limedragon :)

lemon and lime

Earlier this summer, my mom forwarded an email from one of her business contacts. This organization, Women in Tourism International Alliance, is taking up a collection of handknit baby sweaters. (**Note** The WiTiA website may not load correctly the first time, it should work with a page reload/refresh.) These sweaters will be given to newborn AIDS babies in Kenya and Mozambique. Apparently, these babies are sent home from the hospital wrapped in newspaper for warmth.

They provide a sweater/jumper pattern to use and ask that donated sweaters are knit according to this pattern. Another requirement is that the yarn colors must be bright, and not white, blue, or pink (in other words, avoid pastels).

These are easy and quick to knit. If you are interested in knitting a sweater (or two!) for this project, please leave a comment and I’ll forward the information. The sweaters must arrive at WiTiA (in Australia) by the end of October 2007.

Normally, I am not a big fan of primary colors, but these yellow and green shades seem too bright to be considered primary. And there’s the yummy marled effect that gives the knit fabric such great visual interest.

I liked the Butterscotch color so much that I bought a new skein (after my Yarn Diet ended) to put aside for an intarsia project where I need a sunny yellow color.

I messed up when I knit the first, yellow sweater. I did not read the pattern through and thought it was knit in two pieces, so I cast on two pieces to knit at the same time. By the time I had finished the ribbed hems, I realized my mistake, but decided I would just graft the pieces together at the shoulders. That worked, sort of. I forgot to take into account the fact that the ribbing was not evenly placed and therefore, did not match up at the shoulders. Oops.

The second, green and yellow, sweater was knit according to the pattern with one exception. I made a teeny, tiny change. The ribbing used is K2 P2, but it is uneven because of the number of stitches, and does not make for an attractive seam. I shifted the stitches so that the rib started and ended with a K1. This fix still isn’t perfect but it looks nicer and more even. (Adding two more stitches would be a better solution, but I wanted to avoid changing the pattern too much, to keep with the project requirements.)

Pattern: “Simple Jumper/Sweater” by WiTiA (Women in Tourism International Alliance Ltd Size: Baby

• Yarn: Cascade 220 Quatro, 5010 Butterscotch, about 3/4-skein Needles: Takumi Clover 24-inch US 7 (4.5 mm) circular Started: August 16, 2007 Completed: August 18, 2007

• Yarn: Cascade 220 Quatro, 5010 Butterscotch, about 1/3-skein, 5019 Green Tea, about 2/3-skein Needles: Takumi Clover 24-inch US 7 (4.5 mm) circular Started: September 9, 2007 Completed: September 10, 2007

Dandruff

I couldn’t resist posting this quote from a 1928 Listerine advertisement.^*

Children usually come home from school with a case of dandruff that may lead to baldness.… Examine scalps often, and at the first sign of dandruff, douse on Listerine full strength. Keep it up systematically for several days. To your delight, you will find that dandruff has disappeared and that little scalps are clean, sweet and healthy.…

So, dandruff causes baldness? This is news to me. Is it temporary baldness? Or, are they referring to baldness later in life?

And is this Listerine (”The safe antiseptic”) the same original formula we use as mouthwash nowadays or has the product changed at all? Could we apply a quick rinse in the shower for healthy scalps? (Not that I’m worried about dandruff, but if it makes the hair shiny….)

Another ad from about a year later says:

Full strength Listerine is so safe it can be used in any body cavity, yet so powerful it kills even the stubborn B. Typhosus (typhoid) and M. Aureus (pus) germs in 15 seconds.

Good to know. However, that “body cavity” bit gave me pause.

*I found the ads in the May ‘28 and July ‘29 issues of Needlecraft Magazine.

A Cardi for Grandma

Quick BookMate update: I was contacted again by the person who sells the BookMates. They are still available for purchase at this new website, and I think a few of the BookMate I cover designs are new. (No affiliation, just an interested reader.)

A year later than intended, I presented Grandma with the Cropped Cardigan (see previous post) for her birthday.

She was very pleased with the gift and said that no one had ever given her a handmade sweater before. We all thought it looked nice and fit quite well. Yay!

At long last!

Can you believe it? I finally finished the Cropped Cardigan; all the seams have been sewn, ends woven in, and buttons attached.

Yippee!!

Technically, this project took over a year to finish, but a lot of that time was spent in hibernation. If I had worked on this continuously, I estimate the actual time would be about 4-5 weeks.

