The promised pictures

They are late in coming and this time round I'll totally blame the virus that is so loyal and kind of sticking with us indefinately. Its like a crazy circle .... Anyways, luckily all of us finally over the fever, cold , cough round ! I've been waiting for days to post these pictures.
The sweater I'm making :



My pieces all done and being blocked- note to self: Acrylic yarn does not block : confirmed and praying that the crochet edging will change the look!



See the rolling - proof that blocking does not work for acrylic yarn. I have been reading about this but this is my personal experience.



This book has been one of mentors and I've been working my beginners projects from here


It's a great book , a very nice size to carry along and has projects which ate simple with good and clear instructions and illustration.
These are my projects done from this book . I'm sorry that I cannot show the pictures of the ones I knit as they were grabbed almost as soon I finished them. A baby overload presently in our family and freinds circle.







This has been my knitting venture so far...okay I know I'm not showing some of other stuff but thats just because I'm trying to protect my friends so that they are not put off with knitting for life!
I'll put up the pictures of my finished baby sweater real soon and also show you my latest knittting project - This time I'm being very brave! You'll see ...what I mean , soon enough! But I really appreciate all the encouragement and cheers from my frinds in blogland. It's what makes me keep trying.

My first ever 'KNIT' baby sweater- An advenure !
I've been dreaming about this for long enough and so finally decided to take the plunge. Since natural fibres are not available out here I went ahead with the acrylic yarn that I had in my stash.
Did I tell you that I'm fairly new to knitting? I picked up a simple beginner pattern from my current 'mentor' book. It's called vogue knitting beginner basic. Great book and this is my fourth project from this book.I've tackled two hats and a pair of booties so far from this book.
Okay, so I'm in the learner stage and learning a lot. Some of it I love and some I totally hate. I loved the new techniques, the different textures in knitting and that so far I've noted that knitting takes up lesser yarn than crochet- ( is this true???) What I hate is my lastest lesson: when you work stockinette stitch in acrylic you are stuck big time with a rolling mess!!!
I have knitted the back , the left frpont, right front and the sleeves and I have ended up with five peices that are all rolling in!!! I'm trying to figure out how to block it. I pinned it and sprayed it liberally with water until it is almost drenched. Lets hope it is blocked when it dries up ...or else ....I'm thinking I'm going to kill it!! I'm lost .
I was reading up on blocking and everywhere it says acrylic doesn't block. If it doesn't block how will I stitch the peices together? Any suggestions??Please? I try and post pictures of my effort :( .

Remember me?
Won't be surprised if you don't! I've been missing in action a long enough time now and I've had my wonderful and caring blog friends being so understanding, loving and supportive. Thank you so much for your caring messages and support. It's why I want to keep blogging.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year !
Lets hope this year is better and prosperous for each one of us.

Looking back ......
The year that was 2008. A lot happened. Some wonderful and some truly sad. The greatest moment being the birth of my niece at the start of the year and the most painful being the losing my father in law at the end of the year. good and bad go hand in hand , I guess and accept it too. Then I guess the next step is to move on forward. Which I hope to do and I'm trying to!
So maybe I should say looking forwrd ..... to the days ahead. As usaul I first think of repairing the messes I make. I've been a bad blogger all year and that's the first thing I want to change!! Lol..I hope this year will be more bloggered (? ) Are we allowed to make up new words? I really don't know whether I have any readers anymore! And I cannot blame them ....who likes to read a blog where no one writes? If I do have any readers left (I'll be very grateful for their patience with me !)I promise to show my latest projects.
First of all I want to catch up with reading. Lately I've been trying to get back to it and it's just not happening.I miss reading.There are talks of a book club out here and I'm hoping so much that it materializes. Books here are expensive and I cannot afford to keep buying each one .
But seriously,on the crafts front, I do intend to make more progress and learn a some more on knitting. I've been knitting and have actually braved it out to knit a baby sweater on my own.Wish me luck friends ...I'm so excited and scared too. And I'm so proud to have learn't a few knit techniques like picking up stitches, and a little bit of shaping etc.
I've been toying around with the sewing machine and though I don't seem to be too neat , I'm starting to like it. No my attempts tell a totally different story , I know. But I think this is another craft I'd like to persue.
There are so many things and I really don't want to make this too long. So I'll keep updating you with my many interests and hobbies and hopefully some projects too.

