Sundara, stitch definition and Hanukah.

What do these three things have in common?

Not much, I guess, though Sundara probably knits with great stitch definition. We already know she is a fabulous person. Look what she sent me as a thank-you note for test-knitting for her!



This is about 170g of her luscious aran silky merino in the 'Sari' colorway. Pictures can in no way do justice to this yarn. I fell in love with it at the beginning of the year, and she had put it aside for me "in case there was a future scarf to test-knit." This was a total surprise and so gorgeous. I just want to hug it, but really I should knit something small and special with it.

Now, I'm kind of all about the stitch definition at this point in my knitting. Last night I decided I wanted to make an Anime (Totoro) Hat for a friend's baby, and tried it with Jaeger Matchmaker 4-ply. My gauge tends to be loose with circs, but with dpns I tend to be closer to advertised, and in this case I was right on — 7 spi. Oops. The pattern called for 6. I knitted a few inches, realized my booboo, and swiched to some lovely pale lavendar alpaca I had in my stash (from someone's deStash). Now, I've not knit with alpaca before, and while it's super soft, it is also hairy and somewhat slippy. I am definitely NOT getting nice even stitch def.

On the other hand I am getting an angora-soft hat. So maybe I need to change my standards.

Finally, look what Rob got me for Hanukah!!!

Uh, I realize this doesn't look like much. But it's a Motu 8pre! Well, that doesn't tell you much either. What this does it let me have eight simultaneous, individual, digitized mic or line inputs into my Mac via Firewire. What this means is that I can do some serious 8-track recording of my band, or me at the piano, or whatevah I want, with far higher quality than I was getting out of my limping iMic with the teensy weensy single stereo mic. You never know, I may even post some of it.

If I can remember how to sing on key.

Experiments yesterday were not conclusive on that point.

Either that or it's hard to sing and read a manual at the same time.