Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Modak: Favourite Sweet of God Ganesh: On Special Occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi
Fig 1

Hi,
As told in my last post, on 2nd Sep we shall celebrate "Ganesh Chaturthi". This Utsav (festival) is celebrated publicly for 10 days and personally with our family  members either 1 or 3 or 5 or 10 days . God Ganesh is supposed to be the God of intellect and wisdom. He is honoured in the beginning of every rituals.

Modak is supposed to be the favourite sweet of Ganeshji. Modak is a sweet made by stuffing coconut and jaggery and the outer covering is of rice flour or wheat flour or maida. Then they are deep fried or now a days baked. Generally they are made 5, 11 or 21. One Karanji (Gujia) is always made along with Modak. Karanji is another version of Modak only in different shape.

Here I made Modak which I will explain in this post and Karanji in my next post. See orogonal photo of Modak and Karanji. in fog 2.
Fig 2
 For this Modak I used white 4 ply wool and 2.5 crochet hook. We also need fiber for stuffing.
Magic loop, 
R1: ch 1 and 6 sc in that, join with first sc by sl st and close.
R2: ch 1, sc 2 in each st (12sts)
R3: As R2. (24 sts)
R4: Ch 2, dc 2 in the same st, (dc 1 in the next, dc 2 in next) repeat till end dc 1 in the last st, close (36 sts)
R5: ch3, (fpdc, front post double crochet, 1 in the next st, dc 1 in next two sts) repeat, close. (36 sts)
R6: Ch 3, (fpdc 1 on fpdc of previous round, 2dctog in next 2 sts) repeat till end. Close. (24 sts) See fig 3.
Fig 3
Fig 4

R7: Ch 3, (fpdc 1 on previous row fpdc, dc 1 on next) repeat (24sts), close.
R8: Ch 3, (fpdc 1 on previous fpdc, skip 1 st) repeat (12 sts) close.
R9: ch 1, (fpsc 1, taking 2 fpdc of previous row together) repeat (6sts) close.
R10: ch 1, fpsc 1 on each st, close (6sts)


R11 and R12 same as R10.
Bind off and pass yarn through all these 6 sts by tapestry needle.

I made such 3 modaks. See fig 4.
The following video may help you to make this modak.



Monday, August 26, 2019

Hibiscus Flower, Crochet Flower - Jaswand
Fig 1
Hello friends,
The month of Sawan, (in Marathi calender) generally our August is also festival season in India. There is Rakshabandhan about which I wrote in the last post, Ganeshotsav etc. Ganapati Utsav is celebrated both publicly and personally in famities. For details of this please see,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi

It is said that this Hibiscus flower is very favourite of God Ganesh and most of the people use this flower while worshiping God Ganesh. So I made this flower with crochet for decoration purpose.

I use red and green Vardhamaan 4 ply yarn and 2.5 mm crochet hook.
There are 5 petals in red and one sepal in green.

Petal: Ch 4.
R1: dc 2 in first st, (3sts) ch 1 turn,
R2: sc 1 in each st, ch 1 turn.
R3: sc 2 in the first and last st and sc 1 in all the sts in between. Ch 1 turn (5sts) See fig 2.
Fig 2

Fig 3
Fig 4














R4: sc 1 in each st. ch 1 turn
R5: As R3.(7sts) Ch 2 turn See fig 3.
R6: hdc 1 in first two and last two sts, dc 2 in 3rd, 4th and 5 th st in between (10 sts) ch1 turn
R7: As R3 (12 sts) ch 1 turn
R8: sc 1 in each st. ch 1 turn
R9: 2sctog in first two and last two sts, sc 1 in each of the middle sts (10 sts) ch 1 turn
R10: sc 1 in each st
R11: As R9 ch 1 turn, (8sts)
R12: As R4
R13: As R 9. ch 1 turn (6sts)
R14: sc 1 in each st. Bind off. See fig 3.
Make such 5 petals.
Fig 5
Add caption
Border: Join red yarn at 5th row starting.
(ch 3 leave some space join by sl st) repeat till the top most 6 sts come. (ch 2 join by sl st in the next st) repeat till all the 6 sts finished.Again (ch 3 leave some space join by sl st) repeat till the 5th row end comes. BO. See fig 5.





Green Sepel / stalk: 
R1: Ch 1, sc 5 in magic loop, join to the first sc by sl st
R2: Ch 1, sc 2 in each st (10 sts) close
R3 and R4 as R3.
R5: (ch 3, dc 1, ch 2) in the same st and join by sl st in the same st, sl st in the next 2 sts. Repeat in the bracket 4 more times.

Stem: First take half tea spoon Rava, (Wheet product) or you can use very fine sand. Mix half of it with temeric and half with pinjar (red power used as bindi). Then take a thin wire, wrap red yarn over it, fix it by Fevocol. On the top of it have some fevocol and deep it in Red Rava then spread yellow rava on the stem little below part of red rava. Please see video.
Then compile it as shown in video

I think you will love to make this flower. A bunch of 4-5 flower may decorate your family room or make a bouquet from that and gift some one.

The following video may help you to make this modak.