Life Will Find A Way
It's strange how things turn out totally different from what we expect, what we plan and what really follows. Life teaches you so many lessons by just pushing circumstances on you and catching you so unaware that it takes a while to simply recover from the shock and actually feel the impact of our experiences. Anyways, its a good thing that God has given us a nature to bounce back and catch up with our lives and our usual activities. I do not want to be too specific ..... ( I still am not upto talking about it ) but there has been a turn of events .I'm in Bangalore right now on an emergency leave until probably the end of the month.
All I can say is that I'm doing a lot of growing up and learning ...and I think 'growing up' was sure over rated when we were kids lol !!! All the gramour of the freedom of adults was what made sense ...the responsibilty factor was hiding far behind in the shadows. Ok...I know I'm going on and on ...sorry about that ..just letting off some steam, venting ..etc.

Many many doilies
This was the special projects I was talking about - these are doilies and coasters and of various sizes and shapes with fabric and fine hand embroidery. It had crocheted edging.
This was a gift for a very good friend who really appreciates and values handmade things.I'm not going to make this a huge picture heavy post so I've just put up a few pictures only and a picture with all 12 pieces.





These were fun to make. And my friend loved them.
As of now, I'm working on various small projects and working towards making stuff for the craft fair. It'll be my first one and I'm all excited. Hardly any time left to go and so many ideas and so many things to make. I'm making stuff with all of my original designs and so enjoying it. I hope I end up selling at least a bit:).Wish me luck !

An interesting Contest
check it out here . The blog is very enjoyable and the projects inspiring too. There is some great sock yarn and all you have to do is comment . Does it get any easier ? And don't forget to mention that I sent you over:).
Gotta run ...busy days again. Lots of new stuff to show...I promise to try and make it soon.

Instant gratification

Thats the charm of these little projects.I just love them because they are so fast, help use up the scraps and usually very useful in destashing. Not that I have a great yarn stash! But still it's nice to use up leftover yarn. My next few projects are all based on the same motto. I'm going to make a number of little projects and reduce my leftover yarn / thread.
This a flower and hand tawashi pattern by Mimi.As usual a very nice and easy to follow pattern. I love Mimi's patterns - they are very creative and well written too. I made these tawashis with brush yarn as I did not have the required rug yarn. And I am happy to find out that they work good with brush yarn as well. I'm using these to clean the glass ware. They clean well and no scrathes either !




And then on the knitting front too, there has been progress. This is a dishcloth from a free pattern called Circle Cloth by Hakucho that I came across at Ravelry. I fell in love with the lovely cloth and the beautiful yarn used in the pattern . Ofcourse, I just used my scrap yarn left over from previuos projects as I was afraid to use my good stuff- I'm not at all confident about my knitting abilities.

Showing off !

The last few crocheted items. I'm happy to see that I managed to finish off all the items from the list I had posted in this post last month.
1. A lacy scarf- (done)
2. beaded coasters- (done)
3. pillow cover- (done)
4. Oval Pineapple doily CAL ( done)
5. My monthly WIP doily (done)
6. Special project (can't disclose yet)- but this is a long one!- done
7. Baby sandals for my little niece-( done)
8. Sleeves edging for SIL - (done)
9. Baby afghan for gift (done)
I've shown the pictures of most of the projects . So here the remaining projects.

Baby sandals for my neice:


Once the sandals were done I couldn't resist making a little scarf - a head kerchief actually.


and of course wouldn't the little one need a cute halter to go with it???



.......and so a halter top - and before I knew it there was the whole set done!


And yes...I'm so mad at myself for not having my camera around with me when she wore it and looked like such a doll.Anyhoo, I'll get her picture in it and show it here.

Another FO is this Baby afghan for my Cousin's little boy.It's based on the spider web pattern and inspired by a pattern from the Leisure Arts booklet on baby afghan.I saw someone at Crochetville had done this afghan and decided to use the same stitch pattern.



And this one finally , is the a lacy scarf for my friend's teenaged daugther. She picked up the colours by herself and the pattern is based on sooo many fan- type bookmarks and scarves I've seen online. I hope she likes it.


