Gracious Gray Sweater:

Fig 1

Friends,

After my first experiment of knitting a cardigan for myself  (my previous post),  the next one I made for my daughter when she was just 4-5 years and after that I felt guarantee that "Yes! I can make it". Then I decided to knit a sweater for my husband see Fig 1. Yesterday only I took a snap of my husband in that sweater, after 30 years of use the sweater is still in a good condition, thanks Vardhamaan yarn Fig 2 

As I have written in some post, see again here also the difference between the colours of sweaters in two photos.

Material: Vardhaman yarn 4 ply grey colour 300 gm, knitting needle UK no 10 and 12, dpn no 10, tapestry needle

Final size: Chest 40", height 28"

Gauge: 24 stitches and 22 rows form 3 x 3 inches

Stem-Leaves Pattern: CO 33 sts
Row 1: K 16, Sl 1, K 16
Row 2: All purl
Row 3: K 15, in the next st work knit, purl and knit with double wrapped yarn each time, Sl 1, in the next st again work knit, purl and knit with double wrapped yarn each time. K 15

Fig 2

Row 4: P 15, remove the double wrapped yarn ( we get 3 loose sts), purl 1, remove the double wrapped yarn ( we get 3 loose sts), purl 15.
Row 5: K 13, take the loose 3 sts ahead and 2 sts back, work K3tog,  K 2, Sl 1, take the  3 loose sts to the back of next two sts and K 2 first the K3tog of loose sts, (Note in between K3tog we have K2, Sl 1, K2), k 13
Row 6: Purl all
Row 7: As row 1.

Border, neck band and armhole band:
Row 1: P 1, K 1. If the last st is purl then,
Row 2: K 1, P 1

For all borders and neck band, armhole band use UK no 12 needle and for others use UK no 10 needle.

Front side: Front part: CO 127 sts using UK no 12 needle.
Special note: We have to divide these sts such that there will be seven branches of leaves as in pattern, more over the slip st in the middle one branch, that is forth should be exactly the centre of the front side part so that it will be end point of the V-neck. (See fig 1). Here we require some mathematics (of course for Professor in Mathematics that should not be a problem 😁)
Hence I have divided the sts as follows,
127 = 12+1+16+1+16+1+16+1+16+1+16+1+16+1+12
Note that these 1 stitches shown by bold are the slip stitches in the pattern on both sides of which there will be leaves in the pattern and the red one st is exactly middle one where there will be end of V-neck when the height will be complete.

Work border till the height is 2.5".

Increase rows: Now work with UK no 10 needle as per pattern.
Increase 2 sts one at the first and one at the last st. After 2" repeat this Thus now total sts will be 131.
Work these increased stitches always in stockinette st.

Repeat this till the height is 19".

Decrease for Armhole and Neck:  Bind of 6+4+3+2+1 sts on each RS and WS successively.
Now there are 99 sts on the needle.
Out of 99 sts,  work 49 sts as per pattern + place 1 st in a plastic pin + Join a new yarn to the next remaining 49 sts and work them separately as per pattern.

Also go on decreasing 1 st on every forth row and work remaining stitches as per pattern. Continue this decrease on both sides for neck side till 32 sts remain for shoulder and the height is 28" from start. Take these 32 sts for shoulders on two holders.

Back side

Back side: CO 127 sts. Work border as per front part.
Row 1: (k 15 sl 1) repeat 7 times, k 15. (127=15+1+15+1+15+1+15+1+15+1+15+1+15+1+15)
Row 2: All purl.
Repeat till the height is 19". (See colour change again?)

Armhole: Bind off 6+4+3+2+1 sts on each RS and WS successively.

Now there are 127-32=95 sts. Work as per pattern till the height is 27" end with WS.
Work 32 sts as per pattern, take middle 31 sts on holder and attach another ball and then work remaining 32 sts as per pattern.
Work those 32 sts on both shoulders for 1" more and with third needle join the shoulders with the corresponding shoulders of the front part.

Armhole Band: Pick up sts from the armhole side, approximately 150 sts. Work 1-1 ribbing for 1"

Fig 3

Neckband: Join the thread at one of the shoulder and pick up approximately 210 sts. (Even number). Work 1 x 1 ribbing stitch.
For the edge of V-neck work carefully as follow,
Considering that the central st must be knit, decide whether to start with knit or purl.

