Today this blog is six years old. SIX! I can’t believe how far back it seems when I impulsively got a Typepad account, and stuck with it all these years. I’ve often toyed with the idea of stopping, partly from blog-fatigue or too much work, but always continued because it was a lot of fun. I’ve just picked up the needles again after yet another excruciatingly long summer and cast on for a hundred different things. But this anniversary, it’s time for a change. I haven’t updated in a while anyway, and the anniversary is as good a time as any to sign off with a flourish!
I’m not tired or bored with the blogging – although baby and full time work have heavily truncated my knitting and blogging time. Instead, I’m moving to a new blog and location. Here is a link to Dhaage Dore, my new Marathi blog. This blog not only kept me sane when I was in the US academy, but also put me in touch with some wonderful people from all over the world. I am very thankful for these enduring relationships. But one of the best things I have learned through Desiknitter is the ability and freedom to effortlessly write on mundane matters, on anything and everything that comes to mind, away from the refuge of academese. And yet, I like to think that it has also improved my academic writing, making it less turgid and jargon-dependent. As I write more and more in Marathi, I hope to do the same with it on the new blog – it will be a place to bring together my scattered Marathi writings from here and there on this and that, to explore workable idioms for narratives of different sorts, and continue my crafting adventures in a new vein. “Dhaage dore,” after all, is “threads and strands.”
If you read Marathi, do hop over to give me feedback. Even if you don’t, there will still be pictures of knitting, food and travel as always! I hope you will continue to vist and say hi. Thank you, as always, gentle readers, for your encouragement and fellowship over these years.
(These are Regia self-striping socks, toe-up, with 10 stitches magic cast on and 44 stitches total….and the baby is nine months old, trying desperately to let go of my hand and walk by himself.)
I can barely believe it, but it’s my blog’s fourth anniversary. Where did this year go? It seems like just yesterday that I blogged about it turning three. I really need to pay more attention around here!
Thanks for the commiserations and suggestions about repairing the shawl – it’s still keeping me warm, and my friend who took this picture imagined it unravelling all the way as I wrapped it around me. But the malabrigo has fuzzed just enough for it to stay in place, and at some point undoing the centre motif, removing a couple of repeats and then reknitting and grafting it is a distinct possibility.
Talking about the anniversary, I have been wondering a lot about blogging lately, and knit-blogging in particular. Most of my favourite knit-bloggers (not the celebrity ones like the Harlot, or Grumperina, or Franklin) have gone silent, either because they got busy with new jobs or kids, or moved, or switched to Ravelry. I miss them. I tried finding new blogs to follow from a friend’s blogroll. But many of her links too were either broken, or were nearly a year or more old. The latest posts on a few apologized about neglecting their blogs or rued their lack of knitting time and mojo. So many people are tweeting, and while I’ve resisted following people into a 140-character description of fair-isle, I wonder if everyone’s just bored with oohing and aahing over cool photographs, and the online moment of sighing over the magic of blocked lace is now well and truly behind us?
So I ask myself why I blog, but also why I read knit-blogs, especially as an avalanche of work has hit me this semester, and I barely have time to knit, let alone write a journal about it. I know that blogging, either about knitting, food or travel, helps me relate to my own creative expression in a different way – finding an everyday idiom quite different from my academic writing, and a means of honing half-formed thoughts about stuff I like, that keep buzzing around in the brain. Of course I love Ravelry and I love people’s finished projects, but the best part about craftblogs, and knitblogs in particular for me, was a neat mix of process posts or notes about modifications to projects with the a-ha! photo, and bits of the blogger’s life and opinions about this and that. These seem to have vanished, and the Ravelry ‘notes’ section on project pages doesn’t do it for me.
It makes me wonder what the knit-blogs will look like a few years from now, or if they will still exist. On the one hand I cannot imagine not having one, and on the other the idea that this will continue for ever and ever is also a bit odd. Many of those going strong either have a strong non-knitting personal component to them (the Harlot), or have constantly kept it fresh through new crafts (Grumperina – who really made me take a fresh look at crochet), or have books and designs, and tours and tour stories (Franklin, Brooklyntweed, Ysolda). Does the craftblog naturally tire itself out at some point, and have to keep reinventing itself to keep going if it doesn’t have the semi-advertisement/design-showcase aspect to it? Are there interesting and journal-y regular knitblogs out there still going strong that you can recommend?