I’m very happy to be finished with it, and overall, I’m pleased with the end result. I can see some places where my technique improved over time. For instance, the twisted cast-on I used for the ribbed hem is noticeably looser in the back, and it was the first piece I worked.

I had bought two bags of Bongo cotton for this sweater from Herrschners. One of the bags turned out to be faulty; each skein had one, two, or three KNOTS. Ugh! After a bit of pouting and grumping at these naughty skeins, I turned this negative into a positive. I used the opportunity to practice weaving in the yarn as I knit. It has pretty much become habit now.

I love the textured columns, but the bumpy yarn does contrast a bit too much with it. Overall, it’s fine, but if I ever knit this pattern again and with cotton, I would definitely seek out a smooth yarn. (And if you’ve knit the Charade socks, the textured columns are the same stitch pattern: herringbone rib aka vertical weave.)

I found these cute flower-shaped buttons at Wal-Mart, and love how they look. Plain round buttons would have been boring, and colored ones didn’t seem to work.

What a journey it has been; this cardigan was my team member for Amazing Lace last summer (fyi, in that post, some pictures don’t work), then waited patiently for me to finish the sleeves and final assembly. Tomorrow: her final destination!

Awards

(Quick Ravelry update: In case you haven’t been there lately, three new and limited-edition beta t-shirts are available for pre-order. Get yourself over there and order one ASAP! They are available to current beta users only, but pre-orders will stay open until October 15.)

Megan of mega(k)nits tagged me for the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award. And Knittymama nominated me for two additional awards: “Nice Matters” and “The Power to Schmooze.” Thank you both for the honors! : )

• Rockin’ Girl Blogger, created by Roberta; this award is self-explanatory.
• Nice Matters was started by Bella Enchanted; “…awarded to those that are just nice people, good blog friends, and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world!”
• The Power to Schmooze is a joint effort between ordinary folk and Pink “to recognize those people that were exceptionally adept at creating relationships with other bloggers by making an effort to be part of a conversation, as opposed to a monologue.“

In turn, I would like to nominate these wonderful bloggers (in alphabetical order):

• the Akamai Knitter
• bellamoden
• Cashmere Dreams
• Casting Away
• FuzzyBritches
• Knerq
• Rahardjo-Knits
• honorable mention to my cousin M who is a new blogger with a new internship in a new city.

Today’s post is brought to you by the letters E, L, and V

Las Vegas was… exhilarating! Mom usually travels to Las Vegas once a year for a trade show, and I always ask if I can tag along. I know that I probably never would get a chance to visit the so-called Sin City otherwise.

It was so much fun to see all the places shown on TV and movies, like Caesar’s Palace, MGM Grand, or the Bellagio. Everywhere we went, there were slot machines and card tables. I can certainly understand the allure of winning money. I have the worst luck when it comes to card games, so I only dabbled a bit at the penny slots. I’m not a big fan of multi-line slots but Wheel of Fortune was fun to play. Also, the smoke wasn’t as bad as I expected, because most of the time, it was only the casino area open to smokers.

Las Vegas was… exotic! At the trade show, Andrew Zimmern, local (as in MN, not NV) chef and TV/radio personality (he is host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods), spoke a couple of times. Afterwards, he had “bug candy” to pass out and share. (I did not eat any, but I saw the boxes. The “candy” included Mexican-spiced larvae and crickets spiced with a flavor I’ve since forgotten.) This is my Mom with Andrew.

The Hilton has a cute Star Trek store and restaurant/casino. I never did see any Klingons or Ferengi, just people who were wearing the Deep Space 9 uniform. I didn’t take any pictures or try the Romulan Ale. (Guess I’m not a good Trekkie.)

Las Vegas was…. exhausting! Seriously, I had no idea how much walking was involved! The Strip with the newer casinos is closed to pedestrian traffic, so you either have to drive and brave the traffic, or cross the street via bridges. Mom says it this is a fairly recent development with the arrival of the mega-casinos and the increased influx of tourists and workers.

On the other hand, while my Mom was busy with seminars and meetings, I got a ton of knitting and reading done. It was nice to have a break from the computer (I didn’t try very hard to find free WiFi).

Las Vegas was… expensive! The shows and restaurants were all pricey. (At least the food we were served was both delicious and generously portioned.) It was mentioned somewhere that the average visitor spends $600 in the casinos during a visit! We went to the Fremont Street Experience (downtown Las Vegas, where the old casinos are) and were made dizzy by the light show every hour or so. The Forum Shops was a gorgeous place with its artificial sky and high-end stores that I rarely see. We missed out on the Fashion Show Mall and its outlet shops; by the third night, we were too tired to go out.

