i like lemons

I gave up drinking daily coffee (french roast, black) about 6 years ago. Now it’s a special treat, something I have maybe a few times a year. Donuts? I don’t think I can ever truly give them up. My favorite is still a frosted and sprinkled cake donut. For some reason the more outrageously colored the frosting and sprinkle combination, the tastier the donut seems to be.

This knit coffee cup and the knit donuts offer the smile-inducing power of caffeine and fried dough, but without the guilt. Now if I added in some knit cigarettes to go with my coffee and donuts, I’d have the ultimate unhealthy (yet healthy, because it’s fake) breakfast going on here.

Coffee

The pattern for the cup of coffee was designed by Melinda at One Of My Ears Is Higher Than The Other.

I followed the pattern, substituting worsted weight yarn and US sz 5s for the cup and coffee and US sz 7s for the cup sleeve. I used the 7s so that the sleeve would knit up less dense than if I used 5s. The cup measures about 5 inches high and is about 3.5 inches in diameter at the top.

While looking for something to stabilize the bottom of the cup as Melinda recommends, I found that a lidded yogurt container fit well towards the top of the cup, but not at the bottom. The yogurt container discovery led to the idea to have the cup be a place to stash spare change or small objects.

I ended up using a simple round of cardboard at the bottom of the cup, then put a plastic bag of rice in to weight the bottom. The yogurt container, wrapped in a white plastic bag so the labeling wouldn’t show through, went on top of the rice and I sewed the coffee swatch onto the yogurt container lid.

My cup looks a little portly due to my yarn/needle substitutions. If I get the chance to knit this again, I’ll probably do one less set of increase rounds for the base of the cup and work from there. Very well written pattern and it goes perfect with the knit donuts.

Donuts

I saw this doughnut pattern by Dorien on one of my Ravelry friend’s (nillakitty) project lists and knew I’d have to give it a try.

Once again, I subbed worsted weight yarn and US sz 5s. Perfect! The donuts turned out life-sized (3.5 inches in diameter). Something to note: if you follow the pattern instructions past round 19, the stitch counts in parenthesis don’t appear to be accurate. The donut still looks good when you’re finished, but just something to be aware of. Knitting exactly from the pattern gives about a 2/3 frosting to 1/3 donut ratio.

I did work the pattern a little differently so that the frosting to donut ratio was a little more even, and so the donut would be a bit flatter than the original. I knit 3 rounds (instead of 5) just after the cast-on and I added in the “k1, m1″ set of rows after round 19, ending with the “k4, m1″ plus 2 knit rounds (instead of 3), before casting off. I sewed the “sprinkles” on after stuffing, since I found it made the bead placement easier.

The powdered donut is done the same way as the frosted one. I used some soft and fuzzy yarn that was in my stash that lost its label. The “loftiness” of the yarn caused the powdered donut to be slightly bigger. Even though it’s the simplest of all the donuts made, I think it’s my favorite.

For the jelly donut I worked the pattern the same way as for the sprinkled donuts, except I kept working the decrease sets until I had 5 stitches left (knit two of these rounds and then sew them together). I also used a paler colored yarn to cast on and knit the first row to give that pale seam that you often see on the real thing. To make the jelly, I just messily embroidered on some red yarn.

Knitting the donuts was really enjoyable and there’s no junk food remorse, like I would have after eating the real thing.

Number of olives knit this week: 3 (2 green, 1 black)
Total for the year to date: 89

I succumbed to temptation and decided to get a iPhone 3G.

I’ve never been one for cell phones. I have one for emergencies, but I really don’t use it very much. I’m just not a phone chatter. And I never got into the whole texting thing. I do, however, love my computers and web access. How did I ever navigate and find my way before online maps?

The iPhone is perfect for my commute, giving me something to do when the train car is too crowded and I can’t concentrate on a book. Music, websurfing, games to occupy me. And the GPS will come in handy for my directionally challenged self.

The learning curve is minimal. Watching the online, guided tour was good enough for me to figure out almost everything. The only minor confusion I had was in setting up voicemail. I needed to reset my voicemail password at the AT&T website to unlock the voicemail box, and that cleared things up.

I was on the fence about whether or not to get one. I’m so happy I did!

Number of olives knit this week: 2 (green)
Total for the year to date: 86

This really does calm and relax me. Just get a bag of assorted sequins and go about sorting them. The simple task helps me clear my mind and the colors, shininess and shapes of the sequins give me that “ooooo, preeetty” feeling.

I start a new job soon. New beginnings are always a hopeful time. A little bit scary, but mostly exciting.

Trying to finish up a couple of fun knitting projects before the new gig starts. Next, it’s on to getting more Kitschmas Trees done, and then a couple of scarves and hats. It’s a little difficult to think about cool-weather knitting when it’s been so hot out.