NORO Love-- Like Easter Eggs

Last month I was invited to go on the air for KUT's fund drive. I love being on the radio and, in my enthusiasm that night, I offered a bonus premium to the first couple of callers to donate X amount. I said I'd knit hats for these folks. Well, the calls came in and shortly after that I set myself to fulfilling my commitment. One of the donors asked if I would please switch out the hat for a scarf in pinks and grays, and I agreed. When I asked the other winner what color she preferred, she named pretty much every color in the rainbow.

I headed down to the shop hoping to find something in pink and gray that was of-one-skein. I don't really mind adding in yarn from additional skeins, but there's definitely something to be said for just using one big ball of yarn. I wandered from room to room searching for just the right yarn (okay, really this was just an excuse to go into my Happy Yarn Trance) and couldn't find anything that really sang out to me for this particular project (though of course I found many, many options that sang out for other projects). I told Suzanne what I was looking for and in no time produced the perfect selection-- a wonderful Noro Nobori in pinks and grays with some brown and white mixed in. Nobori is a nice blend of 42% cotton, 31% nylon, 14% wool and 13% silk. It has such a cool feel to it and I was so pleased with the results that I think I'm going to have to get some more of this and make myself a shawl.

As for the hat-- hey, since I was already in the Noro section and since Noro ties with Manos de Uruguay as my all-time favorite yarn, I thought why not? I grabbed a couple of balls of super colorful wool blend for the hat I also committed to making. This knitted up so well that every stitch was like oo-la-la. I mean I LOVE NORO!! Once I got the basic hat done, I felt like it needed a little more something. So, being a fan of silly, I added on the pom-pom and earflaps, which I finished off with i-cords and tassels. I'm going to say this is a one-of-a-kind hat. I sent it to the recipient the other day and she wrote to thank me for getting it to her just in time for summer, assuring me that it matches her bathing suit perfectly. I, personally, think it looks a bit like an Easter Egg, which is a nice happy timing coincidence.