Summerin’

I had great plans to visit all the LYS-es in our area (and beyond) and probably have tons of time to knit and enjoy the remaining weeks of summer.  But I haven’t done much of that lately thinking that there will be plenty more time for knits and purls and warm woolies soon enough. 

Been blueberry picking though and I think that we’ve had blueberry pie, blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes all in one week.  We picked 50 pounds of blueberries a couple weekends ago and I don’t think that we will run out anytime soon.  The blueberry laden meals have stopped since I think that the past week was just overkill.  No food pictures but don’t these just look delicious.

Blueberries

We’re still living out of suitcases which is such a pain because our stuff arrives only at the end of the week.  We thought that it would take forever to find the right house, but were so fortunate to have all of that sorted and I still can’t get over the amazing view we have from our home.  I don’t think that I will ever tire of looking at those mountains.  Life in suburbia is turning out to be pretty great after all.

Home

Next time…yarn, needles and Ishbel.

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SuperNATURAL

So, we touched down in British Columbia a week ago and I can’t believe that we get to call this home.It feels so good to be back, I’ve missed living in BC soooooo much.

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Luscious Silk

** Warning: Picture heavy post

Following a thread on Ravelry about silk yarn in Bangalore got me all curious seeing that this silk was available in my hometown!  My first stop on our summer vacation in India was Bangalore and so the lure of silk yarn seemed too hard to resist.  Armed with some hastily scribbled directions, we took a crazy autorickshaw ride in search of this luxurious yarn and boy was I amazed.  I was looking for a yarn store type establishment but the address got us to a house in the crazy streets of Bengaluru (if anyone’s been to India, you know all about the whacky system of street naming that leaves you going around in dizzy circles).  But once I was at the address, I was not disappointed because in front of me were piles…yes, PILES of skeins of silk yarn in every possible color.

Silk in Bangalore 8

Much petting and fondling and ooohing and aaahing followed much to the embarrassment (I’m sure) of the owners. Vineet was with me (with camera at the ready) and didn’t seem too concerned about what he calls my ‘yarn-yelp’!!

Some of the yarn was so fine that I’m sure that you could only do the finest embroidery with it.  Cobweb silk, I think.

Silk in Bangalore 1

There was silk yarn that is used to make amazing Persian rugs 

Silk in Bangalore 6 

There was sari silk  

Silk in Bangalore 3

and yarn with beads and crystals

Silk in Bangalore 2

and worsted weight silk

Silk in Bangalore 4

and silk that had so many technical terms attached to it that I can’t recall what they were

Silk in Bangalore 5

This is a family run business and the yarn is spun, dyed and skeined by the local people of India in the villages where silk farms abound.  Amazing stuff!!!

Silk in Bangalore 7

It was so hard not to buy a couple skeins of every type of yarn but I had to restrain myself from unleashing the pursestrings seeing that we still have to go and begin life in a new country at the end of the month!  So here’s my mini haul – undyed worsted weight and laceweight in coppery brown

Silk in Bangalore 9

and a bit more laceweight in blue, purple and green.

Silk in Bangalore 10

That’s not all, the folks who run this business go by the Ravatar silkindian right on Ravelry and ship internationally.  My ball winder has not traveled in my suitcase and so I have not wound these babies up, but I am sure that whatever gets knitted out of this yarn will be luscious!

We’re still on vacation and are off early tomorrow morning to Mysore and Kabini for a few days to enjoy the wildlife.  I hope we get to see some tuskers and a spotting a tiger would be fantastic, fingers crossed!!!

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Singin’ in the rain

Namma BengaluruMonsoon 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.

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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.

GoodbyeDubai

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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. 

Spring Forward Socks1

Cherry Cardi 1

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:)

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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

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’!!!

Summer Fun

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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!

Monkeys Yeah

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!!!

KeeKs

Posted by & filed under Family, Rambling, Socks. This post has 11 comments.

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!!

Duuuuude

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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!

tree-hugger

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.

pink-pink-pink

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! 

malabrigo-green-apple

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!!!

smooshy-happy-forest

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