Crocheting for Home and a Baby

➳It is time for a crochet tour. Crochet made its way into my life and established itself as a much needed, joyful activity at least on weekends or very much inspired after office evenings. Ever since I saw Sangeetha's rainbow mandala doily, and many other round doilies of the same type in the Internet I wanted to make one or two or.. for myself. Bearing that in mind I found this pattern on the net and went on crocheting tranquilly this one, in one of my favorite color combinations.

Nearly the next day I felt an urge and itch to make one more mandala doily, this time in different color pallete. My D even had a question (again) why I make the same things again and again... Well, dear, because it gives me pleasure and peace of mind. One doily found its place on our room's  table, but this one is waiting for an owner perhaps. This doily would turn into a  lovely cushion cover if ... I have time.

Besides home decor crochet I of course tried my hands a hook in crocheting some baby clothing items. I made a sweater for the first time, and I liked it. The free pattern is called Baby Cardigan, click on the Baby Hat with Earflaps for a free pattern. I am so grateful to those who invent and post the patterns for us to use! I suppose that the white row of stitches I let in a sweater and a hat kind of makes it a set. I made both for a bigger baby, 3+ months old, for Indian "colder" months. I used my favorite Vardhman Brilon - purple is a left over of the summer blanket.

On the list of the clothes I planned to crochet for a baby was a vest. I noted many of the patterns, including Linda's wonderful Kids Sleevless Tops, but hesitated to adapt the pattern to a smaller size, and finally designed a vest myself, involving much loved granny square stitch and granny squares - it works up in no time, really. Once again I used Brilon yarn.

A finished vest on the clothespins. My husband said it looks like a bag... Thank you so much! I am okay with the result myself, the main thing it fits a child and will be comfortable to wear. I hope the neck line is not narrow... Otherwise I will HAVE to turn into a bag.

A close up of the  little granny squares before I wrap up a post.  They turned out to be 2"1' each, sewed together with a slip stitch and then edged with a single crochet stitch. I would like to try this way of clothing making for some accessories too, like booties and caps.I might try it out tonight itself! Yey! But first need to complete a blankie I have never even shown in blog.

I am oh so relieved this working week is getting over and the weekend is just round the corner! Can't wait to have my usual brewed cup of coffee tomorrow morning and watch favorite series (while D is still seeing dreams) - a rare Me-time. I hope the weather will not hit us with sunshine and high degrees. This Sunday is coinciding Orthodox and Catholic Easter. We might go to meet few friends.

♡♡♡Bye for now! Have a nice weekend!♡♡♡

Granny Doily featured on CraftGossip

  Blogging has made me more adventurous and decisive. A little bit more than one week back I submitted a tiny form on the site called CraftGossip. The site features crafty ideas, tutorials from around the world from different bloggers and designers. I decided to try it out and sent the idea of my granny square doily with red flower decoration. Was I happy to receive a positive response from the crochet editor of the site JD Wolfe that my project would be featured on the 12th of September! 

  I made the doily while being at my parents' dacha last month.  The doily stayed with parents, but who knew its adventure would continue! If you are interested you can go and check how it looks like following the link Granny Doily. The editor wrote a nice brief article about it. Well, it is not that grand project I think and the deal is not in being popular by showing  it to everyone. The joy comes more from participation and I hope that someone would find this idea of home decor useful. I was advised by my fellow blogger Bonitabonbons to make a whole granny square blanket out of such doilies ;) Let's see. I am ready for new projects!

Decorating tables - granny square doily and an oval mat

    September is not a productive month for me in sense of blogging. It is more productive on the crafty side. Last Saturday I went to our 42 market stationery shop to purchase some crafty things like acrylic paints, paper cutter, craft paper, pencils... It looked like no one else  was buying all that stuff from there for long time, because the acrylic paints were manufactured in 2011 and the sheet of craft paper was looking a little old... but I liked the things I bought anyway. I couldn't wait to use at least some of them. I did a painting in the evening of the same day and was doing it like a mad! My husband must have been worried indeed :) Kidding. Besides the painting I finally accomplished two of the crochet projects: a long-time-ago-started table mat and another granny square doily. 

     Here is my granny square doily. The yarn is some old Indian thread, I am not sure whether it's acrylic or mixed. So you can say I re-purposed this yarn and made a new crochet decor piece from it:). Principe of making was the same as for my first granny square doily. The granny square pattern has a unique quality - it can be of any wished size and it is so easy to make.Yup, the granny square is twisted again.

                             

  

    I truly like the granny square stitches - all double crochet (treble crochet). The chess like arrangement of the stitches makes the whole piece look so snug ( that's why it is called "granny", isn't it?).

   I played with the doily choosing some interesting variants of its folding and usage. I think that this could become a pretty baby blanket or a nice pillow cover. Keeping it in mind ;)

      I am not very used to make crochet tutorials, I have only two so far, but I am thinking to make one more on how to make a simple crochet flower like the one in the picture below. 

  Ta-dah! Or did it take too long since the last post about my table mat? Whatever, the crochet table mat is ready to be used for placing a cup of coffee on it in the morning (for example):)

  Please, refer to the oval motif pattern below. However, I'd like to make few notes: the pattern is going on good until the 5th row as in the picture, then you have to adjust it counting the number of increased stitches from all four sides. It's the toughest in this pattern. I think I kind of changed the pattern and made it more square rather than oval.

  Overall  I am very content about my craftiness these days and I have some MORE crochet projects in my mind.

 ***Have a crafty week and take care!***