A Very Porcine New Year To You!!!

Aren't these cute? They were given out at the hotel here in Frankfurt as Happy New Year favors. Piggy themes are very big for New Year's in Germany. They symbolize good luck, prosperity, living off the fat, and other happy things. In Googling around - I found one site that said "Pigs are considered good luck because they root forward, symbolizing progress." So allow me to wish you full snouts ahead for 2008! May your troughs be full of plenty today and every day! And...may you never be disturbed when your snouts are in the trough.

Apparently lots of countries have some sort of traditional pork-related meal to celebrate New Year's day - right down to ham hocks and blackeyed peas from Mr. Chirpchatty's Southern roots. When I first met Mr. C., I'd only had BBQ sauce from a jar and wasn't overly keen on it. One trip to his home town in Alabama soon cured me of that. Not a low-fat dish in the state - but all the yummier for it! I followed his Grandmother around for days with a little notebook trying to learn all her secrets for his favorite dishes. Didn't get 'em. The training was on the order of "Oh that's easy - you just take a pinch of this and add a dash of that to it." I don't know from these pinches, tad bits, smidgens and dashes that all good cooks seem to have memorized. Not only that - you can't measure them with a regular spoon measure - it can only be done with your fingertips. Not that I'm the scientific type of cook - when and if I cook - but there's a world of wiggle room in the pinch and dash genre.

Boy do the Germans love their fireworks! We're on the 39th floor at the Frankfurt Marriott and have a lovely view, albeit of a mostly empty Expo and Trade Center. No matter! Come five minutes to midnite, the fireworks began. No big central show that went high into the sky, but zillions of little poofs, booms, and sparkles going off in every direction. The city is very flat so it was easy to see for some distance. The show must have gone on for 40 minutes without let-up. Finally there was so much white smoke everywhere that everyone had to cash it in.

There is a coffee shop in the lobby that we've been visiting. Each cup is the size of a small vat and takes both hands to lift! This makes Mr. Chirpjangley veeerrrry happy!

If I'm good, Mr. C. says he'll take me to the yarn store shown below this week. He took a picture of it for me early last year when I couldn't come with him on a previous trip to Frankfurt. Oh boyoboyoboy!

Cranberry Bog

Isn't this yarn a vision of yummyness? Doesn't it make you want to go open a can of Ocean Spray and eat it with your next meal? If Ocean Spray would only sponsor a "match that cranberry color" contest, some big bux could be won! This is the latest handspun of the lovely and talented Dear Friend Sandi. She dyed it herself (only last week!) and immediately spun it up to produce this gorgeous bouquet. Sandi has been a huge inspiration to me since we first met - especially in the areas of dyeing and spinning.

Here she is calculating how much of her hard-earned money (from selling her wonderful handspun twice a year) she'd like to leave behind in Heidi's shop - called The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble, Washington. She doesn't dye everything she spins... she can be taken in by pretty roving any bit as much as the rest of us.

In my ongoing effort to fill in my two years of blog silence, I have to talk about a project Sandi was the Uber-manager for; a baby blanket for the lovely and talented Dear Friend Tina. Here's Tina in the waiting stage for little Oscar while at a spinning conference.

First, Sandi bought superwash roving from vendor and friend Sara - but not before Sara dyed it in 4 colors of blue for us. Then, Sandi spun up all the roving - including the white of course - and made careful packets of all the colors for five of us to knit panels for the blanket. The blanket idea comes from those two clever Mason Dixon ladies - Ann and Kay - and can be found in their first book - it's called "The Keepsake Blanket." Then, Sara, Anne, Marge & Alice (sisters - did their panel together), Sandi and I all knit our panels. Sandi sewed the panels together and did a great crochet edging to finish it off. Claudette embroidered Oscar's B-day and name on it. Here's the final product just before Claudette embroidered it.

And here, to give a better perspective, is Mom Tina receiving it.

The middle panel was mine. Anytime someone says, "do whatever pattern you want - just make it up and be creative....it just has to measure this by this when you turn it back in," I panic! ACK! What to do, what to do... So I got this idea for a sky and sea theme and it turned out to be much more agonizing to do than if I'd just stuck to the plan!!! Why, oh why can't I just stick to the plan! Totally not incompliance. Here I am with the new cherub....

And here he is after having been happily given a bottle by Sandi. After being so content he's suddenly thinking "Wait a minute - you're not my Mama....where IS my Mama?"

Look at the little big-boy sweetie-pie now! He's been negotiating with Santa!

I found another blog where people had taken off with that blanket idea and made this. It's always fun to see how projects evolve. Can't wait to try the Log Cabin blanket from the same book.

I'll probably keep putting in scenes from India even though we've left, because there are so darn many pictures. I really love the pictures of people. This is one of our drivers and his family.