Although I'm posting this now,I'm so happy that my whole list is done and I managed to finish it off before September except for the special project- which went alom=ng until half of September. I'll post those pictures at a later post. This post wouldn't get published for the last two weeks....:( ! I have more FOs to show by now. I guess soon enough I'll do that .It's been a busy month of Ramadan and now there will be some free time only after Eid.
I hope to pop in before that but until then take care and have a great day all my friends.

International Crochet Day

Wishing all crocheters on INTERNATIONAL CROCHET DAY. It was yesterday on 12th September and I'm sorry about being a day late in my wishes.Since yesterday was friday and it being the holy month of ramadan -it was impossible to find time to blog.
In honour of this day I contributed atiny share to spreading the love and art of Crochet.
1. My first batch of crocheted charity items for the homeless in India was delivered and from what I hear was well appreciated too.
2. I did a little crocheting in the local mall and got a couple of ladies interested enough to want to learn crochet from me. Hoping to get to start classes with them soon.
3. Taught a couple of my neighborhood kids and my own kid finger crochet- they loved it and I enjoyed it so much!
I know it's hardly a drop in the ocean ( but I'd like to think it's at least a drop after all !)but then since crochet is hardly known out here let alone crocheters ...it's nice to know that there are people who are interested . And I'm happy that I can spread the art of crochet a little.

It feels so good to appreciated. A nice warm and fuzzy feeling. I have very special blog friends and I'd love to be able to honour each one of them. Hence I put off posting about the blog awards for so long.

This first blog award was given by Vik . Thank you, I'm so touched. I known you to be one of the sweetest gals with a really generous and warm nature. You inspire me to keep trying my hand at knitting without giving up. You rock , girl!


Thank you so much

Since I have forward this award to my choice of deserving bloggers, I would like to present these to Mimi, VJR , Kimberly, Nima and Cindy.

This next award is from Mimi. One of the very talented and really sweet person. Thank you , Mimi,I've known you as one of the most helpful and kind online friend. Don't even get me started on you immense talent in crochet and your beautiful designs. I hope and pray that you always keep up the good work.


And I'd like to pass this award to Pearlin, Vik, Preeti, Shweta and Ulla

And finally,this award from my very new friend VJR. Thank you so much , I really appreciate it. VJr is so talented , her doilies are so intricate and beautiful that it is amazing that she only began crocheting recently. Truly talented and has a keen eye for beauty. I love your work and you make me want to go back to doing more doilies.


And I'd like to pass this award to Charmaine, Ummeyusuf, Lulu , Swapnae,Stacey ,
and Deneen

ETA : Sorry about the wrong picture earlier. I'm having internet problems and couldn't correct it earlier.

Small projects
Lately I'm crocheting more and more stuff to gift to friends. And funny part is they ask for it. Makes me wonder whether people out here have finally begun to appreciate crochet. I only hope this little interest to own crocheted stuff results in the interest to actually learn to crochet. It's a rare treat to find any crocheters or knitters out here.
My next finished project is a set of beaded coasters for a friend. I call these bead edged blush coasters. It's a simple design with a flower centre. It just a pattern I made up - I used Omega crochet thread in size 10. Easy and quick to make. I enjoyed it. Hope my friend likes it too.


This is a little dress corner bookmark. I fell in love with it when I saw it on one of the blogs- for the life of me I cannot remember which on. If any of you know please feel free to let me know. I saw it and just had to make one for myself. There was no pattern given but none was needed. The idea in itself is so cute. I can just imagine making many more of these- especially as fridgies.


The same story goes for this coin purse/ pouch. I'm using it carry my jewelery when I travel. I've a nylon yarn I got from Bangalore during my last trip to India. I was told this yarn is used for making bags. I think it would make very pretty and sturdy bags. I have remember to bring more of this in my next trip. But the yarn is a bit heavy- so maybe it's best to make a clutch or a small bag out of it.

Oval Pineapple garden doily

Another FO and a project off my list. This doily was done as a CAL at one of my crochet groups. It was nice to work it with so many other friends. This pattern is from decorative crochet magazine. So here it is in stages. I wanted to blog about it as I was working on it but uploading the pictures was difficult for a few days in between. So here are some of the pictures now.
This is the first few rounds:


After many more rounds....


And finally ....






