Round 3 done!

Just a quick post- I did finish the Round 3 socks for Sock Madness last night, approximately 39 hours after the pattern was released.

I was the first one finished in my division, but I know that the benefit that I had this round will not be there every time! The pattern was released early in the morning my time, so I had a good long day to knit. I finished the first sock on the first evening (Friday) and was able to get a start on sock #2 before I went off for a bit of sleep. Even though I went out for a couple of hours with my daughter on Saturday, I still finished the second sock last night at a reasonable time.

I know- this isn't really so interesting. but the point I am trying to make is that I know I will not win this competition. There are faster knitters out there. I have reached my goal of making it further than I did last year (I was beat out in the third round) and I still hope to make it a bit further. But there are some speed demons out there who I have no chance against!

Without further ado, the socks...

Slippin' Stripin' Socks

yarn: Merino Lace from The Knittery in Moonlight and Warm Pink colorways.

It was a great pattern and I am quite happy with the outcome! And, I will be in Round 4 whenever it starts...

India Post

I have some dear friends, Mary (aka Spinnity) and Janice (aka Bogie) who gave me a very sweet present before I left the States. Knowing that decent yarn is difficult to find in India, they gave me a gift certificate to Webs and yes- Webs ships to India! Well, after a little hmmming and such I decided to use my gift certificate to order some yarn. Lace yarn. Valley Yarns Merino/Tencel. 2 cones of it! Yippee! I perused the site and sent in my order March 3rd. I also ordered some other lace yarn the following day from The Knittery in Australia. Turns out I also really needed some Superwash lace for one of the Sock Madness patterns. The Knittery yarn arrived in about one week, but then it took about one week for them to notify me and for me to figure out exactly where I needed to go to pick up said yarn. With me so far?

Anyway, back to Webs. Finally this week I decided that I needed to try to track down this package. It had been a month after all! I sent an e-mail to Webs and they assured me that it had left the country. So I knew then that I had to go bug the people at India Post. I have by now heard many horror stories about missing packages, missing items from packages, packages that are damaged beyond all recognition, etc, etc...

Great.

So, I spoke to my driver and he said we needed to go to the GPO (General Post Office). We drove into the city and pulled up to this grand old building surrounded by many lush plants and the always constant traffic. I walked up to the building, saw a window that said "enquiries" and headed that way. Within a few minutes a man called on me and I explained that I was looking for a package that had been sent from the US. He then told me that I needed to go to the FPO (Foreign Post Office) in the even more congested part of Central Bangalore. Goody. Luckily my driver knew where it was (since the gentleman's directions were "St. Mark's Cross Road, near the State Bank of India, ask someone- Second floor" and actually those directions probably would have worked just fine~)

We headed over to the FPO and I walked up the stairs to the second floor (reminding myself that it is actually the third floor) and I entered a room that was filled with large burlap and cloth bags containing packages. They were everywhere, piled, tossed, and helter skelter. I stepped over a couple of bags to get to the desk that someone pointed me towards and approached a wary looking woman. I explained my predicament and she asked if I had the package number. Argh. Well, yes- but that would be in the e-mail that I had received from Webs. Did I think to write it down? Nope. Okay- she said that without the number I could look through this book... and she hands me a register book that is filled with page after page of handwritten entries. These are all of the packages that had been received in the last couple of months. Each day has 2-3 pages of entries. Fantastic. But, then she says, "You could also check here" and shows me a folder with some computer printed entries and low and behold I was the second one listed! That's me! I say and she eventually tells me that the package left there office on the 1st (one week ago) to go to my local post office.

Of course!

So, back to the car and we drive to the local post office (not the LPO!) and I walk in the door, a man looks up from his desk and says, "Ma'am, your package has arrived."

He knows me. Okay. Guess maybe I stand out or something. Anyway, I paid the import duty and brought my package home. While it took almost two hours, I was actually able to get my package without too much of a problem! The Indian Post works. And here is the result...

Package with the requisite heavy twine and sealing wax. It has been inspected.

Yarn!

Thank you Mary and Janice!!!!!

Now this is my last post before the Madness kicks in again. Yes, that's right, Round 3 of Sock Madness starts tomorrow. I have swatched with the lace yarn from The Knittery, have balled my yarn and I am ready to go. There are now 20 of us in each division (down from 50 or 60) and the first 12 done in each division will move on to Round 4. Wish me luck!

Zombie Socks

Originally uploaded by SnidKnits

Well, I am finished with the round one socks!!!!!!

Took a little longer than I had hoped, but I am definitely "out of training"!
Last night my hands ached, I couldn't focus my eyes anymore and all day I just felt like my speed was not up to par. Woke up this morning, warmed up my still aching hands and finished them off. Very nice pattern and a fun knit!

I estimate that each sock took approximately 12 hours to knit.
I am pretty sure that I made it to Round Two. Now it will start getting tougher!

Sock Madness-Zombie Sock #1

Zombie Sock #1
Originally uploaded by SnidKnits

So the pattern for these socks was inspired by zombies. I really should be watching Shaun of the Dead while knitting these! But, I am done with the first sock and I should be able to finish the second one without any problem tomorrow. Great pattern!

Now, I am off to bed.

(all sorts of thunder and lightning and then rain outside! Just like a Summer storm in the Midwest! Cool!!!)

