Psychedelic Tomten

This will go to the same friend I’m sending the block and shells afghan to. She has a toddler and is expecting another baby boy in July.

As usual, don’t look too closely at the thing. The colour is patchy and the workmanship just passable. Dirty Deets follow.

Specifications:

Yarn: Local small-ball acrylic Santhi from Oswal “Woollen” Mills, 25g x 9

Needles: Denise #7

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Tomten Jacket from Knitting Without Tears

Time: About a week.

Size: Toddler? 22″ around the chest, 15″ from shoulder to bottom, 10″ hood and 11″ on wrist to armhole.

Extra: #1 Patchy!!!

#2 I wonder if this could be done in stockinette (although of course the point is to avoid the purling)

#3 Rosi helped with a question I had on ridge counts for the hood. Got help from Sue on knitty chat on what to do for the closures. For the loops I did a row of sc around from right bottom corner to the left, adding 10ch loops whenever I encountered a button. Otherwise I followed the pattern to a T (except for a slight misunderstanding at the sleeves, leading to 4 extra ridges each side).

And now for some sad news…I do not have any works in progress (UFOs abound, of course, but they don’t count). Sad but true. I want to try my hand at a version of the Baby Surprise Jacket by Ms Zimmermann, but in pinks and related colours, and there aren’t too many baby girls on the horizon. I need specific victims targets.

My reading currently is Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend. Always surprising. And I don’t have any other books lined up after that. Help!

On the domestic front, the husband has been successfully disposed off has gone off by himself to Cochin. Accommodation is uncertain, so it is also uncertain when I will reach there. For now it’s just me and the other inlaw. I have plans to visit the UK in July, more of which in a different post. I shall leave you with a close-up of the wooden buttons I used.

One fell swoop

I got my invite for Ravelry yesterday and spent a few hours there browsing and adding some of my projects and stash. In one fell swoop, I managed to lower the tone of the place by an immense quantum Most of my yarn is acrylic, my projects are odd and my photography is terrible. Let’s hope they don’t throw me out for bringing the site into disrepute! My favourite feature is the hooks & needles database, the result of which you can see in a new page I have ———->

In other news, Cordelia tells me she has received the shipment of some afghan hooks which Michelle was giving away at Good Yarn Karma, and which I asked her to send me care of Cordelia, so she could save on postage. I love reading the posts at GYK, even if I can’t ask for swapping most of the stuff. I think it’s a wonderful idea! Thank you folks of Good Yarn Karma, and thank you Michelle! Hope you have lots of good karma.

7 things

I’ve been tagged twice for the 7 random things meme, and I thought I’d do it differently.

List 7 random things about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 others.
Leave a comment on their blog to direct them to your site to get the rules.

So here are 7 random things about each of the cities I’ve lived in so far:

Hyderabad

1. Home

2. Libraries

3. School

4. Shopping

5. Pearls

6. Friends

7. Mom’s cooking

Delhi

1. Tingling cheeks in winter

2. Fog

3. Expos

4. Spic-Macay

5. Hostel

6. Dilli Haat

7. Knitting again

Bombay

1. Amar’s lending library

2. Churchgate pavement booksellers

3. Oxford Bookstore and Cha Bar

4. First job

5. Journalism course

6. Friends

7. Safety

Visakhapatnam

1. Humid

2. Online crochet and knit

3. Miscarriages

4. Blogging

5. Sea view, swing chair

6. Uncle and aunt

7. Buying books at sales

I’m tagging Deneen, Yasmin, Deepa, Pearlin, Sara, Wendy and Amy.  If you’ve been tagged already, sorry! Just add my voice to the chorus. You can do this meme the traditional way, or you can do it my way. The choice is yours!

