TAST - Chain Braid Stitch, Drizzle Stitch, Pekinese Stitch

Forty six down and six to go for Take a Stitch Tuesday. Its the home stretch going forward.

Chain braid Stitch
Drizzle Stitch
Pekinese Stitch

One would think I'm only intent on completing TAST but I have been doing other things,The Story of the Traveling Pages for instance. I've completed the page for January and its been posted to Juliette. Pictures of the page will be revealed once Juliet is in reciept of the page, don't want to spoil the surprise for her. I've begun work on the page for Carmen and the theme is Castles.

What has a curled up tail, wet nose and is a survivor?

Street Dogs. I don't know if you have this breed of dog where you live but they are an integral part of the Indian landscape. There's one in every neighbourhood, there are two in our apartment complex - Raja and Angel. Never mind that Angel is male. They have been informally adopted by everyone who lives here and their size will bear testament to the over indulged life they lead.

There are many who choose to adopt strays or simply end up feeding and looking out for the well being of a stray in the neighbourhood and in turn these dogs adopt a locality and act as watch dogs. Each dog has his territory.

There are organisations staffed with vets and a number of volunteers who go out to sterilise, vaccinate and organise adoption drives of pariah dogs. One such is W. S. D in Mumbai who have come out with a calendar. A great idea.

That's Chipku who's featured in March along with his buddy Whitey from Borivali and they are inseparable. Each and every one of the dogs featured on the twelve pages have personalities all their own which Rohan Mukerjee the photographer has captured perfectly.

Thank you Charu for getting your paws on this one for me. The calendar is available in book stores in Mumbai.

The feature in Mint Lounge here.

Have a great weekend.

TAST - Lace Border Stitch, Twisted Satin Stitch and Zig Zag Spanish Knotted Stitch Stitch

Zig Zag Spanish Knotted Stitch
Twisted Satin Stitch
Lace Border Stitch

Sorry about this long silence. I have been catching up and completing things and there are a number of things to tell you about which will get told now that I'm going to be posting once a week at a minimum on a regular basis.

TAST is drawing to a close, it is the home stretch now. It will be a great achievement once the samples are compiled into a two volume set of fibre books.

It might eventually become a four volume set because Sharon has announced a TAST 2 starting in March. So if you're up for a challenge go check out the details here.

Wishing you health, wealth and happiness in 2010

We ushered in the new year quietly with a drink and on first morning we drove to Chikmangalur to spend two days at Kadur Club which was instituted in 1887.

Chikmaglur is coffee country and namma Cafe Coffee Day has its roots here too. For readers of this blog who aren't from India - Cafe Coffee Day is a chain of coffee shops much like Starbucks.

If you ever wondered where coffee came from - well, from the berries which you see in the picture above.

We had the club pretty much to ourselves for two days. Time pretty much stands still here.

The club was beautifully decorated for the Christmas and new year eve party which went on till 6.30 in the morning.People in these parts certainly know to party.

The dining room is so quaint and beautiful with animal trophies on the walls and the old black and white photographs from another century.
I simply love the old world charm of crepe paper and silver foil streamers. Some tailor sat and stitched that foil onto the crepe paper. It brings back memories of my birthday on a tea estate bungalow in Assam where the decorations consisted of pink and silver streamers exactly like these and it was my mother who must have slaved over metres and metres of streamers.
The landscape you see when you drive up Baba Budangiri .

A wonderful start to a new decade. Wishing all my readers health, wealth and happiness in the year ahead. I hope the year is all you want it to be.