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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Hey, all! Thanks so much for all your good wishes for my trip - here I am, on the other side of the world, recovered from jet lag already.

Plane travel is exhausting, disorienting, annoying and many other things. It also infantalises travellers like none other mode of travel. It’s not just the security staff who speak to you slowly but loudly as if you were either deaf or retarded, barking out orders in elaborate legalese-politese and processing you on a long and complicated assembly line from dangerous unknowns into government-deemed safe travellers. It is also the feeling of being strapped into the small, uncomfortable seat for so many long hours, with food brought to you every few hours. You sleep, you eat, some sort of entertainment hovers in front of your eyes to keep you diverted, and then you sleep and eat some more. This is how babies must feel - slightly out of focus and irritable and trapped. The flight attendants also treat you with a combination of firmness-laced-with-nice that parents whose patience is about to snap use on kids running wild. If the airlines provided diapers with the headphones and acrylic blanket wrapped in plastic, I imagine our regression to infanthood would be complete.

Speaking of actual babies travelling, there seemed to be many more than usual on this flight. Or maybe my claustrophobia was conjuring them up all around me. They wailed and howled throughout - sometimes in unison, sometimes in harmony, but always in dreadful cacophony. It occurred to me that anyone unsure about whether they want children would do well to travel on a transcontinental flight surrounded by infants and toddlers before they make a final decision. But I do feel bad for the parents, who always have this hunted, apologetic look about them. It must be awful to juggle discomfort and disorientation with a shrieking baby and dark looks from people all around you. I was virtuous, though - in keeping with the whole kids theme, I took refuge in The Sound of Music. (Btw, these are the Regia socks I began on another transcontinental flight in February - 64 stitches on size 0 needles, very plain and simple.)

That’s one point for Continental, I gotta say, even if they do, rather horrifyingly, charge for alcohol on international flights (WHY do American airlines do that?) - they have a whole set of very diverse films for you to choose from on your own little individual screen. Along with Julie Andrews, I also indulged in Jane Austen, with the wonderful, smart Emma Thompson adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and the godawful Keira Knightley adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. If you permit me to rant about this for a second, I wonder what Austen herself would have made of some rather odd moments in this adaptation. I didn’t mind that it took liberties with the dialogue - the S&S adaptation did too, but the ones in P&P somehow didn’t work as well, mostly because they seemed to turn this elegant narrative of manners into a faux-historical teenage drama. “Don’t you dare judge me, Lizzy!” Charlotte Lucas says (after choosing calmly to marry that horrible Mr. Collins), and that wooden Darcy, who looks like a confused, drowned rat with that oddly dishevelled look, unpardonably blurts out “I love you” instead of the glorious “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you” to Elizabeth Bennet. She, in turn, yells “Leave me alone!” to her family, slamming the door and running upstairs. WTF?? Ah well. At least the von Trapps were as familiar and saccharine as ever.

It is hot here, and very erratic and strong thunderstorms are allowing the electricity department to cut power even more than usual. But it’s also cool and breezy and deliciously overcast in the evenings, and I started a longue duree lace project to keep me company on my equally long research project. It’s the Beginner Sampler stole from Victorian Lace Today, in Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb, in tomato red, on size 3 needles. I am already loving it, but expect an FO only sometime around December, I think. My mum is convinced that my eyes are going to get worse from squinting at the tiny yarn and needles.

Oh, and I’m eating a lot of Alphonso mangoes. Mmmmmmm.

Tags: Shawls, Travel, Socks, Lace work by desiknitter
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Over the last week, I must have knit thousands of stitches in total. A few furious inches here, some leisurely centimetres there. The days were crazy and involved much running around reading endless admissions files and preparing syllabi and course-packets. But the evenings were quiet. My Netflix supply was well-oiled, with lots of long, mindless, Hindi melodrama on full tap. I knit an awful lot of stitches. I should have not one, but two Cobblestone sleeves to show you.

