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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?
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…
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.
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.
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 th
e 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.
Just returned from a trip to the west coast for a conference. Much merriment with old, not so old and new friends. I had a blast. Now it’s back to the daily grind. But, some knitting news and some excitement. First, Sepoy had requested his Ipod cosy and I started work on it before leaving so I could give it to him at this conference. I started using Grumperina’s pattern, with some modifications:
I adapted the straight pattern to a joint circular cast-on, like toe-up socks.
Then I knit it in the round on DPNs.. and when the time came to divide for the screen and wheel, I knit back and forth. It’s the first time I’ve ever knit purl rows at length on DPNs. Not the best thing, but not that bad. Anyway, I had to frog the whole thing.
Despite my gauge being correct and all, for some reason it turned out to be waaay bigger than needed. I didn’t have an Ipod and I took it to the coffee house next door where Mike, the coffeewala has an Ipod. My cosy was large enough to fit a whole Ipod family.
So I bought a coffee and frogged the damn thing, cursing.
And soooo, after much encouragement over the weekend from some Ipod veterans, I finally decided to take the plunge (all to have something to measure my knitting with, of course!). Am both attracted and repelled by the seduction of new technology (and my inability to comprehend it). But now at least, the cosy shall fit.
Now for something totally different. I took this photo from 35000 feet in the air. Is this Lake Tahoe? It was taken about 30 minutes or so before landing into the Bay Area, and seems about right. It looked beautiful from that distance.
..there was crochet. Arrgh! I do not like to crochet. But in response to Zarine’s question a couple of days back, I have to admit, I came to knitting via crochet. And now I use a crochet needle only if I absolutely have to. For chain cast ons, weaving in ends and for some borders. Seriously, knitting is so much nicer to do. Anyway, I digress. I thought this would be a nice way to pay tribute to the folks who taught me this wonderful craft.
I fell out of a tree at approximately age seven. My mother decided I needed some feminising influences and carted me off, scraped knees and all, to Sushila Raichur, one of the teachers on our school campus who knew how to crochet. I actually remember walking over there with her, red acrylic yarn and a crochet hook in hand. I made a small red and white tank top that Aai kept for years.
A couple of years later, as part of "hobbies" class in school, Mary Aranjo, one of the most accomplished knitters in the world in my firm opinion, taught me to knit my first garter stitch hairband. Mary-teacher as we called her has never been seen in public without her needles; she knit *everywhere* and knit a lot; like most knitters in India she was not tied to a written pattern but basically created her own with every garment. It is thanks to her and my Aai that I graduated to socks, baby sweaters and hats from the hairband. I still take many of my projects back to her for approval.
Cut to college, where Anagha Patwardhan persuaded me to knit the "boyfriend sweater". As is well known (but wasn’t to me then), this is an ancient curse! As it turned out, it was a blessing for me, plus after making the sweater four sizes too large for the intended wearer, I learnt that size can matter. But years after browsing the outdated British knitting mags that sold for a rupee or two on the footpaths at Lakdi pul and Camp in Pune and the vast wool markets of Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, I never learnt to read the instructions and size the damn garments properly.
Thanks to the women at Knitting.about.com, especially the patient and cheerful help of Megan Mills and Nancie Kremer (IslandKnitter) and Fran Marrs at Knitter’s Review, I started by asking about WS (wrong side!) and never looked back! It’s been several years now, and knitting is truly one of the things I love about living in the States. The techniques, the yarns and the possibilities are great and it almost makes the cold weather tolerable.
My first ever Knitpicks order! I can’t believe I waited this long to order from them and the box arrived in three days flat, with free shipping. I ordered small samples, enough for a hat or a pair of socks or mittens, maybe, and the yarns are unbelievably soft. Even Wool of the Andes (the light green skeins), which lots of people said was plain, scratchy wool. My favourite is the deep red Andean Silk, which I cannot wait to turn into a soft, winter cap, before ordering more for a sweater. Like many other people, I’m a little disappointed with the colour palette of Knitpicks, but as far as my favourite – deep red – is concerned, am not complaining. The Elegance (the other red skeins at the top of the picture) is a little too bright, but I’ll probably come up with something Christmassy for it.
In other news, finished one Shepherd Sock, but had to put the other one aside to make a pair from this lurid sock yarn, also from Knitpicks. It’s for a niece of mine who wants pink-purple socks, and it’s her birthday this weekend, so.
Also, the Stitch & Motif Maker is a blast. It has a great drag/drop feature that you can use for repetitive cable patterns. I’m having a blast playing around with it.
You can’t see it in the photo, but my size 1 bamboo needles are slightly bent from the effort of the sock they just knit. Does that happen to everyone’s thin needles? I don’t like metal DPNs but this is really weird.
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