Morning sunshine.

I had some pervert email me on the dating website recently going on about our deep compatibility and waxing poetic about the wonderful conversations we would have over the coffee he makes from fresh ground beans every morning.

As a typical morning for me involves leaving 10 minutes late with wet hair and an unmade bed (and that's a reasonably good day) and I don't drink coffee, I think he might be barking up the wrong tree.

(I should clarify that while I found his morning habits disturbing - all that alertness, she shuddered - the designation of 'pervert' is made for other reasons and not with whimsy.  And I am not at all judgmental about these things.)

I am going to have to reconsider coffee though. 

I made all kinds of plans for stepping down from the sweet, sweet poison of Diet Coke, but found myself unable to comply.  The tree of knowledge is powerful - once I read what I read about what this stuff actually does, I couldn't bring myself to drink it again.  Cold turkey by default.

The first four days were worse by far than quitting smoking in terms of the physical misery - headaches and exhaustion and muscle weakness, despite substituting iced tea for caffeine replacement (the day I accidentally drank decaf tea was particularly brutal).  But Saturday I woke up and thought that I might want to live after all, and unlike my experiences with cigarettes, that seems to have been the end of the craving.  I am finding it physically impossible to drink as much tea as I once drank cola though, so I am running at a caffeine deficit.  I'll get used to it, I know, but I'm an odd combination of more alert - from not being full of weird chemicals, I expect - and completely shattered.   

My hands looks smaller to me, my rings fit more loosely and overall I seem less water retaining around all my edges, my joints seem more flexible and aches and pains less - I'm going to the gym for the first time in 10 days tonight though, so I expect this will be corrected soon - my appetite is less and my heart rate down about 10 beats a minute, so I think I'm on the right track.   If I could only wake up. 

Oh, and several of you asked would I be willing to repeat hard blocking on a sweater every time I washed it.  I probably would, it just doesn't seem like that much trouble to me.  It also probably wouldn't be that necessary that frequently - how often do sweaters really need washing?   Then again, Matilda Jane is the first thing I've finished that I actually do wear a reasonable amount, so my perspective may be off.  Generally wrinkles and cat hair are my primary problems, which can be addressed in other ways more effectively.   
There seem to be as many definitions of blocking as there are knitters - which I think is as it should be, I'm a big believer in finding your own best method.  I AM going to take my yarn more fully under consideration before I act - understanding the properties of construction and the materials can't be a waste of effort.  I want to test a swatch of the blue stuff I'm working with now in the wool cycle - I think a spin in a lingerie bag might be a very good way for this yarn to get clean and stay fluffy, despite the handwash only label.  JoVE and Webbo are right to question care labels - people wore silk and wool long before there was dry cleaning and everyone survived it. Of course, that was before washing machines too, but experimenting to find the simplest effective method is totally worthwhile.

Comments

[Kate]

How did you quit smoking? Any advice. I think I am the only knitter who smokes in the world.

[Amber]

I can say that my husband - and it had BETTER not have been him on that dating site (and I'm sure it wasn't, or I wouldn't even joke) - grinds his own coffee, in his charming, German-made manual coffee grinder, but the attitude is better described as Grim Determination than Chipper. It is not Chipper-ness, but Foodie/Tasty/Pickiness that makes him do it. When he doesn't have the Grim Determination and takes the Easy Route, he becomes despondent half-way through drinking it, realizing as he becomes caffeinated that it's not as tasty as Grim Determination Coffee. He is truly tied to his roots of Puritan misery and stoicism.

I mean, I guess I'm just saying that maybe that guy wasn't chipper, maybe he was just Grim and Deluded.

Ok, yeah, and I have to say also about the washing, I have a philosophy a bit like my mother's houseplant philosophy. She watered once a week. Some plants thrived. Those are the only ones we had.

In the same way, all clothing worth keeping can be washed either by hand (in Xtreme cases) or on gentle in the machine, somewhat regardless of label. It's worth swatching/pre-washing/being careful with something you're making, and it's really fun to see the changed coming up with your pre-washing.

[Sarah]

Glad you are already seeing benefits from stopping aspartame.

[julia fc]

You know, a little less caffeine wound't be so bad for you either (skittering out of range before you take the swipe).

[BigAlice]

I think that an awful lot of the time, care labels relate more to the dye than to the fiber. Quite a few commercial silk dyes aren't waterfast, so only drycleaning is recommended. At least, that's the case for silk. I don't know about wool.
The other reason is that I think most commercial manufacturers won't put "hand wash" on things, instead opting for "dry clean" if it needs careful washing. In that case, yeah, you could safely ignore it and go for the hand wash.
I guess my point is, for something labeled "dry-clean-only", I'd try a spot cleaning with water, in an inconspicuous spot, before immersing it water.

[liz]

When I got pregnant, I immediately gained the most sensitive nose and taste buds known to man. I have yet to lose them over 5 years later. That pretty much cured me of being able to consume anything containing artificial sweeteners. I keep the little 8ox cans of regular Coke around for a fix. Every now and then I will drink a diet drink, but I can't imagine getting back on that wheel easily. My congratulations.

[Beth S.]

Please don't tell us exactly why Diet Crack is so bad. Sometimes ignorance IS bliss.

