Desperately seeking

Denise. Sorry, I couldn’t resist! The thing is, my Denise set has gone missing, and try as I might, I can’t remember when I saw it last. I remember showing it to Ruth in London, and in Vizag beginning Jacque‘s pattern on it, but here in Cochin? Nope. Now all I have are two pairs of tips (the one I’m using for Jacque and another 6.5 mm pair I have in a UFO), plus 3 cables (one ultra short, one medium and one longggg – on second thought, that last one might be two joined cables, which would mean I have one of those joining thingies) and two end doodads. If anyone can remember where I put the set, do please tell!

I have made some progress on the pattern as you can see above, having detoured wildly on both the crochet and knit fronts, by turning out these two FOs (now, isn’t that a rare word for you to hear on this here blog?). First up is the Gingham Country Tea Towel I had a bit of a duh moment with:

Specs:

Yarn: Lion Kitchen Cotton (navy) and Sugar n’Cream (light blue)

Needles: Unknown plastic/resin (very flexible) 4.5mm circular and for the handle a metal circular that’s among my favourites, which is loose in the 4.5mm slot and won’t go through the 4mm (Is there a 4.25mm size in western needles?). Both needles courtesy Heide.

Pattern: Country Gingham Tea Towel

Time: About a week?

Size: Haven’t measured, but it’s a good size. It’s been immediately pressed into action in my kitchen.

Extra #1 Did two-colour double knitting for the first time, following a chart. Phoenix was good enough to hold my hand throughout and spell things out in words of one syllable! It was wonderful to be able to hound her interact with her on Ravelry. (If any of my readers want me, I’m MrsFife there).

#2 Got confirmation my finishing is terrible

#3 My floats are too tight and my wraps are too loose. Resolve that conundrum if you will

#4 Perhaps a thinner needle would have made the work neater

#5 Stopped the handle when I ran out of the light blue.

#6 I liked the grid stitch better than the gingham part (not to mention my work was neater)

#7 The original colour combo was scrumptious, and was what made me do the towel, actually. Also possibly, yarn which wasn’t 100% cotton might have fared better.

A great learning experience, though, overall. Five stars all around. Now for a crochet FO:

The details on this one:

Thread: Something called Fitpack, a twine from Jaipur that I bought in Vizag, in the philosophy of “any string will do to hook with”. It isn’t bad for bags and things, but I doubt any other colour would be available. On the other hand, I remember a crochet goods salesman telling me you can get cotton yarny type of fibre in Jaipur, so maybe the place is a hotbed of fibre.

Hook: The 2/0 (2mm) end of a Clover double-ended 2/0-4/0 hook. Nice and light.

Pattern: Acrobatic stitch from The Harmony Guides (the instructions are for a straight swatch, but I made up the decreasing on my ownsome). Pat yourself on the back, sweetie!
Time: One hour

Size: Seriously?

Extra #1 Nuthin’ much. There’s two more towels where that came from which need topping.

We now have a working washbasin, and the rains have stopped. Now all I need is some good roads, and we’re all set.