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Knitting as a Language

One of the highlights of Michael’s and my trip to India might not have happened if Michael’s phone hadn’t died when we arrived in the country.  You see, We had been planning on using internet access and Michael’s phone to make most of our travel arrangements, as it was turned on to function internationally.  But inexplicably when we arrived in country it didn’t work, which meant that we needed to use an Indian Travel agent to book out travel.

Which turned out to be a very good thing, aside from the fact that he mentioned that there was a “toy train” that went to Shimla.  Now, at this point you all know that Michael Loves Trains.  The chance to see a small gauge train in action, winding it’s way through the Himalayas?  We couldn’t miss it.

So shortly after we arrived in India, we were taking off from Delhi to Shimla, first taking a regular train, and then switching to a small gauge train.  The small gauge train in India is an experience.  With no AC, all the windows are open (something hard to come by in the US), and so are the doors in and out of the train.  It’s switches are operated manually, and it functions with a manual system to keep trains from running into each other (which involves the passing off of symbolic keys).
 Like the days of old, the trains connect together with a pin system, which means there are people that have to get between each car and drop a pin into the latching mechanism in order to connect them.  Very dangerous.  And because it’s a narrow gauge train, it can make tighter turns and and climb steeper hills than an normal train.  So you occasionally got glimpses outside your window that looked like this:

Our Train to Shimla.

Michael was beside himself with excitement, and spent the whole time with the camera in the train door, looking at everything. Now don’t get me wrong, seeing Michael happy is a lot of fun, but not being quite the train affectionado that he is?  It got a little boring.

Michael looking out the window.

So I pulled out my knitting.

And very slowly I became aware of this wave of… awareness that was focused on me.  I saw a woman who was looking at what I was doing very intently.  So I smiled and gestured her over.  Very soon, with very little words between us, we were talking knitting.

Talking Knitting.

Pretty soon, another woman had joined it (the mother of the seatmate across from me in the picture above), who had a little more English than the first woman.

I was told that they didn’t realize that people from America knit.  I got advice on how to wear a Saree, which I had attempted to wear that day and was falling off of me by 2 pm in the afternoon (I was so close to a serious wardrobe malfunction).  I got teased about my husband, shared Indian cake, and attempted to explain American copyright (in relation to my work).  It was amazing fun.
Having fun with my knitting friends.

And the amazing part was?  We were coming together over a common handicraft.  We had very little language between us, but we had the language of stitches, of knits and purls and yarnovers and decreases.

Some other pictures from our trip, because I have a deadline today

This is a travel swift I inherited from my great-grandmother, who was a knitter, crocheter, tatter, designer (yes! she published patterns in newspapers, we have the clippings!), sewer and all around handy woman to have around.  The swift clamps to the surface, and then folds out, as you can see.  It’s not quite a tabletop swift, not quite an umbrella swift.  The best part about it though?  It all comes apart, and can be stored in a computer bag.

When I’m traveling, it makes a lot of sense for me to keep things in the skein until I need them.  So I bring the swift along, and hand ball them.  With the swift, I can hand ball something in less than ten minutes, if I had Michael hold his hands out or tried to do it off my lap, it’d be a 30 minute process, at least.

As you can see, I’ve taken over our sleeper compartment as I set things up. I got some great comments from the Sleeping Car Attendant, and also made a friend who was a knitter.

It was great, we geeked out over socks.

Well, wish me luck as I punch out the last of the pattern today.

Do you have anything that makes traveling with your yarn easier?

The Second Half of our Trip, Chicago

After we stayed a few days in New Orleans, we trained up to Chicago, where we had the day to noodle around before we caught the last leg of the train.

It ended up being a pretty nasty day, with it alternating between snow and rain, so we didn’t do as much as planned.  But we did go out for Greek food in Greektown, and we did visit one of my favorite yarn shops in Chicago, Loopy Yarns.

This was the second time I’d been to Loopy Yarns, the first being nearly five years ago.  They are right near one of the old Chicago Train Stations, which means Michael is happy visiting there.  They’ve got great places for non-stitchers who are tagging along to hang out (I’ve begun to appreciate that more).  Their yarns are organized logically, they have a great teaching space, and they have one of my favorite ways I’ve seen of organizing needles.

This time around I got to meet the owner, who I hadn’t gotten to meet last time.

I also got to avail myself of one of my favorite aspects of the store: THEY HAVE A WHOLE ROOM DEVOTED TO BOOKS.  I would go there just to page through the books, never-mind the yarn.  They have one of the best selections of books I’ve come across in my travels, second only to Webs in Northampton, MA.

