Side by Side
I knit the two blues singly
On size 5s, really loosely
As I knit round and round
To my amazement I found
I was in a whirlpool, sinking slowly..
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Overheard on the bus
I’m sure anybody who’s knitted or crocheted on the subway or bus or plane has had all kinds of reactions from indulgent, smiling grannies and puzzled and wary businessmen. No doubt people have gently suggested that nowadays store-bought socks are cheaper. Surely someone has, as if they were the only ones to have thought of such a hilarious idea, asked you to knit something for them, gallantly offering to actually wear it. I usually smile and nod and move on. I don’t feel the need to assert some kind of "knitter" identity or give much thought to the "hipness" or historic heritage or spirituality of knitting (and this whole "represent" thing in NYC for the Harlot’s new book has left me a bit puzzled, honestly); it’s just something I like to do (okay I admit that’s an understatement) along with music and reading and travelling. But yesterday a bizarre bus encounter made me wonder about the wisdom of knitting in confined spaced with strangers. The conversation went like this:
She (a young woman in a business suit with a booming voice, sitting about five seats away, facing me): Excuse me. Excuse ME. EXCUSE ME!!!.
I (looking up after the third time, realizing it’s me she’s talking to): Yes?
She: Whatever it is you’re doing, it’s very PRETTY! (Sorry, the capitals are the only way I can give any sense of how piercing her voice was) What is it?
I: Thank you. I’m knitting a sock.
She: Well, isn’t that nice. I wish I could do that.
I: (folks will recognize the standard response): Oh it’s much easier than it looks, you should try it.
She: Well, it might be easy, but you aren’t going to make any MONEY from it, now are you?
I: (a little surprised, also embarrassed at the attention all this is getting in the bus): No, no, just for fun.
She: I suppose I could take a class. I had circular needles once, but I couldn’t cast on. I couldn’t CAST ON! You hear me?
I: Sure. Sure. Lots of yarn stores have classes.
She: Why can’t I do something fashionable? So many women from my class in school made so much money with fashionable stuff, and here I am, I can’t even cast on. Tell me, what should I do? Should I knit some socks?
I: Er, I’m getting off, it’s my stop.
She: But you won’t make any money, let me tell you….
I didn’t hear the rest. I wish I could say that her companion sitting next to her had dared her to put up this strange act in the bus: "Hey, ten bucks if you can startle that weirdo sitting there with all those needles," that sort of thing. Unfortunately, I don’t think that was the case. My Jaywalkers seemed to set off something in her.
Well.
Spiral Scarf
Spring break has brought with it a serious case of startitis. I recently bought a copy of Norah Gaughan’s Knitting Nature, and I think I’m going to start at least five projects from this wonderful book this week. (only partly kidding). I started the Spiral Scarf:
One skein Koigu in blues-greens-purples, another Claudia Handpainted in deep blues that I recently bought. The pattern calls for approx 400 yards, and I have about 350, which means a smaller scarf, but that’s okay. The pattern is somewhat oddly worded. It asks you to cast on using a "tail method" so that the tail can be used for casting on and picking up stitches for later hexagons. I’m not sure if this means you have to do a long-tail cast on for the first one, or how long the tail really needs to be, but I went ahead and started the first hexagon with a knitted cast on and left a long tail. Could anyone with a copy of the book please take a look and clarify that bit for me?
The problem is, the fabric is rather stiff. I might knit smaller hexagons of equal size on a looser gauge than spiralling down. Perhaps that will make it drapier and solve the length issue too? Let’s see. But what do you think of the way the colours are showing up? I’m still undecided, will knit some more and see.
