Adventures of a Desi Knitter

Last week, one of my wear-at-home slippers gave way, and I realised I needed a new pair. Not a big deal, except I have had this pair for nineteen years. I bought them in 1988, the summer before I went away to junior college in Pune, amidst much excitement about life on my own in a hostel. These slippers have been with me through college, grad school, relationships, jobs, cities and countries. It was only after one of them tore that I realised how long it had been - do you blame me for mourning their passing?

I will have the torn slipper resewed (you can see it in the picture above), but in the meantime I needed a new pair. Rather than the boring option of buying a pair from the store, I first tried to get one by writing soulful poetry (come on, bad limericks can be soulful, you just need the right attitude!) for a contest on Ruth’s blog. Alas, she preferred a more prosaic (and, alright, deserving) entry, so there ended that.

So, I made a pair of the quick and ever-popular Felted Clogs (by Bev Galeskas/Fiber Trends) myself. Inspired by Ruth, I used the opportunity to mop up some loose skeins in my stash. Amazingly enough, the multicoloured clogs did not result in an ugly, mismatched pair (as I’d almost hoped!).
Slipper ingredients:
*The tannish body is 3 skeins of Indiecita Alpaca in shades of beige, brown and browner (Boy is this alpaca hairy after felting!).
*The blue inner soles are Cascade 220.
*The reddish cuffs and one of the outer soles are Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran and Elann Highland Chunky.
*All on size 11 needles.
Am delighted to say that nearly all of these skeins (roughly 100 yards each, give or take), were used up. I can use the remaining bits as lifelines, stitch holders, markers, etc.

I never stop wondering at the magic of felting. All yarns, surprisingly, felted relatively equally too. The slippers took me two rounds of a hot wash in the top loader at the laundromat, with periodic dunking in some cold water. Now, trimmed and dry, they are snug on my feet. They’re not really a replacement for my old slippers, but I think they will do nicely. I do need to get some bottoms for them, though, because they are a little, well, slippery on the wood floor.

Tags: Simpler stuff, Socks by desiknitter
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I haven’t posted any Fiberlicious Friday pictures so far, because I couldn’t bring myself to photograph yarns with cutlery and food. But as I sliced a delicious, juicy pluot this morning, I couldn’t help but remember the Highland Silk yarn that came from Elann a couple of days ago for my Ogee Tunic:

Funny, they called the yarn shade "Raspberry," but the delicate pinks and the silk sheen remind me of the veins and lustre of the flesh of the pluot.

Incidentally, I thought this pluot was a fancy French fruit with a fancy French name. Turns out it’s a cross between a plum and an apricot, say what! I have been devouring it in the past month.

I cannot wait to cast on for the Ogee Tunic again! (by the way, do click on the Fiberlicious link above, there are some gorgeous photos)

Enjoy your weekend!

Tags: sweaters, Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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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!

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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Thanks folks, for the positive feedback on the weird little eyeshade, which is working out quite well. I have to wash it to see how much it snaps back into shape, but it hasn’t stretched all that much in the first place, which is good news. For those of you visiting this blog after a long time or for the first time, this cotton eyeshade (eyemask?) is what I’m talking about. Here is the pattern (links to .pdf file). It’s also available on the sidebar on the left under "Free Patterns." As always, do let me know if any of you make it! ET, if you’re reading this, the original blue I made is yours! I’ll bring it for you next weekend when we meet.

More eyeshades

Classes are over!! I cannot believe it has been two semesters, a full academic year already in my new job. I must say this year has been exceptional in terms of student quality, and my barring a couple, most of them have been a joy to teach and work with. And no, this happy assessment is not entirely to do with the fact that I have a grader this term! May this warm and fuzzy feeling persist in the years to come (grading help, too..)

