Features and 1 for my Little Man

Good morning my beautiful friends!

How are you? Did you guys enjoy your weekend? A bit of house work, a dollop of child's play, a bob of crochet and bits of blogger-land?. They say that weekends are to de-stress and enjoy. Try telling that to a home-maker with 2 small kids and a hubby grown up equally stubborn kid! Running from here to there, always answering to "mamma", "mamma" Well that's how it was here in my Diaper-land :)

But i had a great surprise waiting for me...
On Friday, dear Kara @ Petals and Picots featured my Princess Bolero. My first ever wearable crochet it was and i was thrilled to be featured on her blog. The link is HERE.

On Saturday when i was browsing through the blogs on my Reader's list, i saw a snap of my Giant Granny Patch Blanket from Annemarie's Blog. No, it can't be i thought, clicked anyways and surprise!! I was on her Link Party too!! 2 in a row, it made my crochet day!! I was a thrilled, happy and so lucky to have such a creative hobby!! Don't you think Crochet is so wonderful and healing? I read somewhere that it is also one of the very few needle crafts that cannot be replicated by a machine..So hurrah's for all us crocheters!!

I have made much more for my girl than my son, mainly because she is a girl! and crochet items are more for the girl or home - at-least the ones i do :) You can pretty up a girl's dress with flowers, butterflies, laces, buttons, bows and what not. But there is a limit to what you can do with boys stuff. Even in any dress store, i see soo many varieties for girls and also colors. But for boys its always the boring blues, whites, greens or max yellow and orange.

Anyways, enough of my ramblings.. This is my next project.

 I did manage to find the awesome Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk yarn in the bottom of my yarn box. I had bought these 3 colors for making a stripe vest for my boy. I have started off and here's a look at the first few rows. Its alternating FPDC and BPDC worked up in 3 color rows. I am so loving this yarn, its an excellent buy, only a tad expensive. Costs about HKD 48 per 50g ball. But its for the boy and its worth it!

 

So my lovely friends, what have you been up to? Any new starts, any projects off the hook? Would love to hear from you as always:)

Have a great week ahead and happy crafting!
Love,
xxx

Summer Dress

Hello my lovely people!
Hope you are having a good friday and waiting for the weekend to relax and unwind :)

My new friends from blogger land - Sophie from Sophie's Paradise , Hyfah al, Beck from Beck to Vintage - love Beck's photographs and cute crochet items! and Mau from Creative Mau .

Its so good to make new friends everyday and get inspirations from all corners of the world don't you think?

I have not been doing any big project recently. Plan to amend it very soon.
Stitched a summer top for my little miss. Inspiration came from many sources, but had a picture of a wavy yoke stitched on this fabric, topped with some flowers. Turned out exactly how i imagined it. Its sooo so good to have a picture in your mind and then craft it from your own hands. A look at the dress rather top now..

Yes i used Picasa widely for these photos..
Did a round of blanket stitch and then followed it with this:
1 SC, 2 DC, 1SC in 1 loop. Slip stitch in the next. Did this all around for the edging.

 

Coming to the yoke...It is really simple actually. Did 5 rows of chevron wide wave pattern. Thats all!!

The straps are 1 row of SC in the center flanked by a granny stripe row on both sides. That's followed by 1 row of HDC. My favorite stitch for straps these days seem to be the HDC. It is a very cute and sturdy fellow..

Enhanced the joins with 2 ready made fabric button centered flowers from my stash.

Here's another click...

 Used 2 simple buttons for an opening at the back.

Picasa again, enhancing the strap and button for you..,

A close up of the edging. Can be used for any other crochet item too..like a towel or dish cloth..

 

Well, i am hanging up my hook for the weekend. Have a few outdoor plans and some family/weekend time to spend before my little princess is off to school!!

Hope you all have a happy fantastic weekend ahead. Loads of fun - hooky and otherwise ::)

Love,

xxx

PS : I haven't used a sewing machine for this ;)

My Hex-Tote

Good morning my lovely people!
Hope you all had a great n fun filled weekend. The sun showed up at last, after a week of continuous cyclonic rain here in HK. The little people basked in the sun and in general it was a good weekend.

Ok, have you ever seen something and wanted it real bad? The moment i saw this bag i knew i had to give it a go. The problem was the colors. There were so many options. I wanted to use Red as i am generally wearing something which is red. And the pattern called for white. So decided on this combination.

