Purple project

I made this cardigan for my trip to Hyderabad, to give my friend for her kid. The friend brought me a Denise set, a yarn winder and an Easy Tunisian set. Now I’m in the lap of luxury as far as supplies are concerned. Does that mean it’s time for me to lose interest in knitting/crochet? You know…gather all the materials and then pouf, there goes your attention. I’m a bit wary of that happening to me.

Well anyway, this pattern was from an Indian book, possibly a reprint of some older English collection. Can’t say. I was running out of the purple (it’s more blue actually) so I improvised with the greeny-blue for the sleeves. I magically didn’t have to change the pattern at all, except using rsc for the edging. Quick and easy, but would have been nicer if it were all done in one piece without the need for seams.

I think crochet designers need to concentrate on patterns without/with minimal seaming/sewing. Crochet being so versatile, such designs are more possible than with knitting, I think.

Yarn: Acrylic from all over the place, but Delhi and Hyderabad, I think.

Hook: Pony 4 mm
Pattern: From Indian reprint book
Time: Quite fast, can’t give exact numbers, but you could do it in a day at a pinch
Size: Seems to fit my friend’s kid (wrong season to try it on)
Extra: #1 Didn’t have to change the pattern at all, except I did rsc for the edging because of the two different colours

#2 Two colours because the purple ran out

She lives!

Yup, still alive and going here in Wheredom. And that there above is my latest Finished Object. A crochet blanket from Golden Hands Baby Clothes: 50 beautiful patterns to knit and crochet, 1974. I made a baby jacket from the same book in January.

Yarn: Acrylic from Hyderabad, 340 gms
Hook: Crystalite 5, 5.5 and 6 mm

Pattern: From Golden Hands Baby Clothes, 1974
Time: About 5 days all told

Size: 45″

Extra: #1 Nothing much actually. It’s perhaps my second-ever baby blanket

#2 I was tired of trying to fit baby patterns to the limited yarn selection I have. I didn’t want to do it in pink, and cannot obviously find the right gauge anyway. Pffffffffbrrrrgh.

#3 Also bored trying to size baby patterns to fit 2-year-olds. This may be a bit small but should work as a useful tool to frighten babies into sleeping on time (or else the giant doily will come and get you!!)

#4 Oh and the colour is actually a browny kind of pink, not the red it seems in this picture.

Found knitting books

Sorry I’ve been missing from my blog for so long, but I am now in Hyderabad and am not constantly online as I am in Vizag.

I went to a used books sale here in Hyderabad and picked some nice knitting books, including:

Traditional Knitting Patterns by James Norbury, 1962 (I think this must be a classic. It shows traditional stitch patterns from several areas of the world.)
Knitting for Children by Louise Daniels, 1971 (It has patterns graded by age-group, whcih should be very helpful, even if I can’t make gauge ever and decide to do the patterns in a different group than I should.)
Knitting in Vogue by Christine Probert, 1982 (Mostly women’s patterns from Vogue magazine)

and

Wild Knitting ed. Angela Jeffs, 1979 (Now this is really wild knitting and I can’t say any of the designs appeal to me much. Maybe I’ll put this book up for a swap.)
All the books are in excellent condition, except the middle two are missing their original dustjackets.

I also found The Penguin Guide to Sewing by Julian Robinson (1974), which I hope will be helpful as I plan to take my mom’s sewing machine back with me this time.

I got the lot of them for about Rs 700, which is a good price and if I bought any of these alone firsthand, would have got me only one of them or not even that. I’m happy.

Oh, and my mom’s sewing machine was bought in 1967 in the US. It’s a Singer.

Kitten experiment

I shot this video of some kittens I spent time with in Chilika. Trying to see if I can embed the video here:

Nope, doesn’t seem to work. So here’s a link instead: Kittens

Meme

Deneen tagged me last week for this, but as I was just leaving on a short trip to Chilika, I couldn’t do the meme (is that what you say, do the meme? complete the meme? fulfil the meme?). But I’m back now and here it is:

6 weird things/habits about myself…(well most of me is weird, how on earth do I reduce it to just 6?!)

1. I hate to speak before I brush my teeth in the morning. So as soon as I am vertical, I have to brush, else no words out of me till I do. Even if it’s an early morning train I disembark from, and need to travel home to use the bathroom.

2. I *love* being the first to use soap/open new toothpaste/try the crossword. Even if the soap is a brand I’ve used before.
3.  Even in the hottest weather I have to have a sheet to cover myself, or at least my ears. (I believe things can fall into my ears otherwise and I’m particularly terrified of lizards) *shudder*

4. It is one of my life’s ambitions to hold/play with a tiger cub, or a lion cub, in a pinch will do.

5. I was born with no eyebrows but a head full of hair, about 6 inches long. My eyebrows are quite healthy now.
6.  I sleep when I am tense or depressed. This means I can sleep in a car that I think is being driven too fast!!!

I don’t know…Deneen, for some reason I can’t seem to access the comments on your blog, so I’m hoping you read my response here.

6 people to tag?! Hmm. No obligation for you to do it, but I’m tagging

Cordelia

Yasmin

Pearlin

Debbie

Lucy

Sara

go on, try and weird me out!