Vintage hand towel

Good day to all the lovely people out there!

Hope you have been happy and fine. We are having our summer season here - its hot, humid and good...

What have i been up to? Crocheting some vintage lace here. Oh how i wish i had a sewing machine, the joy of convenience is few feet away. Literally, i would do anything for some space in my house, which could fit the machine. But we live in HongKong where space IS a luxury :(

So, the next best thing - hand sewed this towel from my fabric stash. I replenished my stock recently and will post the pics soon..

You would need a metallic crochet hook for this project as you need to do the SC through the ric-rac and metallic hook acts as a needle in piercing the ric-rac.Doesn't it give a vintage feel to the towel?

Loved the fabric too. Notice how it has a self matte finish to it..Beautiful!!

Added a loop with ric-rac and joined it with a wooden button and you have a vintage hand towel ready to use.

 

An easy project, my mind is now swimming with other possibilities....off i go to attend to my creative spurt..whilst the little people are taking a nap :)

Have a great and colorful day,

Love.

xxx.

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

Reuse and a Lovely Giveaway

Hello my lovely people!
Hope you are all having a wonderful week and looking forward for an even splendid weekend:) A warm welcome to my new friends from blogger-land - Amanda from Crafty in the Med - She is a super talented lady with a great blog. Emma from The Log Cabin - love the way she gives us peek into her colorful world. Debi from DIY's Crafts and Stuff - go here only if you have more than a couple of hours to spend, beautiful things to see here :)

Here's what my crafty girl has been up to. No no..not the crochet piece, the neck piece on it :) Isnt it beautiful?

 

This is the entire collection of her wooden beads. So colorful. And yes, i am still at the crochet project, hopefully i can post pics over the weekend.

Reuse is one of the key ingredients to a crafter's life i feel. So much you can do with dresses which the kids have over grown. With useless boxes and tubes one can turn them into many play things for the little ones.

I am really fortunate to be married into a family of crafty people. My sister-in-law is very talented and creative designer with the sewing machine. Her house is filled with all sorts things hand made and with love and warmth. Here's what she has done with the dresses my little girl out grew :)

 

A project from scrap yarn - The little birdies. This was done with the left over yarn from my little girl's first project. I had great fun assembling this particular crochet piece. They have been thoroughly used and played with to the extent of the loss of a few body parts :)

Think the jungles did the trick. The pattern can be found here.

Amanda from Crafty in the Med is hosting a lovely giveaway with very attractive and interesting artifacts. The fan from Spain is really colorful and the hand made cushion cover is a lovely pattern and so is the vintage crochet doily. Do go and have a look at her give away else you will be missing something :) And participate as it is really simple and also lotsa fun!!

 

Giveaway @ Crafty in the Med

Here's wishing all of you who stopped by a very pleasant day :)

Love,
xxx.

Sneak Peek

Hello all my lovely people!

Just a little quick post from my side as i have to rush back to my hook..he he
A new project is underway and i am a bit afraid of this project as it has some sewing in it.

 

Red is my favourite color and i am generally in something red. 

Any guesses as to what this could be?

Hoping to post the completed pic soon.

Off i go to hooky land..almost forgot..have a house to manage and chores to do too!! grrrrHHHHH!!

Lots of love,

xxx

5 Steps to Instant Gratification

Step 1 : Pick up a yummy color thread/yarn and your favorite hook.

Step 2 : Learn the cutest stitch in town aka the Star Stitch and do a swatch of this stitch.

Step 3 Whip up a super easy but very addictive flower and adorn it with your choicest button.

Step 4: Search for an old/dull object which needs a make over.

 

Step 5: Combine the star stitch swatch with the flower and round of any unfinished business to give the dull object a brand new, hippy hoppy sunshine make over.

Ta-daaah..there you go! Arnt you perfectly happy now :)


Some details can be found here :

**Star Stitch video link.**
**Flower pattern link.** - Thank you Barbara of Made in K-Town. Love her colorful crochet works. You can read more about it here.
**Edging link. **

and yes, this instant gratification comes along with practical uses too :)))

Happy week to all you lovely people and thanks so much for dropping by!

Love,
xxx.

Pretty in Red

Good Morning my lovely people!