I managed to pickup The New Tunisian Crochet, which I’ve been eyeing since it came out.  (It’s worth it by the way!  Go out and get!)

I fondled several of the new yarns that are in – glad to see some of my favorites are carried even as far as Chicago.

So thank you Loopy Yarns, for making my day in Chicago better despite the weather.

Traveling by Train to New Orleans

About a year ago Michael and I began planning a trip to New Orleans via train.  It was supposed to be a trip to celebrate Michael graduating from his Master’s program.  Unfortunately, his class schedule got changed around, and he has one class to do after the wedding.

Still, we weren’t going to cancel a trip just because of that.

This week we’re traveling via train from Washington, DC to New Orleans, then New Orleans to Chicago, and finally, Chicago back to DC again.  We’re taking sleeper cars for all the legs of the trip – which is probably Michael’s (and mine, to a lesser extent) preferred way to travel.  We get fed, sleep in comfortable beds, and best of all, don’t have to deal with US airports, which are a nightmare.

For me, I get concentrated stitching time while we are on the train.  I’m well on my way to finishing the second sock for a design I’m under contract for – the pattern is mostly written also.

The Quarter Stitch

Among the sights we’re taking in New Orleans, we visited The Quarter Stitch, a LYS in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

It’s a sweet small store – beautiful light.  They’d changed locations since the last time I visited them 5 years ago – but they have a very similar selection of yarns.  Many purples, greens and golds – nearly the colors of New Orleans, especially around Mardi Gras time.  Some solid workhorse yarns good for beginners, and then some hand dyed yarns – like Mountain Colors and Malibrigo.

The Quarter Stitch is interesting, because unlike a lot of other yarn stores, I think they rely on more tourist traffic than a typical yarn store.  As such, their selection is geared much more toward impulse buying and small projects – I would be hard pressed to find enough yarn for a something larger than a shrug.  Still, it was a treat to have a yarn store close enough to the tourist part of the city that I could go there while also exploring the rest of the Quarter.

Feline Friday

Zephyr

You might have noticed a while ago that I let the feline friday feature fade from the blog.  There were several reasons for this – Zephyr, our room mate’s cat, became very sick after Michael and I moved from our room mate’s apartment.  A few months later, he died, and I found it hard to post pictures of him after he had gone.

However, a few months ago Michael and I decided it was time to adopt a cat of our own in our new apartment.  *grins*  In the course of a weekend it turned from one cat to two, and shortly afterwards we found a family that had adopted two kittens only to find that their children were allergic.

I’ve now accumulated enough pictures of our two cats that I feel comfortable re-opening this feature.

Let me introduce you to Watson and Peake.  Peake is named after the C&O’s famous Chessie‘s husband, Peake (I’ll talk about the history of that more another time).  Michael’s family has a (formerly) grey tabby named Chessie (she darkened with age, and is now a black cat).  It felt appropriate to name our grey tabby Peake.  Also, Zephyr is the name of a rail line in Califorina (the California Zephyr), so it was nice to stick with the theme in honor of Zephyr.

Watson is white, and his name has less meaning behind it – Michael and I have a list (of course we do) of good cat names.  Watson was the one that seemed to fit.  Watson isn’t really entirely white – he has the smallest smudge of black/brown on his forehead.  It looks like he got a bit of soot there, and he hasn’t groomed it away yet.

Peake and Watson

Quilting Update

It’s been a while since I last talked about Michael’s Train Quilt, aside from an odd mention here or there.  I’ve been in the process of machine quilting it, which turned out to be more of a project than I anticipated.  I thought I was going to freeform quilt it, but it became very clear very early on that it wasn’t going to work well.  So then, after much deliberation, I ended up basting it with spray-on basting, pinning it in places, and just running random lines across the quilt.  It looked really bad when I first started.  The more lines I get going across it, the better it is starting to look.  I’m hoping I might get the quilting done this weekend.

By Lucy Knisley

Then I can think about doing the binding, god help me.

The point is, I’m close.  Very close.

And it got me thinking.  While I don’t think I really like sewing or quilting as a hobby, and while there is a lot to learn from sewing a garment that can apply to knitting – I’m thinking about doing another quilt.

Bear with me.  I’ve always really liked apple posters that show all the different varieties of apples.  Like this, this or this.  Then, earlier this week I saw a picture by Lucy Knisley, pictured at right.

Now let me say – I think the best art inspires you yourself.  It might mean it creates some strong emotion in you, but it also might just mean that it speaks to you and inspires you yourself.  This is what happened to me.

And I thought to myself, “That’s nice.”  Then, “She got the Red Delicious wrong.  And I prefer calling a Crispin and Mutzu.  I can’t believe she didn’t include Pink Lady or Winesap or Johnathan.”