I saw the film Julie & Julia recently, and while I hadn’t heard of or read the original blog that inspired the film, I knew about the phenomenon of Julia Child largely through a couple of my friends who are excellent cooks. Apart from Meryl Streep the film was a disappointment because I had unwittingly, from the knitblog experience, expected more about the challenges of writing about a craft; about a work in progress; about how the medium of the blog both frees and traps you into consciously or unconsciously shaping your goals accordingly. All it did was make me hungry, and very annoyed that all that butter didn’t make that Julie put on one single pound!!
Midway through I said to the friend I went to see it with – someone should make a film like this on the Yarn Harlot! Her community organizing, her writing, her books, tours, the lakhs she has raised for MSF… even those crazies that keep writing to her spelling doom on judgment day for not being pro-American or whatever. Maybe they could even get Greg Kinnear to star in it!
Previously in this series: Three; Two; (I forgot the first one!); zero.
There are so many good blog-friends to whom I would like to pass on this button, but let me mention just a few, whose posts I have really begun looking forward to.
1. Ruth of Ruthless Knitting,
I love reading about Ruth’s design process and the very individual look she achieves in her original designs. Her clear, elegant writing is a pleasure to read.
2. Amy of Stashknitrepeat,
Amy’s projects and yarns are to die for, and make me want to try so many patterns I wouldn’t have otherwise considered.
3. Kelly of Kelpknits.
Kelly’s photos (especially the socks in the black shoes!) always delight me when I see a fresh post from her. Even if I don’t make that pattern myself, I find her detailed notes on her projects very insightful.
4. Lobstahsworld!
I have followed Lobstah’s knitting adventures since the time I began blogging, and love the fact that she shares stories of successful projects, and also confesses to occasional shortcuts!
In the meantime, I’ve been knitting. I started the Puff-sleeved Feminine Cardigan from Fitted Knits. I know, I know. “Puff-sleeved-feminine” conjures up all kinds of ghastly images. But something about the pattern caught my eye, and after seeing various versions on Ravelry gave me this mad desire to knit it. Fear not, I am not knitting it in baby pink. I decided to roughen up the look a bit by trying it out in the mossy, heathered Cascade I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I believe it will look more “rustic” with the right buttons, although I hate that word as well. Can you imagine something comfy+shaped+not-fussy+but-with-nice-detail? I have a feeling, or am hoping anyway, that this yarn and pattern combo will do it. No worries, if it turns out badly, I’ll share it with you anyway and we can all jeer it off the blog and out of my wardrobe together.
I wish I could capture the right shade of this yarn. It’s got some very unexpected tints of brown and yellow. I tried photographing it in natural light and under a flash, but both are somehow unsatisfactory. Above is the one in natural light, and here is the one with the flash, which is actually a truer shade:
I haven’t done a top-down raglan in years, and it’s fun. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to modify the shape at all – I thought I’d try it on as I went along and see. I also decided to knit the button band alongside the body, instead of doing it later. I just cast on seven extra stitches after the collar and am doing it in seed stitch, with a button hole every twenty rows. I got gauge at 21 stitches on Susan Bates 6 (4 mm) instead of 22, so I’m knitting a smaller size.
Last night ManDuka brought some Donegal Tweed she’d acquired in a sale over to wind into balls, and brought some delicious dinner along as well. I have this old “Mama Bear Swift” that is a flat four-bar floor swift with movable spokes, and over the last year I have had the devil of a time getting the spokes to stay in place while the swift is rotating at high speed. If I kept the swift on the floor with my winder screwed down on a shelf, I had to bend down to keep the yarn taut at a low angle so that it didn’t tug the spokes off as it sped into the winder. All in all, not a happy task winding skeins, because lots of skeins got tangled into an unholy mess with spokes flying off midway through the winding.
But wonder of wonders, after we inserted some sandpaper into the spoke wedges and placed the swift on one of my side tables instead of on the floor, everything worked like magic. No more holding the yarn down, no bending, no unstable spokes wandering off. I am so glad I resisted the temptation to break it into two and feed it into the fireplace over the last few months! Now Mama Bear is whirling like a veteran dervish. If I get tenure, I’m definitely buying a polished umbrella swift, but Mama Bear can keep twirling until then.
