My Review of Zhumell 20x80mm SuperGiant Astronomical Binoculars

Originally submitted at Binoculars.com

High power low weight! Other high-power binoculars may have excellent optics but they can also be quite literally a pain in the neck. The Zhumell 20x80 SuperGiants though weigh in at just 4.4 pounds light enough to use comfortably in the field. Still they are equipped with an integrated tripod moun...

Zhumell 20x80mm SuperGiant Astronomical Binoculars

Got a good pair at a great price

By Karen from Denver, CO on 9/19/2011

4out of 5

Pros: Works Well With Glasses
Cons: Not Waterproof
Best Uses: Astronomy, Stargazing
Describe Yourself: Casual/ Recreational
Was this a gift?: No

I was lucky to receive a pair of Zhumells that appear to be in good collimation. A fellow astronomer sent back two pairs, then gave up and paid $60 to have them collimated at a local optics shop. I'm pleased to learn that Zhumell offers a lifetime warranty, and that others have had no trouble when the warranty was needed.

(legalese)

Gifted mittens for kids of all sizes

I recently participated in the Ravelympics, Ravelry’s knit and crochet event coinciding with the Olympics. During the opening ceremonies in Vancouver, I cast on Kate Gilbert’s handy Gifted mittens pattern (the Ravelry pattern page is here). Sixteen days later, I cast off the eighth mitten during the closing ceremonies. Three pairs are on their way to the collection center of Afghans for Afghans, and will be shipped to Kabul to warm Afghan children next winter. The last pair is looking for a pair of hands—your suggestions welcome!

I love the Gifted pattern! It uses just two needles to knit the mittens flat, which makes the stitches fly. The thumb is seamed closed as you go with crochet, so there are no extra ends to sew in. I like to seam the whole mitten with crochet slip stitches instead of sewing.

The A4A campaign that ended today was for children ages 7–14. The Gifted child’s large size seemed great for the upper end of this range, but I thought that the child’s medium seemed quite narrow for a seven-year-old. I channeled Goldilocks and decided that I needed a mitten halfway between the two sizes. Here are the changes to create this in-between size, which I’m calling “kid size” here. You’ll need a copy of the Gifted pattern from Kate’s site for the unchanged portions. Here’s a picture of the child’s medium, my kid’s size, and the child’s large. Next time perhaps I’ll think to include a ruler for reference!

Cuff and Palm:
CO 19
Row 12: k2, M1L, k7, M1L, k1, M1R, k7, M1R, k2.
Row 14: skip to row 16.
Row 16: k2, M1L, k8, M1L, k3, M1R, k8, M1R, k2.
Row 18: k11, M1L, k5, M1R, k11 to end.
Row 20: k11, M1L, k7, M1R, k11 to end.
Go to directions for thumb.

Thumb:
Row 2: k20, slip rem sts to circ, turn.
Row 3: p9, slip rem sts to circ, turn.
Rows 4 – 8: Work evenly in St st.
Next Row: p2, p2tog, p1, p2tbl, p1.
K one row on smaller needle.
Right-handed crochet: Slip all stitches directly onto crochet hook.
Left-handed crochet: Slip all sts to the other smaller needle. Slip all sts onto crochet hook.

Hand:
Holding the mitten RS facing you, slip the first 11 sts to your straight needle (Note: the original pattern seems to slip one stitch too many here). Put the loop from the crochet hook on the right needle, then k11 across the rest of the row.

Rows 2-10: Work evenly in St st.
Continue as directed for the kid size.

Kid size:
Row 1: P across.
Row 2: k1, ssk, k6, k2tog, k1, ssk, k6, k2tog, k1.
Row 3: p across.
Row 4: k1, ssk, k4, k2tog, k1, ssk, k4, k2tog, k1.
Rows 5-6: Work evenly in St st.
Row 7: p1, p2tog, p2, p2tog tbl, p1, p2tog, p2, p2tog tbl, p1.
Row 8: k5, k2tog, slip last st back to left needle. Turn needles so they are pointing in the same direction, with RS of work facing.

Finish with 3 needle bind-off as directed. Seam with your darning needle, or just use crochet slip stitches for a different look and quick finish.

More pattern modifications

Last fall I was on a coffee cozy jag, and knitted up a couple of Carissa's very cool Poison! coffee cozies. Today I'm working late and am facing a one-hour bus ride with a disturbing shortage of knitting - I have only four rows left on the cowl I'm making for my first swap on Ravelry. I was getting rather twitchy just thinking about the interval between knitting the last stitch and arriving at home to cast something on.

