| Swahaste tvahastam (from my hands to yours)

Ambition and uglification

February 23, 2007 in Knitting | Tags: Accessories, Me, WIPs | 5 comments

Almost a year ago now, I inflicted myself on Secret Pal 8 (or was it 7?). I never heard from my downstream partner whether she even received the stuff I sent or if she liked it, but my upstream was a darling! I got lovely lovely things from her, which I still take out to pet and inhale, and finally decided to do something with (I have a UFO with some of the yarn she sent, but more of that some other time). This was some 50% silk, 50% wool yarn she hand-dyed just for me.

It occurred to me that this yarn might be nice for socks. So I wound it up and set off. I cast on 68 stitches (!!!, who, me swatch?) and found it was too big, so I frogged, and cast on 56 and went up to this:

The striping was fascinating, but the fit was unfortunately off, yet again. It was too big even for the husband. I was using dpns in size 3 mm because I have 4 of them and the only smaller size set I have (which seems pretty small) has only 3 needles. Waah! So, could I possibly knit socks on just 3 dpns? I do not have any implements smaller than this, unless you count crochet hooks, tapestry/sewing needles and safety pins. It appears I have the following options: (click to read the whole sorry tale)

Read the rest of this entry »

murderer with a canvas in italy

February 19, 2007 in Uncategorized | Tags: Fun, Me | 2 comments

I’ve been tagged for a meme I haven’t seen before on a knit/crochet blog (not the ones I read, anyway) by Deepa, so here goes.

Three other names I go by: Wet Blanket, Princess (not in a nice way, said by the husband) and Mucchu (by my mom, for being, well, a wet blanket!)

Three screen-names: MrsFife/Dormouse/swapnae

Things I like about myself: My brain (mind?) most of the time.

Things I don’t like about myself: How about everything else?

Things that scare me: Lizards *shudder*

Scared about: Lizards *double shudder*

Hobby: Knit/crochet/read/surf

I catch myself stealing: glances at confident people

Something that gives me the creeps: Liz… oh, you know what!

About me: I’m vague (sorry, Deepa!) 😀

Bungee jumped? Would love to!

Food: Predominantly vegetarian, all sorts of cuisine, but please leave out the smelly oils.

I like to read: Murder mysteries, especially British. Also police procedurals, the kind Americans specialise in. And travelogues. The husband always refers me to any manuals that come with whatever we buy, (a) because he can’t be bothered (b) because I like to know things.

Emotional: I don’t understand this, but I should reply “VERY!

I strongly detest: Inconsistent behaviour

I regret: too many things to mention

I love: chocolatecats (both chocolate and cats, not a new breed of cats or type of chocolate)

Intuition is: sometimes right

Three essentials: Books, Internet, sleep

I believe: Religion should never be a social activity

Funny thing you read today: Somebody came to my blog looking for a “murderer with a canvas in Italy”. Now that’s a story I’d love to find out more about!

Thing I want to do badly now: Achieve some GOALS! (Which ones? Well, having goals would be one)

Dream Career: Being paid to nitpick (hey, I am a copy editor!!!)

I want to go on vacation to: England and the rest of Europe, also Egypt.

I want to visit: Um, anyone with a few cats? And also any place they let you play with tiger cubs.

Three girl names I like: (Why?) I like the names of ragas and of things in nature.

A song you sing a lot lately: Kondalalo nelakonna (by Annamacharya)

Are you happy this ended: er…

Me tagging:

Let’s see. How about some real people for a change? Okay, I’ll tag Kimberley and Vik!

Doormat redux

February 19, 2007 in Crochet | Tags: Books, Decor, FOs, FOs - Crochet | 2 comments

Just about a year ago, I made a hexagonish doormat/rug that was more pie-like than anything else. I remained unhappy with it, but being the lazy sloth I am, I’ve been using it folded. Finally last week I got up enough energy to frog it and remake it. Originally, a wise person suggested if I made it with one section less, it might be more semi-circular, and I was planning to follow that advice. However, trying to modify the pattern was too much for the state of mind I was in, so I simply made an sc hexagon using the same yarn, but a smaller hook. It looks much better now, even if it’s a half-hexagon rather than a semi-circle.