Someone upthread mentioned yerba mate. I used to drink gallons and gallons of Morning Thunder tea ("with the power of a hundred charging buffalo!") from Celestial Seasonings. If they still make it (?), it's very good stuff.

[Carol]

Yup, morning people suck.

[Chris]

*shudders and goes to make another soy mocha*

Hey, I saw a report last week that it's better NOT to make your bed - leave your bed "open" reduces dust mites. Love research like that.

[jodi]

When my partner and I went off coffee a few years back we felt exactly the same way you do, with the added pleasure of the caffiene deficiency triggering my migraines (which are usually hormonally caused). We did it in the break between xmas and university starting up again, so that we could spare our family/colleagues/classmates the misery of being around us during our rehab. We spent the whole time fighting over who got to play games on the laptop and who got to sit on the heating pad. Oy.

[anne]

and wow, i would love to know where you read about aspartame because i have had this mysterious swelling and cramping in my legs and ankles for over a year that is not from any medical condition. and duh, i use that in my coffee. but hey, i can totally switch to stevia or something.

[anne]

i wash almost everything in the washer; mine has a handwash cycle that is the perfect combination of gentle washing and spinning. i love not having to handle sopping wet woolens, especially sweaters.
even before i had the luxury of this washer, i did it on the gentle cycle of most other machines with great results.
and you're right; the fluffing of the fiber in the machine can't be beat.

[Anne]

Are you serious--all that from dropping fake sweetener?!? Wow. Have you been otherwise eating healthier? Avoiding all sweet things or using real sugar?

[Lee Ann]

Wow, he must have been really bad...

I don't do diet anything. Wicked headaches from the aspartame. Coffee, though...I love it. And I'm not a morning person in the least.

[Rose]

I keep telling myself I need to cut out the diet soda too but so far I keep putting it off. Thanks for sharing and maybe I'll give it a go soon.

[melissa]

Was it the Mentos that pushed you over the edge?

[inky]

When I left diet coke, I used tea in the morning for the caffeine, and seltzer in the afternoon for the bubbles. Lots of good flavors out there.

[Marin]

So not a morning person, just so you know which side of the fence I fall on.

And I found a really good resource for blocking information in The Ultimate Knitting Book (Vogue Knitting). They go over when to use steam or why not to... what fibres react to different agitation, temperature, etc.

Imagine: I had this in my own home and didn't even realise it.

[Laura]

Gosh, I hate to be an enabler, but if caffeine is your vice of choice you're not exactly in bad company. Not to mention that drinking coffee has been shown to have all kinds of health benefits. Check out this bad boy from Harvard Medical School:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/coffee_health_risk.htm

Anyway, my theory about coffee is this: don't drink too much, don't add sugar (or fake sugar, for that matter), and use nonfat milk if possible. After that, I'm home free.

Also, if you buy fair-trade, shade-grown beans you can feel good about helping to support developing nations. That and you're not dropping cash on big, heartless corporations (cough::cocacola::cough).

Speaking of which, I need to get myself a cup of coffee!

[JoVE]

On silk, in particular, my mom learned from someone in a fabric store once that the biggest problem with silk is that is shrinks. If you pre-shrink silk before you sew with it (they were talking fabric), you can machine wash the resulting garment. She puts silk stuff in the washer and dryer all the time to no real negative effect. I do the same (not that I have a lot of silk). That stuff is not fragile even when very fine. Why do you think they made parachute's out of it?

Also, when you are in the market for a new washing machine, front loaders are much less hard on fabric. This is why they are not very effective for felting things. But they also use WAY less water, making them a good environmental choice.

[Jessica]

I see you decided to blog him, somewhat at least *snicker*. As for coffee, when I was told by my best friend in high school "Jessica, you are going to college. You need to learn to drink coffee!", my solution was the one that my grandfather had "taught" me as a kid, lots of milk and sugar and sooner or later it doesn't taste like coffee. Then again the sugar isn't so great for you either, but at least it isn't high fructose corn syrup. I better quit now. I feel a rant coming on... ;)

[Kate]

Can I make a suggestion:
Yerba Mate tea... when I quit smoking, coffee drinkign wasn't the same, so I was off coffee too! the headaches sucked, and I had already given up diet soda, so I tried some Yerba Mate tea... completely wakes me up in the morning.

Also, anything peppermint will cause a "false alertness" in the morning (days when i run out of yerba...)

[Laura]

So where did you read what Diet Coke does to you?

Thanks,
Laura

[Lisa]

Eh, anyone to whom the label "chipper" can be applied, especially in the morning, is at best mildly suspicious. Count it a blessing, though. He revealed his true self before you had to face the horror of waking up to all that bounciness.

RE the blocking debate: It should be done as the individual garment requests. Some want a light touch. Some want it hard. Oddly, I generally find the most delicate lace wants the roughest treatment.

Some you're just not on the same page with - they want one thing, you want another, and it's a ridiculous struggle to come to a compromise, if one is to be found at all. With some, it's worth the battle, with some it's not.

And now that I read that back, it sounds like my entire adult relationship history... Which is too deep a thought for me to handle right now.

[Kim]

Can you share your info source on the diet coke. It might be the kick in the pants I need to get off this stuff.