Creative Post? Well...

Okay, this one is for the knitters!

I know, I know... I have been absent. Actually I have been sick. Attacked by the Indian version of a flu. Dang- it kicked my butt. I was sick in bed for four days. I cannot even begin to explain how frustrating that is to me. I HATE laying in bed. Drives me nuts. But, I am finally starting to feel better on day 6, just in time for Sock Madness! Yup. In about 24 hours Sock Madness starts and I will be knitting with a frenzied pace. Just incase you have no idea what I am talking about I will give you the quick rundown. Sock Madness is a speed knitting competition in which we are grouped into divisions, we knit a pair of socks and the first ones done move on to the next round. And believe it or not it is more fun than you can possibly imagine. I wrote a little poem about it last year- but you'll just have to re-read it as I don't have time to get too creative right now... :)

My sock yarn awaits...

One of the reasons I was so frustrated being sick was that I was really hoping to get some other things done in the last week. Let me show you. I bought this:

And this:


to make some....

Can you guess? Yup. Curtains. I particularly wanted to get them finished before those late nights of Sock Madness start up, but it looks like the first round will have to be done without them... sigh.

Well, hopefully I will get the first pair of socks done real quick and then I can get the curtains done... before we go to Goa. Geez.

Okay, one more thing, check out this yellow lace weight yarn I bought down near Commercial street. For comparisons sake, it is laying next to a FULL skein of Socks That Rock. That's a lot of yardage there isn't it. I asked the clerk how many meters/yards there were and he just looked at me and said "no meters, weight." It is acrylic, but doesn't feel too bad for the cost. It was about 80 Rupees.

That's just shy of $2.00 US. I think I can play around with it some...

It's All About the Love

Warning...knitting related content ahead ;)

I realized something on Friday. I realized that knitters almost always get along well because they share a love.

A love for COLOR

A love for TEXTURE

A love for PATTERNS and NATURAL GEOMETRY

I realized this when I met Rima. Rima is a lovely young woman who found me through Ravlery- and asked if I wanted to get together some time. She is from Bangalore and is currently living in New York City, but is here until March visiting her family. Well- being the far too home bound person that I am at present I jumped at the opportunity to get out of the house and do something with a like minded individual. So a plan was hatched for her to show me some of the craft related stores in and around Commercial Street.

Now, Commercial Street deserves its own post some day as it is really something, but- not today. Today is all about the crafty stuff. So, we met and headed for the first shop, Ravi's Craft Shop. I didn't really know what to expect as I had only visited one other yarn related shop in Bangalore before (Bombay Embroidery Store in Raja Market on Avenue Road). Ravi's is different. For one thing it was larger - take a look:

Yes, this is larger! And they have a LOT in this store. Fabric, sequins, ribbon, embroidery floss/thread, pattern books, Sari "falls", and of course- yarn. This really is a full fledged craft store. Word from Rima is that they are very reasonably priced and won't try to "fleece" you (always love that term in relation to knitting!). We throughly checked out the store and Rima bought a few things.

Now the next store, Surya Emporium, looked to have a better selection of yarn and larger quantities as well. Yes- it is all acrylic- but it did at least look to be decent acrylic and not the really cheap scratchy stuff. They even had some nice looking lace weight here! And of course, crochet thread...
They also had some sequins.. and beads! I like beads. It's all my mom's fault...

We then walked around and looked at some of the fabric stores. Wow. Indian textiles are absolutely gorgeous! Rima showed me some of the nicer stores and all I can say is that I am now contemplating getting a sewing machine. It would be heavenly to work with some of these fabrics. And I did bring some sewing books with me (somehow I had a feeling...)

On the other hand, I can also buy some textile items made by others! And Rima was able to help there as well. Turns out a good friend of hers, Nasir, runs a shop called Zara on Commerical Street that deals in fabrics for curtains, upholstery and the like. They also have a floor of ready made items. They have some of the most drool worthy textiles I have seen here. I was really bummed that I have already had most of the curtains done for the house as the fabrics here are far nicer!!! (I do have one room that still needs drapery though... I think I am going to have to go back there!) Look at some of the silk quilts they have.


The ones draped over the banister/handrail are made out of recycled saris. I LOVE the blue one!

Rima has also blogged about our visit here and and even has some pictures from our delicious lunch. Yes- she was even smart enough to have pictures of us. Somehow I spaced on getting a nice picture of her. Bad blogger. I will though... we are hoping to get together again soon.

Now on to other yarn related things. First, while you may have caught a glimpse of this in my list post I want to chose you a closer look of what I have been knitting:

This is the test knitting project for Cookie I have been working on and all I can say is that it looks to be a really fun pattern! She is currently looking for other test knitters so you can check out her (and Kristi's!) blog for more details if you are interested.

More knitter news... it's almost time for (insert drumroll)

Do you remember this from last year? I do. The late nights, the cramped fingers and sore wrists, the sometimes confusing patterns, the tension and stress as we raced against other knitters sometimes half a world, and perhaps an advantageous time zone away. And you know what? I wouldn't miss it for the world. Sign ups are under way for all who participated last year and will open for new participants on February 15 th. So, what do you think? Have you got the balls? ;)

So I will leave you now with a sunset. My own Saturday Sky. A happy day to you all!

Taken from my rooftop...