Tea and knitting are never getting boring.
Lockdown or not, there are some things that never get old. The combination of tea, wool and knitting, for example.
I can recall when I was a teenager (yes, it was in the last century, but who would mention that?), I was sitting together with my best pal after school. She was knitting, I tried my best to knit as well, and we were drinking numerous litres of tea. I must admit my first attempts at knitting were not very successful.
She was knitting one jumper after the other, and I was fighting to even manage a scarf. And that was also quite bad. Nevermind.
At that point, I did not really think that knitting was very relaxing, to be honest.
Then I went to a different school and had to undertake quite a bus journey to get there. There was a girl sitting on the bus, also knitting, but so much faster, and it looked so easy. It turned out that she was attending the same school, and when I asked her to show me her way of knitting, she was kind enough to explain it to me. All of a sudden, I found myself knitting. Very good and very fast as well. How encouraging. And this was only the beginning.
World domination of tea – one cup at a time
At the same time, the first-ever tea shop opened in our little town. To be honest, the lady sold all kinds of stuff as well. These beautiful Indian dresses, incense, perfume oils and – tea!
One of my favourite teas back then was the Wild Cherry tea. I believe the amount of tea we all went through back then was immense.
A friend of mine introduced me to Lapsang Souchong, the smoke tea. He told me that this was the Queen’s favourite tea. Well, what was good enough for a queen, was also good enough for us! Many of my friends got into Jasmine tea, but that was never something I fancied if I am honest.
Now, a couple of years older, I like a good cup of Jade Jasmine Pearls, also known as Dragon Pearls. It might have something to do with the fact that I know how to brew it properly now.
Anyway, while we were sitting all together, drinking tea and planning world domination and revolutions, we were knitting a bit. Our plans never came to pass, as we had to be back home at a certain time for dinner. As you do …
My latest passion – is knitting socks.
At one point in my life, I started knitting socks. To be fairly honest, it was more of a fight at the beginning, as I found it 
very tricky to knit with five needles. But once I got the hang of it, it was kind of smooth sailing afterwards.
And then I found the holy grail of sock knitting: self-patterned wool. You just knit, and the result is a sock with a pattern that comes automatically. Can it get any easier?
And it is so much fun. You just knit and get a pair of socks with a beautiful pattern and in beautiful colours as well.
In the Tea and Knit gift box, I have put some beautiful colours and varieties, which do just that: making socks with a pattern without hassle. Great!
So, no matter if you want to buy the gift box for yourself (hey, why not!!) or give it away as a gift, there will always be a great pair of socks afterwards.
Why don’t you show off your skills and reply to this post? Come on, show me your (knitted) socks.
Here are some I made:
Did you know?
In buying these gift boxes, you are supporting small businesses. The Hebridean Tea Store, Cards and Gift Wrap, and Wool 4 Ewe are small businesses led by women. We are all based in Stornoway.
