A fiber moment, far, far, away
Just passing along this bizarre story, because I can…
Every (and I mean every) woman in Tso Pema who can manipulate yarn and a set of needles is doing so right now. Seriously, porches and storefronts and anywhere else a woman can park with her knitting, there’s a woman parked with her knitting, working on a sweater or a hat or whatever. Partly it’s a funciton of the season–most farming harvests are about done, but the really cold weather hasn’t started yet–and partly it’s driven by capitalism, because there’s apparently a large market in Delhi for handknit stuff from Himachal. I find myself looking at everyone’s sweaters these days–most of the ones you see here are definitely handmade, probably with yarn from the Fancy Wool Store. Many menfolk are wandering around in vests obviously handmande by an ama, or mata, or chachi, or whoever…Since some colors have a different meaning or no meaning at all compared to their significance in the States, and there’s a cultural convention where siblings or friends of the same sex can show public displays of affection, some fashion choices tend to startle Westerners. I think this is one of the few places on Earth where you can see two men going down the street, holding hands, one in a pink sweater, and one in a police uniform, with no comment whatsoever.
Anyway, knitting. Since I’d dragged along a few needles and skeins of sock yarn, I figured I would start another pair ‘o socks and join the ranks of fiber-oriented femininity stationed in the thorougfares of Tso Pema.
So I start a new pair with cotton-and-spandex Fixation yarn. I use circular needles for knitting socks; I’ve just dropped double-pointed needles one time too often. Many passersby were fascinated by my circular needles. It kept reminding me of a story Lena once told me about performing a piece of magic, and manifesting a bunch of food, neatly packed in Ziplock bags. This happened in India, years back, and so everyone got really excited about Lena’s feat, because manifesting beans is pretty usual, but manifesting something as rare and useful as ziplocks is pretty darned good. I had a number of people stop to inspect my knitting and check out how the needles worked. So one of the folks who did this was the chai-wallah next to the handweaver, just outside the Lotus hotel. No lie, this man actually came out from behind his pots of chai and dudh to sit next to me, and inspect my work and the needles and everything. He was amazed by the fact that I was knitting circular style with “no join”. After I told him the needles and yarn came from America, and I was using a different style to knit, I explained I was making socks.
“Too loose for socks,” he siad knowledgeably, and showed me how large the cuff was stretching open. When I got home I recalculated my stitches and darned if he wasn’t right. So I frogged and restarted…
Knitting tips from the local chai wallah? What next?
