Adventures of a Desi Knitter

I am wearing possibly the best handknit design ever. If you haven’t knit a Ribby Cardi, buy the pattern right now and cast on, because this is not only an easy pattern, it is clever and simple and results in a most satisfying garment. This one has quickly raced to the top of my sweater charts, beating even my Cobblestone. I cannot believe I bought the pattern so many years ago and didn’t knit it.

What’s that you said? I don’t look so pleased with it? How about this, then?

The basics:

Pattern: Ribby Cardi from Chic Knits
Yarn: Cascade Eco +, approx 1.5 skeins of the orange (0958) and 1 of the chocolate (8493).
Needles: Size 7 bamboo for the whole sweater, and 6 for the buttonbands and collar.
Gauge: Spot on, 4.75 spi.
Size: the 38-39″ one. It fits perfectly, with just the right stretch and ease in the side ribbing. A size larger and it would have been too loose. Bonne Marie Burns is very helpful and gracious with questions too, which is a big plus. Thanks to her for promptly helping me choose the right size and yardage.

The mods:
I knit the body in one piece, the sleeves in the round and then seamed the raglans. I also added a buttonband instead of a zipper. I don’t like zippers, much less inserting them, so I went with a buttonband instead. If you remember in the last post, the buttonband was vertical, knit with the main body. However, I didn’t like the way the single rib gaped. Since it was knit with the body, my first thought was - oh fuck, now do I have to rip out the whole body? Thankfully, my second and more sane thought was, no, I can just drop the purl stitches in the buttonband all the way down and crochet them back up as knit stitches! Exit ugly ribbing, enter smooth stockinette.

It worked like a dream, and only took me an hour or so to do. Then I picked up stitches along the side and re-sewed the buttons in - the old buttonholes at the edges vanished right into the pick-up seam. This new band is much more satisfying. Otherwise, I followed the pattern straight through and it worked like a charm. No errors. Here’s the regulation macro button shot:

Seriously, this is the kind of sweater I love to knit and wear - clean lines, comfortable fit and sturdy yarn. The Cascade Eco + softened beautifully after washing. I was a little concerned about the ribbed sleeves being a bit tight on my arms, but the soak and block really relaxed them. I love how they fit around the shoulders. If it had not so hot these past few days I would have finished the cardigan sooner; I think I’ll go for a walk tonight just to wear it outside.

Everyone, go knit one for yourselves!

Tags: sweaters by desiknitter
20 Comments »

Teaching for this Spring is over, thank God. This has been the longest and most painful semester ever due to some heavy duty personal and professional stress, and now that it is nearly over, I want to dance like these guys in this song, jaate the japan, pahunch gaye chiin, samajh gaye na?” (Was off to Japan, but ended up in China instead, what say?) and throw my limbs and composure to the winds in sheer abandon.

Nothing like Kishore Kumar’s mad comic genius and wildly mobile body, face and voice, to liven up one’s spirits. The film in which it is featured, Chalti ka Naam Gaadi (If it runs, it’s a car) is available fully on youtube. See it - it is silly screwball comedy, as usual, but the soundtrack (by S D Burman), with lots of other Kishore songs, is superb. My favourite is Paanch rupaiyaa baarah aanaa.

The only silver lining to stress is that it keeps my fingers going feverishly. The Ribby Cardi body got done, and I added some buttons right away to see if it fits, closed. To my relief, it does.

Much of the knitting this semester got done as I obsessively watched TV episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, pretty much back to back. Netflix DVDs of TV series are perfect - mindless, and without the advertisements. But I thought I should take a break after an elaborate dream I had one night where Inspector Japp was complaining to me over a beer about Poirot’s dashed interference in everything, and I then took it up with Miss Lemon to tell Poirot to step back a bit, because his success rate was undermining Japp’s self-esteem. I woke up and was half-afraid that I would start lecturing in class in David Suchet’s affected voice and manner.