So E, a close friend and former colleague, visited this week and I went shopping and dining and fooling around with her. Napa was part of our plans, as was an outlet mall, and Stash, my local yarn store. I saw her after almost a year, and we had a blast. I gave her my red Rangoli hat, which looked gorgeous on her. We sported cool eyeshades as we walked around in the sun and felt very chic overall, I must say. Spudsayshi, we missed you very very much, and have decided that the next get-together is going to be in Toronto. We will descend on your fair city with money and determination, and paint it red with you. How about it? (you can see the rangoli hat and my north sea shawl in the picture below):

The only thing missing from this picture (which totally sums up my simple yet decadent week) is my knitting. I had temporarily set it aside for a lunch of Moroccan olives, gouda and local chevre, fresh wholewheat bagels and pear jam and fresh apples from the farmer’s market. And a superb Spanish white rioja.

Now that I read so many blogs regularly, I’ve become familiar with my blog-friends’ colour preferences. I find that when I go to the yarn store and browse through the different colours I’m thinking, hmm, Pamela or Megan would like this green, or Spud would have loved that grey and so on. When I picked up a purple Claudia yarn the other day, I thought of Alison of Alianneknits. She would totally have picked this colour, right, A?

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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This has got to be the most unusual thing I have knit to date. (The nose-warmer I mentioned a few posts ago was a crochet attempt.) Any guesses about what it might be? It’s made from Cascade Fixation and took me a couple of hours. A welcome distraction from reading undergraduate research papers this weekend. It’s intended as a cover for a body part, of which we usually have two.

No, it’s not what you think. It’s an attempt to make a cotton eyeshade, to keep the light out when I sleep. They usually give these out in long haul flights. Well, at least the airlines that haven’t decided to avoid bankruptcy by saving big bucks on these extravagances, along with peanuts. I carefully save them, because while I can fall asleep anytime, anyday, anyplace, I need these shades to get it dark enough. But I keep losing the ones I have, and invariably after overhauling the bed linen I find one caked in dust bunnies under the bed and then can’t use it. The elastic for the last one I had  snapped last night so I thought I’d try making one out of cotton-elastic yarn. The chevron stitch is to help the patch undulate naturally and lie flat. As you can tell, it still needs some coaxing with blocking.

Did you ever think taking a picture of yourself with a digital camera was annoying? Try it blindfolded. If I didn’t have some dignity, I’d have posted the strange angles of my room and face that my camera captured as I flapped my arms wildly with this thing over my eyes.

I cast on 50 stitches, and knit in the chevron pattern (repeated twice over 25 stitches each) for 22 rows, with 3 row garter bands at the bottom and top. Then I picked up 13 stitches along one edge on the RS, and knit till it went around, slightly stretched, across the back of my head. Then I bound off in rib and sewed it to the other RS edge. Done! Oh, yarn was Cascade Fixation.

Should *anyone* want to make this, let me know, I’ll write up the pattern, gauge and all! I’m off to take a nap. If it works, I am going to try another one, this time knit entirely sideways.

Also, thank you, thank you so much to all my readers for the wonderful feedback on the North Sea Shawl! I loved making it and sharing the pictures with everyone, and my hands are already itching to start a new lace project. I was looking at this Faroese beauty, for instance. But it’s going to have to wait, sigh. 

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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Thanks so much for the kind words on the socks, everyone! In a burst of enthusiasm after completing them I started three new projects in rapid succession, two of which are currently off the needles, looking vaguely resentful at being derailed so early on in their careers. The brown is Elann Peruvian Pure alpaca, which I am test-knitting for the balaclava pattern. It came off the needles because I needed them to try another swatch for my rangoli hat, this time with proper Bavarian twisted stitches. That too stalled, because I realized I had forgotten to twist the stitches! Now the swatches stare at me from across the room, daring me to pick them up, and I’m doing my best to avoid looking at them.

I started something else instead: Grumperina’s Jaywalkers. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces in a shade that is a little too Tiger Tiger Burning Bright for me, but it’s soft, I bought it on a whim long back, and, I just realised, I inaugurated this blog with it (well, almost). This pattern is great and I’m quite amazed at how the stripes are turning out neatly, but I’m a little worried about the puckering at the decreased and am not sure it’s going to fit. Anyone know if this puckering is normal with this pattern? I have to reknit the earlier one since it was knit with size 1s and is a little loose. But I’m not sure if I should go with the plain stockinette (featured in the link above) or continue with the Jaywalkers.

Any opinions?