But of course, I do not. It is the first sleeve, back to where it was last week. It made the trip all the way up to the armhole and slid right back, like an unlucky Snakes-and-Ladders player. Reason? The increase gradient was too gentle, and the sleeve threatened to be a bit too tight. In keeping with my new virtuous, gauge-and-fit-cautious 2008 self, I figured it was too early to slide back to my bad habits myself, and frogged.

It was a bad omen, no doubt. But in rash optimism and disregard, I cast the sleeve aside, and bought three skeins of a gorgeous forest green in Cascade 220 to make another Back to School Vest. Remember the one I made last month? I gave it away to a friend, and decided to make a better fitting one for myself. I cast on with size 7s like before and was an inch or so into it when a thought rose, unbidden, that the fabric was too loose, and that I might try with size 6 needles instead. A Counter-Thought naturally presented itself: did the first vest feel that way too? The thought, now stronger, insisted that it did, especially around the waist. Counter-thought, weakened by its adversary’s confidence, wilted and began doubting its own doubts about this apparent looseness. So I cast on again, with a different skein, with size 6s.

Thought and Counter-thought were clearly fucking with my mind and enjoying it, because now, an inch into both versions, I am thoroughly confused - too loose? Too tight? Not sure which one to do, I am altogether sick of this pattern already. But I can’t tell you how lovely this shade is - it reminds me alternately of moss and henna, which I feel I can almost smell or touch when I sniff or knit with the yarn.

No doubt my mind is mimicking the whole moss sensation, because yet another thought keeps forming threateningly in a deep recess somewhere, flinging more doubts and alternatives at me. Will this really look good as the BTS Vest? Wouldn’t the forest green rather be a comfy hoodie instead? Walk in the woods after rain; jeans, sneakers and green hoodie, maybe a cardi with pockets? Or, perhaps another Fitted Knits project - the feminine cardigan, in a dark green to minimize the overly cutesy look? It was this foolish thought that led me to rashly buy three skeins of another shade yesterday in charcoal grey for the Vest. Now my indecision is even worse - grey or green? Both are quite lovely, you gotta admit, but I’m too afraid to even wind the grey for fear that it will develop an identity crisis of its own.

Enough of Cascade, I told myself. Find a mindless, easy project to keep you occupied. I idly picked up a skein of Nashua Worsted and cast on for the Koolhaas hat for some instant gratification. No sooner had I done that than the alpaca strands got up my nose and created a fuss about too much fuzz, too little stitch definition, and there I was a day later, with the same project, but this time in Malabrigo Teal. I did two rows of the cabled pattern and another nasty thought, no doubt from the same subversive brigade, began to play in my head - do I really want this hat? I haven’t quelled the thought yet, and the two yarns are poised, waiting:

Socks! Always the last refuge, reliable, simple socks. My friend Madhavi got me two skeins of Regia from Germany this Christmas, and I brought them out this morning to pick one to cast on with. Just the thought of picking one over the other made me so superstitious, though, that they got photographed and went right back into the drawer. I’ll deal with them later.

This madness, it is hoped, will not last. I will sensibly match yarn to project, even progress a couple of inches, and not let the damn A.D.D turn me a complete, indecisive A.S.S. I just wish I could figure out which yarn to tackle first….

Tags: sweaters, Caps, Hats, Etc., Socks by desiknitter
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Or, a post in four parts.

First, thanks so much to everyone who commented and emailed, for all your sympathy and suggestions about my seamless alpaca debacle! I retreated from the sweater and resisted burning it in the grate. A large relative’s visit is looming on the weekend, and I might just do the lofty thing and give it away. It still is rather gorgeous looking, for all its misshapenness, but I think I’ll feel happier knowing it will keep *someone* warm, even if it isn’t the originally intended recipient. So instead, I knit on my Cobblestone for a bit, adding some waist shaping (can you spot my full-fashioned decreases?)