Which just shows you how much of an apple snob I am.  But then I thought – I wish I could paint like that.  I’d make a better poster.  And then I realized that it’d make the perfect little/not so little quilt.  I could take white or cream squares, draw out the apples.  Color them with crayon, iron them, and then embroider on them.  It’d be so cool.  And then I could make it into a quilt.

So I’m thinking I gotta get my apple mojo going.

What apples would you have to include on an apple quilt?

Summer Travels

Our Amtrak train coming to pick us up.

So I promised that I would tell about the rest of Michael’s birthday trip, and I’m keeping my promise – though it’s a little late.

You can refresh yourself by going here – I’ll wait for you.

After finishing up a couple of relaxing days in Ashland, NC, we proceeded to board another Amtrak train, this time taking us to Richmond, VA.  We had a layover there for a couple of hours, which wouldn’t have been of note, except Michael’s grandmother lives in Richmond.  So she met up with us and we all went out to lunch.

Richmond train station has a lovely outdoor seating area.

Michael’s grandmother, called by him Oma, is a wonderful lady, and I use the word lady in the truest sense.  She’s 92 years old, and has aged with grace and poise.  Her brain is as sharp as a whip, and she’s one of the best people I know at cutting Michael down to size when he’s getting a little bit too full of himself.  There’s such obvious love and affection between the two of them, and I always love watching them together.  One of the big moments I’m looking forward to is introducing my two grandmothers to Oma, and I think all three women have aged with grace – and I think they’ll all get along very well.

After having lunch with Oma, we proceeded to board the train again (do you sense a theme?) and head on to Cary (as Michael calls it, Containment Area for Relocated Yankees), where his parents proceeded to pick us up.

Random Mantis.  It was cool. Hard to get a picture of, though.

What commenced was a whirlwind of activity.  We visited with our friends Ray and Alison, ranged around Carborro trying wines at trendy grocery stores and investigating railroad tracks.  We tried Mexican food and played with interactive art.  Then we went home, celebrated Michael’s birthday with friends, played games, went to bed, woke up and came home.

It was a lovely trip, and a good balance of quiet and rest with family and activity.  It was also a nice way to say goodbye to summer, as it seems that just after we came home, the weather began to change.

Summer is for vacation, right?

Hey, not to state the obvious, but I think I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I haven’t been around much on the inter-webs lately. Socking Shocking, I know.  Heh, I have been doing quite a bit of sock knitting too, but I can’t talk about a lot of it yet, because it’s going to be coming out in a few different places in the next months.  Details when I can talk about them, I promise.

So what’s been happening?  Well, let’s just say this is a bit of a story, so I’m breaking this up into two posts.

Last week Michael and I went on a short vacation in honor of his birthday to Ashland, VA, and then continued on to Richmond, VA and finally to his parents who live outside of Chapel Hill, NC.

The common question I was asked when I told people where we were going was, “Why Ashland?”

Well, if you look at Ashland on a map, it doesn’t seem to have much going for it.  It’s small, the town history is rather brief, as there have been no real major events in the town.  No one famous was born or died there.  No battles were fought, no slave uprisings or protests.  It’s a pretty quiet town.

Well, quiet in one way.  In other ways?  Not so much.  Because CSX has a train line that runs right through mainstreet.

And that meant there were trains.  Michael loves trains.

Michael and I have a list (we actually have many lists) of places we see when going someplace (say his parents) that we would like to stop and see one day.  It can be a restaurant, an antique store, a town, a museum  battlefield, anything really.  Ashland was one of them.  We have passed through Ashland every time we take the train to Michael’s parents.  The reason we take note of it is because Main Street is bisected by the train rails.  So there’s one lane of traffic, the rails, and another lane of traffic.  It seemed like a quirky town, with a general store that’s been operating for 120 odd years, old architecture and a quiet southern feel.

It was lovely.  We spent two nights (three days) in the town.  We visited a coffee shop, used bookstore (I found a few gems) and model train store.  We went to the Iron Horse, which had some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had the honor of encountering.  Seriously.  I’ve been to some good restaurants in DC, restaurants run by chefs from shows on TV, ones that have been written up in magazines.  This place ranked above them.  There was this chocolate pave (I think the word was) that blew my mind.  Also, gnocchi that was savory and rich, but the serving was just enough not not be overwhelming.  The almond encrusted chicken I had struck just the right notes with the mashed potatoes and green beans I had with it.  Seriously good.

