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Here are the pins I used to block my last doily. 40 to the package. Must buy more.
And here is an in-progress shot of my latest WIP, a baby dress for my friend’s daughter. There are some errors in the pattern, but they are manageable.
I’ve now finished it, but have lots and lots of ends to weave in, then I shall wash it and try and find a proper medium (teddy bear?) to display it so that the stitches show better. The pattern is from Crochet World June 2005, but I found the stitch pattern also in one of my Harmony Guides. Ain’t that nice? I’m using Anchor’s knitting cotton (which is probably equivalent to bedspread weight). Stash thread. I haven’t bought new thread/yarn for ages (except to send off to friends).
Cordelia sent me this magazine (way back when the Post Office hadn’t yet decided to devour her mail to me) in July 2005, OMG, we’ve known each other for nearly two years now. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.
The blogosphere is abuzz with news of the new knitting/crochet community called Ravelry, and the concept sounds quite interesting, especially the part about being able to keep track of your projects, stash and notions online. I’m a digital geek. It’s still in beta, though, which means, I can’t join yet 😦 I have sent in my name for the list, though.
In book news, I’m reading Martha Grimes’ The Horse You Came in on, which is a Richard Jury mystery, except it’s set in the US. Hmm. And the story keeps getting interrupted by a story within a story, which I don’t think I like. It’s slow going.
Almost all are granny square patterns and I seriously doubt I’ll ever make any of them, but why look a sale book in the mouth?
This book has some non-granny square patterns, but ditto ditto.
Then this book full of “designer knitting” (how unexpected!) which again ditto ditto, but might serve as good swap/Bookmooch fodder.
But this booklet, which I’m hoping will be very useful, as it covers a wiiiiiiiide range of sizes from 9 mos to size#50 in seamless raglans. It sounds too good to be true. It only gives instructions for worsted weight and sportweight, which means I might have to do serious swatching before ever using the patterns, but you never know! It covers both cardigans and pullovers. You work out your gauge and choose your size from a table and plug in the values that the table gives you into a pattern format, and hey presto, you have your pattern! What could be simpler? Only Rs 10.
One booklet on plastic canvas cat things, one for “full figure” sweaters (I haven’t got there yet, but the rate I’m going, I should reach there pretty fast), another with two patterns for men, and one for larger sizes, each at about Rs 5 or 10. A good haul, might serve again for swap/mooch fodder.
Also a fair amount of British mystery writing. Just finished PD James’ Unnatural Causes, and am in the middle of her Shroud for a Nightingale. A couple of Martha Grimes (she’s American but writes with a Brit detective) and one Ruth Rendell, I think. A nice haul from a book sale at YMCA Secunderabad.
Also in Hyderabad, I managed to finish my first Anthony Berkeley Richard Sheringham and the Vane Case (not too impressed with it, seemed laboured somehow, without the ease of the BWW*). And my first Priscilla Masters, Endangering Innocents. Much better, maybe you have to be female to write the good stuff. In this particular genre anyway. Not very uplifting, though. I think I prefer older victims. Both from the British Council Library.
My train reading on the way to Hyderabad (since the baby sweater only needed sewing and seaming) was this book:
I picked it up at Crossword and it was a good read, but after finishing I was wondering if perhaps it counts as (oh the horror) “chick fiction”? Interesting, but it was the end that raised my doubts on its classification. Too M&B-ish. Not that I haven’t read my fair share of those (and still will, given a chance) but not if I have to buy it for Rs 415! 4 strangers are named in a will by another stranger and they spend the book trying to discover why. I’m thinking I’ll use this to try for my first-ever exchange at a bookstore.
So, about 4 or 5 books in a week. That’s my usual speed (I spent a large part of one day at an annaprasana (first solid food feeding) for the niece of my last post, and another running some errands including the book sale and checking out the new Fiat Palio Stile with my sister). Would that be your usual speed too? Or do you think I lose something by devouring the tomes at such a hectic pace? (Sort of like yo-yo dieting, feast and famine).
Come on, I want to hear what you think.
*BWW = British Women WritersÂ
– We will be moving by the end of May to Cochin. The husband’s been transferred. We came here in October 2004. So just over 2 1/2 years in Vizag. Cochin is exotic for me because I’ve never been to Kerala.
– Today I made a curry of the inside of a banana plant’s stem. We call it “doota”. The inlaws call it oocha, but they don’t use it (they don’t use a lot of vegetables we do). I have a photo of the fibre for you.
It is very fibrous. It is a peculiarly Telugu (or perhaps South Indian) delicacy. The photo is clickable to my Flickr photostream where there is another photo, with my forefinger for scale. I believe yarns made of the fibre are available in the West. I’ve also heard of banana fibre saris here. This particular banana plant (actually a plantain) was in my parents’ house in Hyderabad. It had fruited (!!! what is the right term for that?), and the fruits were harvested, therefore the plant was cut down. They only bear fruit once, you know. The inflorescence is also used in cooking, making a delicious curry.
– Yesterday I made Paatholi which is another Andhra specialty, made of chickpea/bengal gram paste and beans.
– I started making a baby sweater from Australian Woman’s Day Summer Handknits 1986, called Lotsadots, and finished one and a half sides before accepting it was turning out too small. It has since been frogged, but I like the pattern. I want to convert it to working in the round (it’s piecewise now) and use different colours. Will there be a problem maintaining the pattern in the round? I’m afraid there might be a jag. Yasmin will recognise the yarn, she sent it to me. It’s a mix of German and Taiwanese acrylics.
