Birthday Goodies

Hi Friends, remember me?

Well, I wouldn't blame you if you don't remember me since I disappeared for so loooong. I was actually jolted out of my stupor after reading THIS post by Sharon, that is when I realised that I had been neglecting my blog and my lovely friends too. I know you will forgive me but you see this is what happens when overgrown kids get too many toys to play.

Confused? I am referring to the presents I got for my birthday. As Aishwarya rightly pointed out I spent my birthday, which was on 10th of September, in Mumbai. And much to my surprise I got a lot of pressies which I was not expecting at all.

Firstly I was not happy about the trip to Mumbai, because;

A) Believe it or not, after all my grumbling, three years down the line I am finally calling  Ahmedabad my Home, and I hate leaving my house to go Anywhere.

B) Hubby could not get any leave from work so it was only me and sonny to Mumbai, which also meant I would spend my B'day without him....Grrrrrrr.

But then, surprise, surprise...Hubby managed to squeeze in two days of leave and reached Mumbai just in time for my birthday.

He also threw a lovely dinner party for me, along with a few of our closest friends at my favorite restaurant, Urban Tadka (at Ghatkopar), and with desserts on the house, what more could I ask for, right?

But wait there is more, a visit to my Mom's place revealed a huge pile of crochet, knitting and craft books bought for my by my brother!! Yes, dozen's actually, plus a whole set of "Stitch by Stitch" books which I think are now a vintage item. All thanks to the eagle eyes of my brother and my sister-in-law, both of them are avid readers and spend most weekends visiting all possible book fairs. Since I couldn't carry all the books back with me as my shoulder is on the verge of popping out of its socket, I picked the most colorful book of the lot. The rest are expected to reach me by courier. So here it is:

Easy Living Crochet By Carol Alexander
(Affiliate link) 

There are a lot of lovely projects in this book and I will give you a book tour soon (ulterior motive... I want to play with our new scanner).

Then a visit to my aunt who had just returned from the U.S. brought forth this goody, something that I have been lusting after for a long, long time...

 

This CD has sixty two issues of Crochet World magazine!!! Can you imagine how many patterns that works out to?!! Even if I make only one fourths of the patterns I think I am set for life... What do you say?

Think that's all......NOOO I am saving the best for last!!!! Guess what was waiting for me in my mailbox back home at Ahmedabad. This fantastic book which I secretly longed for, sent by the lovely Gale from Boocoos Blogthingy, all the way from USA. Now isn't that very very sweet of her. It was the prize of a giveaway but as I firmly believe in the power of Positive thinking I knew the book was looking for me too. ;) Hehe.

 Crochet Saved My Life
(Affiliate link)

 Ever since I had heard and read about this book I longed for it, (especially since I believed that the lives of People around me was saved because I never put my hook down to pick up any weapon.....haha) and it was definitely on my bucket list. Who knew my wish would come true so soon. Thank you, dear Gale. Did I mention the Bonus - the book is signed by the Author Kathryn Vercillo of Crochet Concupiscence. Now that is a first for me - an author signed copy!

So now tell me, can you really blame me for getting lost, poring (read that as salivating)  over the patterns and the books and forgetting to update my blog!! I am sure you will understand. :)

Now, no visit to Mumbai is complete without a visit to my favourite yarn store - Pradhan's of course. I got a lot of yarny goodies...kilos actually but more about that in a later post.
So do come back for the book tour, my review of "Crochet Saved My Life" and to see my yarn extravaganza.

Have a great weekend. Happy crafting.

Snow Capped Orange

Hi friends,

Yes, its me! Still alive and playing hooky as usual. I know I am writing after many, many days and that is because I was busy with some "behind the scenes" activities. More about that later.

For a change I actually remembered something that I promised earlier and that is, to show you the matching hat I made for the orange and white scarf. So here it is:

Cute, isn't it? It does look like any simple crochet hat but I am very proud of it. Why?  Because I made it without any pattern. Something which I very rarely do as I am a slave to the written word and also because I just do not have the patience. But this time I had to rack my brains as I wanted a matchy matchy set.

 

The trick was in adapting the scarf pattern to the hat. While the scarf is worked by crocheting back and forth the hat is worked in the round. But I managed to do it without any gaps showing in the pattern. 

I will discuss more about adapting patterns in my next 'scarf and hat' post. I chose white for the crown as I thought orange would look too bright and even kiddish. So the white cuts through the orangey-ness. But I kept the cuff orange as that is the part which is handled the most while putting on and taking off and white may get soiled quite easily.

The set looks just lovely. What do you say?

Here is a closer look at the stitches and cuff

And here is some unknown model wearing it.....   :)  LOL

Now, about those "behind the scenes" activities, you may have seen the advertising banners and links on the blog. I know that they are a bit irritating but please bear with me. Recently I came across many articles about monetizing your blog and I thought I should give it a try. Also the real reason is that I am hoping in the long (looooong) run it will help me pay for my yarn acquisition disorder without feeling guilty when I stock up. Since Adsense, for reasons unknown to me, does not want to be my friend I had to hunt for other options. Also fear of html is a big handicap.

Another activity is that I have now joined Twitter. I have not really got the hang of it yet but it is an easy way to "follow" your favorite bloggers, crochet designers and experts. Hoping to be active and tweeting soon. PS- Any tips are most welcome.  :)

This has been a hurried post as I am leaving for Mumbai to celebrate the Ganesh festival with my friends and relatives there. Last year I wrote a small post about this festival and you can read it HERE. I hope I have some good pics to share with you from Mumbai. 

I am also planning to buy some yarn in Mumbai, so wish me luck. No, not for buying but for camouflaging and stuffing it into my suitcase so that nobody is wiser!!  LOL The things one has to do just to keep your hobby alive.

So that is all for now. Can't resist one more pic of my orangey matching set!  :)

Happy crafting and Happy Ganeshotsav