This is me modeling one of the stranger add-on winter garments in all South India. There are beautifully-dressed women in coordinating colors and patterns of fabric everywhere, right? - looking altogether fabulous, and what do they reach for when cold? An acrylic scarf. Bleah! You see them ALL OVER on "cold" days. They are always in screaming colors in stripes and everyone wears them - the women, the men, the children, construction workers, motorcyclists, EVERYbody! They coordinate with absolutely nothing, they're machine-knit, they're on every little corner stand for about 25 rupees. It's the ONLY knitted thing I've seen in South India - other than a few sweaters brought by guys who moved there from North India.

Dear Friend Ancora asked in the comments if only the women are traditionally dressed - as most of the men in my pictures seem to be wearing trousers and shirts. Men of all ages often wear lungis in South India - it's a long tube of fabric (typically in Madras plaid) that is tied at the waist and can be shortened when it's hotter by folding it up from the bottom. South India is pretty traditional so a lot of men wear them, but it's more of a daily working garment for people who don't have office jobs. Once men go to work in any service or office job, it seems they go to trousers and shirts. Likewise with the dhoti - a wrapped garment considered more formal than a lungi (kind of like a sarong in white). The dhoti is very traditional and is still worn on many occasions when the biz trousers and shirts just aren't appropriate. The autorickshaw and cyclerickshaw drivers will often wear lungis. Women wear saris or salwar kameez. The teens and 20-somethings will wear jeans and tops at clubs but mostly in the bigger cities. I brought back a small batch of lungis two years ago but couldn't get anyone to even try them on. Buuuck, buck buck, buuuuck (chicken noises).

This is us trying to fight our way out of Pondy in traffic. The Brahma bulls are always around and always look serenely calm and patient...and long-suffering. I always wish I could run over to them with a nice juicy apple, but it just isn't done.

Even their skulls are beautiful. Friend Janine found one by the side of the road and has it on her porch.

School children are always happy to have their picture taken.

This picture is for Peggy and Rebecca. These are gorgeous identical twins. I didn't snap at the perfect moment to capture both smiling - they had megawatt smiles!

So much of India seems like it survives totally on Rube Goldberg fixes. This is a classic. Perhaps Rube has been reincarnated in India?

One of the hundreds of temples that are everywhere about town - many tucked away in corners, and almost all beautifully maintained.

Closeup of the figures above the niches on either side of the gate.

Sidewalk vendors and neighborhood chatters along the way to Lakshmi's temple.

Another lovely girl elephant giving blessings for donations at a temple - from our visit two years ago. Can't remember her name. She was older than Lakshmi with a very very sweet disposition. Mr. Chirpchatty gets the bonk.

It takes so long to get over losing any pet companions. I'm still thinking a lot about our sweetie Scarlet who passed in April.

And our Bernese Mountain dog "Browser" - who died a surprising number of years ago. I don't have a jpg of him handy, but he looked a lot like this picture of Suzanne's "Diva" in her younger days. He was a small boy - only 65 lbs. Many Berner males reach 100 lbs. Of course, when 65 lbs. of dog sees a squirrel and takes off at the end of a leash, you can still find yourself skidding along on your lip on the tarmac.....and I did.

At a class this last year held at Suzanne's house - where I was learning Fair Isle color combining from Feral Janine - I showed Browser's baby pictures to the lovely and talented Shiori. She decided to do a swatch based on "Berner" colors. Cool, eh?

Our next door neighbor also lost their St. Bernard girl "Quij," (short for drool in Dutch). No more welcoming and guarding barks when we come home.... She was 14. Miss her every time we get out of the car in the driveway.

So I'm always on the lookout for fun animal signs and scenes to savor.

'course there's always that feisty Trixie dog to come home to, and I'm awfully thankful for that.

Airborne Sock Mojo

It's truly amazing what you can get done on a 9-hour flight! We left Chennai at 2 a.m. for Frankfurt, Germany and arrived this morning. I was in full sock mode for most of the trip. You know - as your cheeks begin to get sorer and sorer (not those cheeks, the OTHER cheeks) you find that you can still knit a sock from just about any contorted position. (Give up here, those of you non-fiber readers who are just in it for the travel - scroll down to non-sockie pictures.)


I'd been reading the Mason-Dixon blog the night before and saw a scarf that Kay had finished as a Christmas prezzie. She was kind enough to give the pattern right there and I was immediately smitten by the idea of doing it on socks. These are very comfy strechy little guys. Here they are without the ribbing stretched.


Here's the rib stretched out. Did them with a C/O of 70 stitches on size 1.5 (US) Clover doublepoints with one of the lovely Trekking colorways, No. 78 (I think...). It's amazing how much a small incremental measurement will speed up or slow down a sock. I usually use US 0's and I feel like I'm flying along on these 1.5's.

