Harmony Knitting Needles

I love my Harmonys! They are a part of the Options interchangable knitting needles that KnitPicks offers. I have a lot of knitting needles, but I basically ignore them in favor of these sweet babies. They are so pretty. And sexy. I use them for straight knitting and circular knitting and now that I have discovered the easy method of knitting small circumferences on two circulars, I need another set. 

 

The lovely-ness of these is that they are not only beautiful, but the points are great, the join is perfect and smooth and if there happens to be a defect, KnitPicks will stand by thier product. The join on a pair of my needles became very wonky and I just mentioned it in passing to a customer service rep and she sent me another pair for FREE.  I have used other interchangable sets and this is the best by far. I have used Denise sets, and that was ok, but the join sometimes came loose at the wrong time, the cords remained kinked, and they looked plain. Sometimes part of the knitting experience is enjoying the tools you are using. Like your needles. Wrapping beautiful yarn around some plain ass beige needles is not fun. And they don't look good when you are taking picks of your WIP to post on Ravelry.

 

The coloring is so fabulous and the more you work with the needles, the smoother they become. The colors also kinda smooth out- they are still rainbow like, but uh.... smooth. I dunno how to describe it, but it takes on a lovely quality.

 

Like I said before, I need another set. There is a new addition to the Options family called Zephyr. They are clear acrylic and also have the lover-ly join and smoothness. They are also much cheaper and that makes me so happy.  These will be my Christmas present to myself.

Shea Butter

I have been using shea butter since my daughter was a little baby and had a nasty case of cradle cap. I had read that using petroleum based and mineral oil based products was not good for you. Unfortunately, a lot of products for skincare and haircare list those very ingredients. So I searched for an alternative. I had a big book of natural remedies and came across shea butter as a good way to moisturize from head to toe and also soothe skin for people with eczema and other skin conditions. So I went online and found shea butter for cheap. I got in the mail, applied it to my daughter's scalp after brushing it with sea breeze on a toothbrush and within two weeks, her scalp was cleared.


Ever since then, I have been a fan of shea butter. I use it head to toes. When I had a afro, it kept my hair moist. It makes my dreads softer when used every now and then. It makes my skin so soft and smooth. This summer, I neglected my skin and used baby oil because it was easier than making up a batch of butter. But I learned the hard way that easier is not always better. My skin was wrinkly and dry.
 
Hellnaw. Not good at all.
 
So I started mixing it up again. Now I use a carrier oil like sunflower oil, which has a lot of vitamin E in it, to make a luscious cream. I add a scent to it and we are good to go.
 
A word to anyone who wants to try shea butter:  You will see a lot of products in the store that claim to have shea butter, look on the back of the package, most likely, shea butter is not the first ingredient. Drop it like it's hot! Your best bet is to buy it in it's purest form. Make sure you buy the unrefined butter which has all the goodies your skin loves.  You can then take chunks and melt them down, add fragrance if you would like, pour it into a pretty container, put it in the freezer and after an hour or so, you will have the best skin moisterizer EVER... other than drinking plenty of water.
 
 
Here is a short list of places I purchase from:
 
fromnaturewithlove.com
oilsbynature.com
thechemistystore.com