Row 1: K 1, p 1 (or p 1, k 1 as needed). Repeat for all sts. Slip the marked central st by plastic pin. repeat till end.
Row 2: k 1, p 1 till one stitch before the centre. Take the central st ahead and work k3tog.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 till the band width is 1" and then bind off all stitches.

See how beautiful the edge of V-neck looks!!






Hope that the following video helps you to make the pattern,

My First Cardigan:

Fig 1

Friends,
This month I have not created any new item so let us have some old memories.
This was the first cardigan I have ever knitted.
That was the first year of my marriage in 1979-80, I was searching a job and also have much time at home. So I decided to knit a sweater for myself (it is better to experiment on our self). As I have already posted about my aunty or my guide in knitting, I asked her and she suggested me to knit a coat type cardigan. Actually in those days girls didn't use to wear dresses with collar, but I always used to like collar dresses so I decided to knit this coat type cardigan.

Those old days photo was not with me so bear with this today's photo because the cardigan is still in good condition but the colour is  only fed up.

The sweater was knitted in 6 parts, two front parts, one back, two sleeves and collar. Being old coat type design, it has no increase or decrease of stitches in the body part.

Fig 2

The pattern of this cardigan is known as shell design.
Pattern: CO 25 sts. Work all even rows as purl.
Row 1: P 2, k 1, YO k 1, p 7,  p3tog, p 7, k 1, YO k 1, p 2
Row 3: P 2, k 2, YO k 1, p 6,  p3tog, p 6, k 1, YO k 2, p 2
Row 5: P 2, k 3, YO k 1, p 5,  p3tog, p 5, k 1, YO k 3, p 2
Row 7: P 2, k 4, YO k 1, p 4,  p3tog, p 4, k 1, YO k 4, p 2
Row 9: P 2, k 5, YO k 1, p 3,  p3tog, p 3, k 1, YO k 5, p 2
Row 11: P 2, k 6, YO k 1, p 2,  p3tog, p 2, k 1, YO k 6, p 2
Row 13: P 2, k 7, YO k 1, p 1,  p3tog, p 1, k 1, YO k 7, p 2
Row 15: P 2, k 8, YO k 1,  p3tog, k 1, YO k 8, p 2

Repeat these 30 rows till the required height.

Material: Vardhaman knitting yarn 350 gm, knitting needle UK 12 no and UK 10 no
Final Size: Chest 34", height 25", Sleeves length 24", armhole 7"
Gauge: 20 sts x 25 rows form 3" x 3" in the pattern design.

Left Front Side : CO 81 sts using UK 12 no needle. (81= 10 button band + 25 pattern + 23 pattern + 23 pattern). In between two pattern strips 2 purl sts will be common, hence 25+23+23.
Work ribbing as follows.
Row 1: (p 1, Sl 1 as purl) repeat
Row 2: All purl.
Work ribbing for 2".
Transfer the work to UK No 10 needle.
Then work as above pattern except 10 sts as ribbing again.
After 17",  bind off 5+3+2+1 on WS successively. (70 sts)
Work 1" more then bind off 10 sts from neck side on RS then again 5 sts on RS  from neck side (55 sts). Bind off 1 st in alternate RS from neck side till 25 sts remain for shoulder.
Right Front Side: CO 81 sts on No 12 needle.  (81= 23 pattern + 23 pattern + 25 pattern + 10 button hole band). Work as Left front side.
Back Side: CO 121 sts. again on no 12 needle. After ribbing shift to UK No 10 needle.
Shell pattern is also worked on back side (121= 2 for stockinette st +25 pattern +23 pattern +23 pattern +23 pattern +23 pattern +2 stockinette st).

Fig 3

Work till the height from beginning is 17". Bind off 4+3+2+1 on both sides successively. There are 101 sts.
Decrease 1 st after every 6 rows on both RS and WS. Repeat this 4 more times.(now there are 91 sts)
Work till the height from beginning is 24". Then work 25 sts as per pattern, Bind off 41 sts, Join new yarn to the next st. Work these 25 sts as per pattern
Sleeves: Sleeves are worked separately starting from rib stitch.
CO 55 sts using the smaller needle (12 no). Rib stitch 1x1 for 2".
Transfer to no 10 needle. Then only one strip of the shell pattern is taken in the middle and other stockinette st. (15 stockinette st + 25 sts for pattern + 15 sts for stockinette st)
Increase: After every 5 rows increase one st at both ends. Repeat this 5 more times. (Total sts 67)
Work like this till the height from the beginning is 17".
Bind off 5+3+2+1 from both RS and WS (total sts 45)
Decrease one st on both ends after every 4 rows till there are 15 sts.
*Bind off 5, work remaining as per pattern* Twice. Bind off  last 5 sts.

