My crochet sweater for a new born baby and its demo

Ever since I have crocheted my baby shoes, I haven't crocheted any baby projects. So I took the courage, I should say, to understand its basics as it was really challenging for me to understand the methods. 

I was always obsessed in crocheting dresses, but the first question or a kind of fear is how to understand its requirements like its mesuarements, design, arm hole making, neck line making and what not. So I felt like I would have to invest time for it.

I referred various tutorials, patterns from Pinterest, blogs etc, whatever I could get under the sun to understand, wrote my own notes in my own way for better understanding. I then thought I should try something small rather than jump into a big dress making project. So came out with new born baby sweater idea.

Though I thought I will make it in parts rather than doing a single video, I was a bit tensed too as what if I may go wrong in helping others understand it better. But to my dismay, the outcome was too good than I expected. So all credit goes to God and my subscribers who have supported me so far.

The finished project looks like this.

Hahaha, the doll is so fuuny, isn't it?? Thanks to my little darling that she did all these. When asked, she replied that babies are supposed to be dirty that they can be take for bath always. But thanks to her that she proudly lent her doll for the video purpose.

If you would like to see those tutorials, here are its links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irTjR27Gjto - part 1 - Making yoke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_chBMqQJsc&t=1s - part 2 - arm home and body

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkxPcSPLutE&t=733s - part 3 - making sleeves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV8pENp3mLs&t=36s - part 4 - making borders, cuffs and neckline border

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28k-FFy1XVc&t=78s - part 5 - crocheting button band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mWOE9skFJA&t=1s - my sweater demo

I hope these tutorials have been useful to you all. Please watch and comment on how you feel and I can improve my work on dresses. See you in my next blog.

Why I was away for a while?

Hello friends, I just want to let you know why I was away for a while. All happened unexpectedly that I had to do a Montessori course and a job was offered in a school to work as a Hindi adult. It was completely new to me and I had to understand its functioning. 

Since Montessori syllabus requires materials, I had to prepare materials in Hindi for primary as well as Elementary environments. I needed more time to get accustomed to the new routine, material preparation, understanding children and their approach towards Hindi as for most of them Hindi was like a foreign language.

However I enjoyed my days of new role given to me and every day was a happening day for me. The school was like a home away from home for me. I had to sacrifice my sleep and other interests for a while to get accustomed to it, however i have tried to do justice in all possible ways.

But life took a turn and things happened unexpectedly that I had to quit to my job and am at home. Thanks to Corona that the times I have missed being with family, I am spending it now. I am also back to my crochet work and other interests too. I am trying to post my Youtube videos, blogging, crocheting for videos as well as for myself, continued my singing practice, gardening etc.

Yeah, gardening has also taken its place in the mean time wherein I was able to grow some tomatoes, capsicums, green chillies, coriander leaves, bitter gourd and micro greens. Now its like that my entire day is jam packed and children and hubby also with me to be taken care of. I kind of enjoy this, at the same time I feel burdened also (to be honest).

My crochet Double Layer Flower

Hello viewers,

I am back after a long gap. It took some time for me to get back to my blog due to some personal reasons. However, I hope to continue to blog whenever I get time. It actually relaxes me as I do my tutorials and crocheting. 

So today, I am here to bring my double layer crocheted flower. Yes, I have been working on it for some time and I have got lots of inspiration from the net too. Hence I thought I would make a video in my language too and help them understand. 

I shall also try to upload a pdf file once it is ready as I haven't documented it.  But you can view it in my Youtube channel here - https://youtu.be/zILbiRABx1U .

I also request you to subscribe to my Youtube channel and thereby supporting me. Thanks in advance. 

See you soon in my next blog, until then its BYE from YARNOMENTS. Stay blessed and happy crocheting. 

Back after a while and updates

So friends, you all would be wondering where I had vanished all of a sudden. Here I have appeared again. Also with some updates. 

