It’s a clear-blue-sky, warm-sun, joyous day here. Melting snow and a good rain deluge has softened the ground and settled the highway dust, just in time for this long weekend of big cars, adventurous bike gangs and happy families to zoom past.
I am back after a lovely holiday in the opposite end of the country, Kochi. It felt good, to be strolling around in sandals and thin cottons and eating sea-food and spicy curries. I was privileged to stay in the best part of the city, (the sprawling Naval base) and I am still wondering what qualifies as the best bit of the holiday—those long morning walks besides the silent sea, the clean and green spaces around me, the food, or the company of my college mates!
Travelling to Kochi gave me some good knitting time. The train and the flights helped to get my knitting mojo back, and the ayurvedic massages and rest helped to get my knitting muscles and joints back to normal. The last months of 2017 had not been easy for knitting, though that didn’t stop me from completing this blanket, or knitting coats for the dogs.
And what has the knitting mojo given me this year? A craving to indulge in slip stitch knitting. This form of knitting, researched and documented in great detail in this classic set of knitting patterns by Barbara Walker, is a simple but smart way of knitting with two colours.
Unlike Fair Isle and Intarsia knitting ( the two common methods of knitting in colour), slip stitch knitting is all about knitting with one colour for two rows, in which the alternate colour stitches are slipped across. Its easy, methodical and quick to progress.
The knitters have been making cowls and cushion covers in slip stitch garter knitting and they have mastered the technique.
For my current project, (which has involved ripping out of old-sweater-which-does-not-fit-anyone-in-the-family, making skeins and washing them straight, realising that the yarn will not be enough for the large roomy sweater desired by daughters,and adding a contrast yarn), I have chosen a simple all over pattern for the body of the boxy sweater, and plan to knit slim sleeves from the drop shoulders. I am making slow progress, but the change from garter stitch projects is being savoured alright!
The slip stitch method is being tried in crochet too…I have a crochet project in progress too…Lucy from Attic24 had shared the pattern for this bag, and I decided that this would be good for some stash busting! Cotton yarn, Bella from allkraftzstore.com, is in use for this one. However, rows and rows of dc were edging towards boredom and I was ready to give up on the bag. A friend suggested rows of slip stitch patterns, and my daughter shared some Instagram posts by this amazing man in Norway, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Check out this website and this tutorial on how to make slip stitch crochet, and have a look at this WIP of mine. Its slow work, and since crochet does not allow me to watch TV or read, it can only be done in the quiet hour before sleep. I love what I am doing, but do you know what I love most about this slip stitch pattern on my crochet hook?
Far away, in a distant city on the sea-shore, on quiet evenings after work, and when dinner is done, the same pattern is progressing on a crochet hook held by a different set of hands…my daughter has chosen the same slip stitch pattern for her project.
Great minds, connected by genes and love, do think alike!!
A nice article after a long time.