The Namesake
Incidentally, I didn’t care much for the Namesake. The novel’s beauty lies in its spare and yet minute descriptions of everyday life and emotion, and I felt Mira Nair could have taken more liberties with it to better develop the characters on screen. It becomes
another occasion to showcase various rituals (in Monsoon Wedding it
was, well, wedding), here it is two weddings, an annaprashan (first
feeding ceremony) and a funeral. More colour and ceremony than characters, although I really liked the way she developed
Irrfan Khan and Tabu’s relationship; the bits in the Victoria Memorial
park and at the airport where they say goodbye were very well done. I like and admire both actors very much (Both of them were in Maqbool, a very interesting Hindi/Urdu adaptation of Macbeth, a film I recommend highly; Tabu also did a brilliant job in Chandni Bar.) and I
was curious to see them play very different roles from their earlier
collaboration. They both do a competent job, and I would see it again
just to see Irrfan Khan, who gets hotter and hotter with each screen
appearance, even though he looks scruffier and scruffier. He does so
much with just his eyes and body language; he’s wonderful. Kal Penn as the son is okay; he’s much better as a stoned guy than as an anguished and confused son.
Pinks and greys
Thanks so much for all the sock pattern suggestions, everyone. I am eyeing all of Cookie A’s patterns, especially the new ones! But after swatching for "hedera", and for the "smoking hot" ones for my variegated skein, I decided that this particular Trekking grey yarn was meant to be a pair of Jaywalkers. I’ve said this before, you know how a yarn sometimes almost wills itself to be something no matter how hard you try to do something different with it? The dark shades in this skein made it quite difficult to try something complicated, although my efforts introduced me to something wonderful in the process: The Walker Treasury Project. What a wonderful resource! I was trying out some lace repeats to develop a sock pattern of my own from the Barbara Walker volumes I have, and when I googled the names
of the stitches a lot of them showed up here. I’m planning to join the project myself in the summer.
Like Spud, I also reduced the number of stitches for the Jaywalker pattern (76 cast-on was waaay too large for me) and with 64 and just two repeats, it’s nice and snug. I’m doing them toe-up, short-row as usual, and might increase a few stitches from the ankle up. So far I quite like this Trekking yarn, although I imagine I’m going to be left with quite a lot of it after the pair is done.
I also started something else. Seeing the lovely pink flowers all around me here (and also the gorgeous pinks cropping up on various blogs) made me pull out my Malabrigo laceweight in Damask Rose. Mmmmmm Malabrigo.
I had set this yarn aside for something complicated like Frost Flowers or the Sampler Stole from Gathering of Lace, but once again, it seems destined to be something else. I got a lovely pink and grey silk salwar kameez as a gift that this yarn shade will go well with. So I thought I might make a light wrap out of it first, and then maybe use the rest for a cropped shrug/sweater of sorts. Let’s see.
So this is the beginning of the "North Sea Shawl" from Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls book. The yarn is held double on size 6, but after an initial blocking I think I might frog, reduce the number of repeats and go up a size to make it a little drapier. I knit this very quickly; the pattern is a variation on Feather and Fan, and it’s the right combination of mindless and interesting knitting that I need right now.
Spring break begins tomorrow! I have a paper due for a workshop that I have to do during break, but just not having to go in thrice to teach means I have some time to actually sit and write something (other than a blog entry, ie!) and I am excited about being able to do that. Am also looking forward to seeing the Namesake tomorrow.
Doing the right thing
Remember my cartridge-rib-turned-twisted-stitch-turned-NIGHTMARE alpaca pullover? In a burst of virtue I picked it up again a few nights ago, determined to complete it before the weather got too hot. I have finished one sleeve, the body is done in the round to the armholes, and really, the other sleeve and the yoke should not take that long (yes, yes, I know the perils of saying that). I had knitted the sleeve in the round too, with size 3 metal dpns for the ribbing, and then bamboo circulars. I realised with irritation that one of my Susan Bates metal dpns is missing, so I have only 3 left. So I went to the store (my neighbourhood LYS) and bought another set, this time of Takumi bamboos (don’t know why I didn’t pick the metals again). I cast on, knit an inch or so and am worried that the Takumi 3s are somehow larger than the Bates 3s: (3.25 mm as opposed to 3 mm? am not sure) and are producing a larger fabric. The photo is lousy, sorry, but can you get an idea of what I’m talking about? I’m tempted to let it go, because it’s going to all stretch anyhow, and I’ll be transferring to takumi circulars in a few inches anyhow. Or should I use just one of the bamboo dpns and use the other 3 metal Bates for the ribbing?