But last weekend in LA in the hotel room I saw an episode of something called “What Not to Wear” and I think I might have found another guilty pleasure. I cast on the Ribby’s sleeve with a DVD of its episodes. It is SO annoying in parts, but weirdly seductive. I oscillate between analyzing the coded messages the show transmits about the power of shopping and consumption to solve all kinds of self-esteem, body-image, emotional issues (”I want to dress better so my kids can be proud of me” - WTF????), and enjoying the Cinderella or Ugly Duckling story that unfolds every single time. Admittedly, it’s not as bad as another show I saw that night that involved all kinds of surgery and whatnot. Plus the two hosts are irritating and I don’t care for the whole “let’s make fun of you before we do your makeover”, but I’ve seen some of their advice about silhouette and fit and visual illusions on various Ravelry groups as well, and it’s most interesting. And of the few episodes I have seen, all the women were different ages and shapes, and it’s fun to see how they choose outfits for them.

So between Chalti ka Naam Gaadi and a feel-good Cinderella DVD this weekend, maybe my Ribby sleeves will get done soon too. Wish all my readers a relaxed weekend too!

Tags: Life, sweaters, Film, Music by desiknitter
15 Comments »

Remember Currer? Well, it made it up the back but no further. My angst over the Wicked vest’s fit and a weekend of wallowing in I’m-fat-and-nothing-fits-me-well cemented my suspicion that however ingenious the pattern, the empire line under the bust and the fan-like cutaways were not going to be flattering. I decided to use the Cascade Eco+ yarn for another, very different pattern instead.

This is the famous “Ribby Cardi” pattern by Bonne Marie Burns, which I bought a long time ago. The pattern is top-notch, and Bonne Marie gives excellent and prompt pattern support on Ravelry. I am making the 37-38″ version, and using a 1×1 rib buttonband instead of a zipper (irrational fear of inserting zippers, don’t ask), and making the body in one piece. Everything going swimmingly so far, and I really hope it will be done before the end of May. For the sleeves, I bought a contrast skein of Cascade Eco+ in 8493 (the rust shade for the body is 0958). I am using size 7 needles throughout to get the stated gauge of 4.75 spi! It’s a tad tight while knitting, but the fabric is fine.

Thanks for all the tips on shrinking my vest, y’all. After staying in the doghouse over the weekend, it is going to be tumble dried this evening, then followed by another wash and block if that doesn’t work. Let’s hope it behaves.

And now, alas, I cannot avoid work any longer. Two more weeks of classes before this incredibly long and painful semester draws to a close, and I swear, I am going to weep with relief after my last class.

Tags: sweaters by desiknitter
6 Comments »

So the yellow mustard vest is complete:

I’m a little shocked at how quickly it got done, but I am not overly thrilled with it. I know I waxed lyrical about the Silky Wool yarn in the last couple of posts, and it is still very soft to the touch, much softer after washing. Problem is, I over-stretched it during blocking, and now it’s a bit too large.

See those gapes at the shoulder and armhole? I also had to pin it at the back a wee bit for a good fit for the photo. Am a little bummed. Okay, I am actually rather annoyed at having blocked it in the first place. Now I don’t know what to do. Should I undo the seam and take in an inch at both sides? Or open the shoulders and just take off a few rows? Or just wait for the fabric to bounce back? It’s 35% silk, so I don’t know how much memory it will have. It’s not that bad, honestly, I am just less than overjoyed, is all.

Specs:

Pattern: Wicked Vest, available *free* from the Classic Elite Webletter, Feb 08 issue. No errors in the size I made (39″).
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, in colour Sandstone, # 17. The pattern calls for approx. 825 yards for the size I made, but I used less than four skeins - maybe 700 yards?
Gauge: The pattern calls for 6 spi, but mine was 6.25. I should have ended up with a finished chest measurement of abut 38″, but instead I have 40″ now. (See above!)
Needles: Size 4 bamboos throughout.

Modifications:
Many mods. I added bust darts (which do help keep the line where the ribbing changes to stockinette under my bust) and short rows at the shoulder, instead of stair-step decreases, to do a 3-needle bind-off. I also eliminated the extra neck, using instead the purl trim at the armholes all around the neck and button-bands as well. I am wondering if this unsecured trim (which is not picked up and knit from a seam) is also making the fabric gape a little? For details about those mods, see this earlier post.

In addition to the ones listed in that post, I also changed the placing of the button-holes. In the pattern they are placed 5 stitches inside the fabric; I placed them two stitches inside, because I didn’t like how the button-band stuck out in the pattern photos. I did get nice and affordable buttons, though, at my neighbourhood sewing store, Stone Mountain and Daughter. They have a fabulous collection.

