Happy Holidays!!

Hello 2016!

Namaste friends. I hope 2016 has begun in a wonderful way for you. Time seems to be flying and I cannot believe we are already on to the sixth day of the new year!

I am going to open Blog 2016 on a beautiful note, or maybe I should say floral note :)

On Sunday hubby and I visited the Ahmedabad Flower Show which is an annual event. In spite of the fact that we have been in this city for five years this is the first time we went to the flower show. It was a wonderful experience and we are going to make it a point to attend it in future.

Please note this post is heavily laden with photos and may take a while to open. On the bright side, I let the pictures do the talking which means very little jibber jabber from me...haha. (Okay, okay...I heard that sigh of relief.)

The highlight of the show - a Beetle decorated with exotic orchids, carnations and chrysanthemums.

The Beetle turned out to be the favourite of the kids participating in an on the spot painting competition :)

Pots and vases for sale.

Succulents and cactii.

Black Petunia - now that seems to be rare. First time for me.

Red chilli plants for sale.

Bonsai and miniature gardens.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures. Hoping to be back soon with some crochet goodies. Until then...Bye and keep crafting.  :)

*~*~* HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 *~*~*

Wishing each and every one of You a Wonderful and Happy New Year 2016.

May your new year be blessed and bring you good health, prosperity, 

loads of happiness, and tons of creativity.

 

~~ HAPPY HOLIDAYS ~~

Crochet C2C scarf

Namaste friends. Thank you so much for you best wishes, lovely comments, emails and phone calls. It feels so good to know that I have friends who care so much, whether they are in the next city, neighbouring state or even across the seven seas. 

I did say in my last post that 2015 was just not my year. Well, a couple of days later my computer just wouldn't start and then followed a few frantic days of SOS calls to my brother and our local computer guy to get it up and running. Phew!! So used to my computer and the internet, my husband teases me that I just might go berserk without them. Thank God for crochet which keeps me sane and calm. Do you know I had actually packed a project in the bag I took to the hospital! But the dengue fever (see last post) really sapped our energy and the weakness/body pain was too much to even think about crocheting or even staying alive for that matter.  :)

Variegated hues

Have you ever fallen in love with a ball of variegated yarn at the store, only to come home and realise that it just does not suit any project? Or that the colour effect is not playing up the way you had imagined? It has happened to me a lot of times. I am sure you are wondering why I still keep buying. Well, variegated yarn has a charm, a romantic appeal all its own, which makes it hard to resist. And I have the balls to prove it....haha.

The pastel hues, the jewel tones or ombre shades are irresistible. Never mind that you end up crocheting and frogging till you get the exact effect you want :) After trying out a few patterns I decided to follow my friend Ashlesha and crochet a corner to corner scarf with this ball of variegated yarn that had gorgeous shades of denim, aubergine and forest green. A wonderful colour combination for a man's scarf....methinks.

The yarn brand is "Peacock" and is from Ludhiana. I have used a 4.50mm crochet hook. 

Corner to corner or C2C as it is popularly known is a really simple stitch. I would even call it a beginner level stitch. The fact that it works diagonally might seem confusing but you get the hang of it pretty soon. In the case of this particular yarn it produces these lovely diagonal bands of colour almost automatically. 

 I have now learned that for variegated yarns to give good results the colour changes have to be atleast a few feet apart. Any closer and the result is just a hotch potch of changing colours. So while this yarn produced these beautiful bands of denim, aubergine and forest green, an earlier project with variegated yarn - the C2C baby blanket shows how short colour changes just produce a mish-mash.

 But for the blanket I got the exact effect I wanted i.e. stripes of blue, white and mixed colours.

The scarf measures 65" by 7" and used up about 160 grams of yarn. I am quite happy with the way the colours have played out. I am thinking of trying some other pattern using this same yarn. What do you think? Do you like my C2C scarf?

If you want to try your hand at C2C HERE is a wonderful video by Mikey at The Crochet Crowd.

Have you made any projects using variegated yarn? 

Happy Navaratri to all my dear readers.  

Navaratri is a Hindu festival celebrated for nine nights (nava means nine and ratri means night), dedicated to the nine forms of Shakti the Mother Goddess. As with all other festivals in India, this festival too is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India, but always with great pomp and splendor involving a lot of color, lighting, music and dance. The tenth day is known as Vijayadashami or Dussehra which marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura as well the victory of Lord Ram over the Demon king Ravana.
Click the links in the above passage to know more about the festivals and the deities.

  

 See you soon.

PS: I was having some trouble with the fonts in this post so please bear with me. :) 

Glorious Glimpses of Ganesha

Hello friends! Earlier in September I visited my hometown Mumbai to celebrate the Ganesha festival or Ganeshotsav (utsav means festival). So here are some wonderful photos of the idols we visited. I clicked the snaps with my latest toy the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 - a birthday gift from hubby :)

 

This first pic is from the Flower market at Matunga. As you can see all the decorations have been made with flowers.

A few more photos of idols in and around Matunga;

 The last one was bathed in coloured lights and the idol seemed to change its colour every time the lights changed. 

Sometimes the decor can overwhelm the idol!  :)

And now saving the best for last. My most favourite idol;

All the ornaments you see on the idol are offerings from devotees. And they are all real gold or silver. Sometimes they also have real gems and pearls etc. These offerings are pledged to the Lord for favours/boons such as success in business, admission to a coveted university, getting married, getting a child/ male child, surviving a major illness and I am sure many more things. The offering can actually be as small as a coconut or as massive as the actual crown, all depending on what the devotee can afford. The floral decorations and the clothes are changed everyday during the ten days of the festival. A glimpse of this beautiful vista of Lord Ganesha is calming and uplifting at the same time. The eyes seem to be watching you wherever you go. And suddenly you feel there is hope for the world yet. Another reason we come here every year could be the delicious fried goodies served at the stalls in the compound. Mmmmm..... batata wada, dal wada, cutlets, samosas, patoli, bhajiyas.........mouthwatering!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I think I have a few more pics in my camera....maybe some other time.

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