Pink eye of Sauron

Well, not really, but it does look a lot like an eye! (Now I shall get lots of LOTR fan visitors.) This is the finished doily whose chart I had a problem with last week. Sorry for the horrible photograph! Specifications:

Thread: Red Heart thread, 50 gm ball, probably size 10 (the big balls don’t have a size written on them). I was stashbusting as usual and thought I had enough, but apparently I didn’t. My favourite local craft store didn’t have the exact shade of pink, so a lighter shade and an interesting twiny thread came home with me. I forayed to another craft store and picked up two 20gm balls of the right shade, but the wrong thickness. Now, these smaller balls have #20 on them, so I know the size, but held together they ended up thicker than my original thread, so I just shrugged and used a single strand. Apparently 20+20≠10 (wowie, I just used WordPress’ new advanced editing to put in that not-equal sign). This has happened to me before and I used a strand of sewing thread held with the size 20 to finish my Crochetville Doily Swap doily in September 2005. Somehow it didn’t occur to me and in any case I didn’t want to do that this time. Why didn’t I remember that simple equation (or un-equation, if you will)?

Hook: Started off with the plain Pony 1.75mm and when in the middle of the project I received the handle ones from Jaishree, I swapped for one of those. These Pony hooks with handles look identical to the Profi hooks, except they aren’t gold-tipped and obviously aren’t made in Germany. They are light and I think I might exclusively work with these for all my thread projects, unless of course I need a size they aren’t available in. I shall do a separate post showing off all the hooks she sent. Why don’t the company behind the Profis have a website? Maybe they do in German, but not, it appears, in English. You’d think at least Western companies would be well-established online.

Pattern: From Burda Handicraft Series Vol 1 No 3, Crochet Lace, E 227. Lovely patterns, lovely photography, and all patterns are charted, of course. Despite the hype about Magic Crochet, I find some of their photos are really sloppy. Although well-lit, the doilies look unblocked and even unfinished sometimes. There should be a difference between how I, an amateur, present my work and how a magazine showcases its designs.

Time: About a week, not including delays for thread emergencies and chart puzzling.

Size: About 33.5″ long and 19″ wide. Bigger than the specified size, since I used a larger hook.

Extra: #1 This is for my mom, whose birthday is coming up later this month.

#2 This is a pattern I’d love to redo, which makes it a very rare thing indeed (other than winging-it stuff like funfur bags for visiting small girls). And use the right size hook this time. And avoid the booboos I made in this one.

#3 That part of the chart I didn’t understand taught me a new technique, that of turning in the middle of the row to end up with loops that look as though they’re hanging in the air. Nice challenge, even if I didn’t solve it myself.

—–

On the book front, I finished Martha Grimes’ Lamorna Wink. Good read. I’ve now gone back to Pico Iyer (Falling off the Map). I find he doesn’t particularly make me want to visit any of the places he’s written about, but perhaps that holds true for most of the travelogues I read. Perhaps that is why I read them, to savour the experience without the effort.

Dressing up

A few weeks ago I’d asked for suggestions on what to make for a baby girl in a hot place. This was the compromise solution I arrived at.

Thread: Anchor knitting cotton (I think it is bedspread weight) in cream, about 3 full balls.

Hook: Clover double-ended hook, with 4/0 on one end and 6/0 on the other. I assume those are size numbers rather than mm. I got two of those in a CAT PAC. They’re wonderfully light. I’m all about lightness in hooks. I used the 4/0 end.

Pattern: From Crochet World June 2005. Toddler’s Spring time dress. Errors found.

Time: A while.

Size: About 14″ long and 22″ wide.

Extra: #1 There was a row count error in the back instructions. It should read Row 44 instead of Row 43 (and so on). I found the pattern stitch instructions quite confusing and it took me several attempts to get it right. In Row 1 of the skirt part, it should read “Work 66 sc … ch 6… ” instead of ch 3. There was also some problem about right and left, which I don’t recall now.

#2 I left off the sleeves and improvised on the edging. (ch3, sc around for 3 rows). I was afraid I was running out of thread and didn’t want to buy any more, since I was stash-busting.