I actually went to another store in the area to see if they had Bates DPNs in size 3. Would you believe it, they had all this gorgeous yarn, a fun knitting group that it might be nice to join sometime, lovely space to browse in and just far enough for me to make a brisk weekend walk out of the trip, and all sizes imaginable in needles but NO size 3s in Bates! I took that as a sign, and did the only dignified thing I could. I bought some sock yarn.
I haven’t bought any in a long time, plus there was this Trekking yarn that I’ve never tried (the grey stripey one, which is brighter looking in person), or the luscious blue Claudia Handpainted that totally took my mind off the fact that the store has no Koigu (wtf is up with that?). The lilac Louet gems in the middle, I’m seeing these gorgeous flowers all around me… there’s no way I could leave those skeins there.
It’s probably no use, this virtuous return to UFOs. All I seem to want to do is knit socks. I cast on for the Trekking, and am currently on the lookout for a good pattern that shows off variegated yarn. For all the lovely handdyed sock yarns on Etsy there are remarkably few patterns for them, no? I thought of Jaywalkers and others like it, but am still holding out for something else. Any suggestions?
Settling in
If you’ve moved house/job/city even once, you know how painfully long it takes for things to start feeling familiar and comfortable. There are of course the big things: new colleagues and neighbours, fresh bureaucratic nightmares, DMV lines, the deeply depressing yellow strips of paper that are stuck on all your incoming mail for months, reminding you of the unfamiliarity of your new place. Having lived in five states since 2001, I have some idea of this unsettled feeling.
All that eventually, if painfully, sorts itself out, even though you are greyer, more prone to drink, and beside yourself with anxiety at the very sight of a moving truck. However, it’s not until some other small things fall into place that you really begin to settle in: finding a hairdresser you don’t want to stab with the nearest shears handy after looking in the mirror, a yarn store that you actually want to browse in and isn’t a pain to get to, and a cafe in your neighbourhood that you can make your own familiar hangout.
Can you imagine the smile on my face? The coffee isn’t great, but I’m not much of a coffee drinker. The salads are excellent, the sofas inviting and the music unobtrusive and the artwork unpretentious. One of the guys who works there (not the one you can see in the picture) is a bit dyspeptic, but I’ll take dyspeptic anyday over excessively chirpy.
Then there’s the yarn store that is technically in another town, but a short bus ride or brisk walk away. So far at least, the folks there have not set my teeth on edge, and I’ve bought stuff from them several times. As you can see, even my socks like hanging out there!
Miraculously, after two initial disasters, I also found someone who can cut my hair without my having to wear my cabled hat for the next few weeks while it grows back. Right around the block from where I live, too!
So I kicked back today, knit and read a bit in the cafe on a bright sunny day, wandered by the store in my flipflops and bought some needles, and came back and finished my Tiger socks (Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock toe up in stockinette on size 0s, shortrow heels and toes, 60 stitches). A sunday well spent.
Of course, there was that 4.4 point earthquake some days ago that reminded me, a little aggressively, that I’m in northern California, but I am ignoring it; apparently one soon becomes blase enough to call out the numbers on the Richter scale.
I don’t know if I’m going to get that settled in, but well, we shall see.
Free Pattern for Cabled Rangoli Hat
So I finally got round to writing up the pattern for the Cabled Rangoli Hat, and I also made another iteration of it. This time in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, in Asparagus. I have written up the pattern and uploaded it to my sidebar on the left, where it is available free for download. You can also click here. Do let me know if you make it, I’d love to know your feedback and comments. Here’s what the latest iteration looks like:
As I had said last time, the cables definitely show up more clearly in the wool than in the alpaca. The hat also retains its shape better, I think. I love it! It looks a little more like the Queen’s headdress than I had thought, but in a nice way!
I made some changes to the pattern: I abandoned the separation of the two lines and went with a standard k2 cable line amidst the purl stitches simply because it’s more convenient when it comes to crossing cables. I also decided to have the lines dovetail into the ribbing to keep things neat. The bobbles too, are purl bobbles now and sit better, somehow.