Details:

Yarn: Frogged from the previous avatar of the rug, hence the same yarn, probably RH SS, in a dusty rose and an aran fleck. Dusty and fleck are good for floors, don’t you think?!

Hook: I think a P hook. It’s grey plastic and a friend brought it for me from the US along with a blue Q. She couldn’t think what I’d do with such a gigantic hook. :p

Pattern: Followed the directions for the semicircle from this Crochet Me pattern. I cannot even create a simple shape without having my hand held.

Time: About 4 hours. Began it at home, but took it to the radio studio and finished most of it in between announcements.

Size: 16″ x 37″ (Shouldn’t it have been something like 16″ x 32″ for perfect symmetry?)

Extra: #1 I’m now loving it. The P hook wasn’t as bad as my memory of the Q hook was, but perhaps this was because I was careful to use the knife-hold almost throughout, only switching to pen-hold when I forgot.

#2 I have a rubber mat under it so that it doesn’t slip and slide.

#3 I’m thrilled I shall be able to wash this thing.

#4 Yay for redux!

——–

The Sunday Philosophy Club

On a bookish note, I finished my Alexander McCall Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club, an Isabel Dalhousie mystery, the first time I read one. You must understand that reading the Scotland-based books of McCall Smith is more for the language and literary moments than the actual mystery. So it will be a slow read, as this was, being my bedtime read for the past few days. However tired I am, I feel unable to sleep without reading at least a few pages of something. I resort to re-reading old favourites if I cannot find something new. This leads to clashes with the husband, who cannot sleep with the light on. Now he’s got an eyeshade from the hospital, so everyone’s happy. 🙂

I brought back from Hyderabad the copy of Anne Fadiman‘s Ex Libris that I had given my sister for a gift. It’s a wonderful book and I can’t recommend it enough to Readers. There’s a lot to agree with and to spark one’s own memories. She writes of how her family is a family of Readers and so apparently is her husband. The chapters are actually different columns she wrote. One of them is on difficult words, and coincidentally, I was reading a Reginald Hill which had several sesquipedalians. I shall have to reread that one (or at least skim it) and then I shall hold a mini-quiz on this blog. Someone (sorry, my brain forgot) said she likes to show a picture of what she’s reading, so you know what to look for. I seem to find, however, that most of my books have different covers which are not easily available to show. This might mean that showing the cover doesn’t really help someone not in this country. And some day someone is going to sit me down and explain why books have to have different titles and covers in the United States than they have everywhere else in the world.

Some day, also, I shall figure out how to make the text in my posts flow around the pictures so we do not have a school project type of post to read.

Wipe your feet as you leave, please.

Where and when

February 13, 2007 in Crochet, Knitting | Tags: Cats, Me | 5 comments

Julie has a sort-of-meme going about where she learnt knitting and when and what she did with it. Here’s my story.

I sort of learnt to knit from my mother while in school (class 6 or something). We had a subject called Craft and we did one of everything for that. That’s where I learnt crochet (my mom can’t crochet). There were assorted embroidery and sewing projects and things made with crepe paper, ribbon, spangles, plastic dolls and umbrella frames (not the lifesize ones, there used to be smaller toy size ones – I always think, ‘What a bonanza for the small shop near the school gates where we always bought these things!’) and things with sponge and cardboard and matty cloth and embroidery floss and yarn…you get the idea. Anyway, in one of the classes we were supposed to make baby booties. In actual fact, my mom made them for me, from the Fleisher’s book I referred to in my last post, in a nice shade of yellow. I wonder what happened to them. I’ve made the same ones since at least a couple of times.