It's SUCH a cute little lace rib and dead easy. This is the most fun pair of socks I've done in a long time. Here's what I did to convert it from back-and-forth to circular knitting. It's a multiple of 5 + 2 but you can drop the +2 when knitting in the round. I did an "eye of the partridge" heel flap and carried the pattern into the heel turn. If anyone wants the full recipe, give me a screech on email. Note - I don't take any credit for this pattern at all. Mason Dixon didn't say where they got it and doubtlessly many a sock knitter has used it before.

Cast on 65,(70,75)

K3 P2 for 15 rows
Rows 1 and 3: K3 P3
Row 2: *K1, yo, ssk, p2; repeat from *.
Row 4: *K2tog, yo, k1, p2; repeat from *.

I hang with Xtreme lacey knitters (not their name - just their qualifications) and don't normally do much lace...but I'd like to do more that's easy - and this is it! Socks - by the way - are the best antidote to the long slog of posting pictures to the blog and waiting endlessly for them to come up.

For some reason known only to the karma of last-minute packing frenzies, I brought some Brittany needles in size 0 and 1 - and (thank God) - these Clover needles in size 1.5. I quit working with Brittanies years ago because - with any size lower than US 3 I snap them just by staring at them. Sure enough....

That's two pairs snapped. Also, I usually knit socks 2 at a time on 2 circs, but only brought my Addi 20" 0's to work on the green rehabilitation socks. What was I thinking! However, this pattern is so much fun I won't mind starting over on the second sock. I dislike the dreaded 2nd sock syndrome so much that before I learned to do 2 on 2 circs, I just bought a separate set of dbl points of each size needle and knit both socks side by side - couple inches on one, couple inches on the other. Always felt great when they were done at the same time.

By the way, BONUS when you travel on Lufthansa Airlines - their stir sticks make LOVELY travel orifice hooks for travelling with your wheel. They don't fit all wheels, but certainly Louet and quite a few others.

Speaking of orifice hooks - check out this blog to see a truly lovely new design.

We are now in a Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt near their Exposition Center. Here's a view from the window.

Quite a contrast from the view out of the Marriott Courtyard in Chennai.



In a way I've been giving you a skewed view. There is certainly a lot of poverty in India and a painful lack of infrastructure to make daily life comfortable for millions of people - and a lot of my pictures reflect that, and are from walking around town and seeing the daily street life. I've left out the middle and upper classes pretty much altogether. A business person or an upper class person wouldn't think of taking an autorickshaw to work - it wouldn't be considered proper OR businesslike. When Mr. Chirpsavvy volunteered to take one to work, his local client was horrified and felt it would also reflect badly on them. Companies hire drivers for their management people and visitors, and the middle class and above often have their own drivers working for them. Business people take long lunches during that siesta period of noon to two, but none of them would be caught dead sleeping on the street. Autorickshaw and cycle rickshaw drivers always sleep in their vehicles during that time, as do taxi and private drivers.

The caste system is still alive and well unfortunately - outlawed or not. The expectations of a dowry when a marriage happens have not changed either, even though it too has been outlawed. The groom's family will often provide as list of the gifts they expect, down to brand name and price! We have met and dined with various businessmen and their wives, but it's much more difficult when traveling to visit people's homes and see their day-to-day life. Thus you're getting my birds-eye walking view. I haven't intended to denigrate Indian culture by presenting it this way. Much of my interest when traveling is not in how the wealthy live, but in the mundane things of everyday life. I do try to look for beauty and art wherever I am, but you're certainly getting it through my own filter. I stay away from religion and politics - other than basic educational comments - because I'm totally unqualified to talk intelligently about what is currently going on in either area.

Back to a few more scenes from Pondy and Chennai before we left. By the way, when the President (of India that is...) visited part of North India, she gave sweaters and blankets as gifts to the nuns (who carry on Mother Teresa's work in orphanages) and children. Knitting! She gave knitted things! You can see the nuns wearing the sweaters in the news clipping below. The Pres is also wearing a sweater over her sari. This also means of course that it gets downright COOL in North India. Next visit....I swear!

This is one of my favorite fabric stores in Pondy. I bought the silk for the little pincushion here. They have a broken tile walkway out front.

The tilework has bits of pottery - plain and patterned - mixed in. I've always loved this style.

I passed by this building and noticed the sign.

On the wall of the building near the sign is painted this:

In the Marriott Hotel in Chennai, they had a unique bathroom near the conference rooms. I really liked the translucent bowl sinks. They look liked they'd just been placed there and would have to be emptied when full.

But nope - works the same as a usual sink.

I loved the idea behind this vase at the hotel. It's dramatic, and there's no chance of it tipping over.

We had a nice Christmas Eve and Day there. Santa visited.

The restaurant had constructed an outer wall of gingerbread for a temporary log cabin and affixed the pieces to it with frosting.

Our friends Janine and Heinz came up from Pondy to have lunch.

And last for today is a picture of froggies for Dear Friend Bethie. They are partly carved and partly pained on a slab at a roadway toll booth.