Experiments

Laptop Cover for Aisling in Drops Andes Alpaca/Wool

I happened across my son, Tom. and  friend, Maura, on the way out of town yesterday and this was the consequence, which in my opinion has a certain pleasingly prehistoric tinge.  I hope Aisling thinks so too.

"We were just talking about you!", they said. "How difficult would it be to knit a lap top cover? We need one for Aisling"

"Not sure how much protection her laptop will get from wool", I said

"More than a thin scarf, which is what she's been using" Maura said.

I went on my way, considering.   It was still on my mind later, to a point that I hunted out some bulky yarn at home, made a few false starts and called up consistent knitting friend Karen, who advocated felting ...

"You  run the end product through a washing machine", she said.  "But definitely do swatches and work out shrinkage first - felting is a very inexact science"  

... which had led to a whole series of fascinating experiments and the discovery that even under boiling water from a kettle Drops Andes doesn't shrink and its colour stays fast...  Eventually however, deciding I should probably just get knitting , I had settled on working on 108 stitches on 4.5 mm needles on the round....slow and a bit cumbersome,  but the fabric was working out spongy and (hopefully) robust.

A bit later Karen called to ask how I was getting on with the felting...

I said, "Oh.. I've just been knitting straight knit all the way.  I gave up because this wool is indestructible - amazing, actually: I even poured boiling water on and nothing happened"

"I told you - you've got to run it through a washing machine", she said.  "It's the action of the machine that shrinks the wool"

And then I remembered I actually had put on a wash earlier, and went off to investigate the outcome on one of my swatches... here's the result  

I really like it, so maybe if Aisling's laptop shrinks... Or then too, there's always the next project...