Irrestringible

Despite the fact that J and I spent much of the weekend running around (I'll get to why in a minute), I was incredibly prolific in terms of my knitting. First of all, there were these -- yes, another pair!

Pattern: Fetching from summer '06 Knitty
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 (100% merino) in color 1362, one skein plus a few feet of a second (probably could've avoided this if I'd be less generous in my ends left to weave in), purchased when Pittsburgh Knit & Bead went out of business
Needles: US 6 dpns
Started/Finished: December 8/December 10
Mods: none, other than substituting yarn

These are for my best friend from college, who will be my maid of honor at my wedding; her birthday is next week. I started these after dinner on Friday night, but got very little done as we were both beat and turned in for the night at 10 p.m. Most of the knitting was done in the car while we went computer shopping and while sitting in J's office yesterday while he took care of some business. Having gone through all the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran from my Sockret Pal, I stash-busted with these and used up one of the four or five skeins of Aurora 8 I'd bought way back when. I think this color is more her anyway, and I love how sproingy the fabric is knitted up.

If you're counting, yes, this is my third pair, and certainly not the last. I've already started a fourth pair, this one for a friend of J's who uses an electric wheelchair (which she operates by hand). We had dinner with her Saturday night and she was remarking how her hands cramp up in the cold weather. She mentioned that she uses those little self-heating packs, but lacks a good way to keep them in place (mittens make it difficult for her to steer). So of course I offered to make her a pair of wristlets. I started them this morning, so expect to see them later in the week.

If you're wondering about the title of this post, you're not alone. I present for your consideration the back of the tag from the Aurora 8. Take a look at the description of the fiber content.

Yes, you read that correctly: apparently this yarn is not only 100% merino, it's also irrestringible. I have no idea what that means, but it sure sounds funny. Please feel free to enlighten me if you are so wise as to know what this term means!

We were home for a few hours Saturday afternoon, during which J worked and I watched Everything is Illuminated and knit. The movie was good, albeit a little odd and a little slow, and my knitting? Well, for this knitter, it was a definiting moment:

Baby's first Fair Isle! You know I've been dreaming of it, so finally I just decided to give it a try. Not bad, if I do say so myself! Here are the specs:

Pattern: Basic stockinette hat with one inch of 2x2 ribbing at brim

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (100% wool) in Bright Red and Winter White (leftover from the Elf Feets)

Needles: US 8 16" circular and dpns

Started/Completed: December 9

I made up the stranded design as I went along -- notice I'm not showing you the back, where there's one spot where the design didn't quite work. I did the colorwork using a two handed technique, with the main color in my right hand and the contrast color in my left (to practice for this, I knit several rows in red before the two-color portions continental). I'm actually very pleased with how this turned out. My tension was fairly even and my floats aren't too tight. I should have remembered to take a shot for you of the inside; next post, I guess.

Every year at work we do a toy drive of sorts for a center for underprivileged children: you pick a paper stocking for a child that provides the child's name, sex, age, and toy preferences. I had to pick my little girl because we share the same first name! She is 15 months old, so I got her some educational toys, but I always like to include an article of warm clothing as well, so this hat is it. It might be a little big on her, but that will give her room to grow. (I doubt she'll appreciate the knitting, but my knitting coworkers will and J was sufficiently impressed.)

So now, I've mentioned that we spent part of the weekend computer shopping, and I'm sure you're wondering how that worked out, aren't you?

This post brought to you by my brand-spanking-new laptop! (Sorry about the flash glare there.) This was my Hannukah (and birthday, I've decided) present from J. He'd had enough of me complaining about my old laptop and how slow it was and how it would freeze up. I didn't think of it as being that old, but it was more than four years old and had seen me through the last year of college and grad school; four years is a long time for computers! So now I'm blogging on my new toy, which is immensely better (although I keep bumping the scroll bar on the side of the mouse pad by accident, which is rather distracting; I'll have to get used to this keyboard). This is an HP Pavilion something-or-other. Aside from being much faster and lighter than the old model, this one has a built-in microphone and Web cam, so I can talk to my kid brother on Skype when he's away at school.

J returned to Chicago this morning, so tonight is a chick flick and work on his scarf (I did frog and restart with another skein, and the six inches or so I've since knit have earned his seal of approval). Happy Monday -- or what's left of it!