After school, I didn’t knit much until I reached JNU in Delhi and had the cooler winters. Plus my sister had a baby (my niece). So I got the Fleisher’s and needles from my mom, and bought my yarn in Munirka and made a drop stitch shrug which was supposed to be for a toddler or older child, but given my materials, turned out ok for a baby. That might also have been the time I made the cardigan I showed in my last post. Or wait, I think I made the cardigan first, and then when my mom went for my nephew’s birth I made the drop stitch shrug. Shrug. My sister alleges I made my nephew another sweater, in grey and white, but I can’t remember. As I increasingly feel, my brain is turning to mush. I am not able to remember what I did less than 10 years ago.

Apparently I also made a sweater for a cousin’s baby. There was also this horrendous (with the benefit of hindsight) yarn that I bought to try and make something for myself. One product of that was a bulky vest (I doubled the yarn and shrunk the needles to what I had available). I shall dig it up one of these days for a bad photo shoot.

Then I took a hiatus again from knitting, but stayed with crochet in Bombay, turning out lots of doilies and runners and things, including a set for a neighbour’s new baby (actually that was a knit set, again from Fleisher’s). But in Bombay I also had the distraction of libraries, so I had other avocations, as my mom would say.

We came to Vizag in October 2004 and finding precious few sources of books here, I’ve taken up knitting and crochet with a vengeance, and been building my yarn and pattern stash madly. Also this blog. Here ends the first lesson.

Seeing as this is such a dull and pictureless post, I shall direct you to this YouTube video I was sent to by Debbie. (I tried embedding the video here, but my credit with the WordPress guys doesn’t extend that far). Enjoy! It’s a good thing we have a slow internet connection, or I’d spend all my time watching other people’s cats. Thank you Debbie, it cheered me up.

ETA: Trying embedding this again.

ETA!!!: I misguidedly and mistakenly have given the impression that the video above is mine. I must beg everyone to please forgive me, the video belongs fully to its creator, TerriShea at YouTube. I’m sorry for the deception, but regular readers will know I have little compunction about “stealing” cats! This will get me into serious trouble one day. (Not that I don’t wish this particular kitten was mine… and a million others).

Something old, something new

February 10, 2007 in Crochet, Knitting | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Crochet, FOs - Knitting, Kids, Wearables | 4 comments

Well, sort of. I took some very bad pictures (are there any other kind I can take?) of a cardigan I made for my niece when she was born, as well as a UFO I finished and gave her in my recent trip to Hyderabad. (Yes, I’m back now in Vizag.) First up, we have the cardigan:

And here are the details.

Yarn: Acrylic from the Munirka market in Delhi. Look at my list of yarn stores in India for the exact address. The link is over on my sideboard.

Needles: Who remembers? I made it in 1998! Probably 3.75 or 4.00 mm

Pattern: Fleisher pattern book from the 1960s, it was my mom’s but I have had it now since 1998 (or earlier) since she stopped knitting.

Time: It was a labour of love. I don’t have the faintest idea now how long it took. As usual I didn’t have the time to find nice buttons for it.

Size: Totally forgot to measure it

Extra: #1 What a pathetic set of specifications I’ve given! Might as well not have written anything down. I have better (somewhat) specs for the next project, I promise!

#2 This was in the days when I used to twist my knit stitches (by knitting them through the back leg). I found the mini-cables hard going, I remember.

Next up we have the bag I finished from my mountain of UFOs.

Specs:

Yarn: Mainstays from Walmart (I don’t remember now who sent it to me). Two strands held together.

Needles: I am growing old. But perhaps they were my favourite size, 4.5 mm (or should that be 3.75?)

Pattern: Coats & Clark free pattern (Mine is supposed to be the blue bag)
Time: It was a UFO! The longest part was actually making the handles (strips of hdc) and deciding on and sewing the zip for closure. I’d actually bought the zip ages ago.

Size: 9″ x 9.5″

Extra: #1 I wish I had better options for handles than the tacky round plastic ones (or the tackier odd-shaped steel ones). I should have explored stores in Hyderabad, but what with the auto strike and the absent driver and various other distractions, I didn’t. Thankfully my niece isn’t very discriminating in her taste yet.

