I am typing this blog post on my new mini notebook
computer!  It is a sleek little beastie
(about 10 x 7 inches) and it allows me to work away from my desk!  I have not been this excited about the
liberating aspects of technology since we got our first cordless phone!  (Hence all the exclamation points!) 

“My Pet” (as I call it) was a Christmas gift from my husband
and his mother (many thanks!).  George –
who is far more technologically savvy than I – has been getting it all set up
for me and so I am really using it for the first time now.  While sitting at the diningroom table!  (Sorry, the exclamation points just keep
popping up!)

Meanwhile, I have finished George’s Noro Garden scarf – and
so my Christmas knitting for 2008 is officially complete (unless I take pity on
Sarah and knit some on the scarf she is making for her husband, Jeff).  I have knit 1 x 1 ribbing everyday for almost
two months now and it feels a little odd to just stop doing so. 

Perhaps I was building up a pleasant little obsession without
realizing it.  Perhaps that is why I
started thinking that maybe I wanted a Noro Garden scarf myself.  They really are beautiful scarves –
strikingly beautiful.  And I do enjoy
wearing scarves during the winter.  And I
have only one handknit scarf of my own.  
And I actually had half the yarn I would need for one more scarf – nice
sandy taupey colored Noro Garden.  I
started thinking about buying two more skeins in blues – what a nice beachy
combination that would be!

Then, I remembered the partially done light blue scarf I had
packed away in hibernation (or, more accurately, aestivation — as I had given
up on it when the weather turned warm a couple of years ago).  So, in an aura of post-Christmas thrift and
New Year’s Resolution-type self-restraint, I decided to dig it out and see if
it would satisfy my craving. 

I opened it up and was not particularly thrilled.  Not even a little.  It was okay, but not at all lovely.  The color was pretty and the yarn in the
skein (Crystal Palace Merino Frappe) felt good, but the 15 inches or so of
tight basketweave was not appealing.  It
looked kind of felted and ratty.  Sarah
concurred.  And since I do not really
like knitting basketweave (it is neither interesting nor mindless), I decided
not o finish the scarf.

But why not rip it back and begin it again as
something loose and lacey?  A simple
faggotting on larger needles, perhaps.  A
quick project, a nearly mindless project, a fresh project!  And for good measure, I decided to send the
money I would not be spending on more
Noro Garden to Knitters Without Borders.