Friday, January 19, 2007

Knitting

Knitting in Thailand

I took my knitting projects practically everywhere on our vacation. Trains, planes, boats, autos...I love to pass the time with knitting, and I had a few projects that I really wanted to complete during the trip. A pair of alpaca fingerless gloves for knitting when it's cold, a pair of cable socks designed by Cookie A. in gorgeous ivory merino (didn't get to start these, so they are tucked away for a future adventure), a felted bag to replace the disaster that I made for my mother (sigh), and my favorite pattern, the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert. The girl is a genius, by the way, or she made some sort of pact with the devil in order to create such a brilliant design.

Anyway, as any travel knitter will tell you, knitting attracts a lot of attention. Especially for these women, who'd never seen anyone knit. We traded tips (knitting for weaving), and even though we didn't speak a common language, it was completely unneccessary. Nassah, the village leader's wife, seemed pretty dissapointed to learn that I was married. She was ready to wed me away to some guy in her village!

Here I am, knitting on the boat. It looks like I'm concentrating really, really hard, but I think I was just trying to keep that hair out of my eyes. It was pretty windy. So windy, in fact, that my Sunrise Circle Jacket pattern went flying into the sea!
But dear, sweet Been, God bless 'im, was on the case and got them back for me. Yes, we turned the boat around to save the knitting directions.

2 comments:

Gina said...

Now that is love -- fishing a pattern out of the water. I've been eyeing that Sunrise Circle Jacket pattern myself. I cannot wait to see your finished product.

Anna said...

It's a fantastic pattern, and very fun to work on. I thought it was going to be complicated, but she wrote her pattern so expertly that it's a breeze. Now I just have to put it together, so hopefully in the next week or so I'll have the finished product up!