Knit bits

It seems like ages since I blogged because I’ve been swamped under a myriad of things that needed to get done, I’m still nowhere close to done, but I’ve missed blogging and that’s why I’m here:) 

There was a fun swap on Ravelry that I was a part of.  It was my first official swap and the best part was getting to make a new crafting friend.  My swap partner was the talented and lovely Soulcrochet.  Check out the jewelry she’s handcrafted on her Rav projects page.  I can’t reveal what I knitted for her yet and so that post is for another time.  My package is ready to be mailed first thing tomorrow and I’m excited to see what she thinks about it.

Our family took a mini vacation over the Eid holidays which was much needed – surf, sand, great food, yummy cocktails and plenty-o-sun not to mention the amazing view we had of the Arabian Sea from our equally amazing apartment right on the beach, we couldn’t ask for more!!  But what I will cherish the most was the sweet moments we shared together as a family enjoying laughs and walks on the beach and general monkeying around.

In knitting news, I can’t seem to stop with these cute little knit bits and there’s more cute stuff that’s on Julie’s website that I will definitely make soon.  I’ve felt the need to do a bit of crafting as each day tumbles into the next and I never realized before how happy these crafting moments make me feel.  These knit bits are the perfect projects for limited knitting time.

As you can see, I sort of messed up on the red and white stocking with the color change.  Um…I forgot to work the color change after the heel shaping.  But that’s ok, it still turned out cute.  The yarn I used for these were bits of acrylic in my stash and I love that these are knit flat and then seamed.  No messing around with 4 dpns, 2 circs, magic loop, nothing!  Just plain, fun knitting, even though Christmas is still a couple months away.

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Stash…busted!!!

My stash – I’m running out of hiding places for it!!!  Small projects that are quick have been on my needles as a means to get rid of stash and I don’t think that I’ve had this many active WIPs anytime. But I’m happy that there has been progress on each project which I hope are not going to hide at the bottom of my knitting basket <ahem..Printed Silk Cardi..ahem>!!!

First up, this scarf that I was working on eons ago?  Ripped…

Soon to become this

Then there was this project that was great fun to knit on and was meant for Kirtana to wear when she was still a wee infant.  Well, she grew up quick and that’s when I lost steam on that (seaming and icords left).  There were some leftover skeins of yarn from that project which I’ve used for a few quick projects. 

I’m usually not a dishcloth/washcloth knitter.  But I think that knitting quick projects with my cotton stash could be my way of “going green”.

A couple more projects can be classified stealth knitting meant as gifts and so blogging about them will have to be done later. 

Stashbusting, it’s a good thing!

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Lace Craze

For Monsoon Knitting I wanted to try something I hadn’t tried before and so I tried LACE!!  Didn’t think that I would ever say that I absolutely loved lace knitting!!

I didn’t have any lace yarn with me but decided to make do make do with a couple of skeins of Koigu because the blues of the KPPPM were perfect monsoon colors and with lace knitting gauge does not really count, right?  

So, I cast on for the Swallowtail Shawl and I loved every minute of knitting it, “nupps” and all.  The shawl did not turn out too big but that’s ok cause it’s small enough to fit into my purse and perfect to wrap around chilly shoulders at the movies or at a restaurant.

Beginnings

Beginnings

Blocking

Blocking

Finito!

Finito!

Unfortunately, the furniture is sporting my Swallowtail because I was too lazy to dig out the tripod.  

Sunkist Koigu

Sunkist Koigu

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Eleee-fant

I wanted to show Kirtana her first real elephant this summer, but it seems like there were none to be seen anywhere on our travels – we weren’t looking hard enough, possibly.  So, when you can’t ride a real elephant, you just make do…

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Travel Tales

We did lots of travelling around South India this summer and one of the places we hit was Coorg.  This mini vacation was amazing because this was meant to be a break to just unwind and do nothing but chill.  It was just that – absolutely relaxing!!

The Orange County Resort where we stayed was the best, I would highly recommend it. Freshly brewed coffee from coffee beans grown on the resort’s plantations, yummm!

While travelling along the coast, we made an impromptu stop at the beach.  It was Kirtana’s first time in the salty water and while she was excited to play in the sand and watch everyone sloshing about in the waves, she was not too thrilled about getting her feet wet. But we dunked her in anyway.

Notice those four tiny “toofs”:)  These munchkins are growing up so fast!

Prithvi and Kirtana - Summer '08

Prithvi and Kirtana - Summer

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I’m baaaaaaack!!!

OMG!!!! Seems like I fell off the face of the earth along with my limbs being severed and my sight temporarily lost!!!!  I was all set to blog this summer about our adventures while in India and also about ze kneeeeting!!!  Little did I know that I would be camera-cable-less and that my laptop would crash.

I’ve missed everyone and everything and it seems like so much has been happening in the blogosphere!!!

Lots of catching up to do…Ravelry has oodles of new patterns, my Bloglines queue is a mile long, and my blog has suffered serious neglect.  I’ve received so many emails from all you lovely crafters.  Thank you:)  I will write back to everyone once we’ve settled in and unpacked.

I can’t believe missed out on the Bangalore knitters meet-up, aarrrggghhhh!!!
Rima was in Bangalore while I was there, I’m still kicking myself for not seeing her messages telling me about her travel plans.
I was all set to hook up with Anjali for a knitters meet up and I couldn’t manage that.

Boo Hoo, boo hoo and waaa waaa waaa!!!  This could have been such an awesome summer with so much added knitting fun.  Oh well, life gets in the way – in a big way sometimes and I missed out on so much.

