Blog about all crafts - knitting, crocheting, tatting etc.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Music: The Divine Art:
Myself performing in my institute in the program of Staff Club
Music: I call it "A Divine Art" because it directly relates a person with the universe. Melodious note creates harmony with universe. It can give you ecstasy.
No need to say that everyone likes music. But I have special attachment with music. I have gone through the training of Indian classical music for 8-10 years. In spite of weak economic condition my father send me to music class to learn Indian classical music. He was fantastic lover of music. He used to sing Bhajan, a type of prayer, while his daily worship of God. His strong will was that I should choose music as my career but my love of Mathematics didn’t allow me that. I remember that whenever he heard any classic performance of music, at that time in Ganesh Utsav, (one of the social festival),there used to be the programs of classical music, he used to come back home and took me with him, so that I should hear good music. Also I remember that once I sung a song, he liked it so much that he gave me one diary. He used to dream that I am performing a song, with diary in my one hand (in which the lyrics of the song is written) before the huge audience. To day also I feel so sorry that I could not fulfill his dream, his wish. Only I have satisfaction that I have completed my "Sangeet Visharad" (graduation level examination) with merit rank.
Performing in my institute
I tried to flourish this art after my marriage but it seemed impossible for me due to time problem. Now 40 years passed away that I am not in touch with music, even hearing music regularly becomes impossible for me. But in between these 40 years, the only person who tries to keep this art alive in me, is my younger sister, Sadhana. She insists me to sing a song whenever we have time together and gives oxygen to my moribund art MUSIC.
But whenever I sing a song which is up to the mark (as per my knowledge), I think that I touch the soul of my father. It may
just seems to be spiritual but it’s true. Once I read that Jamling Norgay, the
son of Sherpa Tejsing Norgay wrote in the book “Touching My Father’s Soul” when
he reached “The Everest” first time he felt like that. Now as I am retired I have decided to hear as much music (all varieties: classical, light etc) as possible.
My father
Crochet Edging For Handkerchief:
Now a days paper napkins are used for wiping mouth and fingers after eating. In India, use of paper napkins can be seen only in airports, hotels, parties etc. . General public are not using paper napkins daily. They prefer to use cloth napkins. Every one generally carry one handkerchief with him / her while going to office or any where out side home. Though paper napkins are easy to handle and all, but still I think that we should minimize the use of paper napkin from environment point of view.
As I like to use cloth handkerchiefs, I have made number of crochet and tatting lace edgings for handkerchiefs.
Once I have decided to give set of three handkerchiefs to my friend's baby shower. Two handkerchiefs with crochet edging are ready and there is no time to make the third one ( At that time I have also one small kid and service so, time problem is always there). So I think about the fastest way to make another hand made handkerchief and I have created this one,
Material: Handkerchief, contrast matching thread, thread 40 number, sateen ribbon 1/4" width, crochet hook number 8 (1.5 mm), sewing needle, tapestry needle. Working instructions:
Row 1: Join at the edge of the handkerchief (not at the corner), ch 2, sc on the edge of handkerchief (at a distance nearly equal to the length of ch 2). Repeat this till end. Take special care at the corners that it should be joint at the corner.
Row 2: Ch 3 from the joint stitch of the previous row, dc 3 in the first ch 2 gap of the previous row, dc 1 on the joint stitch of previous row. (dc 3 in the next ch 2 gap, dc 1 on the joint stitch of the previous row) repeat till end. Last dc 3 and join with the third stitch of the ch 3 worked in the starting.
Row 3: Ch 10, dc 1 at the joining point, (Ch 7, dc 1 in the next joining point) repeat till end. Last ch 7 and join with third chain of the first ch 10 worked.
Row 4: sc 3 in the 7 chain gap, ch 3 join with first chain (picot formed), sc 3 in the same gap of ch 7. Repeat till end.