Like I said, it’s not bad, and I will certainly wear it. The fabric is so soft and almost weightless, even though the yarn does shed a lot of those nubs, and it’s showing on my black shirt. I think this pattern will be great in a springy wool, to make the most of the ribbing-cum-waist shaping. But I guess I’m also not sure if vests really look good on me. I am attracted to the patterns, want to knit them and they get done quickly, but this is not the first time the end result has left me a little blah. I gave away the Back-to-School vest, and I haven’t really worn the Provincial Waistcoat all that much either. Ah well, here’s a final photo ( in my knitting corner!).

Tags: sweaters by desiknitter
16 Comments »

Thankfully, not snowy ones that one has to hurtle down, in the insane activity known as skiing. When I lived in Colorado it was impossible to escape the question - so, have you been skiing yet? - and like a fool I finally gave in to it one winter’s day. A slightly over-enthusiastic friend, a Nazi instructor, a few bunny slopes, several falls and a dreadful back injury later, I swore that it was the first and last time I would ever throw myself willingly down a slippery slope with my feet embedded in long, dangerous things. I’m perfectly willing to be the friend who sits in the cabin by the fire knitting something, to whom everyone says at the end of the day, you really should have been out there! No thank you. Some cocoa? Or do you prefer single malt?

ANYWAY. The slopes I am talking about are those incorporated in this Wicked vest, and those it seeks to, ahem, accommodate. This post is an effort to list coherently all the modifications I am making to this pattern, so when I start the second front, I don’t reinvent the wheel.

First off, there’s the v-neck you see at the front. The pattern calls for a deep, squarish neck, but I gave it a deep sloping v-neck instead. I started the neck decreases at the same time as the armhole ones, also on the RS. So I decreased every RS row 19 times, and then every other RS row 4 times. A total of 23 decreases at the neck, plus the 18 decreases at the armhole out of a total of 62, leaving me with 21 stitches for the shoulder. This formula was painfully arrived at through several frogging sessions. At first the gradient was not right, then I counted wrong, then I made a mistake in the pattern - you know the drill. I also tried adopting Maggie Righetti’s excellent formula for V-necks in her Sweater Design in Plain English (pp. 239-242), and although I eventually chose a gentler gradient than the one she prescribes, it’s a great formula to learn the construction.

I also decided to continue with the button-band edge and keep the sweater a little unkempt, as it were. So this neck edge you see is a 2p, 1k rib (with the edge st slipped on the WS) throughout. It actually looks quite neat, and I felt it somehow went with the overall shabby chic look of the fabric. What do you think? I’ll know for sure when I have it done and blocked with the buttons on, but so far I like it. I just have to make sure the back neck also has a similar edge, so I’ll redo the last few rows of the back, with two rows of purl and a final knit bind off. That should give it a continuity all around the neck, no?

And then there are short rows all over the pattern. Okay, in two places. First, instead of binding off at the shoulder in steps, I decided to do two short rows to get the sloping effect - on the WS, purl 7, wrap & turn and knit back, then turn and purl 14, picking up the first wrap, wrap & turn and knit back, then turn and purl 21, picking up second wrap. I’ll do a three-needle bind off on the shoulders once I’m done.

I also added bust darts. A first for me, something I’ve been wanting to try, and while a lace pattern was not the best place to start, I think I managed it okay. I added a dart of 8 rows, therefore four wraps. I began the short rows at the button-band edge on the WS after 18 rows of the stockinette lace panel. I added wraps on the 36th, 46th, 56th and 61st stitches (basically the ones right after the lace repeat, except for the last stitch). This meant that until the armhole decreases, the lace repeats were staggered across the row, with one column on row 2, another on row 4, and yet another on row 6 of the pattern repeat. But as long as you maintain each column in its own repeat, no harm done. Can you even tell that there is a dart there? I had to add the black annotations because I couldn’t see it myself.

I added the darts mainly because the pattern changes just beneath the bust, and I don’t want it to ride up and look ungainly. Let’s hope, though, that it actually works when I finally wear it. Thanks again to Maggie Righetti, and to Honeybee33’s detailed bust dart tittorial (yes, groaaaan, and giggle) for help with this technique.

Tags: sweaters by desiknitter
11 Comments »

The Lavold folks named this shade of Silky Wool “sandstone”, but it conjures up mustard for me.

