Adventures of a Desi KnitterAn academic juggles knitting, sewing, and other crafts in Kolkata

Twins, Ravelry, Cast-Ons

§ August 17th, 2007 § Filed under Elsewhere on the Web, Socks § 5 Comments

School is barely two weeks away, and occasional emails from students about reading lists and such like are forcing me from the torpor of summer siestas, food and fiction. Has anybody ever weighed the stomach-churning anxiety of the first week of class against the last week’s nausea of grading? Every December and May I know that grading very easily trumps having to face a new batch of unknowns by a long shot in the what-I-hate-most-about-my-job department, but every August and January I’m not so sure. I try to calm the butterflies by thinking in cliches about clean slates, leaves turning, new dawns, fresh beginnings, but there’s still something about the introductory riot-act-and-syllabus spiel on the first day of class that depresses me no end.

Still, after this horrid summer where I haven’t been able to knit very much, I am looking forward to warm clothing and this beloved hobby that produces it. So after weeks of getting on to Ravelry and not doing very much with it, I’m looking around for patterns to queue. Look for me there: I’m (no surprises) Desiknitter. It’s also been a lot of fun looking at photos of people who are making and queuing my Cloverleaf socks and the Rangoli hat. Speaking of which, do look at the gorgeous shades on Spudsayshi’s Rangoli hat!

I amused myself the other day by learning a new method to start toe-up socks – Magic Cast On. I used the wool I bought in Delhi, with two US 0 (2 mm, or Indian size 14) circular needles. This is way simpler and quicker than the short-row toe, and allows you to manipulate size better, too. That’s if you can figure out which effing needle is which, and don’t complicate matters by using the wrong needle every single time. During several tries, my project looked like blurry and messy with visible signs of frogging.

Did I mention that I bit off more than I could chew by casting on for two socks at the same time? It all actually settled down after a while, and I couldn’t help thinking this is probably a lot like having twins – double the trouble and you keep asking yourself what the hell happened, but then you have two instead of one all at once and tell yourself that at least you don’t have to start all over again soon.

Mercifully socks are easier to manage than twins; if doing them together gets to be too much, at least I can just take one off the needles and do it later! I find that continuously moving the stitches to the end of the circulars for every round is quite annoying, so I might actually switch each one to DPNs and finish them individually. Try keeping one of your kids in storage while you focus on raising the other! Oh, and although you can’t see them because of the rolled brims, these are Flintknits’ Marigold Socks! (Pattern free, easy and gorgeous)

I’m nearing the end of my Kiri shawl – stay tuned, I have a long trans-Pacific flight to take one of these days….

Edit: apologies for reposting a couple of times, found some awful spelling errors.