I have been knitting something else as well, but will post finished pictures in a few days….. stay tuned.
I surfed to one of my favourite food blogs, Evolving Tastes, and found that I am a Rockin’ Girl Blogger:
Thank you, ET! Am delighted that you picked me. If anyone reading this is looking for both conventional Marathi food and some interesting takes on them, plus a lot of creative and gorgeous desserts, do visit ET’s blog and try some of her recipes. Since I have eaten many of the dishes she has made and featured in there, I know what I’m talking about. The photography’s luscious, too.
Cloverleaves & Rangolis around the web:
So this is a good time to feature some pictures of my designs that I spotted on Ravelry and elsewhere. I’m still a little surprised that anybody is actually knitting these; it sure feels good.
Spudsayshi’s Rangoli hat:
Then there is
Dawn’s(thanks for pointing out the error in the pattern!)
Some older readers’ project pictures are here and here. (How far do Typepad’s archives go? I swear there was a picture with the socks Quill made, but I just cannot find it).
My nominations for Rockin’ Girl Bloggers:
I’m going to pass on this award to three bloggers who inspire me in different ways. First, to Spud Says Hi, with whom I share a birthday, a previous job and some good times, and who inspired me to start my own knitting journal. Her ability to just intrepidly start a project, be it a sock or a sweater, and design it as she goes along (often around the world!) is amazing – and it produces wonderful results too. Check out her Frost Flowers and Leaves Cardigan. I really want to make it someday.
Secondly, to Uccellina, who knits only occasionally, but whose political commentary is dead-on and insightful, and who also tells the most wonderful stories.
Last but not least, to Swapna aka MrsFife, whose witty and sardonic blog about knitting in the tropics I enjoy very much, and with whom I also share a love of British mysteries.
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.
I stumbled across this thread and this one on a knitting forum about a recent spat between two distributors over the cashmere content in some popular yarns. It’s not clear yet who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong; accusations are flying back and forth, but in the whole mess (and I’m really resisting the knitting puns and metaphors here), one thing really stood out: the amount of cashmere content that seems to be under scrutiny in yarns that (are claimed to?) have cashmere in them: between 5-10%!
That’s just laughable. True, the industry standards require a minimum of 3% so no rules are technically being broken, but talk about proportion, eh? The amount of mark-up that companies can claim just by that little content and the resultant "luxury" tag: it’s not for nothing that most of these yarns have "cash" mentioned in them. I find it hilarious everytime I see either the owner of the brand or the distributor insist, "there *is* cashmere in there"! Sure.
Anyway. I spent another weekend hurtling across the country by plane, this time for the large desi wedding annual South Asia conference in Madison, WI. Which was surprisingly subdued, actually. Saw lots of friends: sepoy, pdcs, pandit among others, and collected more entries for my Weird Things Academics Say and Do series. Daku, if you’re reading this, you were sorely missed!
And I managed to finally start my cartridge rib pullover. I began with the sleeve. I had some gauge issues. I was getting 6.5 spi on the pattern, but it also stretches easily, and slightly stretched the gauge was 5.75 spi. After some tortured maths, I settled for 6 spi, figuring the stretch would take care of the fit.
Am using Ann Budd’s generic pattern for saddle shoulders, but with lots of mods. Cast on 64 plus 2 selvedge stitches, and instead of her staggered increase, am doing an even increase every 6th row from the beginning. (Aside: when patterns say "every 4 rows" does that mean every 4th or 5th row after one increase? That always stumps me.)
I also did the first twenty rows on size 3s for greater tension at the wrists, and now am on size 5s. I cast on at the airport in Oakland, and this is where I was when I landed two days later. I might just finish this before December…
And finally, I’m at the point where I begin the nupps for the Shaped-triangle-turned-Swallowtail shawl. Seeing Lobstah’s gorgeous Flirty Ruffles shawl has inspired me to really finish this quickly. I switched to size 4 addis for the border, just to make it drapier, and 38 more rows to go. I have a feeling it’s not going to be large enough, as my MIL really wanted something to drape around well, but I am so sick of this laceweight. I’m going to finish it as it is, and if it isn’t suitable I’ll make another leaf lace or flower basket shawl in sportweight (and keep this one for myself!).