And mustard brings to mind so many things - seeds for tadka, indecision at sandwich counters, Kajol & Shahrukh in the fields of Punjab, steamed hilsa in banana leaves, tangy nostrils.. but above all, it evokes for me a beloved colour, and a most heady experience in a Madras saree shop many years ago. I merely expressed the wish to see some mustard-shaded sarees with contrasting borders, and for the next half an hour the attendant had me awash in shades of yellow with red, brown, green, black and maroon borders. I can still see some of those gorgeous silks; alas, I didn’t buy any. My senses felt like I had squirted a whole bottle of mustard into my mouth and swallowed, and I couldn’t decide.

When someone asks me what colours I like my pat answer is reds, earth tones, purples, but I also tend to gravitate towards mustard shades, especially in Indian clothing. Like the embroidered shawl you see above, or like the kurtas the silky wool is nestled in below. There are many many more kurtis, sarees and dupattas; for years my father despaired of what he colourfully called my “monochrome wardrobe of chicken-shit hues.” This observation was as frank as it was gross; fortunately, it was also apt and somehow funnier in Kannada. This is the first time I reached for a mustard shaded yarn, though, and even though it’s really mustard-lite, I’m really liking the fabric so far.

This Silky Wool is most unusual and like no other yarn I’ve used before. Very close up its silky nubs have the potential to make it look tired, plucked and ragged, but it surprisingly manages, overall, to avoid such a look. The nubby texture gives it a fine, grainy and crinkly look, but it is also quite soft. It’s so airy and light as to be almost weightless, even on size 4s. At $7.50 for 190 yards the price ain’t bad either, and if it wears well with washing, this could fast become one of my favourite yarns. What I cannot figure out is, why, at 6.25 spi, is it working up so fast?

And look! I have a new toy, which I got recently as a hand me down, actually. A Sony digital SLR DSC F828, which has so many buttons and such a large lens I can barely hold it up; so far all I have been able to do is snap some general pictures and figure out its macro function - not bad, eh? It’s so heavy I don’t know if I’ll go slugging it around to shoot pictures when I’m travelling, but I gotta say it takes good pictures of yarn. If it can also photograph food, I think I’m set. So what if it’s like killing a bug with a bazooka, right?

Tags: yarn, sweaters by desiknitter
14 Comments »

Although I have done some yoga on and off since I was in school, I recently got back into it quite seriously, determined to explore the practice with a view to improving my concentration and strength. The usual buzzwords. Mindfulness. Calm and focus. Strength and flexibility. Overall health, instead of the continuous (and always losing) battle with the bulge. Although I do go to the gym irregularly to run, swim and lift weights and feel good about it afterwards, the main struggle always has been to actually get myself there. Quite simply, the repetitive exercise bores me very quickly, no matter how many upbeat songs I burn on to the Ipod, and before I know it I’m back at home, mindlessly knitting and munching something as I watch the next DVD of Poirot or Law & Order. Mmmmmmmm.

The only thing that makes me go back without bitching and moaning, it turns out, is a yoga class - and I recently decided that I should really give it another shot. Once again, I have the usual buzzwords to describe how I feel - more energetic, more positive, strong, focused, with the joy of breathing and the calm of concentration. So when my teacher mentioned a yoga retreat right during my spring break not far from here, I jumped at it as a chance to “deepen my practice.” I had no idea what to expect, other than a hope that this would not be a spa with some contortions and new-agey conversations sprinkled in for variety.

I have to admit that the luxurious surroundings (it wasn’t Bali or the Bahamas, where many of these retreats are apparently held nowadays, but still!) and the whole sense of well-heeled sociality that pervaded the place left me a little unsettled, but overall, it was a tremendous experience. One of the emphases was on improving concentration, and it is hard to describe that feeling of absolute stillness and awareness I felt during one meditation session as I found a rhythm of breathing I could work with. It was a glimpse into the kind of concentration one can strive towards, like the last stages of writing a paper, when it all seems to come together and all that matters is making sure my fingers keep pace with my thoughts - intense bursts of productivity, alas all too rare. The other emphasis was on technique, especially in inversions and backbends, and I shall never forget the exact moment when my feet gently left the ground in a headstand and I felt progressively lighter, and lighter, and lighter. I squealed in delight and fell right back, but that momentary feeling of balance and lightness was wonderful.

