Crocheting Useful and Beautiful

Hello dear friends! I guess that our Indian winter has come to an end... Sun is shining bright, temperature is around +24, birds are chirping. Hot Indian Summer is round the corner!
We celebrated my father-in-laws birthday last Monday, the cake my D brought was awesome - fruity delicious!

However last week had also stored unexpected health issues. First my little boy had fever for 4 days, then when he started recovering, another boy, D, fell ill... Both are fine now, but I was taken a little aback and stayed home for almost a week. Hopefully no one else in the house will experience this nasty viral.
Thank you all for encouraging comments on my last post, I must say they moved me, literally! I did start crocheting after little A goes to bed. And the feeling of being able to create again is awesome, even if I get a little less sleep. I am not yet ready for any big crochet adventures, hence I am warming up by going for the small ones.
I have been wanting to have a storage basket (-s), which I finally own, and this is not the last one. I have not used any particular pattern, but got inspired by many on Pinterest, especially by the one with handles. It looks awesome, works up in no time, and organizes little things in the house so well - what more would you wish for? I put two strands of yarn together and liked the marble like effect it created.

Another rather beautiful, but maybe not so useful project is a Mega mandala doily, consisting of 23 rows. I loved crocheting this one a lot because it uses various stitches, and each row is in a different color. It can be called a stash buster project.  I used Indian yarn brand Vardhman, Brilon as usual. The doily was emerging throughout few creative nights, here it is how:

It measures about 35 cm in diameter. I am going to place it on a crockery table in our drawing room.. and make one more for the sake of enjoying making it once again, lol :) Crocheter's madness.

In plans to crochet a set of coasters, maybe something like a set of mats for my little A's meal time, 2 pillow covers for my parents and start another blanket (shall start soon, because this project will stretch till next year for sure, lol). I particularly liked Linda's Greg blanket - the square patterns and colors, aww...! So perhaps I will steal the idea :P
That's all for now, enjoy your week, enjoy your days!

Inspired By Nature

Today be ready for some unusually long tales from me, my dears, as I was really missing you all and want to share my little things :) The week was pretty much diverse, in a sense of weather. I hand't even have enough time to complain how much hot days had become, when sudden rain and drop in temperature brought immense joy. Yes, I mentioned in my profile that I like rainy weather, no, actually, I love it! As I was waiting for my conveyance (which I'm going to show you soon) to pick me yesterday morning, I had few minutes of communication with nature. I can't describe how good I felt inhaling wet, fresh air, listening to the rustle of the trees, and observing this incredible sky... It is amazing how nature creates patterns from its elements - I have never seen such clubbing of clouds ever! 

When I arrived to the sector I work in, everything was quiet, looked clean and fresh. The plaza  was totally different from what it is usually. And usually it's a crowded place, noisy because of the people's talks and birds' chirping.

Besides adoring changing weather, I occupied myself with few projects this week. This one was inspired by Magaly's wonderful  candles, you can find her tutorial here. I managed to make only one so far and wasn't that clever to tie the wick around pencil to keep it up while wax is getting cold, but I do love this cute white candle, which is by the way, scented with lemongrass! My D liked the candle very much, as he likes lemongrass fragrance too.  I haven't tried to burn it yet, but will do today in honour of our 2 years and 9 months marriage anniversary. Oh yea, I always say, that we have to celebrate not only love, but patience. We went through so many challenging  moments already, and I believe they made us stronger and closer to each other.

Among all the doilies I had made before, this one is very special. Not only because of the colors, which I myself like a lot, but also because it was made for my parents. You see, I'm getting ready for my trip back home. I picked the doily pattern immediately I saw it on Debi's blog. She took it from Rita's blog, and  thanks to her for highlighting this pattern. My doily didn't come out that lacy, because I used DK acrylic yarn. I tried to block it later on as to stretch the stitches more to  show the spaces.

And now something special (again). My first painting on real canvas - it was such a spontaneous decision of mine! I used acrylic paints, oh dear, I really like them now, as I tried them only on plain paper before. The canvas texture is also pleasant to paint upon. First, I planned to make the picture fairy tale like, but later it turned out more realistic. I love sun set, as it sometimes gives wonderful color to the sky... The whole painting is a pure inspiration, with no drawing rules :)

The current week is a big long 7 day celebration of Maslenitsa holiday, which precedes the Great Lent in Orthodox calendar. Every day of the week has its own name and purpose, and usually, everyone bakes Russian pancakes "bliny" during the whole week as to share with their relatives and friends. Today is a day when mother-in-law visits her son-in-law's home and he offers her pancakes :) Here is my version of pancakes - they tasted the same as my father's ! Yumm : )

The last day of Maslenitsa is called a Forgiven Sunday, and this is the day when you ask for forgiveness from your close ones and they ask from you. You have to forgive, even if offense is big, or simply say "God will forgive you". 

I wish you all to have good mood, peace of mind and love in your heart.

Something New - Colorful Rastafarian Doily

The holidays are passing by slowly as everything else. Nevertheless, we had a great New year celebration with our friends, who are also in same mixed Indo-Russian relationship like we. We had Russian dinner with some drinks. Yesterday we spent at home, warming up the room with our dear heater, reading books and surfing the Internet. I saw that all of you had nice New year's celebrations too. Thanks for your encouraging comments, I appreciate each and every word :).