ETC: Enjoy the Creativity.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Betel Leaf and Betel Nut (Paan and Supari)
Fig 1
Hello friends,
In Indian wedding and any other rituals; Betel Leaf and Betel Nut has much importance. See in fig 2 on white cloth betel leaves are placed. In fig 3 showing another event where betel leaf is used. It is supposed to be a holy leaf.

The Kalash, (a pot in fig 4 which is places with full water and a coconut on it with mango leaves) is placed in every ritual. But if mango leaves are not available then betel leaves also can be used.

Hence in Indian wedding Rukhawat, girls made crochet or beaded coconut or banana leaf etc. For meaning of the word Rukhawat, please read my post
https://alkaandart.blogspot.com/search?q=rukhawat

 So some of the subscribers of my Youtube channel Kalopasak requested me to give the pattern for betel leaf and nut. Hence I tried to make crochet betel leaf with betel nut and here it is in fig 1.

Fig 2

fig 3

fig 4














The crochet betel leaf I made is of 22+1 chains with 4 ply green colour wool and 3mm hook, fig 5.
Round 1: sc 1 in each ch starting from second when reach at the edge (sc1, ch1, sc 1) in the last ch, place marker in ch 1-space. Make sc 1 in each stitch on other side till 3 chs remain, slip st 1 in each of the next 2 sts, turn fig 6
R 2: Sl st 1 in second st, sc 1 in each st till marker, (sc1, ch 1, sc 1) in ch 1-space. Make sc 1 in each stitch on other side till 3 chs remain, slip st 1 in each of the next 2 sts, turn
Repeat R1 and R 2 two more times. Thus 6 rounds made. Fig 7.
Fig 5

Fig 6
 Now as I have to make upper portion of the leaf (which is usually bigger) so in the next round I increase the sts in the upper part symmetrically by 2sc in one st
Round 7: Same as round 2 only make 2sc in one st, symmetrical on both sides as shown by fingure in fig 7.


Fig 7
Round 8: Same as round 6 but this time increase two sts on left and 2 on right of the leaf.
Round 9: Sc 1  in each st till 3 sts to ch 1- space sc 2 in that st. slip st in the next 2 sts at centre make stitch in the lower level stitch, sl st 1 in each of the next 2 sts, sc 2 in the next st, sc 1 in each st till last 4 sts remain sl st 1 in next 2 sts, turn
Then make a stem at centre by ch 3 and sl st on each ch. See Fig 8.

Round 10: Sl st in each st when reach at lower end make ch 2 and then make sl st 1 in each st on other side. Fig 9.
Fig 8

Fig 9
Betel Nut: In magic loop ch 1, sc 6, close by sl st in first sc.
R1: ch 1, sc 2 in each st, ch 1 turn (12 sts)
R2: ch 1, sc 1 in same st, (sc 2 in next st, sc 1 in next) repeat till end sc 2 in last, close by sl st (18 sts)
R 3: ch 1 turn, ch 1 turn, sc 1 in each st, close by sl st at in first,(18 sts) See fig 10
Fig 10

Fig 11

Fig 12.

R4: ch 1 turn (sc 1in next st, s2sctog in the next) repeat, close by sl st (12 sts)
R5: ch 1 turn, (2sctog) repeat close by sl st (6sts) See fig 11.
Fill fiber in that and sew all 6 sts by tapestry needle. Fig 12.

Hope that you can make this Betel Leaf and Betel Nut (Vidyach Paan and Supari).

ETC: Enjoy the Creativity.


The following video may help you.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Rakshabandhan  and Friendship Day Special
Fig 1
Hello friends
Wish you Happy Friendship Day. This is the friendship band or Rakhi I made on this occasion. We celebrate first Sunday of August as Friendship Day and here is the Bond of Love Friendship Band from me to all of you.

As we agree that our brothers are our best friends since our birth so friendship with him is of the first prime important.

Generally in the same month, in India we celebrate Rakshabandhan, a festival celebrated on full moon day of the month Shravan (One Marathi month out of 12 months). There are so many ritual and historical references to this day.

Mainly all sisters tie a silk thread(some what decorative) to the wrist of their brothers and expect that brother protects them in any situation and thus sisters put their responsibility on their brothers. (In old days, now a days girls/ women are also educated and can bear their own responsibility of course still the support from brother is very important.)

In market Rakhis are available in many beautiful designs (see fig 2).
Fig 2
But tying hand made Rakhi to our brother give immense satisfaction to a creative persons. So this year I made some Rakhis (Fig 1).

For this Rakhi I used crochet thread, 1.5 mm crochet hook and some beads or purls.
Thread 2 beads / purls in the yarn.
 Start with slip knot and move one bead and make single crochet 1 to fix the bead. Then make 4.5" chains.

Three more chs and 1 tr in 4th ch. A loop is formed. Again ch  3 and tr 1 in first ch, second loop formed. Make such 5 loops.
See fig 3.


Fig 3
Fig 4
R1: Ch 3, double crochet (dc) 8 on one side of the loop, (join by sc in the next loop, dc 9 in the next loop) repeat one more time.
Other side: Same as first side.
At last join by sl st.

Then make similar 4.5" chains on other side also attach one bead at last and fix it.

Finally sew one bead on each centre of the ring of dcs formed (Fig 4). The beautiful friendship band / Rakhi is ready here.

You can refer the following video.

ETC: Enjoy the Creativity.

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