– Currently I’m reading Pico Iyer’s Falling off the Map and find it less funny than I’d hoped. Also he has some peculiar usages for words and phrases. Unwealthy. Commemorated to. Overbroods. I wonder if being a successful writer gives you the license to coin new things. No fussy editors standing over you, red pencils in hand. Or maybe it’s just me. I can’t claim to be an authority on the English Language.
– Today is a sneezy day. My phus-phus (nasal spray) failed again, despite two puffs per nostril last night. I’m giving up.
– Could someone help me place the pictures so that they are not all lined up military style one beneath the other?
I went looking for an embroidery frame at a craft shop and I struck it lucky, finding these bamboo bag handles. The upper ones were Rs 50 a pair (about a $1.10) and the lower ones were Rs 40 a pair (about $.90). Now all I have to do is make some bags. But you know, I prefer my bags to be shoulder ones, so that my hands are free. Time was, all my trousers had pockets so my wallet could be in them and my keys, and I could swing my arms freely around. Alas, now all my trousers are pocketless and I am laden with a handbag with my cell phone, keys, wallet, pens and things. Sigh.
Now I want you to cast your mind back to when you were younger, the world was friendlier and everyone loved everyone else. Remember the last time I showed you some respectable crochet? It could be this or this, neither of which were truly respectable, actually. Anyhow, I am now showing you some work in progress:
This is a baby blanket using the Offset Shells stitch pattern from one of my Harmony Guides. I seem to remember Cordelia told me the yarn is Lionbrand Woolease (she sent it to me via my uncle in Houston whom my sister visited on her way back from Hawaii). The skeins are label-less, so I haven’t a clue what colour it is supposed to be. It’s about 40 inches wide and I’m close to the end of the second skein, with one more left to go. I shall make this as big as it gets and then pop it off in the mail to one of two friends with small children. There’s another one being made, also from a Harmony Guides stitch pattern and it’s a bit er, unorthodox, shall we say? I haven’t got a picture of it yet, but I shall soon.
I am happy to report I successfully used the Russian join on this one which leaves me with two less ends to weave. I’m not quite sure how exactly to manipulate the yarns when you’re trying to join two different coloured ones, though, so as to get the join exactly at the stitch you want it.
In happy book news, a branch of Crossword has opened in this town and it’s walking distance from my house. I visited it the first day and bought Pico Iyer‘s Falling off the Map. I’ve never read him before.
But currently I am reading Alan Clark‘s (colourful chap) Diaries and it’s an interesting experience. I bought it at a discarded books sale at the British Council Library in Hyderabad, along with a bunch of Reginald Hills that I haven’t blogged about. My sister has a deep fascination with Maggie Thatcher and this book has several insights. And I’m learning things I never thought could be true outside books about how British politics work. Also Clark met George Courtauld (Travels of a Fat Bulldog) at an airport in Latin America. Now I want to go back and see if Courtauld refers to the meeting. Except I don’t know where to look for the book. I think my sister had borrowed it from the BCL on one of my Hyd trips. Sometimes it all sounds like Alice in Wonderland. Things like the Queen’s Messengers, and tea parties are actually true!
One of my favourite pieces of dialogue in Alice:
“Whose job is it to answer the door?” (Alice)
“Why, what questions has it been asking?” (the footman, I think).
Oh, and I bought a so-called bamboo cotton sari the other day at a craft fair from a persuasive Jaipuri salesman. I wonder how authentic it is. It qualifies as a party sari (for naval parties where Kanchi and Venkatagiri would be too aunty-like). Don’t know how long it will last. All glamour and glitter.
We did some cupboard rearranging last night and I discovered a set of 5 dpns in size 2.25mm. Yippee! They must be from Heide‘s generous RAKing a few months ago. See what being organised/cleanly can get you?
And on a totally unrelated note, referring to the Yarn Harlot‘s latest post, would Americans spell travelogues as travelogs? You know, like analogue (but not dialogue? Why? And related to programme.) If not, why not?
This is for any of my readers with experience of buying thread in Pune. One of my online crochet friends wants to know the prices of the following:
1)the cost of a 100gm ball of thread from RED HEART,  (size 20)
2) the cost of the Knitting cotton by ROSE (size 10 or 5-don’t know?)
3) the cost of ANCHOR 100gms (little thinner than the size 20)
She wants to know if she is paying a fair price where she buys them. “Jita” left a comment on my old Blogger blog telling me that Galaxy overcharges, but she didn’t leave me an email address or an alternative shop suggestion. So we’re looking for information. Anybody know where you get the best prices for thread in Pune? Please?
I went back to the book fair and struck it mildly lucky. I picked up a copy of this for Rs 495/-.
Not bad, eh? I’ve just skimmed through it and like the style.
Also got a few more murder mysteries…
And in waaah! news, how does one retract a unretracting retractable tape? I got one just this afternoon in a CAT PAC and enthusiastically stretched it out to its full length of 5 feet. Now it won’t retract! Waaaaah! Only a couple of inches in and that’s it. It’s made in China.
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.
Whew, so many posts in one day. Sorry!Anyway, I have to blog about this:
My prize for winning a contest on The Soapy Knitter‘s blog a while ago. (I guessed closest to the weight of her notions bag, and you wouldn’t believe, my guess was simply the time at which I made it! Talk about luck :))Â Thank you so much, Rosi!
The Microspun is very soft and the blue is some more sock yarn. The hank is Asti from Alpaca with a Twist, 50% alpaca and 50% cotton. It might felt, no? A bag, perhaps? Suggestions welcome.
This photo is for Yasmin, who wanted to see how big a winder is. The pen is to show relative size. I hope this helps? It’s definitely an amazing piece of machinery 🙂
swakrta.com 