After my post about the crochet shrug, I was fully involved in the second Guinness project of making shawls. The target was to make shawls which would measure 5kms, but finally it measured 14.1kms. Isnt that a big achievement. It was made under the banner MICQ, where we rocked again. It was again a charity project and all the shawls were donated to the needy people. I have made a video on that in my youtube channel. The link is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crtFM3AkZsM . Though that was for a good cause, something terrible happened to me. Any guesses?? I almost broke my hand after that hard crocheting work. Though the stitch was simple V stitch and a minimum of 5 shawls were to be made, I made 7 shawls, each of it with dimension 7"*80", I crocheted it very fast so that I could hand it over to my husband as he was travelling at that time immediately. Little did i knew that I should have put that much effort continously crocheting which would harm my wrists. It was out of the passion and excitement that I sat for hours and finished it. Later, I couldn't even move my hand or the fingers. Oh no!! what had happened?? My husband too was out of station and kids with me, I had to take care of them, cook food, clean house, school pickup and drop, all household chores etc. I didnt know what has happened all of a sudden. And this was first time happening to me ever since I started crocheting. I was in panic and started crying, praying it should alleviate. I even rushed to the hospital, but the doctor said to wait for one more week. I felt ridiculous (may be out of my pain). I reached home and thought to call up my mom. She said it might be the muscle pull due to over strain and asked me to apply murivenna, an ayurvedic oil used for muscle pulls or minor sprains in the body. Luckily I had it with me. I applied it almost the whole day for 3-4 days as told by my mom and you know what??? It did the magic. THANKS TO MY MOM FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. My hands were getting back to its normalcy. Also, my right middle finger which was sprained or so some two years ago (which I had almost forgotten as I very carefully neglected it) while I was keading chapathi dough, that too got cured. Also my neck and shoulders and eyes were also affected badly due to this strain. So as a whole, my body needed some treatment, exercises and top of it was rest. So I decided to put away my crochet for a while becuase I was sure if I see it, it will tempt me to pick up and crochet. 

But meanwhile, I ordered some yarns too and bought some locally too so that I could stock them which got exhausted in the shawl project. In pipeline were lapghan projects for charity purpose. So needed some for that. 

When my husband returned to UK, kids mentioned this incident, thanks to them which made him bit furious, also for having hidden this from him. I expected his response and the same he told me that I should put a full stop to crochet. We had a good argument and fight over it. I was crossed at the kids too. But I didnt give up. I promised him that I will take care of my health too, but wouldn't stop crocheting and no more talk in this regard. 

Later, when our fight turned into sweet life, he blasted a bomb that we have to relocate to India. Oh no, again another reason for doing a quick crochet stuff regarding the lapghan project. Also packing the house!!! It was really a nuclear bomb that he had exploded on my head. In between , he was travelling too. Oh my goodness!!! My head was spinning. I then started slowly doing my lapghan project (I think I have mentioned it in one of my posts, if I am correct. Whatever, here it is again.) and then finished it off. I donated it to my neighbour who is a nurse in the hospital. So it would be of great help to those who are in need of it there especially in winters.

Another crochet project popped up which was again a Guinness work - crocheting sculptures. This event would be in December 2017. The theme is Go Green, but I am tied up for now, so haven't decided of it. 

And then, it was time for me to concentrate on packing, discarding, recycling etc. It took almost a couple of months because I didn't want to rush at the last moment. I was almost away from all social networking sites because there were priority things for me especially school admission hunting for my kids. My husband was not sure if he would be posted in Chennai or Bangalore. So I had to cover almost both places, prepare my older one for his entrance exams which was absolutely new for him. He didn't have any idea of that. Luckily my husband had bought some texts for helping him prepare for the exams. Meanwhile we had asked our relatives to find some proper locations of the houses / flats in and around the schools which we preferred. We had to pack accordingly some for the cargo to be sent, some to be carried along with us as check in and cabin luggages. The hardest part of all these is to bid farewell to the teachers and friends in the school. 

Now that the admission processes are over in India for the kids, we are travelling to India. Miss badly the UK, Great Britain. It was a wonderful time spent in UK. Miss lovely friends and culture and taking away home some beutiful memories now all in photos and social networking sites. 

I hope to be regular once I am settled in India with my crochet life. Lets see what India has for me from crochet perspective. I think my first and foremost to-do thongs are already committed crochet tasks which will help me think about more what to do next. Anyways, that is it for now from me. It has been considerably a long post, but would engage you for a while. See you soon, until then its bye from Kala. Happy life and happy crocheting.

Crochet shrug

Hello there. After a short while, today  I am really excited to share about  my crochet shrug I finally done with. Shrug, if it is a straight forward stitch is quite easy to make. Straight forward, by the term, I mean is just following a stitch pattern and not a motif based. I don't know if there is such a term, however, for easy reference or understanding, I use it here. Motif based, according to me takes some time to finish off, though we get the hang of it, the weaving part or joining part consumes my time. I am not sure of others, its my take here. 

So, this shrug is for a friend of mine in London. I have intimated her about this and asked her if she can model it. She just giggled, maybe shy (I am not forcing her, if she willingly sends some snaps for my blog, then I shall post it). I had seen her a couple of years ago and had talked to her over phone since then. So I have her image in my mind and based on that I crocheted this shrug. Fingers crossed, this will fit her. 

If you want to read about this story of shrug - there is nothing much behind it (heheheh). Its because this was in my mind to try ever since I made my first crochet top for one of my friends. This shrug was an idea to wear it for the spring. Its a lovely yellow colour. 

