Table manners

Doilies are definitely a thing of beauty and a joy forever... Over the years I have made dozens of doilies. I find it just magical that a simple ball of thread can end up looking so intricate, exquisite, delicate and of course elegant. Oh yes... I do love doilies (or did you guess as much from my last post!).

But, once in a way I like to keep pretty aside and go for for something that is practical, something that is useful. This Table Napkin Holder is the result of one such trip down the Utility road. I had seen some pretty napkin holders on various blogs (not sure whether they are Spanish or Portuguese), but could not find a suitable pattern in English. So I decided to just make it up as I go along.

And, my dearies this is what I made.

The cream and brown colour were chosen to match our dining table. I used knitting cotton  and a 2.5 mm hook. Once it was completed I felt it looked quite plain, so thought of adding some flowers on top.

I wanted an "elegant" spray but these flowers were all I could manage before my patience ran out.

Do you think the flowers match the napkin holder? Please let me know. Maybe next time I will make different flowers and use different colours.

Here is a close-up of the flowers.

Now isn't that something pretty and handy to have on your dining table.

See you later. Do feed my fish at the bottom of this page.
Love xxx

My Favourite Book

Reading used to be the greatest passion in my life till crocheting took over. As it was simply not possible to read and crochet at the same time, books had to take the back seat. The other reason being that it is so much easier to crochet and watch TV at the same time. But I still love books very much and am always on the lookout for new books to buy.

Today I am going to show you my most favourite crochet book  Lovely Lace. 

This book was a  birthday present from my dear friend Malati, in the year 1988. Since then I have made many beautiful doilies from this book.

Here are a few pages from the book and some of my doilies;

 

This doily is now with my mom gracing her centre table.

This doily was an experiment in colour.

The last doily has since been frogged as the shaded pink was not doing justice to the beautiful pattern. As if it was not evident in the first few rounds... I completed the whole pattern before unraveling it ...duh?!

Here is a small tip for crocheters who use pattern books. I never crochet directly from the book. I always use a copy of the pattern and then put the book back in my library. I find it easier to mark my place, note down any modifications, write down the size of thread and hook etc on the copy.  So now you can see that my book is in excellent condition even after 24 years!

Did you find this tip to be useful? Do let me know.

Happy crocheting. xxx

One for the little boy who...

Today's post is about my boy A, who is not really "little" anymore. Over the past 20-22 years I have crocheted dozens of items and then gifted them away to family and friends, but I had never actually made anything for my son.

So last year when we got him a laptop I was more thrilled than him, as I wanted to make a laptop cozy/sleeve for him. Inspite of showing him the lovely photos on Google, he gave me a horrified look and declared that he was never carrying his laptop in any "girly crocheted cover". I was very disappointed, but not for long.

As my son is pursuing a degree in "Animation and Multimedia" my cousin gifted him a  Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet

Luckily for me (and unfortunately for him...he he), it came without any kind of cover, and I managed to convince him that the drawing pad would get damaged without a cover.

Now for a non-girly yarn! I dug into my stash and came up with this yarn I had purchased in 1993. The yarn was meant for a sweater for my husband, but the texture of the yarn did not seem right for a garment, so it remained in my stash all the years.

And...(drum-roll) here is the final product!

The first row was a length of chains equal to the breadth of the pen tablet. Then I just made dcs in the round so that there would be no seams to sew later. The back of the cover is plain as shown in the pic below...

On the front side I decided to create some texture to protect the drawing surface. For this I used a simple pattern of 1Fpdc, 3 dc and by shifting the Fpdc to the centre of the 3 dc in the next row managed to create a lattice effect. The picture is not really clear but you will get an idea.

Upon completion I decided to use my sewing skills (which are actually zero), to make a lining for the cover. The pen tablet came with a stylus, cable and of course CDs, so three pockets were made for them.

Phew... finally it is done.

Here are a couple of projects done by sonny boy using the pen tablet.

Bye for now. See my obedient fish follow your mouse at the bottom of this page... don't forget to feed them.