The hotel we stayed at, The Henry Clay Inn, overlooks main street.  And it has a southern style porch, two floors.  After lunch, we plunked ourselves out on the porch, and Michael watched trains go by.  Me?  I swatched.  I had originally hoped to get yarns from a few different companies so I could work on some design deadlines that I have due later this month.  (It’s going to be a rather frantic few weeks).  For good or ill, they did not arrive by the time I left, so that meant I brought yarn to dream and plan.  I swatched for a few different design calls, and then, when I was done with that, I got to work on my own stuff!

I’m working on a doily to go on the hutch Michael and I are slowly refinishing.  I’m doing something freehand, which is entirely wonderful.  There’s some things I do in my own work that I sometimes find to hard to describe to people who read my patterns, so when I’m designing for magazines I sometimes follow conventions instead of doing what *I* like to do.  When I’m working my own projects, I’m also free to brainstorm ideas that aren’t firm enough to become a design proposal yet, but I need to work out on a piece.  It’s a quirk of mine that even my swatches have the potential to become part of other projects, or part of samples for teaching lessons.  I like everything to have at least two purposes.

One of the best parts of the trip was just watching Michael geek out over trains.  One of the most lovely things about him is that he brings the mind of a historian and researcher to almost everything he does.  So taking a trip to a train town means I get a guided exposition about train history.  Any question  I could have about trains, Michael can probably answer.  If he doesn’t know the answer to it, he knows where to find it.  I love that about him, because it always makes it incredibly interesting to talk to him about what he’s pasionate about.  This trip, Michael had recorded all scheduled trains that were supposed to go through the town.  Then, he tracked in a journal if they were running on time, late, their engine numbers, and a bunch of other information (so he can report back to his train friends on the Amtrak Forums).

 Since I do the same things with yarn, I guess it’s fair.

Train Trips and Stitching

I’m working on another design that’s under contract, which
is why I haven’t been posting many progress photos recently… gotta keep it
under wraps. 
Riding on the train is prime knit and crochet time for
me.  It’s partly because there’s few
distractions.  It’s partly because
something about the movement of the train. 
And it is partly because I can turn on the music, look down at the work,
and get into the zen mode.
On the way down I’ve finished the sleeve to the contracted
project, worked a little on a vest that was hibernating and I’ve dug back out,
and also worked on another square for the log cabin blanket of alternative
techniques.
Basically, I’ve been using the log cabin blanket to work out
some different ideas.  And stashbust.
I’m starting to brainstorm for the final shawl of the four
shawls I’ll be releasing in the next year. 
We’re going toward the winter one. 
I have to balance my desire to just drape a blanket over my shoulders in
the winter with something that is wearable and flattering.  We’ll see what comes out.
What have you been working on lately?

Adventures in Quilting (because all my hobbies eventually turn into careers)

Most of you who have been reading for a while know about my fiancé,
Michael, who loves trains. 
Seriously.  When we first started
talking about the wedding, we entertained (for about oh, ten minutes) the idea
of getting married on a train.
Whenever we get the opportunity, we take the train instead
of flying.  We have two different train
board games (TWO!) that Michael loves playing. 
When we went to his parents house for Christmas, he spent a lot of time
in the garage with his father playing with their train layout.
Now, I might not be as excited about trains as Michael, but
I appreciate them for other reasons.  You
can access the internet when on the train instead of on a plane or a car.  If you are on a train, you don’t have to
drive.  Trains are far more comfortable
than cars anyway.  Plus, it appeals to
the part of me that loves old-timey things, that likes the steampunk stuff
(before it was popular) and that loves how people used to get dressed up for
train rides.  We have even been known to
get dressed up for train rides (summer 381).
So a while back I decided to make Michael a train quilt, but
I wanted to make something that was… well, not childish.  That might be able to carry into
adulthood.  I had come across some
vintage train fabric, and it gave me the idea. 
Just to note:  There are
remarkably FEW train fabrics that are not Tomas the Tank Engine/Dinosaur Train themed.  This makes me sad.  But after much perseverance, I made a train
quilt.
Like the story of my very first quilt (which I’ll share with
you sometime), this one had a lot of help. 
I also learned a rotary cutter is my friend.  Really good friend.

This last weekend, I mitered the edges of my quilt.  I had this really great train track fabric,
and I wanted it to run around the edge of my quilt like a border.  But I couldn’t just have the train tracks
running into the distance, I NEEDED to have them line up.
So I did the edge, and was VERY proud of myself.  I showed Michael.  Michael looks at it, and says, I kid you not,
“That’s really cool, but I wish they also made a switches fabric, so I could
run my train around the edges and have it switch tracks.”
So, anyone want to take on not only designing a train track
fabric, but also one that has switches that go between the two?