Its an acrylic yarn that I bought from hobbycraft. Though it mentioned DK acrylic yarn and a hook size 4.5mm, I felt it to be too thin, like a fingering yarn or so. However, I used the hook size 4.5mm itself. Although in my mind it was for shrug, I didn't want to take a chance of jumping directly into any pattern and start making it. I studied a lot to understand how to make a shrug, different tutorials I researched on how it was made. Oh my, I did study about shrug making. The stitch is a simple V stitch. I designed my own pattern altering the regular V stitch pattern to fit to my pattern. I also learnt that there are more types of V patterns. I then marked to understand it for later. But for the time, I designed my pwn simple V stitch pattern. And you know what. My efforts didn't go waste. My first attempt to a shrug was so beautiful. (Guess what, I am marked to make a tutorial too with this pattern.). I later then added my favourite scalloped edging pattern to this that added to its beauty. 

Shrug Back 

Shrug Front 

Isn't this shrug beautiful? What do you say??  You might be thinking - does this shrug took such a long time for me to finish?? Then you got me wrong there. It didnt. However, I am a person who would like to keep my hands busy on multiple things at a time (I do record what I am doing - otherwise will forget, I admit). Why I attempt multiple things is that I get bored sticking to same thing for a long time or for a stipulated time. Watching the same colour for some time tires me. So to overcome it, I switch to multiple projects. 

Having said that, I have attempted few more projects in parallel like silk thread jewellery, loom knitting etc. So in short, what I come to say is, I have some more to BLOG. Yay... Also I haven't forgotten about the covers for tins that I promised for my kids. As a part of it, I have collected tins / cans  of various sizes, cleaned and dried it so that once I have crocheted covers for it, kids can use it to store their stationery items - sketch pens, pencils, scissors etc in separate tins - sort of organised. My little one s trying to copy what she sees in her brother's class. Also she is a lady of organizing things around at home that her brothers lay around. So if I crochet for those tins,she can tidy it up appropriately. 

Please tune to my blog, there are more coming in, but I am sad that I don't see any responses. Come on and send your thoughts too as I love to hear from you about your views and thoughts. I know there are people who like reading my blog. I am also the same. Whenever I get time, I too browse for other blogs to get inspired. If any of my readers do blog, please do link your blog here, so that I can visit your page. By the way, I am not just a lover of crochet. I love gardening too. I like to have my own kitchen garden. Back in my hometown, I have my own organic mango tree in my house which I had planted some 15 yrs ago. Its now bearing very tasty yummy mangoes. The mango tree is called Vellayani maavu in malayalam. So for those who love to see its picture, here I am sharing.

Vellayani Maavu (Mango tree)

I am a great lover of this variety of mango. Its tastes so divine. There had been a time in my childhood days, when my father used to buy a big basket of ripe and unripe mangoes for Rs.200 and just 2 or 3 mangoes for Rs.200. Also there had been times when he came empty handed not to afford buying it. So I swore that if I get a chance to eat any vellayani mango, I will plant it in my home so that at least my kids can enjoy it when it grows bigger because mango trees take years to bear fruits. i was so sure by that time I would have been married and moved out of the place. I took great care in bringing it up along with  my father. We haven't used any chemicals or fertilizers, just organic waste from the kitchen and water. My father is no more, but he also gets a chance to taste it when we perform his annual rites. Now my mom, brother and his family takes care of it. Ohhh, I miss it very much whenever he sends the photos of the mangoes and teases me saying that he had two of them for food or his kids took some pieces of it while running around etc. I am waiting for my chance to have it, also my kids too. Shall post more pics of it when I get it. 

Oh oh, its been a long post today, started from crocheting and ended up in mangoes. But I believe, it hasn't been boring to you. Its Kala now signing off until my next post. Happy crocheting and stay blessed.

100+ subscribers for Yarnoments youtube channel !!!

Yes, you read it right. Yarnoments youtube channel has 100+ subscribers and 700+ views. 

Thanking God and everyone at this moment. It is not that easy in this competitive world to score such a good subscription that too in two months of time. However I believe, where there is a will there is a way. Hard work and determination can lead u to anywhere. 
If you have not visited yet, please follow the link to my youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ_CClHWWfXPtX_vVLpAaxw

Please subscribe, share, like and post healthy comments as this means a lot to me.

About my channel

Yarnoments youtube channel is a Malayalam (South Indian, Kerala state) , English language channel. The intention behind starting this channel is to educate those people who have an interest towards crafts,  who find it difficult to follow the English crochet instructions.  I accidentally fell into the world of crochet. Do you know that i was repeating the words in my mind after my weekend shopping from a supermarket all the way back home, because I didn't want to forget that word. As in my introduction to this blogger, I wanted to do something I was passionate about and this crochet was a kick start to  kill my boredom as a home maker. I started learning crochet by myself watching various videos. It was really hard time then for me as a beginner who had absolutely no idea what crochet is all about. I used to write down the terms, about crochet hooks, yarns, crochet stitches' names...... a looonnng note on all related to crochet. 

