Monsoon clouds…they make me feel like singing. We’re in Bangalore for a few days and enjoying every minute of it. That’s not all…I found 100% silk yarn here…squeeeee!!! More on that adventure later.
Goodbye Dubai
Dear Dubai
When I met you first, I swore we would never be friends. But you vowed to change that and I’m glad that you have. You’ve had me mesmerized with your over the top-ness for everything – tallest this, shiniest that and wonkiest whatevers, that’s you and I love you for it.
I think you may have chuckled at me when I threw a fit when the temperature hit 130 degrees. Thank you for turning on the sprinklers at that precise moment and making me dance under them like I was 5. Thank you for showing me that here in the middle of nowhere everything can be beautiful although a lot of it is fabricated (maybe you shouldn’t try so hard?? Just a suggestion) Thank you for never slowing down and keeping your malls open until midnight and your restaurants open even later than that. Thank you for showing me that anything is possible even if it’s crazily insane to try it. Thank you for being “enroute” to most places so that I can pop by to visit friends.
I’m glad that you forgave me my initial disdain and allowed me to call you ‘home’ even if it was for just a while.
I will miss you, Dubai.
Goodbye.
Knitting, what knitting
Just enough time to surface above all the sorting and packing that’s been going on which has brought my knitting to a standstill. I keep thinking that I will make up for it on the long haul flights which we are going to be taking shortly. Dream on sistah!
I’ve heard that Transatlantic Flights + Feisty Toddler = Severe Migraine. Eeeeeek!!! I might just step off the plane with crazy hair and that twitching eye which has a crazed look. But, what I’m hoping for is that Kiki sleeps for most of the journey and shows the “shy” side of her personality and remains in her seat – hahahahaha, wishful thinking!!!!
Knitting hmmm…
This is what I was working on before removal boxes took over my life.
These pictures were taken over a week ago and since then things have not progressed very much just a couple rows and I suspect that this trend will continue for a while yet – all with good reason.
TTFN:)
What to knit next
My space here has been severely neglected…um, relocation and all that! But I just wanted to pop by and say ‘hi’:)
I’ve been knitting consistently on my February Lady Sweater and I am so glad to say that I will be binding off the cuff on the second sleeve today and then I will be done with this Lady! Which always brings every knitter to the exciting part…
What to knit next????
In a frenzy of knit-by-the-book-ness that I rarely follow in the guage swatch department, I actually knit a pile of few swatches a couple weeks ago. There’s cotton yarn, lace yarn and good ‘ol merino in the mix. I think that I’ll let the merino stew in it’s own bath of warmth ready to be picked up when cuddly knits are called for.
In the meantime, summer is almost here which means summer knitting…and time to have plenty of fun. Happy Summerin’!!!
Monkey on my mind
Since I’ve discovered that I love sock knitting, I am pretty convinced that there will always be a pair (or two) on the needles. Socks (and hats and toys and baby knitting) are the perfect projects to break things up when other larger, endless projects are on the go (…my February Lady Sweater!)
It’s taken me almost two months to complete my latest FO which is insane because it’s actually quite a quick pattern once you work out the flow on the lace rows. Then again, there were other projects that had to be finished in between and so these socks had to be put on hold during that time. But enough of all this blabber, here is my latest FO!
Ruby Red Monkeys
Pattern: Monkey Socks published in Knitty.com
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock Yarn in “Ruby Red”
Needles: Size US 1/2.5 mm
Started 3/18 – Finished 5/25
This pattern was my first Cookie A. and will most definitely not be my last. Just like peanut butter choc chip cookies, mmm… just one won’t do!
In life news, craziness has overtaken our house what with our impending relocation and Prithvi’s final exams. Tomorrow is Math, which he loves by the way, so we’re cool. But the day after that is Arabic and that’s a whole other story. I think that my grand scheme of trying to potty train Kiki during this time has to be shelved.
I think that the most stressful thing of all is trying to figure out what we’d like to have shipped and what has to be tossed. I always thought of myself as a non-hoarder prefering to get rid of things if I don’t use them or have lost love for them. But apparently not! I have boxes packed with drawings when Prithvi could barely write and a tin of all his baby teeth and tickets from when we went to see Chicago and Kiki’s ‘coming home’ outfit (NOT handmade by the way) and so much other stuff. The drawings will stay, the outfit also stays, the tickets and most of the other stuff has been binned, the baby teeth…I’m still debating.
This stuff is just from the one box I looked at today. There are so many more and let’s not talk about the yarn…yeah, some craziness is definitely going on!!!
What’s my number?
This title will definitely get the google-ers to perk up. I’m not sharing anything crazy like my phone number or dress size on the internets! I’ve been tagged by Anjali to fill out this list
So, my numbers…
1: The number of movies I’ve watched this month
2: The number of glasses of wine it takes for me to begin slurring – so I sip…slooooooowly
3: The number of countries I’ve lived in
4: The number of vehicles I’ve owned – not all at the same time
5: The number of tank tops I’ve knit – I love wearing all of them
6: The number of hours I was in labor before KiKi was born – it was a breeze, thanks to my epidural
7: The number of weeks before I leave Dubai for good
8: My favorite number
9: The number of countries I’ve visited
10: The number of skeins of sock yarn I own – compared to some of you ladies (ahem, Jocelyn), I realize my sock yarn stash is piddly small
Gazillion: The number of “huggles and kissies” I’ve exchanged with my kids this week
Have a great weekend, ya’ll!!