Make one more sleeve like this.

Collar: Pick up 96 sts round the collar.
Row 1: (k 1, p 1) repeat till end, last k 1.
Row 2: (p 1, k 1) repeat till end, last p 1
For the round up shape of the collar,
Increase the stitches: On each RS increase 1 st on both ends of the collar, on WS work as per pattern.
Continue this increase till 7 sts are increased.
Now work 2 rows without increase or decrease in 1x1 ribbing then start decreasing stitches.
Decrease the stitches: On each RS decrease 1 st on both sides of the collar and work WS as per pattern. Continue this till all 7 sts are decreased again.
 Thus for collar 30 rows have been worked.
Bind off all sts.

Finishing: Sew all parts properly.

Cute Collar for a Dress:

Hi friends,
This collar I had tatted for olive green colored dress of my youngest sister; long back in 1979-80 when she entered collage. In those days the art of tatting is very new in our city.  After some years when that dress tore, I removed that lace (collar) and sewed it
to another dress and I have photo of that only.

I don't remember name of the book from which the pattern was seen. It was having very few pages and all black and white photos. If any one among our tatting world knows the name of that book, please let me know, I shall be very much thankful to him / her.

Fig 2

After so many days of making this collar, I wished to tat one more collar or lace. When I searched internet for that I first time saw beaded tatting. It was beautiful and moreover I never did it. So I decided to tat beaded lace and this is my first beaded tatting.

Before sewing I keep this lace around the neck of my blouse in two different ways. Finally I sewed the lace as per fig 4 as I liked it more.

Fig 3

Fig 4

My Mom's Creations:

Fig 1

Friends,
The month of March which is actually my birthday month but this year March had totally moved me. It gave a shock of my mother's demise. At the time, we all sisters and my brother were with her in Bangalore at my brother's place where she was living since two and half year. We saw her breaths slowing down and down. She was bed ridden since one month, her age was 85 still her demise made us orphan. 

Mother is always special in every one's life. Every one has lots of memories about her / his mother. I also have number of memories, out of which I will share one memory with you. 

My parents wanted me to be a singer as I had already mentioned in my post of "Music: the divine art". They always wished to hear me (songs by me), both classical as well as light music. After the death of my father my mom lived in Amravati with my younger sister Sadhana, I used to go there frequently, many times she asked me to sing a song and I used to sing also; but this was only in the last month when I realized that how much my mom used to be delighted on hearing my songs, when Aparna (wife of my brother) told me this incident.
My mom's Sodium level was reduced, she used to talk irrelevant since last one month. 

One day she said," Alka sing 2-3 songs". (though I was not at my brother's place at that time) 

After some time she said to the wife of my brother,"Aparna, today I am really so satisfied as Alka sung 4-5 melodious songs".
Hearing this I could not control my tears 😭.

She was very efficient manager. She managed the business of my father "Liberty Art Service", a business of painting, the movie advertising boards. It was very hard core business due to it's dependency on the working artists. Big banners like 60 ft x 20 ft, 100 ft x 20 ft size were painted in the studio for talkies decorations. Some of the photos of talkies decorations made in our studio (Fig 2, 3 and 4),

Fig 2

                        

Fig 3

Trade mark of our studio

Fig 4

As I have already written in "About me" of this blog, she was (and will be always) the only inspiration behind all my arts. Though she never did knitting or crochet work but she was interested in every new creative thing she forced us to learn that.
Not only she inspired us but she herself creates number of things based on various arts. But I had very few photos of her creations. So to share them with you I have devoted this post to "My Mom's Creations".

She had worked some cross stitch embroidery on table cloths, mats etc. only one photo of  cross stitch work done by her with embroidery threads on Jute square is available. (see fig 5) This is a small mat used while worshiping God. 

