Adventures of a Desi Knitter

Remember when this was a knitting blog? I actually have some updates to post, of new WIPs. I have been knitting a bit on and off, mostly on the sampler shawl from Victorian Lace Today. Surprisingly quick progress for the amount of time I have been able to devote to it.

So far it’s been smooth sailing, except for one major rip (hence the lifeline). It has faggoting on the edges, and I decided that I dislike faggoting. Not enough visual interest for the work involved. But now it’s there, so I’m going to continue it. The samples are a mix of knitted lace and pure lace (with patterning on both sides), with leaf motifs. These are simple patterns with just enough variation to keep them interesting. I think basic samplers like these are great to avoid the monotony of stoles. I am on the brink of finishing one major set in the pattern, but another travel stint is coming up, so it’s going to be set aside for a week or so. The red colour and the lace is very hard to photograph correctly (I don’t have pins and a carpet handy), so let me distract you with another blurry, artsy picture. The yarn is so fine I keep worrying about breaking it.

Here is something else I started for knitting while travelling, a pair of simple socks for my sister. Yarn is some Regia something. She wanted some multicoloured grey-blue; that’s what she’s getting. Right now, though, she can’t even bear to look at them, cause it’s nowhere near wool-sock-wearing weather, so they’re going to take a while. I also have to find buses with good suspension in which to knit them. Knitting is such a Nov-Dec activity here that it’s really unusual to see anyone knitting in public here outside those times. The fun thing about this project is that it’s a joint project; my niece Gargi shows up every now and then and knits a few rounds. This is her first project on DPNs and she coos every few minutes - such thin needlllllllllllles!

Finally, remember my yarn for the Cobblestone pullover? I had one 750 yard hank left over, and my mum has cast on for a Clapotis with it. Should look good in this yarn, no? I have a feeling she’s going to get bored with it once the increases end and both Gargi and I will pitch in, but right now she’s heroically at it. It’s worsted weight on size 8. Any suggestions about how wide to make it to get a long enough stole? I tried looking online, but was hit by an avalanche of Clapotis posts and suggestions.

I have a feeling all three projects are going to be WIPs for a while, though.

Tags: Shawls, Clapotis, Socks, Lace work by desiknitter
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Clapotis, done. Finally. It actually turned out to be quite long and wide, nearly a foot wide and nearly 6 ft long.

I am so glad I stuck with it, because the final result is totally worth the mind-numbing knitting.

Here it’s blocked, and out on a limb (okay, a hanger) out of the window to catch some of the sunlight. I could have gone downstairs to photograph it on the stoop stairs but as always, too lazy.

Many thanks to Laura for dyeing this gorgeous skein. Seriously, the best part about knitting this wrap was discovering  the many different and beautiful shades that went into it. Suddenly, a particular hue of deep maroon or crimson would show up on the needle and I’d say to myself: ooooh, I want some worsted in *that*!

EDIT: It’s a fingering merino of 1750 yards, but I doubled it and knit it on size 7 bamboos. I don’t know how much I used, but I have a few hundred yards left over, I think.

This is a gift for a dear friend whom I’ll be seeing shortly, as part of a long road trip. But more on that later.

Re. my triangle shawl, thanks for the sympathy and suggestions! I did decide to keep going with my laceweight shawl after all, and exchanged the Louet Gems for a Barbara Walker treasury and some Koigu! Hopefully another pair of lacy socks will emerge from that bargain.

Tags: Clapotis by desiknitter
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Not much progress to show here because I’m in grading and submission hell. I whiled the month of April away and now a couple of deadlines are biting me where it hurts, plus I realised last night that the deadline for turning in final grades is not next Monday but this Friday. So I have 40 bluebooks and 15 graduate final papers to read and grade by Wednesday night, because Thursday I have to go to a conference out of state.

How did I ever get myself into this mess? Point being that not much knitting is going to get done in the next week or so. Nor over the summer, really, but I’ll keep that one for later..

More to the point, why did I start this project? Someone out there has knit *nine* of these Clapotis scarves and I cannot bring myself to finish even one. It’s the sheer monotony of it, which the dropped stitches don’t alleviate for me. But I have to finish it by month’s end to give it as a gift. Funny how stockinette socks never seem this monotonous.

Well, today I have three hours of exam proctoring to get through and a long train ride on Thursday. Hopefully I can get some done then.

Tags: Clapotis by desiknitter
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I fear I have a minority report on the Clapotis: I’m bored with it! Please don’t shoot me. I’ve started dropping the stitches (this merino yarn needs a lot of coaxing with them) and established a rhythm, but it’s just a little blah. No doubt the finished product will be worth it (she said, hopefully), but as of now, I’m having an anticlimactic moment with it. I think it’s the twisted stitches. Ktbl was never my favourite.

Ah well. I frequently eat my words down the road so don’t be surprised if you see me casting on for another sometime later.

In the meantime, I discovered a great spinner and dyer online: Manasi, aka Yarnahoy. She has some great stuff on her Etsy shop, and today I bought some of her handspun and handdyed yarn:

Do check out Manasi’s store! She has great cotton/lycra  sock yarns right now.

The multicoloured yarn is approx 440 yards of merino wool sock yarn, which she called "Jewels of Leh" (it’s the names of all her skeins that made me curious about her in the first place!). I wouldn’t usually put these shades and colours together myself, so I am curious to see how the knitted fabric looks.

And the red one I simply had to buy: it’s called "Sholay!" Heh. Sholay means "embers" in Hindi/Urdu, but having watched arguably the best ever Hindi film in Bollywood at least 15 times if not more, I simply *had* to buy it. It was our generation’s film par excellence; my serious crush on Amitabh Bachchan has long since faded, but I hope I never tire of watching Sholay.

This gorgeous yarn is about 220 yards of worsted wool, so maybe I’ll make a cap out of it while watching Sholay yet another time.

Tags: Clapotis by desiknitter
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Thanks for all the kind comments on the socks, everyone!

I was saying to Spud the other day that repeated and cheerful frogging only means we’re becoming better, more exacting knitters. Ha! So in my quest to become a better knitter, my first stab at Clapotis has hit the pond. I decided against the laceweight on size 5s because between the socks and the laceweight shawl I think I need a project  with slightly bigger needles and thicker yarn.

So I’ve started it again on size 7s, doubling the
laceweight. It’s not too tight, really, but why is it curling up at the bottom like that? I know it’s supposed to curl at the sides, but is this bottom-up also normal? Or am I doing something wrong?

Tags: Clapotis by desiknitter
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I have the perfect solution: make the first one so problematic, and yet so lovely when done, that the second one seems like a total breeze in comparison and you cannot wait to have the pair done to wear. I am aware, that like with many other solutions, your mileage may vary with this one. But look:

I started the second Koigu sock yesterday, and hopefully this one will be much less painful to execute than the first one.

(The tibetan Buddha statue on which it rests is presumably not too happy, but it was handy. )

In the interests of my own sanity, however, I decided to add some colour to the grey knitting and start a new project. Voila mon clapotis (or should it be ma clapotis?):

The subtle shades in this handpainted yarn are gorgeous. Thanks to Laura, colour expert extraordinaire, for coming up with this gorgeous yarn.

So my Clapotis is in laceweight, on size 5s, following Alianneknits. Also, I am doing the stitches to be dropped in purl. Easier to spot, easier to keep to a rhythm. I like the soft drape, and am still trying to figure out how many increases to do, to give it a good width.

Tags: Scarves, Clapotis, Koigu Lace Socks, Socks by desiknitter
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