Last year, I received a fantastic teapot from my sister-in-law and an adorable mug from my niece.  This year, I find myself drinking a lot of tea.  In addition to enjoying lattes (still), I am also now officially a tea drinker.

Americans Make It Difficult To Be A Tea Drinker

If you buy Tetley, Lipton or even Red Rose tea bags in any grocery store in the United States, it’s not likely you’ll enjoy your tea drinking experience very much. I honestly could never understand why anyone would drink tea.  Regardless if I tried it with lemon, with milk or with honey.  I always went back to coffee or lattes.

But with all the 2018 Christmas-gift tea paraphernalia, I thought I’d give it one more try.

At the Indian grocer we shop sometimes, I picked up some loose black tea.

This is Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Orange Pekoe loose tea.  I drink it with a little milk and it is incredibly satisfying and delicious.

NOW I understand what all you Brits and Canadians (and others) have been talking about.

There is nothing like the ritual of setting a kettle of water to boil, warming the teapot, spooning out the loose tea and steeping a nice, hot cuppa tea.  Nothing  like it except for perhaps sitting in my comfy chair with knitting whilst I enjoy drinking the whole pot.

Current Knitting

I did a few days of traveling over the holiday, and I didn’t bring any knitting.  But I am a tiny bit further along on the Chantal Silk Old Shale Wrap.

Yes, it looks the same as the photo on Wednesday…almost.

If you count the number of repeats from Wednesday’s photo and the now, you’ll see I’ve added the last two (0f 16).  So I am practically finished!

I was also able to finish the latest Westward Hat and it came out equally as well as the other two..

Stephen West’s Westward Hat design is great for at least two reasons.  First, it’s got a nice, wide, warm band that covers my ears and keeps them toasty.  Second, it doesn’t make me look ridiculous.