A little bit of everything

Thank you for your kind comments on my craft room !!:) I am glad you all liked my lovely little colorful place :)

I have been busy with an important task and Anshita's School reopened after summer vacation from 11th June . Life has been busy and we are all put back into disciplined mode :) I managed to do a little bit of everything . This is my first crochet headband/hairband . I saw those colorful ones on my blogger friend Rita's post and I made it the very same day .

Anshita decided what flower and color she wanted and I really had a hard time making the flower and she was not ready to settle down with anything simple . It took 10 min. to make the band but 1 hr to make the flower :)

She doesn't like the ones with buttons and this one was stretchy so she said she would use it .

You can view the free pattern from Rita's post or you can go to direct link here . The flower 'Ruffled Rose' is from the book '100 flowers to knit & crochet' by Lesley Stanfield .

I did some cross stitching too but no pics . Also made some special dishes . I made few more but those were repeated ones as shared earlier .

Khaman Dhokla : Steamed gramflour cake tempered with mild spices .

Vegetable cutlets : Mashed vegetables with spices, deep fried. 

After the high temperatures(44 C) in last month, the rains have brought in relief and it has come down to 24 C now :) When it rains, our front balcony gets flooded and then Anshita makes paper boats to sail . This time her boats weren't ready. It rained little and the water receded so quickly by the time she made a boat and took a picture . The boat felt too embarrassed to be photographed on that tiny little patch of water :)

I have started using these gardening trackers , a free printable from here . There are many more on this site . This pic was taken last week .

Yesterday Raj helped me  transplant the seedlings into pots . I am not sure how many will survive . I have some more other than these but the winds are blowing too hard on them and they have become leggy, so I did not take their pics.

 

Impatiens, Marigold , Gomphrena Mix, Gomphrena White 

Marigold Safari yellow

There were some queries about the knobs and handles in my craftroom. I purchased my handles from a local hardware store including the custom made beaded ones but the ceramic knobs were purchased online from here . I am not sure whether they deliver worldwide .

I will soon be back with some more stuff to show and less ramblings :)

Have a great week!!
Preeti

Christmas in a new light!! And a giveaway too! :)

Ok , I will throw a light on this :) Raj bought me a new table lamp to take photos for my blog . I am still experimenting with the correct angles because even though the light is good , I have only basic photography skills . The count of images you see is 10% of what I clicked ;)

I crocheted this flower with a metallic thread .  I ordered it online when I was a novice in yarn selection . I just liked the festive red colour . I have written the pattern for this flower at the end of this post aaaannnndd there is a giveaway too !! :))

 

Give away !!
I thought that the thread was of size 20 but while crocheting I felt it is slightly thinner .  This thread can also be used for embroidery and tatting . I can give away 5 balls out of 9 balls of these threads that I am left with . If anyone is interested , just leave a comment or mail me (preetipalnew@gmail.com) about the same . If there are more than one interested , I will draw the name and accordingly inform the recipient to send her mailing address . Do spread the word .
Details of the thread : Camellia Yarn Art, metallic red, 20g/.70 oz 190m/207yds.

Pattern (in U.S. terms)
With crochet thread size 30/20 and 1/1.2mm hook, the flower would measure around 2.5 to 3 inches . You can select gauge based on your yarn .
Colours: cream and red

Round 1: With cream colour :  Ch 7, join with sl st to form a ring . Ch 4 (count as dc , ch 1) , [dc , ch1] 11 times in the ring . Join in 3rd ch of beg ch-4 (12 ch-1 sps) .
Round 2 : Ch 3 (count as first dc) , 2 dc in next sp , [dc in next dc , 2dc in next sp] rep around , join in 3rd ch of beg ch-3 . Fasten off . (36 dc)
Round 3: Attach red with sl st in same st as joining . Ch1 , sc in same st , sc in each of next 2 sts , *[sc , ch 9 , sc] in next st ** , sc in each of next 5 sts , rep from * around , ending last rep at ** , sc in each of last 2 sts , join in beg sc . (6 ch-9 sps)
Round 4 : Ch1 , sc  in same st as joining , *[3 dc , 4 tr , 2dtr ,  ch-4 Picot , 2dtr , 4tr , 3dc] in ch-9 sp . Skip 2 sts sc in next st ** repeat from * ; at the end ,  join into the first sc .
Stitch reference:
Ch-4 Picot: Ch 4 , sl st into the top of last dtr .
Sl st –slip stitch ; dc- double crochet ; tr- treble ; dtr- double treble

If there is a mistake , please correct it for yourself ;) however , if you find any , you can leave a comment .

I don’t celebrate Christmas religiously but we enjoy the fun and exchange gifts .  India is a country where we have many religions and we celebrate all festivals in our own way :)

While my daughter is practising ‘Christmas carols’ at school and Raj playing ‘secret Santa’ at office , I am crocheting with a glitter to be a part of this festivity :)

Do write in and enjoy the festive season !

Preeti :)


 

Crochet bag !

Hope you all had a nice weekend !

Here comes the crochet cross-over bag for my daughter !:) I had started crocheting this last week .

The bag and belt is done with Anchor knitting cotton and the edging with Anchor mercer cotton size 20 . Its my own design with various plug-ins :) I crocheted four basic squares with flowers . One of these is rose flower which I generally make as a free hand crochet . Patterns for rose flower are available on many sites . The other one , I copied from an already existing old crochet doily at home .  I found a similar one at Allicrafts while surfing. Sorry , I did not note down the link and I tried searching for the same pattern but could not find again :( But still there are lot of nice patterns at this site .

The edging is from vintage crochet and is a variant of the edging mentioned in the book 150 favourite crochet designs by Dover needlework publication .

I made a basic granny square behind these flowers . After joining all four squares , I just crocheted double-crochet lines on left and bottom . I attached an edging at the bottom , some beads to decorate , a simple belt of three double-crochet stripes and Ta- Dah , the bag is done !!

 

 

Pattern(in U.S. terminology) for edging :

 

Beginning at the first flower petal with yellow thread :

(*) ch 5 ;  holding the last loop of each treble , work 3 trebles in 5th chain from the hook , YO draw through all loops . This is the beginning cluster .

Repeat from (*) and create even number of clusters as per your desired length for edging . Do not finish off .

 

ch7, make a 4-tr cluster at the base of previous cluster .

(+)ch7 , sc at the base of next cluster , Ch7 , 4-tr cluster at the base of next cluster .
Repeat from (+) with sc in the last cluster .
Work similar way in the opposite side . Fasten off .

 

Start with White thread, crochet lengthwise to join the edging : Ch 7 , treble in 2 spaces (on either side of petal) , ch7 , treble in next 2 spaces....repeat till the end of edging with ch7 .

 

The edging is completed and can be attached to your piece with slip stitch or single-crochet or double-crochet . I have attached my edging with single-crochets of size 20 thread .

 

I know , I have written the pattern a bit haphazardly but hope it is understandable ! :) let me know if you have any difficulty while using the pattern .

Important !
Always make use of ring markers while attaching edging at the right stitches , especially , if the edging is of different thread size . In this case , the no. of stitches cannot be attached one-to-one.

 

Hope you liked the bag . Love to hear your feedback!

 

Happy week ahead!

 

Preeti :)