Adventures of a Desi KnitterAn academic juggles knitting, sewing, and other crafts in Kolkata

Birch Leaf Socks

§ February 15th, 2007 § Filed under Birch Leaf Socks § 10 Comments

This evening I finished the most difficult pair of socks I have attempted to date:

Pattern: "Birch Leaf Socks" from the book A Gathering of Lace, design by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Louet Gems Pearl fingering in shade "Aqua", two skeins of 185 yards each, but I had a good golf-ball sized amount left in each. Amazingly, I got the right shade only in artificial light under a bright lamp, not in natural light. It’s closer to sage, and fits the leaf pattern perfectly, no? This yarn is soft and good to work with, it’s quite springy.

Gauge: 8 spi, on size 0 bamboos.

Although I made the second one this past week, I made the first one almost entirely on a trans-Pacific flight to Delhi via Taipei last summer; the flight was certainly long enough, as was the layover. China Airlines has this great collection of popular classic films you can choose (even in coach) and I saw Ghost and Pretty Woman and other movies that a cramped seat and long flight make watchable, all over again. Then there was the guy sitting next to me who watched me knitting for hours and finally couldn’t take it and said, "What is this, you are knitting this just for fun?" To make him happy I said no, I was actually training to be a crafts teacher and this was part of my course. He was most relieved.

There’s so much going on in the pattern that there’s very little blind knitting at any point, and the ribbing, especially, was a bit tedious. K2, yo, p1 is not funny to do on 0 dpns. But it’s an interesting ribbing to hold the sock up. They are nice and snug on my feet as I type this!

The only thing I didn’t like was the outward shape of the last leaves near the toes, which makes the feet look almost claw-like, somehow. But I wanted to stick to the pattern for once and not modify anything, so there it is.

After years of teaching on a Tuesday-Thursday 80 minute class schedule, this semester I got stuck with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule of
teaching, which sucks! It’s only six weeks into the semester and I already feel I know my students forever, I see them so often! I feel I’ve been going into class so many times, and am still at the 1857 revolt, when I feel somehow that I should have got to atleast World war I by now. Even though each lecture is barely 50 minutes and it is time to pack up just when I’m getting warmed up. This schedule is totally messing with my sense of time.

But hey, here’s my second FO of the year right on the heels of the first one: that kind of time warp I’ll happily accept!

Socks in the Monsoon

§ July 31st, 2006 § Filed under Birch Leaf Socks, Travel § 10 Comments

I feel kind of tongue-tied (finger-tip tied?) after a long absence, as if I’ve lost blogging skills learnt the hard way. There’s lots to
tell: torrential rains all across my region with rivers in spate and all, but I’m really enjoying my first real monsoon in years. The trip from Mumbai to Pune across the western ghats (hills) is magical in the monsoon, with mist and rainclouds hanging low, waterfalls giggling (and occasionally guffawing) all around you and a cool cool breeze all the time. A hot cup of elaichi tea and a hot spicy vada pav with garlic chutney to go with it…. heaven.

I love the western ghats, especially in the monsoon. I walked in the warm, cascading rain in my hometown Panchgani one afternoon and it was bliss. If anyone reading this should ever go to Panchgani, please do have the seasonal fruit icecreams and milkshakes  (mango, sitaphal, chikoo in the summer and strawberry and anjir in the winter) at Hilltop Icecreams, bang in the town’s centre. Best in the world, absolutely no doubt about it. Go quickly if you can, too, because if the city of Pune keeps expanding the way it’s doing now, Panchgani will very soon be a denuded suburb for rich Punekars with ugly row houses. The irony of a developer luring a million people to buy large houses in a “secluded, green area” to escape the crowds somehow escapes everyone.

What else? Some old friends and I from college had a boisterous reunion for a week, combing old haunts and digging up each other’s embarrassing moments from teenage times. I also dug up this:

Isn’t it hideous? This is the first ever garment I created, at age eight. The first, and probably last, crocheted project. My mum actually saved it.

My knitting fame, incidentally, has spread far and wide, i.e. to people who live in our housing colony, many of whom have brought their unfinished projects for me to help them with (or, shockingly, to finish for them). I repaired the v-neckband of one sweater, picked up some dropped stitches off another, and returned one project where the woman told me she had no idea what she’d set out to do. “Frog it,” I beamed at her and said. “Nothing like starting over.” It’s been fun! I’m practising my knitting vocabulary in Marathi.