An update

Hello everyone. Belated Pongal (Tamil New Year) wishes. This year start has given me some wonderful opportunities in crochet and I was and still getting busy with that. I see that my blog has also received its visit close to 2000 which obviously does matters to me. It reminds me to keep myself motivated to do more posts on the blog and reach you people to the maximum. Also this shows your support towards me. Please accept my sincere apologies for not blogging or keeping you updated or posted for a while as I visited here a bit late.

 

I have been occupied by so many aspects of crochet - minor and major events, some were personal and some were charity related. It took some time to organise everything, settle down and then keep it functional. For certain reasons I am not disclosing everything here unless I get full authority to disclose it. Apart from that, if you are asking of my personal front, I attempted to crochet a baby bolero set, two work in progress projects - a shrug and a blouse (my own design) etc. Have some more ideas in mind, but I don't want to mess up with everything now, so just jotted down in  my diary so that I don't forget about it on the go.

 

It might take some more time for me to get back to the blog world. Please bear my absence for a while.  Once everything falls in its place, I am planning to do a separate post on it. So until then its bye from Kala. Happy crocheting.

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 and a youtube channel from Yarnoments

Hello there everyone... Wishing everyone a very  happy, safe, prosperous and healthy new year 2017. May GOD bless you with his choicest blessings to everyone. Hope everyone had a wonderful Xmas and new year celebration.

Just been away from the blog world for a while. Got too busy with family during the vacation, however enjoyed it. Also there is a good news that I was working for having a youtube channel, creating tutorial videos in crochet. Its in my mother tongue Malayalam as well as English. Thought if there is anyone who wants to learn crochet, this might be of little help.

Now back to normal routine..

See you soon in the blog posts. Its bye from Kala.

Crocheted snowflake earrings

There is much happening outside as Xmas arrives. Lots of hustle bustle in the shops, on the road, in the school too and everywhere. For me, if its to say, its like a busy family since last few weeks. A very busy husband with his office work, some travelling too, now hard working just before the Xmas shutdown. So needless to say, all the household responsibilities on my shoulder. Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes it takes my breathe away, managing three little ones in this very cold weather, waking them up in the morning when they are cuddling inside the warm duvet(feel so sorry for them, but no way until holidays), up and down to/from school, cooking, feeding (ahhh, the most difficult task, I should say for me, don't know about others), doing dishes, teaching them and finally putting them to bed. All happens monotonously. Sometimes feel like watching a black & white  art film. All the same. But in spite of all these, if something comes to my rescue is the crochet. I feel relaxed as I see my yarns n hooks.Oh there, did I forget to mention, I have joined a teaching course too. So its a big rush. I wonder sometimes what would I have been if I hadn't found myself out to crochet.

 

A small amount of time dedicated to my yarn and hook gives me that unexplainable pleasure, as if all my pains disappear and I get a very good night sleep, which ultimately as everyone desires. This week my post is about the snowflakes earrings I managed to make in between my rush. I couldn't think of a pattern of my own. So I borrowed Lucy's pattern. That was so well explained as always she does.

 

I wanted to make snowflake ornaments for our Xmas tree, as kids love to hang this and that. But then I felt how it would be if its a jewellery. So thought to make an earring out of the pattern. Since the thread was so thin, I chose 1mm hook. The thread being so fiddly to handle, it took sometime to finish off with the second round and then proceed to third round. However, it came out well. I also added tassel as I love danglers much and finally finished off with the findings. Excuse me for the poor lighting as it was taken on a rainy day with  maximum day light available. After I finished it, I gave a light press to the earrings as it was curly at the points and the tassels too. And finally an earring was born  that day. Its really so pretty that I would love to wear it. Its so light that we don't feel that we have wore an earring. Only if the tassels tickle on your neck, may be you feel it.

 

How are things at your end? Hope you all will have a lovely weekend and good Xmas shopping. Its time for me to have a good cup of coffee. So see you soon in my next post. Byeeeee... Happy weekend and happy crocheting.

White bud crocheted prayer shawl

Christmas is round the corner and so is the mood to crochet new stuff - maybe its hanging ornaments, bunting, coasters, placemats and what not, isn't it? This time I wanted to try something new that I haven't dared to do so - its a prayer shawl. For that I had to do a study, what does that literally mean.