Second, after achieving this high-minded closure, I regrouped my ego and nerves, and went to various LYSs in search of the perfect (read affordable - have you seen the friggin’ prices on some of these????) wool/alpaca blend. I fantasised about buying ten skeins, knitting the swatch on the bus back and voila, hey presto, being done by Christmas. Alas, only one store in our area carries Berroco Ultra Alpaca (Thanks to all who recommended it!), and they had only three skeins of the one shade the spouse liked. I did try Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, but it was too scratchy around his neck, not ideal for a turtleneck. But when I realised my pullover-in-two-week fantasy was going the way of my dramatic-weightloss-in-two-weeks fantasy, I decided to wait and order it at leisure. (Talking of weight loss, my last post with those two words got pingbacks from strange sites - those that trawl blog posts for such popular key phrases, I guess. I’m probably getting a lot of disappointed visitors who expect to find diets but see alpaca yarn instead.)

Third, this epiphany was followed by another: the last thing I wanted to do was measure gauge and fret about size (talking of key phrases, ahem). Final papers were soon to arrive. Why not go for something relaxing and simpler? So I did. I knit him a pair of felted clogs with Cascade 220. He’s happy with them, even though they’re - you guessed it - a bit too large! I’m going to give them one more spin in the hot washer the next time I do laundry.

And finally, fourth:

This aran is knit with the same yarn as the Cobblestone above: a light worsted merino called La Paz, handpainted by Laura Macagno-Shang of Textiles a Mano. The sweater is five years old, and was my first major aran project after learning how to read charts and patterns. I picked up a Vogue Knitting pattern and sort of went with it, changing an ugly shawl collar to the V. It was great for my knitting confidence overall and I’ve worn it a lot.

Problem is, I only ever wear the sweater at home, because I don’t care for the aran pattern anymore, and I hate the way the cabled sleeves look puffed; I feel vaguely like an American footballer. While it’s very comfy, it is quite shapeless, the sleeves rather long, it’s too bulky under the arms and the finishing would now make me blush. It’s a shame, because I love the yarn, which has begun pilling only now, after years of heavy wear, and the subtle brown shades.

See the hole right at the waist in the central panel? That was what got me thinking - what if I were to unravel and reknit the yarn into a more fitting and interesting pattern? Any suggestions for what might look good in this yarn? A search on Ravelry for cardigans and pullovers is like setting off an avalanche and being drowned in patterns, so any specific suggestions are most welcome. Hope everyone’s holiday knitting is coming along well!

Tags: sweaters, Cartridge Rib Pullover, Socks by desiknitter
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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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This one sock is both the fastest and slowest sock I have knitted to date. I started it nearly ten days ago, but as is normal with the simplest of projects, I made several mistakes and had to start over, and over, and over again. And then, bang, the day before yesterday I started off and finished it last night. I know that’s nothing for some people, but for me it was like streaked lightning. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I knit it *exactly* as is, with no changes to the pattern. It was quite refreshing!

This pattern is deceptive. As with all of Grumperina’s designs, the construction is intuitive and simple, but clever use of stitches results in a most satisfying project. As I was knitting this I wondered what all the fuss was about the brioche stitch, because it looked just like 3×3 rib, but took longer. Then I put on the sock as I was going along, and realized that the brioche adds a lovely little detail along the purl rib.

This sock, knit in Koigu on size 0 bamboos, is for a friend (hi!) who wanted one in fall colours. I couldn’t find any one brown or green that said fall colours to me, but then I saw this colourway, which looks quite like one overall. But it has taken me so long to knit one that I am going to send her the second one raw - she can knit it herself, I’m sure she’ll enjoy that. I’m done! I’m sending her the sock with a little handmade Indian lipstick case, just to keep with the whole handmade theme. I hope she enjoys the whole package!

Tags: Socks by desiknitter
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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.

Tags: Elsewhere on the Web, Socks by desiknitter
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In Delhi, after a wonderfully decadent week in Hong Kong. I have lots to tell and show about it, but something else first.