Thread ribbon in tapestry needle and pass on through the dc worked in the 3rd row skipping one each time. Remember that sateen ribbon should not be folded. Lastly sew the two ends of the ribbon by sewing needle and hide it properly behind the dc.
Note: If you use 20 number thread instead of 40 then you may omit the last row, because only chain row will be stiff and hold the sateen ribbon. Thus you can save more time and finish the project more fast.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Conference of Animals:
"Google", what a powerful search engine, I used to call it"Googleshwar" Google + Ishwar, Ishwar means God, Google is just a God who knows every thing and who is ready to show it to us.
Internet surfing helps me a lot in developing my hobby and creating number of items. It gives me immense pleasure to learn new things from internet. The patterns of all these animals I got from internet. So I want to thanks to all those who share their patterns free for us. In a way they are distributing happiness for people like us.
Here I remember the lesson we had in the text book of Hindi language in VIth grade, "Anand ki Fuljhadiya", means "Sparklers of Happiness" in which a woman sitting in the railway near window seat and throwing seeds of a sweet fruit sitafal ( a tree which is nourished easily without any special care and gives sweet fruit) out side the railway in the field, thinking that the tree will grow and give fruits to some one, don't even know to whom those fruits will be useful but she is doing that. This work of all designers giving free patterns is same as "Distributing Happiness" without knowing that who are beneficiaries.
When my daughter in law told me about her pregnancy. Again I started thinking. This time I wanted to do some thing different, special. I have decided to make mobile with hand made animals. As I was working at that time so it is not possible for me to design the pattern of my own. I just started surfing and got free patterns of variety of animals particularly in crochet. I have made some of them but as I have to carry them to USA so I decided to attach all animals to mobile hooks in USA.
Here, I have only conference of these animals and not mobile.
Monkey Kiku
Monkey KIKU: This pattern is an original
pattern by Stephanie Lau of All About Ami (February 2016). I just love this, I have also sent photo of my monkey to the designer saying thanks. http://www.allaboutami.com/monkeypattern/
Thanks to Celina, blogger of "Simply Collectible" for this free pattern.
Beaded Knitting - Small Bag (Batawa): Every one loves beads due to it's variety of size, color and luster. So working with bead and yarn that is "beaded knitting" is a great idea. This small bag is completely in purl stitch because working with bead is more easy in purl stitch. Only you have to bring the pre-threaded bead up to that stitch and purl as usual. We shall call such stitch Beaded purl and denote it by BP (Beaded purl).
You can knit this beaded bag and gift to your friend.
Material:one skein wool (50 gm), knitting needles UK 10 number (3 mm), Crochet hook UK number 11 or USA size C 2.75 mm, tapestry needle, contrast matching color beads,
Working instructions: Thread 240 black beads in the wool. Cast on 28 stitches.
Row 1- Row 4: Purl all.
Row 5: P 3, next BP 12, P to end.
Row 6: P 17. Turn the work, P 9, BP 1, P to end.
Row 7: P 20. Turn the work, P 11, BP 2, P to end.
Row 8: P 23. Turn the work, P 13, BP 3, P to end.
Row 9: Purl all
Row 10: P 3, BP 12, P 2, BP 4, P to end
Row 11: P 17. Turn the work, P 6, BP 3, P to end.
Row 12: P 20. Turn the work, P 9, BP 2, P to end.
Row 13: P 23. Turn the work, P 12, BP 1, P to end.
Row 13: Purl all.
Repeat rows 5 to 13 till 6 diamonds are formed as in picture.
Row 59 to Row 62: purl all.
Bind off 14 stitches then 14 stitches remain on the needle now pick up 12 sts from upper portion and 14 sts from the cast on side. Thus total 40 sts are on the needle.
Purl all for next 9 rows.
Next row: P1, (YO P2 tog) repeat till the last stitch, P1
Again purl all for next 9 rows.
Bind off.
Make one such piece more.
Join the two pieces worked.
The handle of small bag, called Batava is of special type. It can be opened by stretching the two end similarly it can be closed also by stretching. But for that the method of threading the handle is different.