#2 The bag isn’t lined either.

#3 If you click through, you’ll find a couple more pictures of the bag in my Flickr photostream.

Right now I have no mojo. I badly want to have something going but have been in a sort of depressed state the past few days. Let’s see.

Next up, I’ll do another post rounding up the books I’ve read between my last book report and now.

Book bingeing

January 27, 2007 in Crochet | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Crochet, Kids | 2 comments

Fun fur and four hours, and we have a purse for a feisty 3-year-old. That is why I never despise fun fur. HDC around a base chain without increasing, as long as you like it, then crochet on the handle. The yarn is from Vardhman (held together with Knit Ezee also from Vardhman and I picked up in Shillong) that Jaishree sent me. Simple closure with a loop and button. I gave her elder sister the blue bag I made last June. Girls are fun. You can actually make things for them.

Books

I’m still in Hyderabad and bingeing on books whenever I can. Finished Donna Leon‘s A Sea of Troubles (which I found less enjoyable, maybe a bit grim) and Ruth Rendell‘s End in Tears (no disappointment there, I actually watched the BBC(?) Wexford series before I ever read any of hers). I also finished Reginald Hill‘s On Beulah Height. I realised I’ve read Hill before, didn’t register at first. It was the book told in first person or has he written more than one?

Bought a Lawrence Sanders (not Archy McNally, but something else) The Case of Lucy Bending. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I’d been expecting and I’m leaving it unfinished. I do like the McNally ones, they seem like a combination of Wodehouse (Wooster-like character) and Blyton (food descriptions).

Yesterday I had to fall back on re-reading one of my favourite writers, Georgette Heyer, a hardback omnibus with Arabella, Bath Tangle and The Nonesuch. Most of my Heyers are secondhand paperbacks and in dire condition. But this one (although secondhand) is in good condition. Unfortunately, my hardback omnibus of Dick Francis got eaten by termites in Bombay 😦 All of his books are secondhand ones, too, picked up at the Abids Sunday market, Daryaganj on Sunday or Vasant Vihar any day in Delhi, Churchgate in Bombay (alas, the hawkers have been kicked out now) and any other likely place.

I washed some stuff I made for my sister’s kids yesterday and might have one or two previously unseen objects over the next few days.

Purple putoffs

January 18, 2007 in Crochet, Knitting | Tags: Accessories, Books, FOs, FOs - Crochet, FOs - Knitting, Kids, Patterns, plastic canvas, UFOs | 2 comments

I’ve come to Hyderabad and am going to meet some friends. There’s a kid’s birthday party today, so I finally added buttons to the spike stitch cardigan, as well as a bottom and seams to the self-lined purse that was mostly done last year, begun in June! That’s a couple more UFOs down. I’ve promised myself my luggage going back to Vizag will be lighter (got a few more things to make on my list).

Pattern details:

Yarn: Local acrylic, partly from Begum Bazaar in Hyderabad (purple), and partly from Shillong (white).

Hook: Dang. Crystalite orange…5.50 mm

Pattern: Bernat
Time: Not too long, actually, might add up to a couple of days.
Size: 28″ around and 14″ long. I’m hoping it will fit my friend’s toddler.

Extra: #1 The pattern has you make the back and the front pieces separately. I started off that way, but decided to frog and redo the entire body in one piece up to the armholes, then finish the back and fronts individually. That sort of ensured I’d actually finish the thing. I just added the different stitch counts together.

Now the other UFO (this is more of a UFO than the cardigan, really). The self-lined bag had been finished bar the seaming and sewing the button. So naturally I dawdled. Now I want to give this to the same friend with the birthday kid, so I finished it last night. I hope she likes it. It looks a bit homemade…

Pattern details:

Yarn: Unknown acrylic, probably RH or Mainstays, that I got in a recycling contest from Crochet Partners.

