Silkworms Made to Spin Fluorescent Colored Silk

...a reprint from CraftMagazine:

Silk worms that produce vibrantly coloured and luminescent silks have been created by scientists in Singapore. The resulting fibre offers a cheap way to circumvent the dying process and may even have medical applications.

By feeding silkworms a mulberry mixture containing fluorescent dye, Natalia's team was able to harvest brightly coloured silk that is structurally unaffected, but which also has luminescent, or glowing, properties. The dye molecules are ingrained within the silk filaments to create permanent colour.

Top Down Vee-Neck

Heidi's free pattern for a Summer Sweater on Ravelry is shown here.

It is a top down knit with a vee neck and looked like a simple enough knit.  I was initially excited to start this knitting project.

So Knit Picks was the yarn selected in a sea foam color in 75% cotton and 25% acrylic.  13 skeins of it!

After a week or so of knitting, it is going back to the drawing board.  Don't you hate that when it just does not fit? 

Here is the v-neck in its current pathetic shape:

The under arm join comes to the elbow.  Not good.  I followed the directions, but this is obviously not what the designer had in mind.

So I'll rip out the sleeves, join the sides and then continue on to finish a smaller sleeve circumference.  It still bothers me that I can't figure out my mistake.

But spring is right around the corner and I'll look on the bright side.  If all else fails, this yarn can always be repurposed into a baby blanket for a charity knit.

Rest in Peace

My morning routine consists of flipping on the tv and iPad, almost simultaneously.  After checking emails and playing a couple of scrabble moves with friends and family, then one of the first web sites that I look at is our local obituaries.

Since I worked a shift last Saturday at our local in-patient hospice, I wanted to check to see if any of "my" patients had passed during the week.  Yes, one of the patients of a family I was privileged to both serve and talk with had died the afternoon I left shift.  Cancer was her cause of death.

We are privileged to have such a caring and compassionate staff at Western Colorado Hospice and Palliative Care. 

And on another note, my friend who had the mastectomy this week was informed by her surgeon that he "got it all" and that neither chemotherapy nor radiation would be required as adjuvant therapies.  That was certainly good news!  And by the way, only ONE of her lymph nodes was removed (sentinel node).  This less aggressive method of taking only the sentinel lymph node goes along with the current thinking regarding lymph node removal cited in the most recent literature.

For all of you undergoing aggressive medical treatments of any kind, keep up the good fight.