Complaints aside about the Chennai summer, the month of May has been cool. 
Why wouldn’t it be? After a vacation to the hills when half the family fell sick and recovered, I returned to the oven called Chennai to find a package from Nupur, a fellow raveler who had sent some yummy Malabrigo (merino yarn) along with several skeins of cotton yarn.
Morning surf scarf
In a couple of days we drove to Bangalore which was literally cool in May after rains. I quickly knit up the Malabrigo into a scarf to show off to fellow ravelers in Bangalore. I could meet only one, who was actually behind me to knit that particular pattern. When we met, Sanhita showed me the yarn she had bought for me from Delhi which I had asked for earlier and we went shopping for more.
Though I have been in Bangalore for the past five years I have never ventured out to Raja Market. Most of my yarn hunting was confined to the side lanes of Commercial street. Raja Market is tucked away in the midst of a maze of interconnecting winding roads, in the heart of S.P.Road, which is actually an area where computer related stuff is sold. I don’t know if I can ever go to Raja Market all on my own, because I would definitely get lost.
We drooled over the acrylic fare and picked up a few skeins for ourselves and yarn crazy buddies who had given their preferences earlier. From Raja Market, we again weaved our way amidst the maze of winding roads to a godown (what all we do for a skein of yarn! in this case it was cotton yarn!) I just stared at the decrepit building in front of me where several packages and debris of packing material were strewn about. Sanhita coolly moved about like a pro asking me to follow her, which I did, though I have to admit I did look around wondering if some baddy like in the movies would spring up and show his ugly pearlies. Thankfully no one did. We walked to the end of the building where there was a dirty staircase on which Sanhita began to ascend.
“Are you sure this is the place I asked?”
“Come on up. It is the last shop in this floor,” she answered without batting an eyelid.
As the guy in the shop unpacked the cotton yarn which we ravelers recently came to know of, fears of baddies in the nooks and allies vanished and we dived into the boxes as if there was no tomorrow. As the garbage bags were full and our purses were nearly empty, the shop guy said “we have a godown next door, you can check that out.”
And check it out we did! The room was filled to the ceiling with several colors of thread and yarn and other knick knacks. We were literally behaving like kids in a candy store asking for this thread and that and the shop guy obliged. He wouldn’t have seen such avid shoppers for thread…that he even asked us “What will you do with this?” And we patiently explained.
He gave us a teeny discount. After promising to return for more, the yarn addicts left the scene. We had nice cold coffee with ice cream along with muffin and samosas and discussed yarn, ravelry, cabbages and kings. We could have been there all day but Sanhita had to report for work and we reluctantly bade goodbye.
The other projects which saw the light of day this month is the Woodland Shawl by Kathy Merrick. My willing models are out of town so I took their doll (Loku) as the model. Here is she is
Woodland Shawl
I made a top for Shivani.
Lucy Locket
I also made the Starburst hotpad which was in queue for a long time.
Startburst