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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I cast aside the pullover and cast on for something else. But I want to say that at least half of it is Elann’s fault. I ordered some extra skeins from them sometime back for my red pullover, since the twisted stitches made sure what I had wasn’t enough. Now it turns out I only thought I placed the order. Since their website wasn’t working for some reason then, I just postponed it and then clean forgot.

So after I did finally order them, I hyperventilated for a while that I wouldn’t be able to finish this pullover anyway, because the package wouldn’t arrive before I left next week, and what had I been killing myself over all these days???? Then I relaxed and figured that this was my perfect excuse; basic rule, is it not: no yarn, no knitting.

And so, whistling, I cast on for what Spud, sometime back, called tipless gloves:

They’re basic gloves, cast on 48 stitches, 2×2 rib, the rest stockinette, without an inch of the tip (or the top). I know that a pair of green mitts are no match for a red alpaca pullover, but hey. You got to work with what you have. The yarn is from my stash - Knitpicks Merino style in Moss - I trust you can see the halo shining brightly behind me, for virtuously using up what I have. These are actually a test pair; if they make typing easier in an unheated room, I’m going to whip up a couple more nicely patterned pairs.

The thought that this does not have 312 stitches per round is cheering me up immensely. Now if only I’ll be able to finish these in time, at least…

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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From an old box, actually. I’d bought one of those disposable CVS digital cameras long ago and taken pictures of various knitting projects of, and then promptly lost. It surfaced today, along with a few other prints of other project photos. I got the camera developed, but need to find a scanner for the prints. Clearly, either that camera was particularly bad, or my snapping skills have improved since then. But lookee:

I don’t know why they look like they’re too shy to fully emerge from the closet, with my black kameez in the second pic as if hanging from a meathook, but these are sweaters I made a few years ago. (click on them for larger images: they look better). The fuchsia (it was not as bright as the photo suggests) was adapted from the Wonderful Wallaby pattern and made with Brown Sheep cotton fleece. The kit was my gift to myself on defending my phd dissertation and made mostly on a road trip from Ohio to Colorady by way of Chicago, Minnesota and the Dakotas. It got really loose after a point and I have no idea where it is now. But it was darned comfy.

The black hoodie was a traumatic project and continues to be. Made from a pattern in Hip to Knit (thanks to Spud) and Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride, it went very fast, but the pattern and I didn’t see eye to eye on many occasions. Also, getting the pockets to line up properly made me weep several times.  To say nothing of trying to sew in the zipper, which, I have to say, ranks right up there will frogging lace in being a total bitch to do. All that was nothing, though, to the amount this yarn PILLS!!! It’s like a grizzly bear, a very angry, bristling one. It’s not even that soft, but it is warm and comfy.

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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I have a couple of important paper deadlines to meet. So naturally, I faffed away the day at home, reading barely two pages of a book I have to review. The time was most productively spent making meeting another important deadline:

We have an iPod case, cosy,cozy, whathaveyou. Well, a prototype, at least. Made of Cascade Fixation cotton/elastic, to fit snugly around the iPod.

It was made expressly at Sepoy’s request, for the new iPod he’s soon going to get (presumably after he gets out of dissertation hell?).

Not quite electric blue, as he’d wanted, but close.

Pattern adapted from Grumperina’s.

Tags: Ipod Case by desiknitter
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Thanks for all the nice comments on the shawl, people!
My husband’s cousin and her family visited us for dinner tonight from the ‘burbs. My niece is seven and quite precocious; I made the Dancing Socks for her sometime back. This evening was great fun, because I finally taught her to knit after months of her asking me to. She could barely hold the needles before this, but this time she was quite determined.
As you can see, she was trying to helping me finish my Koigu sock, but I managed to get her off that delicate project and gave her some worsted weight yarn and size 6 straights. She ended the evening with a small band of garter stitch! I was so proud.
She kept repeating the ditty with every stitch:
"In through the front door,
once around the back,
peek through the window,
and off jumps jack!"
You can see her little brother trying to disrupt the procedings as much as possible, but he did succeed in almost tearing my measuring tape to bits. Boys.

Tags: Simpler stuff by desiknitter
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