Favorite Things.

It may not come as a surprise to you that there are few things I love more in this world than a good cup of coffee. Hot, Iced, Drip, Espresso, you name it – I love it (within reason, I do have a certain level of contempt for certain mainstream, corporate coffee… but lets not go there).

Even though I considered myself the aficionado, nay… SNOB, I had no clue what cold-brewed coffee was. To quote a good friend of mine; “Cold-brewed? Is that even possible?!”. Why yes, yes it is.

Allow me to introduce you to Toddy. No, this isn’t like a hot toddy, there (sadly) is no alcoholic content. Don’t let that deter you, though… Toddy is infinitely delicious.

Wikipedia tells us:

The Toddy process requires grinding coffee beans at a coarse setting and soaking those grounds in cold water for a prolonged period of time (usually 12 hours or more). The grounds must be filtered out of the cold water after they have been steeped; therefore, the grounds can either be put in a bag-like filter before steeping or the mixture can be fed through a filter after soaking (similar to the Toddy system). The end result produces a concentrated coffee that is often diluted with water and or dairy, and served steaming hot, over ice or blended with ice and other ingredients such as chocolate.

The fantastic part about this process is that cold-brewing the coffee is EXTREMELY less acidic, thus making the coffee it self taste sweeter and richer. Part of the toddy process for us at the store is to select coffee with already naturaly rich, sweet tastes to make our toddy.

My favorite configuration so far is a large glass filled with ice, 2-3 shots worth of toddy, a pump of honey-sweetner and soy milk. Stir it up and ENJOY. My god, it is inconceivably delicious.

This has quickly become my summer drink-of-choice. Don’t make me responsible for drinking it all, come try it!

Love and Stitches,

David.

With each passing day…

WOW. WOW WOW WOW.

I still can’t quite get over the TREMENDOUS response we’ve had to Larissa’s Barn Raising Quilt Project!!!!!!!! Thank you all SO MUCH!

The influx of packages has slowed over the weekend, but last weekend we received several BOXES worth, so that more than makes up for it. I suppose I should note that the deadline has passed, but that isn’t to say we wouldn’t love to get more squares! Walking them in to the store is one of the better ways to go about this, but it’s still perfectly acceptable to drop it in the mail.

One contributor sent us a package that absolutely delighted me. A lot of you have taken a lot of care in how you send your squares in, but she took it an extra step!

She very carefully folded her square up, placed it in this box, and then put that box in a bubble-wrap mailer! Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was going to happen to her square!

So, over the coming pre-sock-summit weeks, we’ll be working on getting these stitched up! Drop us a line if you’d like to lend a hand, we’ll be happy to have you!

KEEP ON STITCHING!

-David.

Socks Without Borders

A lot of you familiar with our store will be familiar with our profound love for Larissa Brown (Author of KnitAlong). Not too long ago, over at her blog StitchMarker, she announced the Socks Without Borders fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders.

Well, there has been an OVERWHELMING response, and our store is now filling up with these squares!

We couldn’t possibly be more thrilled! We’re receiving between 10-20 squares every couple of days, and it seems like there’s no sign of any stopping.

So, I’m here to urge you to not let this fantastic charity opportunity pass you by. One of these squares can be knit in a sitting (or maybe a couple if you’re easily distracted like I am).

We’re also taking each square that comes in and labeling it with the knitter’s name and their location. If you look closely, you’ll see some of the squares who came to be with us from the UK! Postage for shipping these has been pretty affordable (somewhere between 4-5 stamps for several squares it seems, of course you’ll want to check with your post office before just assuming that will be adequate).

There is also an effort to get an entire quilt made out of Abundant’s own Plant Dyed yarn – and we’ve even got some for you to knit it out of! So if you want to knit a square but don’t know what to use – stop by the store! We’ll wind you off some yarn and you can be part of the store’s very own quilt

We’ll try to have patterns/info printed out for you at the store to make it as simple as possible. But for more info, please visit Larissa Brown’s original blog post here. We’ll also be looking for all the help we can get to stitch these together, so that’s another excellent way for you to contribute to the cause.

Not much longer now kids, and we’ll all be hanging out at Sock Summit! I can’t wait!

Retreat!!! RETREAT!!!!!!!

So, if you’ve been around the store in the last couple weeks, chances are you’ve seen our copious amounts of posters talking about the upcoming Imperial Stock Ranch retreat. Lots of questions have been asked about the details, and so I’ve decided to take a moment to answer them.

Dates: Friday, May 1st to Sunday May 3rd.

Hosts: “Knitalong” author, Larissa Brown and your friends from Abundant Yarn

Itinerary:
• Friday:
Meet and greet at the lodge.
• Saturday:
Morning Class; Knitting 911 for your UFOs, Followed by a leisurely lunch (provided graciously by our hosts). Our afternoon class will focus on instant gratification projects. You’ll be able to pick from Larissa Brown’s “Pico Cowl”, “Falconry” gloves or Little Owl Knits’ “Forest and Frill” shrug. Free time after class and before a fresh dinner.
• Sunday, we’ll tour Imperial Stock’s historic facilities before heading back home.

Room Pricing

• Single Occupancy room all to yourself. $426 (Price includes a $45 voucher to use in the bar, restaurant or the gift shop and $20 for a ranch tour.)
• Double Occupancy room for you and a friend. $296 (Price includes a $45 voucher to use in the bar, restaurant or the gift shop and $20 for a ranch tour.)

• Triple Occupancy room for you and two friends. ($252 Price includes a $45 voucher to use in the bar, restaurant or the gift shop and $20 for a ranch tour.)

• Quadruple Occupancy room for you and four friends. $231 (Price includes a $45 voucher to use in the bar, restaurant or the gift shop and $20 for a ranch tour.)

All rooms have two Queen-size beds.

Please call the lodge to reserve your spot today!
Tel: 1-800-395-3903

I have also spoken with the Imperial River Company in regards to the pet-friendliness of their facilities. They do have rooms in which they allow pets to stay, but you will need to call ahead to ensure availability.