Needles: 3.75 mm Pony circulars

Pattern: Lion Brand
Time: Six months? (ouch!)
Size: 6.5″ x 3″ x 10″ Pretty much close to the size in the pattern. Wow!

Extra: #1 Used plastic canvas to line the bottom.

#2 Seaming is horrible, as usual.

#3 In a masochistic mood, I decided to do the I-cord on DPNs as recommended by the pattern, rather than use my trusty knitting knobby. Shudder. Unsurprisingly, it took me ages to reach the target of ~~20 miles~~ 45″.

In book news (I always go berserk reading when I come here), I bought myself Alexander McCall Smith’s The Sunday Philosophy Club, my first Isabel Dalhousie book. I’ve read his 44 Scotland Street and The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency and liked both. But I’m saving this book up to read on the journey back or in Vizag. Instead, I’ve been reading some books borrowed from the British Council Library.

I read Donna Leon‘s Uniform Justice and found a gem in it about mothers-in-law. Unfortunately, I forgot to jot it down, but it seemed so apt. I find the attitudes of the Italians as described by Leon very similar to Indian attitudes. The way corruption is tolerated, accepted as a fact of life, the view taken of policemen and politicians and the inter-city prejudices. I’ve always liked the Italians for the two-governments-per-year policy they appear to have 😀 They’re fun and goodlooking! And I found Italian easiest to learn of all the foreign languages I’ve learnt. Plus I admire the ancient Romans, too (for their engineering and architecture). No idea why an American writer living in Italy has books in the British Library, though.

I finished Ruth Rendell‘s To Fear a Painted Devil, which is a murder mystery (as opposed to some of the psychological thrillers Rendell has written). Vintage, although not an Inspector Wexford story. Nobody can beat British women writers of mystery. In English, anyway.

Now I’m reading another Leon, Death at La Fenice. It’s taking me somewhat longer to read these books than it used to, because of so many diversions and the crafting and shopping and things in the background (like kids being shouted at, the TV and radio). Ah well. It isn’t a race 🙂

Tagged!

January 9, 2007 in Uncategorized | Tags: Fun, Me | 1 comment

Deepa tagged me a few days ago, and I’m just now getting to it. Sorry, Deepa!

I have vague memories of doing this meme a few months ago, but am too lazy to go dig around in the archives, and moreover, it wouldn’t be in the spirit of things…

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Market research executive
2. Freelance feature writer
3. Consultant (!!!) copy/sub editor
4. Wet blanket

B) Four movies I would watch over and over (I’m not a big movie fan, actually…):
1. Chupke chupke
2. Saptapadi
3. Vamsa vriksham
4. Maqbool

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Hyderabad
2. New Delhi
3. Bombay
4. Visakhapatnam

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. CSI
2. Law and Order: Special victims unit
3. Other People’s Houses
4. Instant Khichdi

E) I have been on vacation:
1. Mount Abu and Udaipur
2. Bhedaghat Falls, Bhopal, Pachhmarhi
3. Darjeeling and Gangtok
4. Shillong and Guwahati

F) Websites visited daily:
1. Gmail
2. Yahoo! mail
3. Google Reader
4. Macbytes

G) Four of my favorite foods (we are not a healthy eater, are we?):
1. Puri-sabji/Chole-Bhature
2. Walnuts (they are a food, aren’t they?)
3. Curd rice with pickle (comfort food!!!)
4. Potato fry

H) Four places I would rather be right now (I’d be just the same misery wherever I was!):
1. In a world where I would have done so many things so differently
2. With cats
3.
4.

I) Four people I’m tagging with this questionnaire:
1. You there, behind the potted palm
2. Reader #1.46
3. Accidental googler – yes, that means you!
4. Caught you!

And now I go back to manfully (womanfully?) ploughing through the thousands of blog posts in my Google Reader…Just managed to catch up with my mails. Crochet Partners is always the most prolific. And then I’ll have to get back to knittyboard, not to mention Crochetville. Sigh. (You notice I’m being too lazy to even bother linking to any of these places.)

