Beyond the Square Motif

Hello my dear fellow bloggers!
Hope you all have been having a sunny and fun filled day :)

 A view of the finest harbour fronts. Buildings and mountain terrain at the same time. Probably the only one in the world. The view for my coffee cant get any better ;)

Here's something that will surely brighten up the dull day - A book. This is one of the smartest purchases i have made in the recent past. "Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs". You can go ahead and have a sneak peak at this Amazon link. For the people in India you can order this book at Flipkart. Here's the link. Best part of ordering in flipkart is the option of cash on delivery :)

Coming back to the book, it is truly amazing, has unbelievable motifs and my mind went buzzzzzzzzzzzz with ideas and things to do after seeing this book in my hands. Opening the parcel and turning each page over and over again, i am still not able to soak in this book completely. You see what i mean by ideas right??

Learnt a new technique from this book. Known as Sliding Loop, think it is the best way to start your motifs as you can adjust the size of your beginning circle.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this challenge by Barbara of Make in K-town. You can read more about this here.

Readily joined in and here is my first motif:

Category : Squares
Motif No # 89

Hope you guys have a look at the book and join me in this adventure of motifs and beyond!

..and I am back

in HongKong. It feels strange all of a sudden to be alone with my little ones. Its just me, hubby and the little people now. After days and months of always having some one or the other family member with you, its takes a while to be brave enough to face the little ones alone :) Well they have been angels so far, so much so that i am here blogging while they are taking a short nap!

Past few weeks have been real hectic and i have not been able to get much hooky done. Now i have loads of new projects to keep the hand n mind busy. While i am still working on my latest project, here's a look at what i had done a while ago. Yes, when i was the mother of just 1 child (if you'll exclude my hubby dear), i had even more time than now. Cant believe this blanket was done in barely 1 month! Originally i saw this blanket in Lucy's Attic here.It was from here that i feel in love with her colors and blog :) I purchased the book she has mentioned and began hooking away.

 I wanted to use the same bright colors and also merino wool. But the local yarn store had only merino Sublime pastel shades. I loved it anyway. The feel of this wool cannot be expressed, sooooo soft and soo easy to work with, its a hookers delight!

My little miss has had many a cosy naps under this blanket. It really makes me smile when this happens. When your hook can create magic for the magical people in your life :))

The book is really good, has quite a few cool projects using granny squares. A look at one of the interesting pages in it.

This is the baby blanket i fell in love with and had to had to do it. Its really simple, the squares can her hooked 1 here and 1 there. The neat trick is how they are joined to give a zig-zag appearance. 

The joining happens keeping the blocks tilted. Stripes of zig-zag rows are thus obtained. These rows are then joined together using SC from back. I added another row in yellow to highlight the joints.

Little Miss loves it and does not share it with anyone. I love this!! My first blanket's long overdue ta-daaah!!!

I have a very interesting thing to show you fellow crocheters in my next post. Keep in touch and keep your hook close by.

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 :))

Where's my hook??

and this is why its missing :)

Hello my dear bloggers!!
The last few days have been very busy, lots of traveling was done, kids had to settle down in my mother-in-laws place and get adjusted to the hot weather of Gujarat. With monsoon looming large but no rains in sight, it has been an energy sapping summer here. Having a teething almost 1 year old does not help :(

But its been good, sit back to a quiet life, where there is no traffic and where there are no malls and to enjoy the pleasures of a small town. Currently i am in Junagadh, located in Gujarat.The city is located at the foot of Girnar Hills. A view of the hills from the house.

 

 My little miss decided it was high time we strolled out. So i had to oblige and take her out for a stroll and some toy shopping. A view of our walkway..

 

The popular mode of transport is seen in the above picture.Here was our transport for the day. As my miss said, "Mamma what a bumpy ride!!".

The only hooky related activity i have recently done is buying this book.

 

Go ahead and feast your eyes and the color candy available courtesy Amazon from here !!

A thousand possibalities are swimming in my head at the moment..Ahh for some 'ME' time...

Here's wishing every crafty mom some colorful, free, 'ME' hooky time...

 

 

Liebster Blog Award

I am soo thrilled to receive the Liebster Blog Award.

Thank you Sangeetha of Crochetkari for the lovely award and pleasant surprise!!

My little world of crochet and blogging are indeed honored with this special gift from dear Sangeetha!! It means a lot of encouragement and hopping happiness to me!! yayay!

The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear, but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany. Liebster, means favorite or dearest, and the Liebster Award is designed to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award, the recipient must pass it on to five more blogs of note. Don't you think it is really sweet and a good thing to do.

So here's my list of 5 great bloggers who are doing amazing work in crochet and managing homes/kids and the like...

In no particular order:

*Ranjana from Ranjana's Craft Blog. She is a versatile artist and does some amazing works - be it crochet, tatting, embroidery or printing. Always supportive and a great blogger.

*Ninu from My Experiments with Needle and Thread. Her crochet works are inspiring and her patience is admirable.

*Jackie from Button Tree Crafts.  Love her write ups and her cute buttons. All the beautiful crochet and knitting work is eye candy for crochet lovers.

*Yasmin from Hooks and Laces. A very talented crocheted, paper crafter and versatile blogger too.

*Janette from The Green Dragonfly. Amazing crocheter, great photographer and choice of colors and balance between them is very new and fresh.

Well, thanks Sangeetha once again and here's wishing all my fellow bloggers and happy and wonderful hooky day ahead!!

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..

Rose Doily

So many things to do and so less time to do them! That's a crafter's  eternal problem. Having tried my hands at almost all things crochet, i found myself thinking of dollies. Crochet is probably the best method to do this, expect maybe tatting(which i can never learn!) I had never done a doily before and decided it was high time i give it a go...

The thing about internet is you have too many options. After searching for patterns i found out that i did not like the traditional round or shell or pineapple patterns. No they are not for me. Neither did i like the star ones. Flower dollies looked a bit too frigidity and frilly for me. So with so many restrictions i had to narrow down to a select few. However i kept coming back to see this on Ravelry. Its flowery, rosy, has circles and also leaves. My mind couldn't go off it. I HAD TO HAD TO HAD TO do it.

Here's a look at what i came up with...

With all the possible colors in stash, it was really difficult to select the rose color for the pattern. But since i know this is a gift, i could easily zero in the colors.

Love the blues, maybe next one would be in red and orange with a cream centre...Already my eyes are colorful..ha ha

Little Miss's "Actually Phone". I keep telling her that it is actually a calculator and she retorts with,"No mamma, it's my Actually Phone"!

One on a color background.

 
The tool - clover 2.0 mm hook, without which thread crochet is so much more difficult.. Love my clover needles.

 

Not sure how much more hooky stuff i can get done as i need to do some cleaning up and bore myself with domestic chores. We are leaving for the last leg of our India Trip to my mother-in-laws house in a week's time and i need to correct and repair my mom's house before i go, else she may not call me and my little ones again :))

Taata..and happy weekful hooky to all of you!!