfort me and help me through it, but I still struggle sometimes to even cope with things. I believe it to be a sign of my repressed ideas, thoughts, emotions, and stresses.

Work has been stifling me and holding me back from school, knitting, designing, and life in general. In the past month, I've spent more time at work than at my textbooks. I've spent more time at work than with my family. I've spent more time at work than with my knitting friends. In general, I've spent so much time at work that I have no time to do "me" things.

My coworkers keep asking why I'm not "the normal 'Josh'". Why am I sad? Are you okay? How are you feeling? You scare me Josh by being so quiet. You can't be sad Josh or we all will be sad. Josh, you are dragging the team down. Josh, what's the matter? Can we help you? Josh, you are the emotional anchor of our team and we need you to be you. Josh... Josh... Josh...

This is the culmination of my mood recently. I'm stuck in the quicksand and slowly sinking. This is the feeling I've been feeling: helpless and trapped, stuck in a rut so deep, the very earth cracks beneath my feet. I have no idea who this "Josh" person actually is. I feel lost. I've lost my self-assuredness and just feel as though I wear a mask all the time to hide my pain and feelings from the world. When my coworkers ask why are you so quiet, I adjust the mask and put on a facade of fun and laughter, while cringing and writhing on the inside. At home I wear a mask to protect my family from me. When I talk with friends, I play the strong, lean-on-me character, while despairing over having no one to turn to in my turn. In all spheres, I wear the mask and play my part to keep the facade, the charade, the farse going.

However, there is light in this tale of despair. I can, will, and AM getting past this feeling and to combat it, I draw strength from my friends and instead of having to be the rock for everyone, I am attempting to be a rock for myself. When the therapist (one of my many roles in work and life) is broken, how can one give therapy to others problems? So instead of putting so much imaginary pressure upon myself, I have now come to the realization that I need to take care of me. If that means locking myself into my room and just letting the mask go and let all the things come out, then so be it. If that means thinking on paper and sharing it, then so be it. If that means I turn off all communications for an hour or two, then so be it.

I refuse to play the strong facade anymore and simply be more honest about me and my feelings, thoughts, and states.

This, my friends, is the junk that has been screaming to be let out and all it took was a simple cup of tea.

My Morning Cup of Tea - Earl Grey Bravo style

Good Morning! So I have a new fabulous habit that is now entrenched into my day: a cup of tea to start the day off with. That being said, I have been drinking tea regularly with a passion and as such, needed to order more last week.

I'm quite a bit of a tea snob in the sense that I find tea in bags (teabags) to be less flavorful as a loose leaf tea blend. One of my favorite tea shops in my area is the Tea Source. They carry amazing blends of tea and have a fantastic variety of tea blends and pure, straight tea. I LOVE this place and every time I go, I come home with some fantastic tea blend of some sort. Now they are a bit of a distance from my house and as such I go very infrequently, which in turn causes a problem when one is running out of tea slowly. Thankfully they have an online ordering option and will ship their teas to your house, saving you the trouble of having to find a window in your schedule to make it to the shop.

So I dutifully went online, shopped in their shop and was about to place an order when two of my friends told me of another magical tea shop that also shipped to your house and carries an amazing selection of tea as well. This magical place of wonderful teas is called Adagio Tea and as I shopped their beautiful website, I selected 21 flavors of tea to try. I may or may not have gone taste crazy and ordered many different types of blends and teas to try.

This magical box of tea arrived yesterday (they have FABULOUS shipping speed as well!) and I opened it with the joy of a four year old at Christmas! I now have 23 flavors of tea (they sent me two other samples!) to taste and enjoy everyday.

And now to the tea that is in my cup this morning: Earl Grey Bravo! This tea is a traditional Earl Grey with extra citrus-y flavor that creates an amazing aromatic cup. Seriously aromatic. I opened the pouch of tea and was hit with a fresh orange smell so potent it was almost too magical for one's nose to handle! It brewed up with a deep amber color and is simply delightful. Not my favorite tea I've tried, but it is a nice, light cup of tea that has a delicious orange aftertaste. So I give this blend a 5 out of 5 for aromatic qualities, a 4 out of 5 for flavor, and a 3 out of 5 for my personal taste.

New Patterns!

So, friends of mine, I have released two new patterns over the past fortnight. The Rock Strata Mitts are an epic pair of fingerless gloves that are so fun, easy, and quick to make and give a FANTASTIC result (if I say so myself... ;) )

Then this week I released my newest shawl, Bumper Crop. This is one of my new favorite shawl patterns and this post is to tell the story behind the shawl.

So the idea for this shawl started with a picture of wheat stalks in a field of grain. I had a sketch that stylized the pictorial, ideal image quality of a stalk of wheat. This made the first motif in the shawl and I sketched it out, knowing how and when and where the lines would diverge and meet. I placed this motif at the bottom of the shawl, evoking the earth and having the growing stalks poke up through the earth, each showing a stage of birth to full maturity. The second motif, the wave motif, came about as a space filler motif. I needed something to give a line of demarcation betwixt the growing wheat and the harvested wheat bundles. Thinking on this, I decided to think organically and think about the process of growing wheat. You need earth, heat, and water to cause the seed to sprout and flourish. Insert the wave motif. The double wave signifies the wave of heat that allows the soil to warm the seed and cause the grain to ripen and become golden and the wave of water that moistens the soil and seed, allowing the plant to grow and reach to the heavens in all its verdant glory. I placed this motif above the wheat ears to remind one of the way the magical, natural spell of the elements playing around this little seed to nurture it to maturity. The third motif signifies the end of the growing season: harvest. The harvest is brought in with all its bounty and the sheaves of wheat in their iconic bundled look, fill the band between growing and the fruits of hard labor. This is to pay tribute to the equally important harvest period that requires much patience, dedication, and hard work from both man and beast. I placed in the center to serve as an anchoring focal point of the shawl. The last, textured bit of the shawl symbolizes the fruits of the harvest, the wheat berries. They have been thrashed out and dried out and now the harvest is over. The textured bits of slipped stitches and purl bumps add the needed textural relief from the travelling stitches and rounds out the shawl. This is about the way this shawl happened. My brain came up with the entire shawl as a way to distract my sick body during a horrible cold I had this past winter and I LOVE the end result.