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Magic loop is really magic! I was in a desperate situation, making this pullover, and needing to make the sleeves. I do not have dpns in the size I required, and no way was I going to convert a knit-in-the-round pattern to a knit flat one, just for the pleasure of seaming. So I grabbed my longest circular (it’s actually a size smaller, but then I didn’t have the size required in circulars, either) and googled, and landed upon this site which has pictures explaining how to work small circumference items on two circulars or one circular using the magic loop technique. So simple and so well explained! I never want to go back to straight needles or dpns!
So I’ve come this far:
Using the NZ merino Shepherd Cynthia Helene that I won from Nona when she was giving some of her stash away. It’s yummy! 400 yards that went from NZ to the US and came to India for me. Now I’m planning it will go back to the US, for a friend of mine who’s having a second boy (something in the water, perhaps?).
This yarn refuses to be photographed in its true colours, but it’s a lovely dark browny kind of shade, named Ginger.
The circular I’m using is Heide‘s, and is some soft plastic-like material, but flexible. I tried using my Denise with the shortest cable length, but found it was too rigid. Must try and see if magic loop works with Denise, as the cable and the tips on this one are all the same piece and fused together, but the cable is quite a bit narrower than the tip, making it difficult to slide the stitches over.
I’m halfway through the second sleeve to the point where the sleeves and the body will be joined together and the yoke worked.
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Can someone explain why my “Yarn and Thread Stores in India” page gets the most spam? Does that phrase mean something it shouldn’t in some language, perhaps?
I know I’m doing too many posts in one day, but this one has to be shared. (The aptly named) Wiseneedle has a very useful post up about an archive maintained by the University of Arizona which contains textile craft books of the past. Check out her post for specific links.
I was checking my blog stats today from the dashboard and I noticed a click-through from a new-to-me blog. I went there and found she has me on her blogroll 😳 Yay! Then I checked out her bio and her “50 things“. I especially like her yarn holder, as I’ve been using a Yarn Thimble on my latest project and have some issues with it (it makes my finger sweat, and leaves it stiff because I cannot bend it as I would if it weren’t there. I think Lucy wanted to know about it when first I received it a few months ago.)
Check out her Yarn Holder. And I thought listing stuff you’ve finished this year under 50 things was cool.
She’s made the same Hook Caddy I’d made, but in a much preeetier colour 
And she’s got interesting things poking out of it. Are they ergonomic hook handles, I wonder? Maybe I should just ask her.
I was googling for a photo of Ginger, the cat who stowed away and was mistaken for a turkey (How?!) and found this list of comments. Absolutely hilarious.
ETA: Did you know about The Infinite Cat Project? Wow.
Someone on Crochetpartners linked to a hexagon bedspread at Elann, so I went over to look. It’s beautiful, but me and motifs and/or large patterns make a very bad combination. So I admired the pattern, and spent some time drooling over the yarn, before surfing over to look at the other free patterns at the site. I noticed most of the patterns are different from the last time I visited, which would have been quite some time ago, since I don’t recognise many of them. Here are some of my thoughts. (I am not pasting photos here because I’m uncertain of the legality of that, but with the handy Snap feature WordPress has, you should be able to hover on the links to see a teeny preview.)
First off, I’m delighted Elann doesn’t call everything which covers the torso a “sweater”. Maybe it’s an American thing? Somehow “sweater” conjures up winter and full-sleeved “woollens” (actually acrylic in India, but all yarn is wool here). So I always find it funny when patterns talk of “summer sweaters” (thank you, I sweat quite enough already without wearing sweaters in summer) and call bitsy sleeveless tops sweaters, including some made of cotton! I’ve seen every imaginable variation of a top being termed a sweater and it’s something I shall never get over, I’m afraid. (I’m funny like that.)
Ahem. Anyway, I had to scroll down quite a bit on the index page to find familiar patterns. So let’s talk about the unfamiliar ones. I know I just talked of sweating, but even that wouldn’t make me willing to wear this, I’m too prudish! I wouldn’t mind making it in a child size, though. The next one‘s nice, and this cardigan is interesting, too.
Whatever, though, I cannot like variegated yarns for wearables. And some of the patterns just appear to be the same one done in different colours (three varieties of the Pacific Waves shawl). But this cardigan is nice, this top is huh?! The shawls are lovely, but I seriously doubt I’ll ever make one (can you imagine me, The Slothful One™, making a garment that needed to be wet blocked every time it got damp?)
This pattern uses size 12mm and 10mm needles!!!