Still, I had a fabulous summer vacation and although I was sad to see it end, I’m glad to be back home!!!  Seems like we’ve been away for ages and that we travelled so much while we were away that I need another vacation from this last one!!

Knitting…. I did lace knitting this summer and I have to say, I never thought that I would LOVE it so much!!!  More on that next time.

But first, here are some India-bits that I can never forget!!

Technology meets flower power

Swapping stories

Swapping stories

Bliss

Bliss

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The List

It’s the night before our summer vacation to visit family and friends in India and I’m still not done packing!!!! Before it used to be so easy to just dump stuff into suitcases and hop on the plane. Of course, we would get to wherever and discover that we didn’t have matching socks, or that I forgot to pack my cell phone charger or wall-plug-socket-converter-thingy! I knew it would be different this time and would require some serious planning and juggling stuff around in suitcases because we’re going to be away from home with the kids for over two months and one of these kids is less than a year old!

T-W-O whole months, what were we thinking when we planned this trip!!!!

I decided to get smart a few days ago and make a list and stick with it this time so that I don’t forget anything. Guess what, I’ve gone and lost that list!!

All I can see in every suitcase is that there’s stuff lots of which we probably won’t need but you never know when you might need that roll of masking tape or maybe that pair of scissors that cuts perfect. I’m sure that I’m going to find a perfectly good pair of scissors at my Mom’s house, I think, I hope. Oh well, maybe I won’t pack the scissors.

However, I didn’t forget to pack knitting. Of course, I don’t need a list to remind me about knitting. Which reminds me, it would help if I took along a copy of the pattern for my Printed Silk Cardigan. See, I need that list!

Next stop, Bangalore!

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Blah

It seems like I’m in somewhat of a blogging rut.

I’ve begun a post several times recently only to read what I’ve written and it all seemed like blah-blah-blah.  Blogging avoidance ensued.  Here I am now hemming and hawing because I still have only blah and more blah, but…

Summer fun…in about two weeks we leave for India for some holidaying – weeee!!!  It’s going to be fun to hang out with the fam and not do anything much other than, well, hang out!

Knitting fun…still working on my Printed Silk Cardigan and still loving it:) I’m done with the back and working one of the sleeves.  The sleeves are done in 1×1 rib and let me tell you I’m not a big fan of knitting ribbing in any permutation because of all the flipping of the yarn back and forth. 

This is the thing, I can usually multi-task on the knit stitch.  Not any mammoth multi-tasking like um…knitting, preparing dinner and juggling at the same time, but the plain old TV-read-knit kind.  You know everyone does that right?  But those purls, now, I gotta look at my knitting to purl.  So, you see how ribbing is not my thing? 

Ribbing sure makes the fabric look lovely though and I have to admit that I knit Audrey a couple years ago and come to think of it, that baby is completely ribbed! But then again, the yarn was Rowan Calmer which is so gorgeous.  Here’s the beginning of the ribbed sleeve with the finished back (sorry ’bout the blurry pic)

Off to plod along on my ribbed sleeve.

See, I told you all I had was blah! 

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Cardigan in the making

With the hubster away for a week “Down Under”, I’ve been left to brave the homefront with kidlets in tow.  Knitting has kept the “lonelies” at bay though (I wonder what I would have done if I didn’t knit!!)
In my last post I had mentioned that I joined a KAL on Ravelry for the Printed Silk Cardigan.  I fell in love with this pattern ever since I saw it in the Spring 2008 Interweave. Also, the gallery on Knitting Daily showcasing this garment on different body types had me convinced this would be a great project to work on.  I had the yarn, needles and pattern but zero motivation to cast on for a cardigan in this dreadful heat.  A knitalong was a nudge in the right direction to get this baby started and here’s how far I’ve gotten…
The designer, the lovely Connie of physicsknits fame, has jumped in to offer advice on the group.  I love it when a designer offers help and is flexible with things that might work better for the knitter.  I had a bit of a grrr moment with the left twists being too tight, but got that sorted out and I’m enjoying every bit of the twisted stitch pattern. 
Look, Purrrdy Diamonds!!
  

 

 

 

 

 

The thing that I’ve learned over the past couple months about my knitting is that I’ve become more of a monogamous knitter, preferring to work on a single project towards completion.  This, in my books, is a great achievement for me due to my previously never-ending-WIP tendencies! It’s always great to work on something, get it done, see if it fits and if it does, declare it to be a winner!  On the other hand, if it turns out to be part of the loser pile, I can hide it at the back of my closet or recycle the yarn for another project, right?  Knitting is just so versatile like that.

 

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Knits that fit

Our little Baby turned 6 months last week and seems to be growing and blossoming each day with some new trick up her sleeve.  I can’t believe that this squishy-mushy newborn has become a squealing, squirming, smiling kidlet and continues to keep us joyful with her baby-ness.

So, onto the knitting…

Remember this vest I knit when I was still sporting a bump and before sleepless nights entered my world (Oh, the joys and trials of motherhood)  Look who’s wearing it…

 

She seems to look happy wearing it and maybe she won’t outgrow it in a week like she does with most of her clothes!! 

I promise that I will stop it with the pink overload with all my knits on this blog already!!! 

Last post I said that Sizzle was my wanna-cast-on-now project and cast on I did.  Sadly, no pictures or update on that right now (it’s lying rejected in my knitting bag) because I’ve joined a KAL on Ravelry.  Knitalongs are always fun:) 

But, more on that next time.

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