Everybody around me is begging me not to jinx this by talking about it, but I cannot help it: Delhi is actually tolerable right now! I know, I know, it’s the last week of May and those of you who have ever been in the vicinity of 110-115 degree weather are probably shaking your heads with some sadness that the heat has made me delirious so soon after getting here. But it’s true, and I too cannot believe it. I woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon and realised that there was something else adding to the hum of the madly whirring ceiling fan and cooler. Rain! Sweet, sweet heavy rain.
I went out into the balcony and smelt the heady wet earth scent and dig
a mad jig. There was actually a cool breeze that blew all evening, and right now, it’s midday and barely in the 90s.I was marvelling every stitch of the way as I sipped some tea and bound
off these this morning:

It’s apparently been raining quite unseasonally every few days the whole month, and kept the temperatures from being brutally high for days on end.

So, the sock specs:

Claudia Handpainted socks in the "Just Plum" colourway.
Pattern: Generic toe up, with 52 stitches, my first pair on size 1 needles. I did the heel flap toe-up, which I learnt from Cabezalana. If you are bored of short-row heels but still want to do toe ups, check her generic pattern (the link takes you straight there), it’s great. Thanks, Mel!

Needles: size 1 bamboo, now slightly plum in colour. This yarn stains the needles like mad! At first I thought it was only the needle all my friends used to stir their coffees at the baseball game (yes, I allowed them to!), but later I realised it was the dye on all of them. I need to wear these socks to see how the relaxed gauge feels on my soles, but 52 stitches sure beats 60 or 64!

More soon on my Hong Kong trip. Agnes, I wish I’d known earlier that you are from there, I’d have asked you for tips on where to eat and stuff to see! It’s a stunning, stunning place.

Keep your fingers crossed that the weather remains like this for a few days at least…

Tags: Socks by desiknitter
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(with apologies to Robert Darnton!)

This is not a good time for knitting here chez Desiknitter. Sweaters are on life support, with no prospects of immediate recovery. In addition, here’s what I have to show for hours of sock knitting in the last week:

The Jaywalker sock, above, coughed and spluttered its way past the heel, but the prognosis, after several early froggings and expensive treatments, aka efforts to learn a new heel flap method, was never good. Somewhere up the cuff I realised that I couldn’t stand the pattern. Actually it was when I knit my Chevron eyeshade that the boredom of the zig zag pattern hit me. Yes I know, it’s supposed to enliven the yarn and do wonders for stripes, but whatever. I frogged it down to the toe. The blue one next to it is Claudia, leftover from my Spiral scarf which I tried to start into a striped sock after Eunny’s but everything I striped it with was either thicker or thinner, resulting in an unhealthy, mottled look. That is now languishing at the toe as well. The other maroon Claudia looks like it might survive, although this was after several attempts to start these which went nowhere. So now all I have is a bunch of sock heads that look like they got decapitated rather messily.

I think the magic medicine is simple: stockinette. With this simple diet, my socks might yet survive the summer. But when I am ready to tackle a pattern again, it’s going to be Pamela’s Marigold Socks. I missed seeing her today as she’s on a busy tour of the Bay area, but will hopefully see her sometime soon.

A second opinion, however, suggests alternative treatment: lace. And seeing no harm in combining these, one of the two is currently under consideration from the book I recently bought: Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves.   

This book has some fairly straightforward patterns in the Faroese construction, and each motif is also adapted to a rectangular scarf, which I really like. I will likely use the book quite a lot, even though some bits are odd: no yarn estimates or finished dimensions are given. You are in a Zimmermanesque universe, figuring it all out yourself! Aside: do buy this book from Schoolhouse Press if you want to; there are some absurdly high prices on Amazon for used copies, but I got it for a standard price new within a week from them. I was afraid it was dreadfully back-ordered because I saw the Amazon prices after ordering it, but seeing it in my mail was a pleasant surprise yesterday.

Tags: Socks by desiknitter
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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.

Tags: Socks, Lace work by desiknitter
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