Fig 5                                                   Fig 6

Fig 7

Another beautiful embroidery work made by her was the baby blanket with knot stitch (Fig 6,7 ). She made it at the time of her first grand daughter that is my daughter. After 36 years also, today we are using it as a washing machine cover.
She made patch work dolls, animals on the baby blankets of all of her seven grand children. I have photo of only one of the classic patch work embroidery which a small baby's photo (Fig 1).

Fig 8

She had done much of bead work. Beaded rangolies around the lunch plates. Each design was different (Fig 8). Some more rangolies were there but I don't have photo of them.






She made many articles by using white beads (we call it pearls) on velvet cloth. I had two photos, one of Toran, a strip used to put on the door. Blue velvet strip was decorated by bead flowers and small bells. See fig 9.
Another photo was of pair of peacocks which mom made as a rangoli but later on we used it for decorating any thing. (Fig 10)

Fig 9

Fig 10

Fig 11

One more special creation of my mother was "Halvyache Dagine", the jewelry made by halva. Halva  (Fig 11) is the special Maharashtrian recipe made from suger and sesamum or suger and poppy seeds. In Maharashtra jewelry of this halva is made for newly married ladies and newly born babies on the eve of Makar Sankrant. Fig 12 shows the complete Halva Jewelry set made by my mom which content crown, necklace, earrings, mangalsutra ( a special kind of necklace with black beads only married ladies wear it) different types of bangles, rings for hand and leg fingers etc In fig 13 my cute little brother and in fig 14 my beautiful sister wearing all Halva jewelry made by mom.

Fig 12

Fig 13

Fig 14

She also used to sew big banners required for our studio. She sewed her own blouse, our frocks etc.

At the time of arrival of every grand son / daughter she sewed many small dresses again I missed all those photos.
She also used to do quilting. Number of baby blankets she made by quilting and used small pieces of cloths she had.
I have only one photo of naming ceremony of my daughter (Fig 15) in which some of her creations in quilting can be seen and that knot stitch blanket (shown in fig 7) can also be seen.

Fig 15

She drew beautiful rangolies but again I don't have any photo.
Her affection about new thing and her creativity can be seen in her last few days also. She saw one soap case in TV advertisement. It was made of sponge, she explained that when the soap finished some stuff remained in the soap case which can be used from the sponge case to wash legs 😛. She ordered my brother and described him how to make that and her obedient son and my loving brother made it and the result was (it remains unfinished and she left us) ......

Fig 16

Knitted Jacket 8

Lovely Lavender Jacket:

Fig 1

Fig 2

Hi friends,

Photography for a blog is again a time consuming factor. No doubt among different forms of arts which I love, photography is also one. But many times what happens is; the exact color which we can see by our eyes is not caught by the camera and then we go on trying. Try to change background, if we have taken a snap in night then try to take it in a day light, even try to change mobile once by my mobile then by my mister's mobile etc. You will realize, what I am saying once you see fig 3 and 4. The same piece looks lavender and the blue. 

So this Lavender and light yellow of baby set in my post on 8/12/2017 are the colors whose beauty of shade can't be caught by camera. One more thing, Though I have praised so many times the quality of wool in USA, Red heart or Lion brand etc  but I must admit that I missed the variety of shades available in India. This lavender shade is so pretty but I could not catch it in camera. I tried with different background and the result are above.

    I made this jacket for my grand daughter. She is 5 years old and slim so this will be perfect for her. Actually the lavender part is completely seamless and the black strips are made separately. Initially I made it by picking up stitches and working as per cross stitch design but that idea felt as got round up and didn't remain stiff. Hence I tink it all and worked separate strips and sewed it and wah! it looked marvelous.

Size: Height 19", chest 25", armhole 6.5"
Gauge: 16 stitches x 22 rows means 3" X 3".
Material: Lavender color Vardhaman 4 ply yarn 100 gm, Black 50gm, knitting needle 4 mm, dpn 4 mm, tapestry needle, crochet hook 3 mm.


