Tired fingers!!!

My fingers have been idle for a while. Know the reason? I have got married and was away from my normal life for a month. Now I am back to normal with a new person with me. I am glad that he does encourage me when I crochet or throw bits of cloth and wool here and there while being crafty. I am thankful for being given such a wonderful partner.


Coming back to my crafty world, I have lots of ideas and projects to be done for our new place of stay. I have actually started with a small project but unfortunately don't have the pictures. But here I share with you the biggest project (incomplete) till date.

I intended making a shawl for my mom. Like most women even she loves pink and I bought many skeins of this pink shiny wool.


I employed my fingers to work fast and give perfect stitches to keep my mom cozy during the winter. Only after crocheting a few rows did I realize that the length is very much more than that required for a shawl. But I was reluctant to undo the stitches. I kept doing on and on. And finally I made up my mind that this will become a comforter or bedspread for us. So I am still working at it. And as you see from the pictures the stitches are close. Similar to shell stitches with a triangled look, it is fluffy and heavy. Sometimes I wrap it and enjoy the warmth and delight of being in it. I am looking forward to completing it and spreading it out on our lovely bed!

Quick n Easy!!!

I made something quick and super easy. Wondering what it is? It's a mobile pouch again! Guess I am getting addicted to these cellphone pouches.

So if you want to know a bit more about this pouch - it is my own pattern, done in maroon and black with a great looking button, and felting inside. Now take a look at it.

I know its looking red in the photo, but in fact its maroon :-) My camera plays tricks at times ;-) It is rectangular in shape. I first made both the rectangles for the front and back. There are 14 treble (double crochet) stitches in a row each. Now see the side view.

You see that black side work? It is a row of trebles only. For the corners, I skipped two chains to get that bending effect. And I didn't do this row directly onto the rectangle. Instead I made the row first and sewed it into the sides of both the rectangles. This seemed a better idea than crocheting it into the rectangle. If I did so, the black thread would be seen irregularly spaced on the rectangles. Now time for the inside.. yey!

I couldn't get a better picture of it. But hope you can see the felting inside. This pouch was meant for a good rectangular phone and the felting was done so that the phone is well protected. I sewed the corners and edges of the felt from inside, so that it doesn't come off when the phone is pulled outside. So it remains inside intact in shape!

And the closer is a single strand of chain stitches. I sewed it onto the inside of the back rectangle and the felting was put over that so that the knots are not visible. See it.

And the button - its one from a favourite denim shirt of mine. I pulled out the collar button as I don't use it anymore. This button could not be sewn in. It has that pressed back. I just pushed it in through the trebles and stitched the two trebles closely together so that the button doesn't come off. The stitches are done beneath the button. Completely invisible ;-)

Take a look at it once more!

I just loved it. Was turning it over and over again with sheer delight. It was a pretty quick and easy project as I already mentioned. I only spent some time in finding a button for it. And I was finding it hard to resist the urge to put in a black satin ribbon through it. But I had to avoid it as it is a mens pouch. I couldn't make it girly :-( So does it seem manly? I guess a bit. And I am mentioning it once again - its maroon, not red :-)

Crafty-Crochety People

There are a couple of people whose blogs I visit almost daily to view those lovely crochet and craft posts. I may not read everything but love gazing at those wonderful pics and adore the magic human fingers, a needle, and a string of yarn can do together.

Well, see to believe what I am talking about.



At Attic24, Lucy does a wonderful and colourful work every day. Her blog and pics were what actually inspired me to get back to my crochet hooks. Her Granny Squares, Ripples, and circles are simply adorable. Check out her blog for a colourful journey.

Sarah is another colourful and neat crocheter. I love her creativity, colours, and superb neat stitches. Take a look at her Flickr photo album. The wool eater blanket, stars, and Hawaiian flowers are what I love the most.

The next creative person in the line is futuregirl (Alice). Her blog is my latest find and I am loving browsing through the posts. See this wonderful flower purse and Starling handbag. Wondering when I will become super speedy like Alice :-)

Rae does really good stuff with sewing right from buttercup bags to tops for all and even does crocheting.

Well, I adore these wonderful ladies and their creativity. I am indeed happy if this post has inspired someone. :-)

Blue!

Last time when I had been to the Commercial Street to buy yarn, I saw a greenish blue coloured yard. It was a bit shiny and was looking pretty. I somehow had this urge to buy it all of a sudden though I was not sure what to make out of it. I brought it home and kept it rolled up.

A light blue shiny yarn also was bought in accompaniment with it.

Few days back I thougth of using it to make something. But kept on wondering what to make. Finally I decided; a new mobile pouch. My old one was worn out and had become dirty. So I started. I was not pretty sure how it would turn out. And I followed the same old pattern. Didn't try any new designs. And here it is.