Las Vegas was… extreme! There was so much going on that it was impossible to even see everything. The convention center had three different events running concurrently, the MTV Awards had taken place a few days before we arrived, and a volleyball tournament was winding down. (The Las Vegas Convention center was a bit nicer in the food department than the one in Chicago; in addition to a pricey self-service cafeteria with tons of seating, there also was a Starbucks, Sbarro, and Nathan’s.) The temperature reached 106°F while we were there. At least it was a dry heat, as the saying goes.

Las Vegas had… evidence of fiber! There are three yarn shops,* and we had time before our flight home to stop in at two of them. I forgot to take a picture of Gail Knits, which was rather spacious. There was a couch in the front and plenty of tables. And the yarn? It filled the neatly arranged shelves along the sides and in the back section. I may have misunderstood, but they didn’t seem to have much cotton in stock (blends, mostly). As I was leaving, I noticed several carousels of Berroco pamphlets and Rebecca magazines near the door.

We almost didn’t go to the second store, Wooly Wonders because the website address no longer works and the phone seemed to be out of service. Luckily, the people at Gail’s told us it was still open. Wooly Wonders is tiny, but chock-full of yarn, and includes supplies and classes for weaving and spinning.

There wasn’t much sock yarn at either store (TOFUsties and Fixation at Gail’s Knits, and JaWoll and Wildfoote at Wooly Wonders). I guess it’s too hot most of the time to wear socks in Las Vegas? I got a gorgeous hot pink skein of TOFUsties and a rose pink skein of Hempathy to take home with me.

Here are more pictures. (They aren’t exactly in order… I thought I had uploaded them in a coherent order, but apparently not.) 

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Behind and Behinder

Ahoy, me hearties! I was out of town last week, and intended to have several posts scheduled and ready to go. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before departing and forgot to upload the needed pictures.

Below is a mini-catchup, and tomorrow, you’ll find out where I traveled!

BookMate Update

Some of you will recall I posted reviews of hands-free book holders earlier this year, including the BookMates I & II. Two weeks ago, I received an odd email through my contact form about the BookMate. At first I thought it might be spam, but I decided to check the website first. It turns out that the BookMates have been discontinued at BookMateStore.com.

They will continue to honor warranties, which is good. They plan to introduce a new line of book holders/covers/stands by November 1. I wonder what they’ll be like, and how they compare with the original versions and those from other manufacturers. I’ll try to post another update once the new product is available.

Organic Power

The heavy rains and related floods that hit SE MN and SW WI a few weeks ago have affected many of the region’s farms. Knittymama is holding a fundraiser contest in conjunction with Sow the Seeds‘ fundraiser to help these organic farmers. Please consider donating (details are in the contest post) to this worthy cause. You could win some pretty yarn! Deadline is September 29.

Flower Power

The newest installment of the Rockin’ Sock Club arrived a few weeks ago. I’m fairly sure all members have received their yarn, and this is old news, but in case you haven’t seen it yet:

I admit, when I first pulled the yarn out of the envelope, I only saw the blue and brown end, and thought, “Huh… This seems very similar to Rainforest Jasper?” But as you can see in the picture, more colors are included, including indigo and magenta, in the colorway. Groovy.

Beribboned

A couple weeks ago, Mom and I took a quick trip to the State fair. We checked out the knit entries at Creative Activities building, stopped in at the new MN wine booth, looked at some sheep, and ate a couple of delicacies unique to the fair.

I found the two hats I entered hanging in a far corner of the main knitting display.

A yellow fifth-place ribbon was attached to my backgammon board. (But I noticed the board was showing the wrong side, oops.)

And these socks? They got third place. I’m excited!

Cute sheep we saw:

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Somewhat Local Yarn Shop Crawl

In July, my family went up north for a quick visit and to bring Grandma down to the Cities. She was to stay a while with my parents before visiting the Michigan branch of her family.

I persuaded my parents to make a few stops on the way, so I could check out some of the yarn shops in the Brainerd Lakes area. (ETA: These shops are included in the upcoming Yarn Harvest Shop Hop, Sep 15-22! Information about this event can be found at the MN Knitter’s Guild website or at At Loose Ends.)

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