Hope you are having a pleasant  start to your weekend :)

It is getting hot and humid in Hong Kong and i am missing the cool and pleasing climate of my hometown Bangalore. For this summer i had crocheted a jacket for my little miss.


A look at it here.

Ok ok !! i still have to stitch the buttons on :) But arnt the buttons sooo cute. No wonder we have the expression - As cute as a button!

The shrug/bolero/jacket is my own creation. I have used the lace pattern from mypicot.com. The link for the pdf is here. This is totally customizable. The yoke is the standard double crochet increases one. The cap sleeves have a picot edging.

 The back of the shrug.

and here is my model wearing it, although she wasnt very keen on it!

Maybe it is one or two sizes too big. But hey, she will grow into it :)

 

Leaving you with some yummy cotton yarn i picked up from a store near my house. I dont know what make or company it is. Neither do i know what i am going to do with it. But it was too too pretty to pass. Any ideas on what i can do with it? 

Waiting for your comments and wishing all my hooky friends a wonderful day!

Love

xxx

PS: I do have my Nikon D1500 back with me now, in case you have noticed the improved quality of the images in the post :)

Granny goodness

Good Morning my lovely people!

Woke up to this bunch of lovely roses and carnations.

Little people woke up to this bunch of playful balloons.
Guess its all happy down here then :)

I have been planning a new huge granny square blanket. Contemplating on the yarn and pattern.
After reading so much on other yarn and crochet blogs about StyleCraft Special DK i had it ordered and soon after it arrived in the mail. This yarn is what everyone say it plus some more!! I just love love love love the texture, feel and the easy with which one can hook this up. Liked all the colors of this batch i ordered except the pink. It is a bit tooo bright for my palate. 

 

Made these granny squares from this book. You can read about this lovely book in my previous post .

 

Which is your favourite among the four?

My favourite one is this below.

 

Excuse the colors thoo.... Imagine the pink in read and the blue is varigated pink and the yellow in a pastel pink. Wow, it would look lovely. Waiting to get my hands on the new order which i have placed for my StyleCraft DK...

There are lots of ways to join these granny squares.

The Crafty Tortoise lists a few of there here.
Dear Lucy provides a beautiful tutorial for the same here.  This is my personal favourite way to join squares. Very easy and also i feel very stable and secure method.

One can also do the single crochet method of joining by holding the wrong sides together to get a wonderful ridge appearance in the front. This gives every square a ridge border and looks fantastic.
I have done the same here. Notice the yellow ridges giving a totally new look to the dish cloth.

Joining granny squares is very therapeutic.Crochet therapy at its best infact.
I have had my dose of this today. Hope you do so too !!

Love,
xxx.

Superhero DreamCatcher

My two little ones are having a splendid summer so far. Lots of fun, bubbles in the park, walk by the waterfront and such summer activities. A few more weeks till my eldest little one is off to school and thus begins a life long journey of schooling, studies, exams and more schooling. I thought she deserves a few weeks of non rule days before the routine sets in!

You may remember that i showed you my very first blanket which i made for my daughter. When i was expecting a second time around i was lucky enough to know if it was a boy/girl before hand. Advantages of being in HK i guess. Since i was expecting a little boy i thought of hooking a blanket for him. I wanted something simple which i could hook up even in later stages of my pregnancy, at the same time it should be something special. I dint want to do another granny square as i had just done one. Searching on Ravely gave me a very good option. The Superher Dream Catcher for my little superhero :)

You can find the Ravelry link here.

And here is my superhero on his new blanket.

 

Best part about this blanket is its super duper easy peasy. A good project to do while watching your favourite sitecoms. Or while being pregnant. You can do it in rainbow colors or pumpkin colors for a Halloween Blanket.

 

Two blankets for my two precious little ones :)

Its really so wonderful to be at home with kids and count your blessings :)

A look at my new project. I am not sure what i am going to do, just hooking up a few blocks from a book.

I think the pink is too bright. This is the all famous StyleCraft DK yarn. It really is wonderful to work with. Acrylic at its best i guess. After seeing only Vardaman Yarn in India, StyleCraft is truly a luxury yarn to work with !!

Hope to come up with a few more blocks soon.

Have a good week ahead all my lovely people!!