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.