I am now confident to read patterns (not diagrams though) or attempt to create my own designs, but I still love to consider myself as a beginner /intermediate. I think I will be happy in that level because, crochet is an ocean with innumerable ripples (stitch types, crochet types and patterns). So to call me as an expert would take long time. 

Having said these, when I searched for a crochet channel in Malayalam language, I should say I couldn't find any. That was seriously disturbing for me because Kerala is such a land where arts and crafts are appreciated and embraced warmly. So I thought I should contribute something to my land. Also, I am sure, it would be helpful to aspiring people who loves to explore new arts. Its a small contribution from my side. My passion to teach someone is bloomed too by opening my channel. Moreover, this blogging, crocheting and preparing videos for channel all has set a schedule to my life as a homemaker. I plan my days accordingly setting time and goals for myself and rewarding myself with its outcomes. I have a sense of self satisfaction in achieving something from crochet. I am so happy, at the same time I am reminding myself to be more responsible towards my work too. 

Now, I am a busy homemaker  - as a mom, as a wife, as a blogger, as a tutor, and as a CROCHETER. I love to explore more about crochet. I don't know if I will stop with crochet, but I am sure i am not going to stop my crochet. It has become a part of me. 

See you soon in another post. Until then, its bye from Kala. Have a nice weekend.

Hridayakamalam kolam patterned crochet summer top

I wanted to design my own pattern for my little one which was in mind for quite a long time and I succeeded in that. So this post is all about the dress I dared to attempt.

 

As such this dress doesn't follow anyone else's pattern. Just its an attempt to copy my mom's one of the kolam designs she draws in the pooja room. If I am correct, the kolam design is called hridayakamalam. I love that design and tried to replicate that. It is drawn connecting dots. I am not used to that one, so can't explain fully. 

 

To start with the project, I got a new set of Laura knitting cotton yarn from India (cotton is my favourite fibre), so wanted to do something on it of my own. I felt it would be good to make a summery dress as cotton suits well in the summer season. First I thought of making it for myself , but felt if the  yarn collection is not sufficient for me then it will be an utter waste of time and yarn. So decided to make one for my daughter. 

 

I designed in a paper the model I wanted to crochet for my little one. I noted down the  required measurements of my gal. I am not a professional, so in this case I may have committed mistakes , but I am not aware of it where it has happened. I made one motif in that kolam design and decided how many motifs to go across and down to get the full structure of the dress. I made required number of motifs for that dress and used join as you go (JAYGO) technique to connect each motifs as I created. However, in crochet, I used slip stitches for that dots.

  

I made 12 big motifs as the main and 6 small motifs (which I reduced the rounds) to fill in the holes formed by the big motifs after joining them together. I used a 6mm hook, had only chains and slip stitches.it is in the form of front and back panels.

 

The final outcome is as in the picture. I felt in love with my work. and when my little one was wearing it, it gave proper shape too as I desired. One mistake I think I made, that very obvious to me after she wore this was it was tight when she wore on top of a full sleeves. since summer doesn't calls for full sleeves, it is not a problem. So I had to remove it and asked her to wear this on top of a sleeveless camisole type, but she wanted to wear it like this. I didn't want to spoil the mood as I was keen to take a couple of good pictures, and luckily she posed very well too. May be I had listened to her wearing it like this, she was happy to pose, I don't know, but I got what I wanted from her. Thankful to her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My gal is tall and skinny, so this dress fell off from her shoulders. So I made a long chain and used it as a bow which interconnected the front and back panels. So I can use it or not depending upon the comfort of the dress. I liked that idea and to my surprise, it worked out well too. I didn't add any extra touch to the dress as it was so pretty on its own. Generally, I love dresses having a layer of small border along the neck line and hem line or at the arm line, but I just left at the motif end design itself.

 

However, I realized one thing. Handmade stuff is really a tough job to do, let it be any art, anything, it  is absolutely hard. For me, like this type of crocheting or knitting a dress using motifs or plain type, I think is not an easy stuff , I should say, or may be I lack expertise in the dress designing, I feel so, I am not sure. but, for me, it was difficult. Still, it has given me the urge to explore new patterns and try out new varieties in it. I have planned to start with something easy stuffs and then jump to complicated ones. I gained confidence in this area too, at least for self purpose I can try in the beginning.

 

Hope you liked this post. As always, suggestions are welcome. See you in the next post, until then its bye from Kala. Happy crocheting and have a lovely week ahead.