Lemonade

You know the old saying about when life gives you lemons, make lemonade? We didn't go to San Diego for the holiday weekend because of my illness. We didn't make it over to the Huntington for Tanabata either. Iris and I whispered our wishes to each other instead.

[I also took today off from work in an attempt to get over the creeping crud. Fortunately, I am NOT in the 43% of Americans in the private sector who get no paid sick leave.]

But Iris had a chance to play with a friend before his family took off for their big camping trip. Would you pay 50 cents for a cup of fresh-squeezed lemonade from these two?

We used Meyer lemons from the backyard tree and organic cane sugar from Trader Joe's. I didn't charge the kids for the ingredients because I thought they would make, at most $2, and I wanted them to have something leftover for their trouble.

Ha! They grossed $14.50 but $1 blew away. Another friend/neighbor dropped by to help in the end. The two partners gave him $1.50 and kept $6 each.

Illness and house arrest gave me plenty of opportunity to knit. Surprise! The Habu green sweater kit isn't green after all. It is really a melange of non-colors. Like others have pointed out, the yarn rustles.

I can also show you a finished sweater. Keep in mind this is how I look when I am sick and spending the day at home.

If you look very, very carefully, you might notice that I mixed two dye lots of turquoise popsicle blue. The bottom 4 stripes on the back are made from a different dye lot than the rest of the sweater. The 5th stripe up from the bottom was knit with alternate rows of the two dye lots to minimize the color change.

The yarn had languished in the stash because I had 5 balls of the deep blue (blueberry) and 2 balls of turquoise. The pattern required 3 balls of each color. Fortunately, Brynne was de-stashing a truckload of Cotton Ease, including the color I needed. I sent her two knitting/sewing magazines in trade for 4 balls of turquoise and a couple of other oddballs.

Why 4 balls when I used only 1? I had thought I would make a matching tank. But, after shopping my closet, I realized that I have plenty of coordinates for this sweater.

Read more about the Vera Jacket in What I did last week and Finishing Tutorial.