The Sad Sad Truth

Some of you have already asked since my first post - "but whaddabout fiber crafts in South India?" Well....sniff, sob.....it's been my avowed mission to find them - but as far as I can tell, the ones familiar to us are not happening here. North India has colder weather in the winter, and contains the state of Kashmir and other places famous for wool and cashmere fiber. There are no sheep here and the goats are raised for meat and have very short coats. I am doing the spinning, crocheting and knitting that I brought with me - but these bits of work are continually looked at with fascination and amazement. When I use my handspindle in public people have no idea what I'm doing - but they shyly stop by and ask. Gandhi has not be dead that long! I know everyone in India must associate him with spinning - but I suppose it was always on a Charka wheel. The only people who understand the knitting and crocheting are people working in Pondy who come from the North. I have been through all types of stores that sell fabric and all types of household things. There are no knitted garments in stores except for balaclavas for the children so they won't get too cold in winter.



The owners that are knowledgeable about their woven goods have all told me that most everything is spun and produced in mills in South India. They know that people are weaving saris in some of the rural areas near Kanchipuram (a holy town of temples North of us an hour or so) but Kanchipuram has the unique history of being the very end of the original silk road so they still weave specialty items. Weaving is something I did for a year or so in the early 80's and haven't touched since - not that I wouldn't be glad to be able to see it. Only one or two stores actually have a teeny bit of yarn and it is miserable stuff from Japan called "cashmel" that is never consistent in width, breaks easily, is totally polyester, and sheds little black furry bits while you're knitting with it. I brought various projects with me but as someone here was kind enough to buy this yarn for me in several colors, I did my best to use it up, making hair scrunchies for some of the female wait staff at the hotel. More on my projects (with pictures) later.

True - there is a ton of fabric around because of everyone wearing either saris or salwar kameez outfits. The salwar kameez (DH is calling it Samovar Cochise) - which I got backwards last time - consists of baggy pants that narrow at the ankle and tie with a drawstring at the waist (the salwars) and a long long tunic reaching below the knees with long slits up the sides (the kameez) which can be sleeveless or have sleeves of any length, and that has a "dupatta" shawl to match. The fabric of all three garments may be different patterns and/or colors but always coordinate perfectly. The dupatta shawl can be a skinny scarf width or a wide shawl width, but is always long and normally warn with the bend in the scarf hanging in front and the two ends down in back. A great many of them here are in nylon, rayon or polyester, which make me cook just to think about. For the residents of course they are perfect; a) people are freezing at 78 degrees with 98% humidity because it's winter, and b) the nylon georgette and chiffon fabrics never wrinkle and always look great no matter what you're doing - pleats stay neatly pleated, draped fabric does not get soggy and wrinkle. I prefer the cotton or silk salwar suits (another term for them).

I have finally braved the gauntlet of the main drag in town and bought two. Yes I'll take pix of them. No, you won't see me in them until I return. Learning to wade through the doublespeak of salesmanship has been a long learning curve. More and more Indian women of the middle and upper classes are carrying more weight like American women so I knew there had to be bigger sizes. Of course a lot of Indian women buy the fabric and have them run up made-to-measure by the store's tailors. But XXL is available. There's not much in this size and storekeepers are not keen to dig for it so I was convinced that XL was the biggest available until they got so desperate to sell me SOMEthing that they miraculously located the XXLs. It often takes 10 minutes to get past the nylon and poly ones offered and convince them that they may think they are cool and easy to wear but I ONLY want cotton or silk in XXL .......as I said two or three times earlier. No one will ever tell you "no" in India - they will just keep offering other alternatives. If I wasn't already soaking wet from the humidity I'd burn up calories just politely arguing my side of what I need. Ladies in the nylon chiffon versions sometimes look like variegated creamsicles when they are standing around in a bunch - it's very pretty. It's taken me awhile to realize that colors and patterns that I admire against dark skin so much will not work on me. I know what my best colors are of course, but women here look so great all the time in endless combinations of color and pattern that it seems as though it should be easy to whisk into a store and just point at pretty things and flounce out in a cloud of wonderfulness. The unexamined (fiber) life is not worth living for all of us three F types (Fools For Fiber).

Tomorrow Dear Readers, I go to the capital city of Tamil Nadu (the state containing Pondicherry) called Chennai (formerly Madras - yes, THAT Madras, the one that gave you wild plaid shorts in the 50's). I'll be going with a local resident who knows the textile section of town very well so I'm scared to think what I'll succumb to! The suitcases are already smoldering and bulging dangerously with what I've already bought (shawls) and Dear Husband (DH) seems to have a theory that for things that will brought home - something should be discarded and left behind. Riiiiiight! So if you see me in my first days back and I'm wearing a threadbare, funky and slightly smelly outfit, you KNOW it's not my fault - some clothes became sacrificial! Here are pictures of ladies in saris and ladies in salwar suits. This is a test. Can you tell which is which?








So the upshot Dear Readers, is that you will have to be content with pictures of what I'm making and my travels. I know you were hoping for spinning and knitting news and I'm very disappointed not to be able to give it to you! Of course there are tons of OTHER types of crafts, such as wood and stone carving, brass statuary, woven mats, etc. But, you're trapped with me and my interests on the blog - the absolute power of it is already making me dizzy! Until you kill me with comments that is. I'll be posting every day for awhile until I can catch up with all the pictures and events I've been saving.

Men's Apparel

Hmmm, not much to see here. Most men are wearing slacks and shirts. Even though most of the shirts are Madras plaids they are beige-y greyish veeerrrry low key plaids. Kinda like a flock of pigeons.



They sell very bright Madras plaid handkerchiefs here but the colors have never transferred over to the shirts! Some of the men wear Lungi's - a long piece of fabric wrapped around the body like a sarong and tied or tucked in tight. Most of them are white but there are some dudes who have talked the hankie guys into doing them proud in bright plaids. This is supposed to be the perfect garment for men for hot weather. I can see why - literally. Maybe an under garment, maybe not, very thin fabric that is not hiding much of anything, even when they aren't standing with the sun behind them. Many a skinny and furry leg revealed. Another advantage of this garment is that it can be tied up to be the length of shorts. But the principle advantage of the garment as far as I can tell is that it unties easily for a quick whiz against the rocks of the seawall, or any wall, or any where! Thus it is that I rarely see a guy walking in a lungi - he's always just rewrapping and retying a lungi at whatever his preferred height may be. The rules of modesty in dress for women are very strict here (not to mention no whizzing with your nether garments open). I say, make these guys all wear polyester half-slips and see how comfortable they are and for how long while they're being modest.







I'll leave you with a couple pictures of street doggies. These guys break my heart on a daily basis. None of them are speyed or neutered and the females have a litter or two each and every year. Lots of old scars and skin afflictions that bother them. They are not feral - they manage to live in among all the rest of the citizens on the street and somehow make do. If I could just finance a massive sweep to fix them all.....



Meanwhile, I'm sure missing the heck out of our two:

Scarlet



and Trixie!