Look how adorable it is with these yarn rolls. Scrumptious! ;-)

I particularly loved the light blue border on the flap. But it gets dirtied soon owing to the daily use and rough handling. And the button is something I am excited about. At the spur of a thought I got this idea. Can you make out what is it that I am speaking about after seeing this pic?

Well, this button was a plain lilac coloured one. I didn't have any good ones for this pouch and the plain one was looking really bad on it. So I got this idea. I wrapped it in an embroidery thread which seems to match the yarn. And if you observed the centre portion, it is light blue embroidery thread. Doesn't it seem nice to you? I am obsessed with this lovely pouch of mine now. Kindly excuse me for this very blurred image.

And I didn't give the yarn rest right after this project. I used the combination for something more. See this.


A lovely flower. The light blue is at the back. I wanted to show a back view of the flower, but don't dare to. It has become a bit dirty in the rains. :-( Now you must be wondering why I took it out in the rain. It is because the whole flower looks something like this.

Yes, it is attached to a key chain. It is for my new two-wheeler's keys. :-)

Now have a look at this pretty lot.

More Grannies!

Granny Squares have actually become a sort of addiction to me. Whenever I pick up a fresh yarn and try to think something creative, the Granny pops up. And most often I give in to the Granny ideas. My recent crochet project is a table cover for a rectangular coffee table at my home in Kerala. My mom was planning to buy a table cover for it when I thought why not put in some effort with my hands and the needle.

Like always, I kept on thinking for days for a pattern. I found many on the web. Some were really interesting ones. But finally Grannies won the competition. Next was the colour part. We went shopping one day and both my mom and myself, we chose two colours for this table cover. As soon as we reached back, I was immersed in the process of rolling the skeins and keeping them arranged. It was a tedious process! And finally I made the first Granny for the project. You wanna see it? Here it is.

I was really thrilled when I made this first square. I kept on doing the same thing day and night. As soon as I reach home, I start my hooky business with the red and black yarns. The first three rounds were what excited me the most. I loved the red and black alternating rounds. I longed to make flowers out of it but resisted the temptation as I had to complete this. And I was a bit tensed too. Because this was my first BIG project. The squares piled up over some period of time.

When I made 44 of these Granny Squares, I started joining them together. You know something... I was sitting and crocheting in the car during our travel down to Kerala. It was raining and was cool inside. The pattering sound of the rain drops on the metal and glass was awesome while crocheting. Except for the occassional humps and steep curves, crocheting while traveling was really a pleasure filled one. And by the time I reached, I had joined the most of them.

When the whole thing was joined and blocked out, it looked like this.

If you have noticed, I did some edging as well to it.

I did one more round of the black edging and ran out of thread :-( I ll post the completed image when I buy more thread and finish it off finally to adorn the table.

Inspired

I was inspired by one of the Itty-Bitty bag crafts on Burdastyle. I don't have the url to the exact post now.

Out of that inspiration, I created an Itty Bitty bag for myself. Want to see it? Here it is.



I made it out of my brother's old denim. He was generous enough to give it to me for my experiment. I followed the instructions and made some customizations as well. Bought a zipper and attached it to the purse. I don't have a sewing machine. My mom has an electronic 24 stitch one from Janome though. But I didn't have it then in Bangalore. So had to hand stitch the whole creation. At places hand stitching was a bit difficult as the denim material had folds and was hard for the needle to go in.

You see the flower in the centre? Does it seem pretty to you? It was my first fabric flower. I made it out of an old garment which I no longer use. More apt would be that I made the decision right then that I won't use it anymore for the sake of making that pretty debutant flower!





The centre portion is made out of the denim itself.

I took around the whole of an evening to make it. I got stuck at places while adding the lining. Had to redo the stitches. And morover, sewing is something what I like but am not good at it. So it took me a lot of time also.

Now this bag rests in my cupboard and holds my itty bitty things ;-)

Block It!

Hi All... :)

Most of you would be familiar with the art of blocking your granny squares. Well, I came to know about it very recently. Initially I was a bit sceptical about the success of the process. But I can tell you, it was indeed worth the try.

Would you like to see my attempt at blocking my Granny Square? Well, here it is...

I had some leftover yarn which I couldn't use for a whole new project. I was wondering what to do with it when I thought of a mix and match sort of cloth piece for the kitchen and I started with it.

I won't call it a Granny Square, but probably a Granny Rectangle :-D Seeing those curled up edges I felt sad. Finally what I had read about Blocking dawned upon me. I thought of giving it a try. I used a big cardboard, a big piece of thick cloth, board pins, tepid water, and a sprayer from the kitchen.

After 8 - 10 hours, it looked like this:

Not the complete intended effect, but a big difference right? I was pretty pleased with the curls disappearing. And I happily carried on with my project. Added more left over colours to it.

And more to it....

And finally, it looks like this now!

I received a suggestion from a few - it should have been more colourful!

Next time... sure :-)