All in the family
One of the fun things all last month in Pune was being part of a knitting circle – entirely of family members. Not all of them beaming aunts with their fingers flying and tongues wagging either. Here’s my mum with my niece Gargi, a very poised, ladylike and adorable eleven-year-old. The little sofa by the window was their regular afternoon knitting corner:
All the women of my mother’s generation, and indeed, any knitters that I know in India, have never followed patterns. There are set weights of wool, set needles that go with them, there are kids’, adults’ and babies’ sizes and you either eyeball it by looking at the person’s torso, or go with a generic. There are of course horror stories of how the sweater fit the younger nephew instead, but none more dramatic than the gauge disasters we read of on blogs. How many stitches to increase? Row gauge? What kind of decrease? Negative ease? She doesn’t know and doesn’t care. Over the years, she has regarded my reliance on specific instructions with the same bemusement that I have her hunting-knife-and-wit approach.
This time, though, my mother wanted me to teach her how to do socks on DPNs with specific instructions for sizes, etc. She had only ever made booties on straights for babies; nobody really makes handmade socks for adults here, I don’t think, and anyway, in the hot climate it’s neither cost-effective nor a necessity. But she was curious about it after seeing me catch the bug.
She made a pair of toe-up short-row socks (which I *forgot* to photograph), and the whole experience taught me a lot about knitting vocabulary and styles. Teaching someone to knit might be easy, but teaching advanced techniques is difficult! (History is a breeze by comparison.) That too, teaching someone in a language (Marathi) that I don’t normally use for knitting, and what’s more, someone who has never really "read" a pattern while knitting. The sock was nearly abandoned many times, but finally, I think, my mum got the hang of short-rows. Should I have picked an easier method? I figured this was simpler than heel-down. After several hilarious attempts to translate "wrap and turn, purl to one stitch before end, wrap and turn, knit to two stitches before end…" I made notes with the grand intention of maybe writing up some patterns in Marathi someday.
Gargi liked some Knitpicks elastic sock yarn I’d taken with me, and my mum started her on a garter stitch hairband. It’s amazing what variegation in colour can do to the boredom of garter stitch, especially when the shades are pink and the knitter is a tween. She switched to single rib at both ends to draw it in behind the ears, and was most delighted when it was actually done.
The third knitter was my nephew Tushar, the son of another cousin, who excitedly learnt how to knit from my mum last summer, and ambitiously declared that he wanted to knit his own sweater. Alas, somewhere along the line he decided that knitting is for girls, and now wants nothing to do with it. I’m a cricketer, he told me firmly and solemnly. I had to struggle to get the blushing fellow to even pose for me with his creation!
Who knows, he might discover the joys of k2, p2 again later in life? Another cousin, Sudha, is also an avid knitter, but we hardly got any time together to chat and gossip this time, let alone knit. Next time!
Having done a little pattern translation into Spanish, I understand very well. Gauge is a foreign concept in most Spanish patterns I’ve found, plus the vocabulary can vary considerably from one country to the next, so trying to find terminology that can be fairly universally understood is quite challenging, particularly when I don’t typically think in Spanish while knitting.
A wise, radical cricketer can do no less than run away screaming from his ‘knitty’ auntie. A boy after my own heart. Now, if you were to help him knit a cricket vest …
how neat!!!
Doesn’t Gargi look cute in her headband?! I love that Tushar would consent to be photographed only with his eyes closed.
I really enjoyed reading your post about your family knitters in India. It is fun to see how the craft is applied to the practicalities of life in different parts of the world. I loved seeing how Gargi adapted the usual U.S. beginner project (garter stitch scarf) into something totally cool for a hot climate (a headband). Please let Tushar know that even cricketers can knit.
Looking forward to seeing more of your time in India!
That is a delightful post!! Especially loved the photos and the stories about the family bonding. What struck me also was your description of how the knitters go by eyeballing and approximations – I saw a parallel to how we (desis) cook too, a pinch of this and a handful of that. It is only after living in the ‘west’ that one thinks in teaspoons and cups.
i think it’s wonderful that so many people in your family knit! i’m the only person in mine that knits and i often get strange looks and comments about how odd it is to have a hobby that produces warm wool clothes when i live in such a warm tropical climate. but i’m used to it.
What a wonderful post. I am new to your blog and I actually stumbled upon it via Get Stitchy. It is wonderful that your family knits and it’s wonderful that you showed patience in trying to explain the pattern to your niece!
Gargi’s headband is fantastic, and I TOTALLY see why someone her age would particularly love those colors.
My mom took a knitting class earlier this year, but ended up reverting to crochet, as she told me very seriously on the phone at some point. I think, personally, the problem was that she decided to use boucle for her first project, and found it horribly annoying.
I’m teaching my mother to knit socks. She’d learned the knit and purl stitches last time I saw her and I decided she needed to learn socks. For socks, I really usually use my own pattern in my head and adjust any other patterns to suit.
Everything else, I rely on gauge. When I actually take the time to do a swatch
Really enjoying your posts this summer.
Loved this post on the family knitting project. Your posts realy evoke the ambience and the context so well, it almost seems like I am a fly on the wall there.
Hi! You left a comment on my blog about posting a link to my finished Cloverleaf Socks. You are definitely welcome to do so. Or a picture if you attribute it to me. Sorry to send the comment; for some reason, your comment didn’t get emailed to me so I don’t have your address!
hey!!nice blog..n yea,if you wish to write in marathi or develope writing in marathi,i can suggest you a site namely http://quillpad.in/marathi/
this will help you transliterate words in marathi.
Please let me know if you do translate a couple patterns into Marathi! My husband’s grandma told me that she used to knit but gave it up because she couldn’t find any interesting patterns–she’d be tickled to death if you did translate something. We wanted to translate something for her but it didn’t work out…my husband doesn’t knit so he didn’t really know how to explain things, and my Marathi is pretty much limited to “Do you want tea?” and “Where should I put this?”…