It's done in Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton thread , size 10 in ecru. It measures 30"x18" and now I realize that I do not have a single table at home to display this beauty. the tables are either too big or small and square. I was hoping to use it for my dresser but the cannot due to the size. I guess, this doily , like many others will end up being a gift to my friends or family.
This pattern was simple enough to work but I kept getting it wrong in certain rows ( actually , in two specific rows) - not because there was any error in the pattern but only because I wasn't paying enough attention.Maybe because I have too many projects on the go at time. So I learnt my lesson ? Well, I hope so!
Many more FOs almost done . Will post them asap since photo bucket is being friendly today.

So many things
have been happening around me ..with me ...but all good so I'm a happy camper! Had a little break and a mini vacation. Well, it was not much of a break as I spent most of the 3 days shopping around , trips to the tailor etc. But it fun .And I got to spend sometime with my little niece. Already 5 months old! Time sure flies.....and babies grow so fast. My little fella is already 6 years old and I haven't even gotten over the labour trauma yet!!!
They are so right about Dubai being a shopper's paradise. It's like you can find stuff to cater to all kinds of tastes, be it clothes, jewelery or food. It's so exciting to see the variety! It makes me wonder why this doesn't apply to craft shops and yarn stores. There is not a single yarn store out here- merely a measly small corner of yarn with a pitiful variety. Anyways, that is something I never tire of complaining about.
So for the crocheting news, I have been at it as usual. Most of them are small projects. I love making these and are really quite easy to carry around during all the long drives to and from Dubai. Knitting ,is on a break right now. Let's say at resting stage.Here the list of things I'm working on:

1. A lacy scarf
2. beaded coasters ( done)
3. pillow cover
4. Oval Pineapple doily CAL ( done and being blocked)
5. My monthly WIP doily
6. Special project ( can't disclose yet)- but this is along one!
7. Baby sandals for my little niece.
8. Sleeves edging for SIL
9. Baby afghan for gift ( just started this evening)
OMG ! This list looks scary to me and intend to finish off these by the end of the month. Okay, it's more like I 'hope' to. I still can't make myself to stick project at a time. I truly admire people who can.

Winter blooms Pillow


My latest design and project. I have to cross this one out from the list. YAY !!! Nice to do that.
Anyways, I loved working this pillow cover and not just because the design is pretty but because the yarn is so gorgeous! Amazingly pretty and soft yarn.It is Schachenmayr nomotta Micro big shine. Wow! love this yarn! The pity is that there was so little of it that I had to make loads of changes to my pattern so that I did not run out of yarn as I know that there is no way possible to get my hands on this yarn anywhere out here.
I made this for a friend who had got the yarn from her trip to Australia. She requested me to make a cushion cover for her. Lets hope she likes it.

It's not about food!
We had a dinner party at my place last thursday. It was a one day notice and I went almost crazy getting stuff done. We had Beetroot Raita, Russian salad, Ceasers chicken salad, Sewian (vermacelli ) biryani, fried Quail, Bhagare baigan ( egg plant ) , Khumb Akbari ( Mushrooms) and masala papads. And for desert - Ras malai and Trifle. Needless to say It was a long weekend!
This is the Beetroot raita. I just loved the colour! And this makes a good dip too. The kid had it just for the colour.

I loved the way this looked. You know - the colour looked just too good to eat and it tasted nice too. Now photographing food is a complicated business. Safe to say that everything looked just delicious but the pictures tell it differently so those other pictures are canned.
Anyhoo, we also had a last minute cancellation and three people couldn't make it. I was not too upset - lazy 'ol me was happy to have enough leftover for the next day which meant that I could get some much needed rest and peace! Hey, I was being positive, not lazy !!
This weekend I went to the Magrudy's Book shop in Dubai Festival City. Nice place and a good collection of books. Even the reading area was very cozy. I was pleasantly surprised to see a craft section there. They had quite a nice collection of crafts books too - although a very few crochet books. There was some nice yarn and thread too different types ( mostly sirdar and UK yarns), really pretty but not much of a colour range - even finding such types of yarn available out here is such a treat. Even if it is just eye candy! I found the prices way too high- all the yarn and the books too. But it is worth visiting.

Knitting ! I'm working on it
It sounds unbelievable but yes, I have been knitting. Actually trying out various stitches and making swatches. I've done cables and even a bit of lace knitting. It all seems pretty easy when I'm doing it in the swatch sizes. I wonder if I'll be able to follow through it on a bigger piece. I sometimes just mess up the stitches when I'm working on it long enough- funny though , I thought when you work at something longer it is supposed to get better not messed up. Hmmm......I have to figure this one out!
My latest projects is a baby hat called Tiny Topper From the Vogue Beginners knitting book.