Instructions:  CO 100 sts. = 17 for half left front + 66 for back + 17 for half right front.
Row 1: Working all knit, place 2 markers, one after 17 sts for and then after 66 sts for back.
Work Rows 2 to 9 all knit.
Row 10 (RS) onward we use stockinette stitch.
After 3.5" from CO row, decrease one stitch on both sides of the marker as,
Next row: k 15, SSK, move the marker,  k2tog, k 62, SSK, move the marker,  k 15. k2tog (that is in all 4 sts decreased).
Then go on by Stockinette stitch till the height is 7". Then again one row as above in which 4 sts are decreased. So now there are 92 sts. (15+62+15)
When the height is 10" from CO row increase 4 sts as under.
Next row: k 14, kfb, move marker, kfb, k 60, kfb, move the marker, kfb, k 14. (4 sts increased)
Repeat this row after 1.5" again. Then the total number of stitches will be again 100 (17+66+17).
Work stockinette stitch till the height is 12.5".
After this, we are going to work only Right front side's 17 sts.

Armhole shaping:
Row 1: K 17 and turn.
Row 2: Bind off 3 sts then purl all till end.
Row 3: K all
Row 4: Bind off 1 sts and purl all. (Now there are 13 sts on the right front side)

Neck shaping: Row 5: Bind off 1 st and knit all.
Continue stockinette st for 1.5". Then decrease 1 more stitch from neck side that is bind off 1 and knit remaining all. Now there are only 11 sts on right front side.Continue working in stockinette st till the arm hole measures 6.5". Place these 15 sts on a holder. Now from CO row the height will be 19".

Back: Join yarn on the first st of RS of back part. Now we are knitting these 66 sts of back part only.
Row 1: Bind off 3 sts, k all
Row 2: Bind off 3 sts p all
Row 3: Bind off 1 st k all
Row 4: Bind off 1 st p all. Now there are 58 sts on back side.
Work these 58 sts in stockinette st till the arm hole is 5.5".
Now for shoulder, work only 11 sts in stockinette st for 1", place these 11 sts on holder. Bind off middle 36 sts. Connect yarn with the last part of 11 sts of other shoulder. Work in stockinette st for 1", put the stitches on a holder.

Left Front Side: Connect the yarn at the first st out of 17 sts for left front side.
Row 1: Bind off 3 sts, knit all. Turn,
Row 2: All purl
Row 3: Bind off 1 st,knit remaining.
Row 4: Purl all. (Now there are 13 sts on the left front side)

Neck shaping: Row 5: knit all.
Row 6:  Bind off 1 st and purl all.
Continue stockinette st for 1.5". Then decrease 1 more stitch from neck side that is bind off 1 and purl remaining all. Now there are only 11 sts on left front side.Continue working in stockinette st till the arm hole measures 6.5". Place these 15 sts on a holder. Now from CO row the height will be 19".

Sew the 11 sts on shoulders by putting RS on RS and using third needle.
Now 58-22= 36 sts for back.

Your ready portion will look like,

Fig 3

Border of armhole: With double pointed needle pick up approximately 84 sts from the armhole. Work three rows of garter stitch and bind off. Similarly make the border of other armhole. Now your piece will look like this, 

Fig 4

Cross Stitch Strips: Actually first I have pick up stitches from both sides of the button band and back collectively then made this cross stitch design of 17 rows but after so many tries also the button band strip folds and didn't remain stiff. I didn't like it, I completely tink it and made the strips separately and then sewed them.

The cross stitch border I have chosen is of 13 sts.

Fig 5

Of course you can have your own choice, keeping the width required (17 sts here) in mind.

Cross Stitch Border: CO 17 sts, Work garter st for 9 rows. 

In order that this strip should remain stiff, first 2 and last 2 sts out of these 17, will be always worked as knit. Therefore 17-4=13 sts exactly remain for the design.

Make the strip according to the design till it's length becomes 20". Similarly make one more strip. 

Fig 6

Sew these strips to the button band. One inch of this cross stitch band will remain sew with the bind off part of the back. Similarly other cross stitch strip is sewed. Still the cross stitch strip is not stiff up to the mark so I decided to make a round of hdc through out the strip including the back neck portion. Now from back side it will look as, 

Fig 7

Fig 8

  I have one wooden bead and I want to use it as a button so I insert a crochet hook at the place where neck starts and work out 20 chains and close the ring at the same place. Then sew that bead as my button.

Fig 9

wah! see how beautiful it looks!
Here you have scope to sew  tassels, instead of that wooden button or to the button. In Indian market such show pieces are called Latkan (a hanging matching show piece) and they are generally sewed to dresses. If they are matching then it will look super cute!

Only one is sufficient, may chose smaller one

Small tassels like this