Green on my mind
Been thinking about going green for a while now.
No, not the noble way of going green to make this world a better place but knitting from my green stash type of going green. I think that I’m too boring to be a tree-hugger. Although, I try to do my bit by recycling and being mindful of not being wasteful – now that’s a mouthful!
Speaking of tree hugging, I once saw this group of tree huggers in Tofino getting ready to do some serious rallying about saving the forests. It was something else!!! That was back when hemp was still a whispered word. Now, we knitters, we knit with hemp.
So, I’ve been looking at all the knitting that I have been doing lately and it seems like most of it is pink. My Ravelry projects page can attest to the fact that I like this color and it’s host of cousins. Funny that, because I have all of this other stash which is NOT pink but I when I think of casting on for a new project, I always seem to gravitate towards the rosy colors.
I was thinking that the best way to nuke this pink streak was to knit with some Malabrigo Green Apple that I have. Talk about putting some zing into my knitting projects!
But I don’t feel like knitting a hat right now which is what this traffic-stopping-yarn is going to be someday, no..wait, red makes traffic stop, green makes things go, right? Bwah!
Instead, I’m going to use DIC Smooshy’s Happy Forest which will be perfect for a pair of green socks, no? Off to stalk Ravelry for pattern possibilities, that should take…um…five days at least!!!
Yolking Around
5425
That’s the number of February Lady Sweaters on Ravelry!!!
This is not surprising, seeing that the inspiration for this pattern comes from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Sweater on Two Needles. Despite the fact that the days are getting warmer and I should probably consider knitting a tank top or stick to sock knitting over the summer, I couldn’t resist the urge to knit this cardigan and so cast on for it a couple weeks ago.
The going has been slow which seems to be a constant feature with all of my knitting projects. I have come to accept the fact that I’m a really, really, really slow knitter. I’m also an easily distracted knitter (Ravelry, knit-blogs, online yarn stores…)
When I began knitting the yoke, I was not too happy with the color of the yarn and the fact that the garter stitch rows seemed never ending didn’t make things move any faster. I finally got done with the yoke yesterday and have begun the lace portion of the body. This is a pretty neat pattern – EZ definitely knew a thing or two or five thousand about knitting.
The color…hmmm…it’s actually growing on me, so all is well in my FLS world. If only I can knit faster, things would be perfect.
And done!
I just kitchenered the toe, snapped a couple pictures and am blogging about my first ever finished pair of HANDKNIT SOCKS! Can you tell that I’m really thrilled to bits about this??? Like, yeah!!
Petal Shower Dublin Bay Socks
Pattern: Dublin Bay Socks published in Mossy Cottage Knits
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in “Petal Shower”
Needles: Size US 1/2.25 mm
Started 3/27 – Finished 4/21
I used the magic loop technique for the first time with these socks and there’s no turning back for me now. It makes knitting in the round so hassle-free. Small circ knitting is never going to shake it’s fist at me again.
Just a couple changes: I was having trouble with the eye of partridge heel instructions as written in this pattern and somehow the heel didn’t look “right”. So, I used the instructions for the heel from this pattern instead and it turned out great.
The other change I made was to knit a picot cuff instead of a ribbed one. It’s a bit more time consuming when you work the joining round for the hem, but it produced such a pretty edge which is perfect for the soft shades of this yarn.
There are definitely more socks in this knitter’s future!
Double Digits
The first few months of being pregnant with Prithvi had me camping out in front of the toilet bowl due to the incessant throwing up. The rest of my pregnancy went great. This would be our firstborn and we were so excited about seeing him and about becoming parents even though we didn’t really know the first thing about babies.
I went into rapidly progressive labor while my dad battled severe cardio problems at a different hospital across town. There was no time for an epidural and so I was pretty much at the mercy of…nothing, just excruciating pain!!! I passed out a couple times during labor and got intravenous meds to raise my blood pressure. 60 over 40 ain’t good BP numbers!
Just when I thought that this is how it must feel like to die, Prithvi was born and we were laughing and crying at the same time.
They never let me hold my baby right away because they were trying to resuscitate him. Of course, we didn’t know this at the time, we were just thrilled that he had finally arrived.
I read the doctor’s writing from his medical records when I got back from the hospital. Severely asphyxiated…apgar score at birth 1…revived…oxygen tent…IV meds. I felt numb because this baby who should have had all sorts of things wrong with his body, his brain, his organs fought the odds and we were out of the hospital with all systems go in 5 days.
My daddy didn’t get to hold his first grandchild though because two days later, his body quit fighting and he died. I didn’t get to say goodbye to him. It was hard. That was when I knew that joy mingled with sorrow left you numb.
Here is our fighter – strong in mind, body and spirit and nothing, nothing can ever crush him. Our pride, our joy, our Prithvi turned 10 today.
We love you son…forever.