It's my first ever knitted piece measuring exactly as the pattern says. I even worked a little swatch to check the gauge. I also learned to measure the stitches.

Now to pick up something a little more challenging. Maybe a simple baby sweater next - until I get the courage to do it! Knitting scares me a little : there I said it! Now that it is out in the open ,I have to get over my fears and move on with until it scares me no more.

Catch-up time!
So happy to finally have this UFO moved out of the list . It id now officially a new Finished Project. It's such a wonderful feeling to have it done after putting it off for a year or so. This is a dupatta edging for my aunt. For those of you wondering what a 'dupatta' is - let me explain- It's like a stole ( a little bigger and wider )worn over the traditional Indian / Pakistani outfit called Shalwar Kameez. It's a very classy, modest and preety outfit. The Dupatta is the essence of the outfit. Lets say, like the topping on a chocolate sundae. So usually this particular part of the outfit is accesorised with lace, motifs, beads etc.
This dupatta is done for one of my favourite aunts - more a friend to me . I could not find threads to match the embroidery work done on the dupatta so I decided to use the black thread and multicoloured beads to match the work.


I like this folded version better ...all the beads together look good , don't you think?


And here is the close up of the stitches. It's more like a fan style stitch with beads included . Really simple and easy.

Now after looking at this you might wonder why it would take me more than a year to finish a simple thing like this. Well , all I can say is that I'm not sure either . It may have been the 1200 plus beads to string in , crocheting with size 20 black thread on black fabric, a monotonous design ( can't blame anyone for that , it's my own design!! ) or making 12 yards of lace edging!!! Anyways, I'm glad it's done and over with. But seriosly , I liked the end result. So I guess it was worth the pain.

And...........More Doilies!

This is a doily that I first saw at Swapnae's blog and quite liked the shape of it. It's a charted pattern and quite easy too unless like me you lose track while listening to music and talking/ playing with the kiddo during a long drive and skip a couple of rows and then realise the mistake at the second last round! Yes I had to frog out 8 rounds !!! And anyone who knows me knows that I hate to frog out my work. I try in any way to work around my errors...laziness? , I suppose! This doily is done in a nameless silk/ rayon blend thread that I got from Bangalore last year. The thread is very slippery to work with but the end result is so worth all the struggle with thread. The finished peice has a very polished and classy look to it. The pictures don't show but it looks very classy in person.



This is also a charted doily I saw in a Chinese pattern book. There is no name for it , just a chart given with the doily number.So I decided to call it Peach star Chinese Doily.This was a surprisingly fast to make doily. It took about a day of working on and off. It's done in size 10 omega crochet cotton thread. My favorite part of the doily is the outer portion which forms the peaks. I like that mesh like look of it.I had toyed with the idea of adding beads to get away with the picots business but decided against it as I felt it would draw attention from the pattern stitches as beads invariably do.Don't you think?

5-Hours doily
So I had promised last time about my next project that it wouldn't be a tissue box cover again.It's my ever favourite doilies. Yes, I'm on to making doilies once again. But don't you worry , I have many other projects on the go. This one is called the 5-hour doily. Seriously, it takes lesser than that much time and is a simple and quick to make project. I was watching a Hindi movie and I had this one ready by the end of it. It's not one bit surprising if you are familiar with Hindi movies- they are very long , like 3+ hours. And it looks like lately the movies are getting longer and longer !

I've seen this doily done by my other friends ( a group project ) in a combination of colours and it looked very pretty too. But I could not resist white -there is something about white doilies ...the simplicity and the elegance , maybe.
The other day I saw this lovely recipe at Pearlin's blog.It's nice and quick recipe and makes lovely side dish. Thanks for the recipe pearlin- you were right it made a great sandwich filler.
This was supposed to be along catch up post with al ot of show and tell but Blogger is really slow today ...hey the internet is slow too since yesterday! So watch out for more pictures, maybe tomorrow. You all have a great day !

A Blog Contest

Give you a heads up - Check it out! I came across this contest today and it seems very interesting. All you have to do is comment on the post and mention that I led you to the contest.
But besides the contest , I quite enjoyed the blog. She does great work and has some lovely projects done.