I always like looking at bags. The varieties of this wrap, not so much. I was too distracted by this model’s hair to look carefully at what she’s wearing. Oh, and Desi, this hat has a top similar to your Rangoli hat.
I shall remain heroically silent on the patterns using fancy/novelty yarns. Here ends my free unsolicited pattern review.
No, it’s not spelled that way in American? Why not?
I was wondering if maybe the spelling choice has to do with whether the last part is pronounced as “log” to rhyme with “bog”, “fog” and “cog” or as “logue” as in “rogue”, and er, “rogue”. (If anyone knows of any other words that rhyme with “rogue” please do mention them. My brain is all shook up from my sneezing all day today.) I ask because I tend to pronounce travelogue (perhaps wrongly) to rhyme with rogue, but dialogue to rhyme with bog. Also, does it say something about my readers that my last post got more comments than any other one, as far as I can remember? Was it the pronunciation issue or the serendipity of finding something forgotten?
Oh and before you go, if for some reason you don’t follow Cute Overload, do go and look at this post and this one. I want me some of that fertiliser!!! Also, maybe I should have been a baby orangutan. Or something.
I know, I’ve been a bad blogger and haven’t made any substantial posts in ages. But then that sort of reflects what’s been happening generally with my knitting/crochet in general…a kind of blah-y unfinishing dullness.
One exciting (possibly) thing: someone in St Petersburg Russia has offered to send us things if we want and they will reach in a ship’s container so although I will be somewhat older by the time they arrive, it should still be fun, no? (Meaning no issues with weight/volume) So of course, I’m thinking Y A R N!!! From a link at the knittyboard I found this blog and she has a list of yarn shops in St Petersburg (Petrograd, Leningrad-we don’t mind Lenin here in India). And a list of yarns she found there. I must confess, I am absolutely trembling to read about the baby silk, cotton and wool yarns she mentions. For someone in Europe and North America or Australia/NZ, none of that might be exciting, but as I’ve found no natural fibre yarns here, I’m dying to try these (they are partly imported from the rest of Europe, I understand). So, any suggestions on amounts I could ask for that would be sensible? What might make a full project? Too often nowadays I find my stash is full of single skeins of luscious yarns, which, having little need for hats or bags, I find it dispiriting to imagine what to make with. (Maybe that partly explains why my knitting/crochet recently has been so bitty 😦 Of course my notoriously short attention-span has nothing at all to do with it. Uh-huh.)
Yesterday we went to a Book Fair (again the “American Library Surplus” thingy. I’m all for American Library Surpluses, last time here in Vizag I got Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Without Tears for a pittance, and then in Hyderabad I picked up a whole rash of books for cheap). I didn’t find any knitting/crochet books this time, but the chappie said they were expecting new stock this week, so a return trip is in order. The same thing happens each time, but doesn’t necessarily lead to much. I did pick up a whole bunch of murder mysteries (including 3 [A, B, & D] of the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series from Sue Grafton and a couple of others, I think one Ed McBain, maybe a Patricia Cornwell and one new-to-me writer). Also some soppy romance novels. (Yes, I can devour those even at this age, so sue me 😉 )
And the Zadie Smith is also being read. It makes for a nice dipping-into leisurely read while eating lunch, while the murder books are for read-at-one-stretch fun. So all those books for about Rs 425/-. Lovely. And I already know who I’m going to pass them on to when I’m done.
When I stop bouncing around the country behind the husband bearing dinky tin trunks retire, I shall build a house with a library, and in my library shall be entire series of books of all my favourite writers. There will be a comfortable couch and some radio/music. A window with a view and wi-fi access. I don’t think anything else will be required, do you? Some chocolate, perhaps.
Eve from Needle Exchange has collected together some very interesting blog posts in an online magazine: Yarnival.
Shoo.
Yep, sense appears to have seen the light. (Pardon my mixed metaphors, I’m excited).
I am once again able to access blogspot. Woohoo.
This is the first time I’m living with censorship (I was too young to appreciate it properly the earlier time) and I’m not liking it much. Technologically challenged people in the government have decided that all of the blogs at blogspot.com and typepad.com are to be blocked. I cannot also access any geocities.com site. Either that or the ISPs here do not have the wherewithal (brains) to ban subdomains rather than entire domains. Luddites. What next, the printing press? How about cellphones? The radio. No, that is controlled anyway. Bah.
On a happy note, I can use http://www.pkblogs.com to access any blogs on blogspot.com, but not the others. Also, I cannot comment on those blogs.
There isn’t a word to express how I feel. 😡
Does anyone know how I can read typepad.com blogs? Google’s cache is usually a couple of days old. Webarchive.org isn’t current either.
swakrta.com 