A few loose ends

January 8, 2007 in Crochet, Knitting | Tags: FOs, FOs - Crochet, FOs - Knitting, Kitchen | 3 comments

Well, not really, but this here post will have a few of the odd FOs I always have. The first photo up there shows three handtowels I whipped up with some terry yarn I swapped for at the knittyboard. No idea of the content of the yarn, but it has a thread chain with the fuzzy bits hanging off it. If anyone recognises the stuff, please do tell me. ETA: The yarn is the discontinued Lion Brand Polarspun. The blue yarn was less substantial than the pastel multicoloured. I got both yarns as four handrolled centre-pull skeins (rewound by the swapper, I’m thinking, but not in the square format the yarn winder would give, so I’m curious how that was achieved.)

Dirty details:

Yarn: ~~Unknown terry-like yarn, four skeins of each.~~ Lion Brand Polarspun

Needles & hook: 4.5mm Boye circular (I think, it’s silver coloured and Heide sent it to me) and 6.5 mm Boye crochet hook (again, would someone tell me why the crochet hooks are so much heavier than the knitting needles?!!)

Pattern: The single-coloured ones were knit from the long side up, plain stockinette stitch with a 4 row garter stitch border (3 stitch garter border on either side), bound off when I thought they were broad enough. Then I improvised a crochet topper for each, with my favourite flower closing, thus eliminating the need to sew a button. Voila! The patchy one is crochet, since I had less than two skeins of each colour remaining. I think you could call the technique intarsia. No? Also worked from the long side up and totally done by sight (as in, “Isn’t that wide/high enough?”).

Time: About 4 hours each?

Size: Oh dear. About um…whatever. Big enough to be hand towels. I refuse to go measure the things, since it won’t change the course of history whether I do or don’t.

Extra: #1 Intarsia! Intarsia?

#2 Someone please tell me why Boye knitting needles are lighter than Boye crochet hooks!

#3 For me!

Now those things up there are very green. No, not in colour. But I used old dead CDs inside and the yarn is the final remnants of some I won in a Crochet Partners recycling contest. We present the CD Coasters (could be a rock group, right?)!

Yarn: Unknown terry-like yarn, four skeins of each.

Pattern: From here, here, here and here (darn, I can’t find a link right now and I have to go watch CSI: Miami). For the unseen sides, I just did a strategic decrasing circle. All four went to my mom.

Time: A couple of hours each, maybe??

Size: Just bigger than the CDs.

Extra: #1 Finished off the aran fleck. Thought I’d finished the purple also, but found another half-skein or so. Sigh.

Right. CSI beckons. Must go.

Cursed eggs

December 22, 2006 in Uncategorized | Tags: Me | Leave a comment

Don’t you think “blighted ovum” sounds like “sainted aunt” or something faintly biblical? I think I prefer the Wodehousian “Cursed Eggs” better. We’ve been down this path before and it is a bit tedious to be doing it again within 10 months. Frankly, I hadn’t heard of blighted ova before I had my first one and although I do collect trivia and other useless information, I’d have preferred not to be bothered with this little tidbit. Wouldn’t you?

“Blighted” also gives me an itch to make symbolic comparisons with marriage, life, dreams…Oh the associations!

The good part, though? I’ve had my mom fly down to be with me while I kick and scream so I should brush through this fairly handily, hopefully. And I don’t have to cook or heat my own hot water bottle (although the husband does that fairly handily, too). Yay!

Turning comments off, so it won’t look too much like a self-pity-cum-whining post. (Ha!)

Oh and I’m currently reading The Aunt’s Story by Patrick White (no relation to the sainted aunt, by the way). I’m out of touch with literature, being recently more immersed in the shoot-and-run genre. But I’m muddling through.

We shall be back with cheer shortly (might be pretty quickly, too, if the last time is anything to go by). Ta-ta!