Today I'd like to share some news and something new. Good things also happen accidentally in many cases. Few days ago a friend of ours saw some of my crochet works on FB and liked one doily. Later I was getting an order from her,  thanks to my husband's prompt communication. The girl wanted an unusual project to be done - a Rastafarian doily! Here it is, in traditional Rastafarian colors - red, yellow and green.

 I managed to catch one sunny day and take the pictures in good light. However, the colors in the pictures still slightly differ from the actual ones.

I'm very grateful to our friend for giving an idea of such doily to me. It was the first time I tried ruffles and of course such colors. I used Indian yarn brand Vardhman (Baby Soft) and 2.75 mm crochet hook. The doily is 29.5 cm in diameter. I made first few rows with 16 Spoke Doily pattern and made ruffles myself. I loved working this doily! It is my first custom crochet project and I'm very glad that the girl liked it :) Now I'm taking a rest from crochet for a while, as with all that gift making madness, I indeed crocheted much more than usually. Though crafty thoughts never leave my head.

***Have colorful new year days!***

*** Merry Christmas 2012! С Рождеством Христовым! ***

I wish you and my family (of course) a Merry Christmas!

Thanks for all your kind wishes and comments throughout my blog land journey. I'm happy to gain so many new friends from all over the world and share holiday happiness with all of you. :) 

Here is the Christmas tree in my office, decorated by me and my Singaporean friend. I would like you to know that as soon as I'm an Orthodox Christian, our church celebrates Christmas on the 7th of January, so don't be sad when 25th passes by, we will honour the birth of Christ again soon :)

These are some Christmas presents I gifted last Saturday :) A heart bookmark.

A Christmas doily.

And a ruffle lotus doily! More gifts to come. I'm also doing some "ego-crocheting" (means, for myself :) which I can't wait to accomplish and show you!

*** Merry Christmas! *** С Рождеством! ***

Welcoming December with Crochet

Finally we have stepped into winter months, and I must say that the air has a tiny bit of snow coolness in it coming from Himalayas... Heaters out, we - inside the blankets! :) To tell the truth I do enjoy this time of the year - it brings homely mood, snug under the soft blanket, and cuddles. What can be better? Inspired by all these thoughts, I couldn't wait and crocheted two things, both pretty new to me. I have a wonderful pattern of Doily coaster by Bren G in my collection (click here to see it). I turned it into a Snowflake Doily by using white and cyan yarn.

Just have a look at this shiny cyan thread - so lovely and really easy to work with! I bought it from the usual yarn shop, and it didn't have any marking on it

Second crochet thing I made was something new and unusual to me. I must say thanks to Tammy from

 T's Daily Treasures blog for this unique idea of crochet rocks. She makes many of such with thinner thread, and they look amazing, you can see them on her blog title's picture. When I saw Tammy's Crochet Rocks post, this idea wasn't leaving me for the past few weeks. Fortunately I stumbled upon the gorgeous round stone on the way from office. First I ignored it, but then imagined how it would look in some lacy, "net-y" crochet kind of cozy ... So it ended up in my hand and obtained its cozy wrap today. I considered that the doily and rock looked quiet like a home decor set together. 

Hope your Saturday is as much homely and easygoing as mine. I saw all the lovely things you prepare for coming up holidays, feels good to see all those! :) Have a nice Sunday, my friends!

Granny Square Variation and Stencil Tulips

    Is this always like this that whoever starts crocheting granny squares, can't stop? I don't know, but I definitely want to make more and more of them! This week I came up with this fashionable fuchsia and black doily :)) Oh well, not fashionable, I just wanted to try some new colors and I like how they look together in a finished doily. I must have given the doily a slightly oriental look when combined with a belly dance coin kirchief, a hand made Rajasthan elephant and a "made in Turkey" candle holder. I was not happy however with how the colors came in the pictures, it was much paler, so I had to adjust color settings afterwards to make it bright. Have no I idea still what I am going to do with the doily, most probably will gift it or decorate something in the house.

    No, no, I didn't forget about my "planned" crafts :) I tried stencil art few days back. The result was, as expected, not at all perfect. I used acrylic and tempera paints, which leaked behind the stencil and made the tulip shapeless. Good thing that I didn't try it on some visible surface. That one was the back side of my cupboard door. I think with some more tries I will be able to do simple stencil drawings well.

  

***Have a bright weekend!***

Back to granny square - a doily:)

         Nearly one month back  I got some yarn with me from India keeping in mind that I would want to make a few stitches some day. And this day has come :) Today I'd like to present a dacha inspired and dacha made crochet work - a granny square doily with flower decoration.

        This is not a step by step tutorial, however might be giving some ideas on how to use granny square pattern for a nice decoration of your room.

       First I simply started making a sunny granny square using basic single and double crochet stitches.

 When 6 rows were completed, I changed color to blue and made 3 more rows to "frame" a crochet piece. 

Then I decided that the flower details and leaves, which can be arranged in a variety of ways, would be the best to make a doily look summery!

In order to keep the middle of the doily free for putting a vase or a photo frame on to it, the flowers were placed on the corner. I stitched the details to the doily from the back side.

                           

I gifted this granny square doily to my parents so that the memory about this summer would be with them always :)