It is a fun fun fun project. I had a great time crocheting this bag.

Thank you Alice from futuregirl craft blog. The videos and step by step instructions are so clear and easy to follow. I love her blog and admire her eye for detail and perfection. Lotsa lessons to learn :)

A few more clicks of my new bag which i absolutely love love love..!!!

Can you see these ends?

You know what is clever about this bag? Use a lining to cover this mess of threads up!

 

I sewed this lining by hand, i do not have a sewing machine as of now :((

Another neat trick to close the bag is this strip of titch buttons. Easy to sew them on, gives a nice finish to the bag. I dint want buttons as it is cumbersome to keep opening them. Zipper was out of question as i don't have a machine. This pretty much fit the bill :)

 

 A closer look at the hexagons....

 My latest model decided he has found a new play toy :)

Hope you guys liked this bag. Do visit Alice and crochet a hex tote for yourself!

Happy sunny week to everyone out there.

Love,

xxx

Beautiful Flower Dress

Yes..It is finally done!

After admiring this pretty red dress from The Green Dragonfly for a long long time, i decided to have a go at it. This is a very interesting blog, beautiful pictures and lovely crochet works. Mostly i admire the little kids :)

 Don't you just want to pick up your hook and give it a go?
The pattern, courtesy Janette from the Green Dragonfly, is here..

 I decided to go for a flower granny square rather than the usual one. This is granny square with a twist - pattern from this book here. Never a person to limit myself to one color, i used three shades to go with the fabric for the frock.

 

My mother-in-law sewed the dress to the yolk. You can read more about this joint venture here.

A very smiling little miss.
A happily bouncing me.

All my lovely hooky friends, grab a hook and dress up your favorite little model in this lovely dress :))

Matching Matching

My little miss is suddenly all grown up. She wants to match all her dresses with mine. I find this immensely cute and adorable!! We both have a blue and white polka dotted pajamas and whenever we wear it together she is like ,"Mamma and me, matching matching!". And when we are in the same color tops/t-shirts she is soo very excited.

So imagine her excitement when we bought the same type of footwear!! She was alllll smiles and insisted i buy one like her's.

These are the traditional Jaipuri Joothis.You can find more information about this wonderful and colorful state of Rajasthan here. It is very famous in India and can be worn to give a very casual or a very chic look with Indian clothes and fabrics.

Here we are together! I do love the look of her sandals.

 

Some more fabric for getting them sewed into pajamas. Hopefully i can learn sewing very soon....

Started on another crochet project. This is actually a place-mat design as per Ravelry. But i am going to do more rows and columns to make it into a television drape. My mom selected this design after she feel in love with it. And i had fallen in love with this pattern a long time before :)

It is very delicate and pretty, but oh sooo very fiddly. It is definitely not going to get over in a week's time. 

We may be getting some rain in this part of the world today.. I do hope so it does rain and everyone does love the monsoon right. Best time to tuck in hot hot samosas and tea! Here's hoping for rain and all the good eating it brings along..

Joint Venture

Being crafty is a joy and a pleasure to the craftier.To be able to gift a part of your time through hand made things with love is indeed not a joy which can be written about.

Imagine my joy when my mother-in-law also is equally, if not more, interested in all things crafty!
I have a lot to learn from her, craft being one of the lesser things. She knits beautifully and my children have been warm in her lovely hand knits. I should do a post about the sweaters she has knit soon. She is also into origami, sewing, paper crafts and anything else crafty :)

Apart from craft we also share a lot of common interests. When we are together we watch a lot of crime/murder mysteries series. Many a bleak and dull weather days in HK have been passed watching Monk, White Collar, Leverage, Castle and such other series. This entertainment always is fun when we have company right? Be it shopping eating mushrooms - much to the chagrin of the Banker - we do have a way to get to him!!

So when i saw this pretty frock i knew i had to do it. I have done the crochet part and now my MIL has kindly consented on do the sewing part.

The fabric to do the sewing bit is below. I am waiting to finish this WIP :)

 A joint venture for a very pretty girl who is loved more each day!

Yarn Crisis

I am out of yarn!!!
The last leg of my Blanket and i am out of the maroon shade. I have the last 2 sides of the last row of the blanket border to be done.

But in my race with yarn, the yarn has won and i have to go fishing for the color.
:((((

A look at what i have done so far.
Think it fits on a Queen Size bed nicely.