I was a little worried that the hat might not be deep enough, but it just covers my ears without being too tight, which is exactly what I wanted with it; this is not a 20 degree fahrenheit hat, but an it-might-be-chilly-out-this-evening hat, I guess. There are more pictures with the pdf pattern. It’s about 7 inches deep and 22 inches in circumferences, perfect for my big head.
Specs for this iteration:
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, Asparagus, 1.5 skeins (approx. 160 yards)
Needles: 5 Susan Bates circular and DPNs. I imagine anybody else in the world will need larger needles than that for this yarn, or slightly finer yarn for that gauge.
Gauge: 6 stitches per inch.
Took me about 2 days of sustained knitting after I’d got the pattern all worked out (which took a *lot* longer!)
Am feeling maha pleased that this is finally done. This evening I also finished writing a rather critical review of a book for a journal that I had been putting off for weeks, because I am not fond of writing reviews for one, and highly critical reviews, for another. But all in all, a weekend of accomplishment, if not of fulfilment (read earlier post about not getting any bhang for holi…)!
Rang Barse (When it rains colours)
I haven’t played with water and colours for Holi in nearly a decade. This weekend, though, it’s the spring festival again, and many of the friends I played with back then are in Delhi, getting together for a Holi party. Very kindly, they have included me in the emails discussing the preparations, and I am feeling more than a twinge of envy. Not so much for the spatter of colour, the wet mud or the sinking realization that months of brutal summer will soon descend after this saturnalia, but for the bhang, which is being procured and prepared even as I type this. Some of my best memories of JNU are, ironically, associated with this memory-tampering device. But, across the world, walking back home from school a short while ago, the full moon was shining white in the dark blue evening sky to my left with the Golden Gate bridge awash in glorious sunset hues to my right. Holi was in the air, alright. Holi hai!
To my mind, one of the best descriptions in English of Holi and its laden joys is in Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy:
On the morning of Holi, Maan woke up smiling. He drank not just one but several glasses of thandai laced with bhang and was soon as high as a kite. He felt the ceiling floating down towards him – or was it he who was floating up towards it? As if in a mist he saw his friends Firoz and Imtiaz…[and] went forward to wish them a happy Holi. But all he could manage was a continuous stream of laughter. They smeared his face with colour and he went on laughing. They sat him down in a corner and he continued laughing till the tears rolled down his cheeks. The ceiling had now floated away entirely, and it was the walls that were pulsing in and out in an immensely puzzling way.
[On their way to Pran's] "Oh, we’ll take a tonga, a tonga", said Maan, waving his arms around and embracing Firoz. "But first drink some thandai, it’s got an amazing kick." ….He was not very steady on his feet as it was, and he stumbled and fell into the bed of yellow cannas. He raised his head long enough among the flowers to sing the single line, "Oh revellers, it’s Holi in the land of Braj!" and sat down again, disappearing from view. A minute later, like a cuckoo-clock, he got up again to repeat the same line and sat down once again.
Bollywood, of course, has plenty of Holi songs, one of the most famous ones, from the film Silsila featuring Amitabh Bachchan, being the title of this post. You can view it here. One of our friends regularly got stuck on one line from this very song for hours every year and I expect he will this year, too. There’s another dance from the film Don, though, that is not about holi, but which Amitabh does after drinking some bhang, that I thought I’d share with you, even though the video quality leaves something to be desired. The catatonic limb movements, dance moves and the song were quite popular as we moved around campus looking for people to drag through the mud pit or smear with colour. I marvel as I look at it now, but there was a time when daddy long legs was my world. The song also features the gorgeous Zeenat Aman; both of them are on the run from the bad guys (after the gang found out that he was just a country bumpkin from the banks of the Ganga and working for the police), and they stop for a song break (naturally!) when they come across some of his folk and they offer him some, um, refreshment. He’s thrilled because he hasn’t had any in quite a while, and tells us how he got himself into a pickle. The song begins:
When the bhang works its colourful magic
pick up a paan to chew
Such a jolt it gives your insides
it’s like you’re born anew!
Oh well. There’s also other colours to look at:
