Crochet Rose Basket

Hello beautiful people, I know you are feeling wonderful. How do I know? Well, these last few days as I toured thru Blogland, I saw beautiful pictures of warm family gatherings, lovely decorated trees, snowmen, scrumptious goodies to eat, little children enjoying the festive season...some of them for the very first time and of course lots of gorgeous gifts. So I can safely say... a good time was had by all  :)

It did make me feel a little lonely as we are practically friendless here in Ahmedabad. But not to worry as I have all of you, my dear friends out there. Blogging really brings friends right into our homes doesn't it? Along with pictures of our crafts we share pictures of our homes, our children, pets, grandkids, kitchens and occasionally even bathrooms. Which is sometimes more than what we share with our non-bloggy friends...no? Hmmm, I love Blogland.

Now first of all let me welcome some new friends who have joined us;

Elisabeth from Elizy Art

Salete from Sacroche

Anna from Annasimplecrochet

Andreia Santos from Refugios dos Pontinhos

Aishwarya from Aishwaryas World

Roos from Freubeldingetjes

Yufang from Hollywood Cerise

Isha from Keep Crocheting

Beena from Beenascreations

Maria Nazareth from Maria's Creations 

and Lakshmi Kumar.

A warm welcome to all of you. If I have not mentioned your name please drop me a line with the URL of your blog.

I know I have not been posting much.  Actually I have been very busy with my hook but not so busy with my camera...(what with my recent hospital stint making me realise that life is short). While in hospital my thoughts kept running back to the loads of yarn at home which I had not yet opened from the packaging or ...fondled enough...hehe. As you all are aware one good photo on the blog means ten other photos taken in different places and light conditions, and I did not want to put my hook down to do that. I have been crocheting like crazy and I hope to share a few projects before 2012 comes to an end. Of course there is always 2013, now that the world has decided not to end itself  ;) !!

Today I want to share this lovely crochet Rose Basket. The pattern is from a Japanese book and I have been wanting to try it out for a long time. As you can imagine there was a lot of guesswork involved but I finally managed to get it done. It may not look like the pic in the book but I am quite happy with it. So here it is;

 

I have used Laura knitting cotton from THIS stash and a 3.0 mm hook. Initially I planned to click step by step photos to show how it was done, but along the way I realised that it was quite simple. And you can make it without a pattern actually. 

So here goes;

Just choose your favorite granny square with or without flowers, join six of them together.

 

 

Now crochet a circle as big as the ring formed by the granny squares. This is the pattern I used from the original pattern.

 

Then attach the circle to your granny ring with slip stitches. 

There your lovely basket is done! You can use it to keep your cosmetics, keys, jewellery, etc.

How do you like it? So, do you think I am going to use it on my dressing table?

Nah... of course not, I am going to use it as my crochet work basket... hehe.

The colors are a bit boring but this was also a way to reduce my stash. Next time I am going to try different colors and also a thinner thread. 

Did you like the basket? If you do decide to make it, please do send me the link to your blog post or atleast send me a picture of your basket. I would definitely love to see it.

Lots of other FOs to be photographed so off I go.

Right now I am following "Grey's Anatomy" (love it) and "Packed to the Rafters" (like it very much) on the telly, what are you watching?

Looking forward to your comments. Take care and Happy Holidays.

Love and hugs xxx

Merry Christmas

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays

Mission accomplished

Hello dear friends. I am so glad to be back and I am happy that you are back with me too.

Well, mission ovary removal was successfully accomplished and I was back home on the 1st of December. The operation was a bit complicated as the the cyst had decided to cling to all possible organs around it. My poor surgeon had a tough time...4 hours actually. She must have been exhausted. So glad that it is over and done with.

A big Thanks to all of you my dear friends, for your best wishes, prayers, hugs and positive vibes. I think they really helped me. I was also touched that some of you took the trouble to contact me by email to ask about my health. That was so sweet of you.

After playing invalid or rather "beached whale" as my son so delicately put it,  for a week I had enough and picked up my hook and yarn. I would have crocheted in the hospital too but as the IV lines made that impossible I finished reading a Mary Higgins Clark mystery instead.

So, here is the first project I made post operation. A pair of Bed socks or slippers.

I had thought I will be staying in bed for a long time. And as warm feet are a must for me to get any sleep, this project really seemed apt.

The pattern is quite simple. It is actually only a rectangle of single crochets in the back loop which is then folded and seamed at the bottom, toes and the top, leaving enough space for your foot to go in. Then use your favourite edging around the ankles. Easy peasy.

 

I was inspired by a photo in Pinterest. Also the variegated yarn had a "busy" colour scheme which made it unsuitable for any other project and I had only one ball of it.

Bed socks on duty. How do you like it?

Friends, it feels so good to be back with all of you. Thanks for visiting and do write to me..soon. I am so looking forward to hearing from all of you. 

Yay! I am so happy to see that my blog has crossed 100 followers. A lot of new friends have joined us but they will have to forgive me if I don't mention them today as I still have to get the links for their blogs. Nevertheless, a very very warm welcome to all of them, I will wish all of you personally soon.

I will be back soon with another cute project. Till then take care, happy hooking. Take the time today to do something you always wanted to do. Life is short and unpredictable. :)

I am off to listen to my favourite music CD.

Love and hugs xxx

 

Sunflower mobile cozy

Hello, my lovely friends. I hope you had a great week. A big Thank you to all my dear friends for your kind words and best wishes for my surgery.

Let me start by welcoming our new friends;
Tracy from CrochetHappy
Nityakalyani from Nityas Knits Quoin
Rosa La maida  from Vaire La Tejedora 
Elisabeth from Elizy Art
and Suma

In my last post I promised to show you the small project I made for my MIL. Well. here it is, a sunflower cozy for her mobile phone.

A cute little sunflower.

I have added a button at the back so that the phone does not slip out even though the cozy is a snug fit. I hope my MIL is using it in Mumbai.

I am certainly not looking forward to the surgery, but the slight pain and tenderness in my abdomen is making me wish it happens fast.

I have no idea when I will be posting next. So until then, take care, have fun and happy hooking. I will be looking forward to visiting you as soon as I am back from the hospital.

Lots of love xxx

Knitty gritty

Hi friends, How are you? Once again,I am posting after a long break. Feeling a bit under the weather, listless and also a little uneasy. But that did not stop me from visiting all of you.....even if sometimes I did not leave any comments.

Finally decided to go for a check up. The diagnosis is a complex cyst on my left ovary. Surgery is the only option and I may be getting admitted to hospital next week. This is not the first surgery I am having but that does not stop me from being a little scared. So wish me luck.

On the crafty side I did actually manage to finish the knitted  scarf for my husband. 

I added a fringe just for fun. You can see the different colors in the yarn, in the fringe.

I really like the texture produced by the pattern.

Now that my knitted project is complete I am thinking maybe I should knit a little more. But I am slow knitter and that is not very encouraging.

The best part about this project is that my son and my hubby are now debating about who actually "deserves" this scarf and I am glad that both of them have liked it.

My head is buzzing with lot of new project ideas. But I think they will have to wait till I am back home from the hospital.

I had planned to make different rangolis to share with you. But I finally ended up making only one! The rest of the time I was busy with eating out and watching newly released movies.   :)

So anyway here is the only rangoli I made this Diwali.

This is a very small rangoli I made on the first day hoping to make a bigger one later. But of course that did not happen!

Here is my rangoli at night with the earthen lamps I showed you in my last post.

Isn't that a pretty sight!

Rangoli powder in lovely colours.

Well, that is all for now. Next time I will show you the small item I crocheted for my MIL before she left for Mumbai.

Take care,

Love xxx

Two Timing

Hello dear friends, How are you? Are you looking forward to this weekend? We are eagerly awaiting the weekend as Sunday will set off the celebrations for Diwali - the festivals of lights. Not being a great fan of noisy firecrackers, I look forward to doing some beautiful rangoli. And of course gorging on some lovely sweet and savoury goodies which are made specially during Diwali.

I am posting after a long gap. Blogging did seem to drop off the radar for a couple of reasons.

A) I was busy with the Diwali house cleaning, which is an intense spring cleaning of the whole house. A lot of cleaning, scrubbing, polishing and of course de-cluttering. The purpose of this marathon session is to welcome the Goddess of Wealth, Laxmi, who is said to visit houses which are sparkling clean. (I have a hunch, this tale was invented to ensure that houses get a thorough cleaning atleast once a year...  wink, wink) And who does not want the blessings of the Goddess of Prosperity!

B) After giving it a lot of thought and debating over it, with a heavy heart, I made up my mind to go ahead and cheat on my Love. Yes, I am now a two-timing b****......

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ahem... I am talking about my love for crochet. I hope you were not thinking something else, silly.

Ha ha, the reason for all this cheating is this ball of gorgeous yarn I found in my stash. It is a beautiful variegated yarn with shades like the sky just before sunset. Here, have a look:

 

 

Seeing the lovely colors in the yarn, I now realised why spinners go ga-ga over their yarns in their blogs and put up umpteen photos of the yarn from all different angles possible.  With the colors changing every second with every stitch, I was falling in love with the yarn.

And now, the reason I cheated is that I had only one ball of 150 gms of the yarn. Compared to knitting, crochet IS a bit of a yarn eater. So to get the maximum out of the yarn I decided to knit rather than crochet with it.

Winter is slowly and steadily creeping in on us. I decided to make a scarf for hubby. Then followed a lot of pattern searching on the internet. After getting inspired by a lot of patterns, I finally decided to "design" my own pattern.

The yarn is self striping. Tell me, does it not remind you of a twilight sky,

 I wonder if a plain stockinette stitch would have been better. But I wanted a textured fabric so I decided to go ahead and proceed with my pattern.

 

The best part about the pattern is that the fabric does not curl at the edges (which means no blocking... yay!). This pattern is very simple and would also look good with a solid colored yarn.

This is the pattern in case you are interested  :)

Using 3.25mm knitting needles, Cast on 34 stitches.

Then knit all stitches for 3 rows.

Pattern:

Row 1:  K3, *K2, P2 * till last 3 stitches, K3

Row 2:  K3, *K2, P2 * till last 3 stitches, K3

Row 3:  K3, *P2, K2 * till last 3 stitches, K3

Row 4:  K3, *P2, K2 * till last 3 stitches, K3

Repeat these 4 rows for the desired length and then knit all stitches for 3 rows again. Cast off.

If you try the pattern, do let me know if there is a mistake. I can't wait to finish the scarf as the mere thought of so many "live" stitches and handling two needles is a bit daunting.

And while on the topic of Diwali, let me show you the beautiful oil lamps, called deeyas, I bought.

Lovely...no? BTW, Rangoli is an art form of making decorative designs outside the main door of your home, using colored powders, flowers, chalk or even rice flour paste. The designs are an auspicious and  welcoming gesture for the Hindu gods. I hope I can turn out some beautiful designs this year so that I can share them with you. (Just google Rangoli and enjoy the fantastic pictures.)

Before I sign off, a warm welcome to Irina from Handmade. 

A very Happy Diwali to all of you. Take care and have lots of fun.

Love xxx

A Fruitful Trip

I am feeling very happy because I had a fantastic weekend. By now, I am sure you know how excited I was to meet one of my blogger friends for the very first time.

On Saturday night we left Ahmedabad and reached my aunt's place at around 9.00 pm. We had a great time with lots of good food and long chats, with joking, singing and lots of laughter.

Sunday morning after a bit of sightseeing. I called up Aishwarya to ask whether it was a good time to visit. Dear Aishwarya had been waiting for us since morning! So I landed at her place with hubby and MIL in tow. The most unbelievable part is that it did not feel as if we were meeting for the very first time. Since neither of us put up personal photos on our respective blogs, we were actually seeing each other for the first time!! Would you believe it, that our friendship started in  Germany? It was my comment on According to Matt that led Aishwarya to my blog and well the rest is history.

I loved Aishwarya's family, especially her two lovely, beautiful daughters. The most incredible thing is that the two MILs and the two hubbies hit it off instantly and very soon everybody was talking nineteen to the dozen. Also, the fact that both families happened to originally belong to the same part of Karnataka(in South India) brought us closer. Since the visit was en famille the only thing we did not talk about was CROCHET!! Can you believe that... well, hopefully there will be a next time.

After a lot of chit chat and snacks we decided it was time to be homeward bound. BUT surprise, surprise, Aishwarya had a very cute, sweet gift for me. Would you like to see it? Yeah.... as if I need to ask! So, here it is:

Aren't they incredibly cute! Ever since I saw them on Attic24 I was in love with them and had decided that one day I would try my hand at making them. And now I have my very own two cute little babushkas. Thank you, dear Aishwarya.  

I have placed Sana and Vandi ( of course I had to name them) right next to my computer as a constant reminder of my lovely friend and her beautiful daughters.I hope she likes the knitting cotton I took for her.

So, all said and done I had a great weekend. How was your weekend? Do write in and share. 

I seem to have collected a lot of UFOs in the past few weeks and I hope I have something to share with you soon. Until then, have a lovely week, take care and happy hooking.

Love xxx

 

Stash Saturday

Hello dear friends, Are you looking forward to the weekend? I certainly am, because tomorrow I get to meet my bloggy friend Aishwarya.

Yesterday I spoke about another "first" that I want to share with you. From the title it must be obvious that it has something to do with my stash. But this stash is very special as it has come to me from across the seven seas from another  blogger friend, dear Debi at Dly's Hooks and Yarns.

A few days back I saw that Debi had put up some balls of size 10 crochet thread  for sale. Size 10 crochet thread is not available here so I immediately contacted Debi whether she would be willing to send the thread to India if I paid the cost plus shipping. When Debi replied very sweetly that not only would she send me the thread but that it was a gift for me I just could not believe my eyes. I read the email once again (well, actually thrice, lol) to confirm it and then I jumped with joy. [Okay with my "dainty" frame it was only a hop, but you get the idea.]  ;)

My folks, as usual, thought that I was finally losing IT due to too much crochet!!!

The thread arrived on the 25th. Six lovely balls of Aunt Lydia's crochet thread in delicate colours. Would you like to see my lovely gift? 

Well, here it is:

Aren't the colours just gorgeous. A lovely gift from a wonderful friend. Thank you Debi for this beautiful gesture. 

For a long time I had no idea what a Giveaway was. When I learned what they actually were, I did enter a few but I was never lucky to win any. So this is the first time that I am receiving something from a blogger friend, so I am rightfully and proudly very thrilled about it. My husband could not believe it that someone who has never met me has actually sent me a lovely gift. Well, if only he know the pleasures and perks of Blogdom!!

I am now planning on hosting a Giveaway when my Followers reach the 100 mark. So, come on readers, if you have been following my blog for some time, click the button and make it official. And don't forget to mention your blog name in the comments so that I can follow you too.

Have a rocking weekend. Take care and Thank you for visiting.

Love xxx

A Long Spell

Hello there, beautiful people. Remember me? Are you still with me or have you moved on to a more crafty, witty and regular blog? I wouldn't be surprised if you have. But I am hoping against hope that you are out there and that you have been checking my blog once in awhile. 

I know there has been a long spell of silence from my side. There is no particular reason for that. And thankfully, no "sick" stories this time, God knows I had quite a few of those in the past couple of months. Actually I was just a little bit distracted. I also think I had Blogger's block. (Is there such a thing?)  I did have a lot of things/stories to share but just could not sit down and put them in words! 

Another reason being that my dear mother-in-law accompanied us on the trip back from Mumbai and most afternoons are spent chatting with her. Or rather she reminiscing about the good old days and me making the right noises at the right time. No, I am not being rude. I do agree with her that the good old days were really good and uncomplicated and happy and of course so much cheaper. Not much I can add to that conversation! Also it seemed impolite to go clackity-clack at the keyboard while she was  so eagerly taking me on a "Golden Days" journey.

Okay, okay I know excuses, excuses! Maybe I should just admit that I was lazy. But of course I was very much online and in these past few days I visited most of you out there and even gave my "valuable" comments on some of your posts.

In the meantime, a lot of new friends have joined us, so let me begin by welcoming them;
           Onilda e Maria Isabel at Cantinho do artesanto Nina e Bel
           Cat at Through the Eyes of a Domestic Goddess
           Bobi Jensen at Western Warmth
           Maven at Fiber P*rn
and    Mitzi Christian

Now for the real McCoy, the pansy doily was not working out as I would have liked so I frogged it. Now I am searching for another Pansy doily pattern. To cover up my disappointment I made a lovely yellow/mustard doily. Only two more rounds to go so I shall be sharing that with you soon.

Since last week, I have a young girl coming to learn crochet in the afternoons. At age 25 she is an associate professor at CEPT Ahmedabad..... Wow!! She teaches History of Architecture and comes over to my place in the afternoons during her lunch break.  She is not regular but I like her dedication. I love teaching crochet and I am hoping that more and more women in India will take it up as a hobby and also as a stress buster. 

And now for the news that I am dying to share. On Sunday the 28th, I shall be meeting one of my blogger friends, for the very first time. Isn't that just super!! After commenting on each others blogs for a few weeks we realised that we stay in the same state. We kept planning to meet each other some day and now after months of waiting I finally get to meet her on Sunday as we will be in her city to visit my aunt. I am sure that bloggers do this all the time. But this is a first for me, and I am soooo excited. I hope the meeting goes off better than expected and we have lots of stories to share. I will certainly tell you about our get together, wish me luck.

A picture-less post. Nah...that would be boring. So I am going to share this doily I made a long time ago. I am sorry I do not have the link to the pattern.  :(

I love the way the petals overlap each other.

My MIL says it is too pretty to be used as a hot pad.

So, finally THE SPELL has been broken. ;) Maybe for a change I should try a Wordless post. Hmmm..... a post without my jabber jabber. Very difficult but I will try it someday in the future.... distant future you see.

But until then, I will be back with some more exciting news, a "First" of another kind, soon.
So take care, happy hooking or knitting or scrap booking or cooking or whatever makes you tick. Enjoy life, you only live once and Thank you for visiting me.

Love xxx

Sand or Tan?

Hi Girls! I hope the week has been treating you well so far.

Lets begin by welcoming our new friends:
          Weaver Birdie at I Love Handmade!
          Susan Carlson at Felted Button
          Archana at Things I do ... in my World
          Maree at Mareelovescolour

Okay now tell me, did you read the title and think this post was about a weekend at the beach. Sadly there is no beach in Ahmedabad. Well, it is so true that you realise the value of something only after you have lost it. My parents' home was just two minutes away, yes that's right only two minutes away from the beach. As kids my brother and I spent most evenings walking to the beach with Mom and making sand castles, filling our pails at the water's edge and eating roasted peanuts. After marriage I moved to an area that was kilometers away from the nearest beach. And now Ahmedabad! But not to worry, as recently, the banks of the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad have been endowed with the Sabarmati Riverfront - a unique project that will handle water management while creating a public promenade, that has soon become a tourist attraction. Definitely on my must see list.

So, what's with the beachy title? Well, the title refers to my latest project which is this square doily.

Upon completing the doily I was stuck for words when it came to describing the colour of the doily. I mean, gone were the innocent school days when colours were red, blue, green and yellow. And any variations were just light blue and dark blue, light green and dark green and so on. 

But today these definitions are not enough. No siree! Today we have True blue, Baby blue, Bahama blue and Avocado, Pistachio, Celery and Cornsilk, Goldenrod, Tangerine and what not. So what the heck do I call my doily. Sand? Tan? Beige?  After some Google research I chanced upon "Fawn" and felt that, that is the right word to describe the colour.

So here are my Fawn coloured square doilies. I had enough Bliss knitting cotton to make a set of three with a 2.00 mm crochet hook.

Now if you have been wondering why my projects are always photographed on this two colour background, here is the secret. Well, no big secret actually but just the swing in my balcony. You would think that with this unbearable heat and scorching sunlight, I would get good pictures indoors. But no, the swing is the only place where I get good photos. Or maybe that speaks a lot for my "skills" as a photographer! Anyway here is my multipurpose swing adorned with a few of my projects.

What prompted me to reveal this today is the question "Where is your favourite place to take pictures?" by Susan at Felted Button. Do tell me your answer.

Now here is the real secret. The swing is a part of the furniture we got along with the house we have rented. I don't use the swing as a swing as I am sure my "delicate" frame will crack the poor thing! Ha ha. 

My next project is a beautiful thread doily with pansies. Hope I can share it with you soon (as I have still not bothered to get new glasses!).

Thanks for visiting me. Take care and happy hooking.

(A small note to all my fellow bloggers and followers: Please write a small comment when you join my blog and also don't forget to state the name of your blog, so that I can follow you too. Thank you.)

PS: If you are a die hard Sridevi fan like me, you must watch "English Vinglish". Great movie, fantastic performance and superb direction.

Love xxx