There is much about the contemporary ‘consumption’ of yoga that I find interesting as well as disturbing. There’s the ‘branding’ into ever more fashionable styles and lifestyles in different parts of the world. There’s also the consumption of yoga as national heritage, of late with a renewed fervour, amongst the new Indian middle classes. The casual, Orientalising discussions of yoga as a timeless, ancient spiritual practice, set alongside its importance as a sign of regenerative nationalism and anti-colonial masculinity, make it difficult to simplistically label this as ‘tradition.’ It is something I have been generally familiar with for a long time, but its long history, evolution and depth I hardly know academically, let alone organically; after all, not only do age-old practices like yoga have a social and intellectual history embedded in politics over the centuries, but they were also reframed and redeployed as part of a modern Indian nationalist politics. Its invocations continue to be political in the broadest sense, whether in India or elsewhere.

In trying to learn more about it, I find myself continuously turning the historical or ethnographic lens on myself and those around me. The urge to historicize sometimes collides, and sometimes colludes, with the urge to deepen my learning through actual practice, but perhaps, to use yet another buzzword, this will keep me grounded. In the months to come I might use this space to explore some more of these engagements and thoughts. What are your thoughts and experiences with a yoga practice? Care to comment?

Last but not least, thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback on the Cobblestone-Wallaby hybrid; I have worn it almost incessantly since last weekend!

PS: That Currer picture right at the top? I’m not feeling the love for the pattern; alas, it’s probably headed for the slaughterhouse.

PPPS: The new project is the Wicked vest from the Classic Elite free web-letter; the yarn is Elsebeth Lavold in Sandstone.

Tags: Life, sweaters by desiknitter
14 Comments »

Knitting the Cobblestone has been, if you will forgive the bad pun, a long and bumpy road over the last few months. Last weekend, I finally got to here:

I could have wiped my brow, woven in the ends, and relaxed into it, but I worked on it a few more days, and now it looks like this:

What you are seeing, my friends, is the love-child of the Cobblestone pullover and the Wonderful Wallaby! I am enormously pleased with the results of this fortuitous union of patterns - have you ever seen a more beautiful mutant? (Note: If you’re interested in such a mutation, the dirty details are illustrated below)

Yarn: La Paz, a light worsted wool hand-dyed by Laura Macagno Shang of Textiles a Mano. I used just under 1500 yards total.

Gauge: 5.5 spi on size 4 needles, in stockinette. My gauge was off from the pattern, so I chose to knit the one with 230 stitches, to get a circumference of roughly 41 inches. As is my wont, it was not 41 in the end but 39.5, but for once, this turned out to be a good, fitting thing.

If you come across this yarn at a craft fair, or even order from Laura’s site, I highly recommend it. I made another aran pullover with it, which has worn like iron. The colours are at once brilliant and subtle, and hold well. I fell in love with the rich sense of foliage that this colourway brought to mind, like I was walking in a dense forest after the rains. But now, I can also see the cobblestones, almost:

Modifications and Notes:

1) Waist shaping: I loved the roomy, comfy look of the original Cobblestone, but wanted some shaping. About four inches into the body, I decreased one stitch at each end of the purl bands on the sides, four times every six rows. Then I knit straight for three inches, and increased back at the same gradient to the original cast-on number. Incidentally, the purl bands are a mistake an accidental modification - it was only much later that I realised the pattern had called for garter bands. As it turns out, I prefer them this way.

2) Yoke decreases: The yoke decreases in the pattern are for men’s shapes, and men who pump some iron, it seemed like. I did the short rows at the bottom of the yoke, but then began the circular decreases at once, and decreased every inch and a half to get the shallower yoke I needed for my dimensions. Can you notice that small bulge at the arms right where the yoke begins? I had seen it on a lot of finished versions on Ravelry, but it was only after finishing and blocking that I realised how I could have avoided it. If you want a smoother arm line, remember to do one round of decreases *before* the short rows. I must say, though, that the short-rows at the armpits and neck are genius. They really make the back and shoulders fit beautifully.

3) Sleeves: >I cast on 46 stitches in the round for the sleeves, and increased every 4 rows until I had 84, and then knit even till the sleeves were about 18 inches. I had to block them out a bit to get them to fit comfortably. I’d probably increase every 4 for a bit, then every 6 or 8 after about 10 inches the next time.