#3 My first dress.

I agree with Sara about finishing. Mine is very, very poor.

Help!

How do I do the chain loops and the trebles into them? More precisely, how do I move from one chain loop to another? Please help me! This is from Burda Crochet Lace N.227. The picture is clickable.

ETA: With the help of experienced and helpful neighbours at Crochetville, the problem has been successfully solved! What looks like two rows are in fact worked as one (very clever and a technique I’ve never applied before, in this manner, at least) and hey presto, you have the magical “hanging in the air” impression.

There was another minor (potentially major) hiccup when I ran out of thread, and this morning’s expedition to the local craft store only led to a paler shade. Another expedition in the afternoon to another craft store yielded what the husband assures me is the same shade, only packaged in 20gm balls rather than 50gm. We shall now resume our scheduled crocheting.

Another remarkable thing is that facing the prospect of having to redo the entire doily in a colour I had more of, I wasn’t daunted. There are very few patterns I ever redo, so that says something about this one, I think. How about you? Do you usually redo patterns, or never?

Also, WordPress now has an Advanced toolbar in its editor. I must explore it sometime, and see if I can post tables, for example.

The things you learn – Part II

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.

The things you learn

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.

Frugal bag

Thank you everyone for your responses so far on my sappy (soppy? sloppy?) question in my last post. Let me be clear, I am not at all the sort of person to keep it all in, as those who have known me for any length of time will testify. Rather the opposite, frequently latching on to unsuspecting passersby to upchuck all my current troubles. Oops.

But sometimes no one is handy, or you feel you need to give your current recipient a break. Or sometimes it just feels as though things are the same, although troublesome. Then I feel like I need a Scream Room™. Do you have one? Or any personal space where you know you won’t be disturbed (intruded upon)? Let me know.

Meanwhile, here is a bag I rescued from UFO-dom and finished to send off to my Crochetville Notions Swap partner. This picture was taken with my last bookhaul in it. Amazingly, both of us have received our packages intact and promptly. Only, mine has gone to Hyderabad in anticipation of our moving from here. So no pics.

And guess what? The husband’s transfer has been deferred indefinitely for two months. The boss at the other place, who was on leave until a couple of days ago, returned to office and realised he’d lose his deputy if the transfer went through (the husband is too junior to fill that particular position). So they’ve asked for a postponement of the move until they figure out what to do about a deputy. Ha. Suspended animation. It’s nice, have you ever tried it? Anyhow, I present to you, The Frugal Bag.

This was a pattern from Frugalhaus.com, but I can’t find it there now. Googling produced a pdf link whose legality I’m not confident of.* Since I forgot to measure this before sending it off in the Crochetville Notions Swap, let’s get the details in an ugly format. The yarn was GUM and unknown (probably RHSS) purple, with Denise 10 1/2 circulars. I started this bag so long ago, I don’t even remember when. Some time last year. Nice and sturdy. For the bottom, instead of using the garter stitch recommended, I used linked dcs (US) (this link shows a linked treble (US) but the principle is the same). Also try this Crochet Me tutorial. The stitch produces fewer holes than simple dc (US).

You could use either of the bag’s sides (inside or out) and in fact the stockinette side looked interesting, like fairisle or something. However, the purl ridges defining the sides weren’t clear enough so I turned it this side out (according to the original pattern). And now the sides of the bag are well-defined. Ugly but functional. That’s me

* ETA: Heather very nicely found me the link to the pattern from archive.org. Thank you, Heather!

Sappy question

In a blatant attempt to get more comments, I have a sappy question to ask my faithful (mostly silent) readers.

Do you have someone who asks you how you are doing? Who notices your moods? Does it matter to you if you do or don’t? (This may seem like several sappy questions, but it’s all the same thing I’m talking about, really). Do you have someone to vent at? Or are you of the class that believes what happens inside you should stay inside, no matter if it kills you?

Answers awaited with bated breath.