So I found a couple of ounces of wool in my laptop bag. Phew! It's the leftover bits from a great little felted bag - Little Slip of a Thing from Diane Sutliff. I think I can finish off tonight's bus ride with a matching coffee cozy, mashing up Carissa's dimensions with a downsized version of Diane's block pattern. Here's the plan:

Little Slip-On Coffee Thing

Pattern:
With CC, CO 40 sts and distribute to dpns. Join, being careful not to twist.
Rnd 1: purl with CC.
Rnd 2: knit with CC.

Rnds 3-4: join MC and knit two rnds.
Rnds 5-6: [k2 CC, k2 MC] around.

Rnds 7-18: Repeat last four rounds three times.

Rnds 19-20: knit with MC
Rnds 21-22: knit with CC.

BO purlwise with CC. Weave in ends. Handwash in hot water with a little dish soap and agitation until it felts to appropriate size. Rinse thoroughly. Blot with towel to absorb excess moisture. Stretch over a glass or plastic cup. Remove and allow to dry completely before use. Go caffeinate yourself.

Holiday knitting, and inching towards simplicity

My mom asked for a hat to match her winter coat, and chose a nifty design called Ardelle by Ellen Bartz. (Don't tell her I filtered out the fingering and doubleknit patterns before she got to choose. Christmas will be here soon, and there are only so many knitting hours left.) The hat has a sideways cabled band from which you pick up stitches to knit the crown. Here's the work in progress:
I chose a super-soft yarn by Misti Alpaca. It feels like it will be really toasty, which is just what she wanted.

So today is World AIDS Day. The folks at Starbucks emailed me to say they're giving five cents for each drink ordered today to an AIDS-related charity. That's a nice gesture, but I decided to just make my own chai at the office and give the whole five bucks to the Colorado AIDS Project. So there.

All designers start as tweakers, right?

I keep finding more pink skeins of Cascade Lana Grande leftover from my Abrazo vest. I knit up a hat from Paulina Chin's Speedy Cabled Beret pattern, but wasn't as excited about her cute matching cowl. Then I found the super-fast Pidge Podge by knitnutt, and started tweaking. I'm excited to have something to share with the knitiverse.

I started right into a cabled design after casting on - here's the cast-on end, sans blocking.

I realized that it would look nicer ending with ribbing instead of just letting the cables fall off the end. The pattern below is exactly what I did. If I did this again I would probably start with 5 rows of ribbing and then switch to the cable repeats to make the ends symettrical. It hardly matters, as the cast-on end doesn’t show when you button it up.

I would enjoy seeing other folks’ ideas for a neater transition from cable to rib, or just more variations on the Pidge Podge theme.

Cabled Pidge Podge:

Cast on 20 stitches.
Rows 1,3,5 (WS): p1, k1, [p4, k2] 2 times, p4, k1, p1
Row 2 (RS): k1, p1, [k4, p2] 2 times, k4, p1, k1
Row 4 (RS cable): k1, p1 [c4f, p2] 2 times, c4f, p1, k1
Row 6 (RS): repeat row 2

Repeat these 6 rows 11 more times, until work measures about 25 inches.

Repeat Row 1.

Ribbing:

Rows 1,3,5 (WS): p1, [k2, p2] 4 times, k2, p1
Rows 2, 4 (RS): k1, [p2, k2] 4 times, p2, k1

Bind off in pattern.

Knitting tools from found objects

So I'm in the midst of my first two-stranded knitting project, a felted bag with a swell bit of colorwork. Being the gadget fan that I am, I was alarmed to discover that my local knitting shops don't seem to carry yarn guides, the little plastic gizmos that help keep the two color strands separated for those of us who are too new and clumsy to manage two yarns at once.

Impatience prompted me to devise my own yarn guide from household objects. Exhibit A - the play ring:



I was hoping that the impressive size of this ring would keep the two strands separated. It certainly does that, but the stretchy band is just sticky enough to catch the strand that runs behind the ring. Drat!Over lunch at work, I arranged with the ever-helpful Mary Carol of the Lamb Shoppe to order a yarn guide. It's on the way. Meanwhile, I wondered if I could improve on the original design. While glancing around my cubicle for parts, I set upon on a piece of plastic spiral binding. But how to attach it? Scratchy wool yarn? A quick rummage through the desk drawers unearthed an old name badge with elastic lanyard still attached. Yes!

Witness Exhibit B, the new and improved yarn guide:

It works so well that it may actually outperform the Clover model. I'll report back when the order arrives.

Being careful not to twist...

Practically every hat, sock, and mitten pattern begins:

1. Cast on xx stitches. Join into a round, being careful not to twist.

I hate that last part... but then, I suppose nobody likes a Mobius strip hat. Last night I had to rip out several rows of knitting I had finished before noticing my twisted cast-on. Luckily we had a church council meeting, where I was able to reknit those rows plus a couple more.