Tried a new border. Thought that this blanket deserves a special border as it is for a special person. A frilly and girly affair.

All folded and its now a WIP as i have to complete 2 more sides of the border.

Incase anyone is wondering about the beautiful spread below the blanket, it is a handmade sheet from Calcutta (city in India).

Its hand embroidered on cotton cloth. Since my childhood, there is this uncle who comes from Calcutta selling these sheets at homes. It is business by word of mouth. He gets georgeous stuff and i hope to be able to embroider once such sheet at some point of time in life!! Sigh!!

Meanwhile here's a look at what i am going to do next. I am already excited about this but yes i am out of thread and need to go to buy some very very soooon!!

Past Forward - Part 1

Good old school and collage days! One is without the constant worries of raising children, without the need to attend to daily household chores, without the hassles of an income providing job. Yes, you do have exams and competition to live with, but i would trade them any day for my terrible two's darling :) But life does go on, does not stop at any stage or at any person. It is in the present that one must live because only then will you give your 100% to each day.

Well as i am in my mom's house i thought of capturing all the art and craft i have done. These pieces were done when i was a stranger to the Internet and when i had ample free time. When everything was taken care of by my parents and the only thing i had to do was study/eat/play and any other thing which kept me out of trouble!!

This is done using simle satin stitches. The only thing it needs is patience. I was quite fond of this and did it with lot of attentioning to details. Feel good and relaxed when I look at it.

Modern art had caught my fancy for a very brief while. The below painting is of Lord Ganesha, who is considered the giver of Knowledge and Wisdom. His trademark sweet offerings is also visible. The flowers used to worship Him are done using Block Printing from blocks i had picked up on a visit to Mount Abu in Rajasthan.

Red poppies are one of my favourite flowers. This painting was done one random night when i was totally bored and needed some color to brighten up my mood.

 It now adorns a wall in my parents house :)

Another painting or rather a sketch is the Trees below. I had real fun doing this one.

Seeing all these paintings makes me want to take up a brush and paints again. It is immensely relaxing and calming to paint. With every stroke of the brush magic can be created.

Comming back to my current crochet project, a few updates here. I have followed Lucy's Granny Stripe Blanket. The pattern is here. I am having loads of fun chosing the colors for this. Every new stripe gives me the a new color rush - literally. Since this is a gift i am not putting up the entire piece here but just a teaser ;)

A happy Sunday to all and hoping that everyone's life is very colorful!

More paintings and art work in my comming posts :)))





India Calling...

..we are off for our summer vacation!
Yipeeeeee!!!!!!

Leaving for India tonight. I may have accidentally finished my packing..he he..no no wait, i still need to buy a couple of things. Haan, yes i do need to get some covers and some bags. That's more like me, doing things till the last minute :)

All the clothes, with kids you never know when enough is really enough. ?Thankfully its summer so i don't need more layers. You just dress them in tees and shorts and off then can flutter away.

The goodies are packed in bags, the shopping done and the sorting done :)

Empty closets. I am thinking how it will be when we finally leave HK. Its gonna be like packing so many memories. Both the children have spent their infancy and one is spending her toddler-hood here. It may not be my country of origin but family is where my kids are right now. Hong Kong is not so bad after all :) and the best part being you can afford frequent trips to India.

The only clothes in the cupboards now are the winter wears and full sleeves. So good to see the little people in sleeveless and short sleeves.

  

The below 2 Upsy Daisy T-shirts are my daughter's eternally favorite ones i think. God bless the day i painted them. She has used it so so so much. She used to either wear it or she used to carry it. I could get her to bathe, eat and in general obey me with them. In fact she has even carried it on her flight to India in our previous visit :) Every family member has asked her for it and she says that she will buy a new one from market and give it to them! 

The short sleeve one is "tight Upsy" as the shirt is really tight for her. The other one is "new Upsy". Its new only in comparison with the tight one. One day i need to get these framed!

Well, last few hours before we all set off, i am all super excited! Not sure how much crocheting n crafting i can get done. But want to do a lot of scrap booking as paper is really cheap in India.

Going to try my best to blog and motivate myself.
Before i am off, one more link - a great DIY crochet T-shirt dress idea. Amazing in fact, going to try my hand at it pretty soon.There is one for the mommies as well here.Hope to get this done as its tooo beautiful.

Off i go to catch our flight :)