By crochet hook work a cord by simple chain stitch until the required length, I made 18". Make two similar cords. Now thread these cords as shown in figure.
Insert one cord from end "A" and pass on through alternate holes, come back to end "A". Then tie the ends of these two cords to each other and put a small tassel at that end.
Now insert another cord from end "B", again pass on through alternate holes and comeback to end "B". Tie the ends of the cord and put a tassel at this end
You can also make two more tassels and attach to the cord at "A" and "B" so that if you stretch tassels at A and B then it opens and if you stretch tassels at far end then the bag gets closed. Instead of making two more tassels you may thread big bead when you are threading first cord and you reach at "B" and also one bead when you thread second cord and you reach at "A"
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Crochet BabyBlanket:
When first time I heard that my daughter was pregnant in 2011, I was very happy and excited because first time I will be grandma, what should I do for the special one who will call me grandma. I took out all the wool I had and then I started thinking, what to knit, crochet??? Because of over excitement I could not finalize the pattern for baby set and all. So what I did first was this....
Baby Blanket
It is a multi color baby blanket. This is very special for me because it is the first item made for my grand daughter, who is very special for me. One more reason is this blanket is related with so many memories for example, this color sweater I knitted when my daughter was in 5th grade or the combination of these two colors was used to knit sweater for my son or this one was for my father in law etc.
Final size: 3ft x 2 ft. Each motif 3.7" x 3.7" Material: Different colors wool, crochet needle 2 mm, black silk cloth for lining Instructions: Square motifs are crocheted separately and the joined by black wool. Pedal: ch 2, dc 3, ch 2 Shell: dc 3, ch 2, dc 3
Take any one color, Ring of ch 4
Row 1: Ch 3, dc 2 in the ring, (ch 2, dc 3, in the ring ch 2) pedal two more times, join with third chain of the first ch 3. Bind off.
Row 2: Join the second color wool, ch 5, (dc 3, ch 2, dc 3 in a next gap - that is shell, ch 2) repeat two more times then dc 3, ch 2, dc 2 and join with the third chain out of ch 5 worked in the starting. Bind off.
Row 3: Join new color, ch 3, dc 2 in the same ch 2 gap, then work shell at the corner ch 2 gap and pedals at the middle ch 2 gaps. Lastly shell in the corner, ch 2, dc 2 and join with the third chain of the starting ch 3. Bind off.
Row 4: Join new color, ch 5, dc 3 in the next ch 2 gap, then work shell in all corner gaps and pedals in the middle gaps. Lastly dc 2 in the first gap and join with the third chain of the starting ch 3. Bind off.
Row 5: With black color ch 3, dc 3 in the next gap, ch 2. Again as in the previous row work shells in the corners and pedals in the other ch 2 gaps. Lastly join with the third chain out of ch 3 worked in the starting. Bind off.
Make such 48 square motifs then join them with simple chain stitch. 8 motifs x 6 motifs.
Last row: Work dc in every stitch of the last row (after sewing) and dc 3 at the corner stitch, with black color.
Sew black silk lining and your baby blanket is ready. Your small baby will like to see these various colors in the blanket. Once the baby is big enough, you can use it as a table cloth.
Saturday, September 9, 2017
TheArtofRangoli:
On Diwali / Dasara
Rangoli is a traditional Indian art of creating designs by
using materials such as powder of wet rice, dry flour, colored
sand. Mainly rangoli is a powder of the
lustrous mineral shirgola. It is also available in different colors. It
is hold in the pinch of thumb and the neighbouring finger and by the flow of
the powder in the pinch, design is drawn on the floor.
I have seen in my childhood, rangoli is daily drawn at the
courtyard of every house or at prayer place in the morning. But now a days
there are less families who follow this tradition, otherwise it is drawn only
at the time of festival. Rangoli made by flowers petals, leaves is
also getting famous.
The purpose of drawing rangoli is decorative and it is supposed
to generate positive energy. One more purpose is to welcome the guest. So when ever some one is invited for lunch our courtyard is decorated with such rangolis.I think rangoli also represents colors of life.
As a lover of all arts, I like to draw rangoli though I am not so expert, I enjoy drawing that. Here are some of the rangolies drawn by me on different occasions. Dasara and Diwali are two main festivals in India. When my kids visited USA for education and they told me about Thanks Giving Day, I feel that it is similar to our Dasara in which we pay respect to elder by offering special leaves which we call gold on that special day.
On special occasion like Dasara /Diwali
On some occasion
On some occasion
On some occasion
On some occasion
On some occasion
Dailly rangoli at courtyard
Daily rangoli
Next generation, my daughter also took part in drawing rangoli.
Ladies are generally targeted for the time they need to get ready while going to parties or any where. Today's smart girls have their own make-up kit and all. At our time (before 40-45 years) we don't know much about make-up but along with beautiful sari (Indian traditional dress) they used to wear matching blouse, matching bangles, matching purse etc. If it is hand made matching purse then we used to feel very proud.
So we try to make variety of small purses, this is one of them.
This bag is very cute and can be made quickly. Even we decide to wear certain sari in the evening, we can make this matching Rose Bag. Material: Plastic wires in two different colors, one press button,crochet needle 1.5" Instructions:
Magic ring of ch 1, sc 6, sl st in first sc, close with main color.
Row 1: Ch 4, (dc1 in magic ring, ch 1) repeat 5 more times, join with the third stitch of first 4 stitches by slip st.
Fig 2
Row 2: Ch 1, dc 4, sc 1 in the first ch 1-gap; then (sc 1, dc 4, sc 1) in each of the five gaps
Row 3: Turn the work to WS. Join by sl st at the beginning, Ch 2 join with the end of the first petal from back side. Repeat this for all petals
Row 4: Turn to RS. Ch 1, dc 6, sc 1 in the ch 2 gap formed on the back side in the previous row; then (sc 1, dc 6, sc 1) in each of the ch 2 gap formed on the back side.
Row 5: Turn the work to WS. Ch 3 join with the end stitch of the first petal in the previous row. Repeat this for all petals.
Row 6: Turn the work to RS. Ch 1,dc 8, sc 1 in the first ch 3 gap created in the previous row; then; (sc1, dc 8, sc 1) in each of the ch 3 gap formed on the back side.
Row 7: Turn the work to WS. Ch 4 join with the end stitch of the first petal in the previous row. Repeat this for all petals.
Row 8: Turn the work to RS. Ch 1,dc 10, sc 1 in the first ch 4 gap created in the previous row; then; (sc1, dc 10, sc 1) in each of the ch 4 gap formed on the back side.
Row 9: Turn the work to WS. Ch 5 join with the end stitch of the first petal in the previous row. Repeat this for all petals.
Row 10: Turn the work to RS. Ch 1,dc 12, sc 1 in the first ch 5 gap created in the previous row; then; (sc1, dc12, sc 1) in each of the ch 5 gap formed on the back side, join to the ch 1 of the first petal.
Row 11: Join the boarder color (green), dc 1 in each stitch of the previous round.
Bind off.
Make one more rose as above.
Join 56 stitches of these two roses (out of 84 on the last row) by sl st or by sc in each stitch from both rose. Continue with the same color and work chain for the belt of length 24". Join to the other end, from where the joining of two roses starts.
Fig 3
Sew lining separately measuring the circumference of the rose and leave approximately 2'' open. Sew one press button properly to the centre of the open portion of the lining and attach it to our rose bag.
When I made this Rose bag first time mobiles are not there, otherwise I may think of bigger one. If you make 7 such flowers with border and join them to form a hexagon you may have beautiful round bag for mobile and other small things. See fig 3.
Instead of wire material you can use wool as in fig 2. I have also made number of wool rose bags some of them I have gifted to my friends.
The following video may help you,