 

 thought it is a shawl that the ladies drape over their shoulders when they go to church for attending mass. But I wasn't so sure of that as I had just watched in films. But I learnt that its for various purposes - keeping one in prayers, praying for recovery from illnesses etc. But this for me, I crocheted keeping in mind my first reason.

 

I crocheted it using 100% cotton yarn and a hook size of 6mm. I think even if it was 6.5mm, it would be easy to use. It consumed one full ball of white yarn and few yards from the second ball for tassels. I didn't follow any pattern as such. It flashed in my mind as my work progressed, tried it out and trust me, it was easy to crochet this. Just chainless single crochet, chains and some picots to form the bud shape. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy to continue and you want it to get finished off to see how it looks like. Finally a round of single crochet to give a defined look. Its 40" * 30"(along drape side) * 14" (from the middle to the tip of the shawl). I could do it in a week with couple of hours each day. Showcasing a couple of its photos.

 

 

 

Maybe this is one of those projects which I have wanted to finish off in time. I liked the way it hangs from the chair. It was so cozy to wear it around the shoulder. Hope you liked it. Love to hear from you. Until then its Kala signing off. Have a lovely week ahead and happy crocheting.

Marine themed granny square cushion cover

Hello there everyone. Today is a post about a granny square cushion cover. It took about six months time to post this, apologies for that. Though I had finished off earlier, the fact is I almost had forgotten about this. I completed this project when I was about to travel to India in the last summer vacation. It was almost a rush and I couldn't find time to post it at that time. But glad that I had drafted this project as well as few other projects in my blogger dashboard, so that came to my rescue. I can pull out one by one to post about it. So now it is time for describing about my marine themed granny square cushion cover :-).

 

When I was thinking of what theme could be applied for the second cushion cover (earlier one was a multi coloured one), I was in a dilemma. The pattern of course was to use granny square, but the choice of colours put me to trouble. Then I remembered that my brother's favourite colour is blue. So why not add a touch of blue to its maximum. And to second my thought, I saw an ad in between watching a movie. It showed some island and touches of blue and aqua here and there. Something in my mind sparked immediately to use patches of blues on one side and other side with a different appearance.

 

Yes, that's it. Having finalised on the colours and patterns, I started digging out all the blue coloured yarns that I had in my hand. Being it a granny pattern, I was sure it will not affect me watching the movie either. So crocheting a marine themed granny square cushion cover began to evolve.  

 

For the patches of blue, I didn't design much. Just kept in mind that dark and light blues should alternate or overlap to produce sort of good gradient effect. I started crocheting the squares and followed the JAYGO (join as you go) method to connect each squares, which is absolutely a good time saver, and sometimes I weave in my ends in this process. I hardly remember spending time weaving ends. So this pattern was for one side.  

 

The other side also followed granny square pattern with only two blue colours, but it is a diagonal granny square pattern. I learnt a new pattern in that way and you know what, this diagonal pattern took considerably less time. I could crochet it easily, maybe I got the hang of it and it went on flowing easily, just changing the sides. It was really fun crocheting this pattern. See how the pattern grows from the centre to the corners. I have marked this pattern for making a cushion cover for myself anyway. I think we can add two more colours, in total having four to give much more effect. I don't know. Need to try.

This time I didn't use any single crochet stitches for the border and then any FLO or BLO or whip stitch techniques to join the cushion covers. I just used JAYGO technique here. So again a time saver here that the three sides were joined as I crocheted along each side. Only the top was left open to insert or remove the cushion. I added buttons again for this cover, some blacks and blues to match with the colours. And finally, a cushion cover had evolved. I really liked how it turned out at the end. It was really awesome.

 

With two cushions (Granny square cushion cover -1, the post here) side by side, my sofa was looking great. Hubby and kids loved it. My big boy commented if I am planning to turn everything in our home to have a crochet touch. Yeah, he is right to an extent. I would love to do so if time permits, I said.

 

So that's all for this time dearies. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and would like this too. See you in the next one, until then its bye from Kala. Have a lovely weekend. And if there are any crocheters or would love to learn crochet, HAPPY CROCHETING. 

Spiral earrings

This week in  my blog is about the spiral pattern. I wanted to learn this somewhere last year, but it went delayed and in course of time, forgot about that. Last week, when my boy M was describing something about a lego creation he made, he mentioned something about spiral steps or ladder he wanted to build in it. At that time, I thought I too had wanted to learn something similar in crochet and recalled it was this spiral pattern. I felt I should have noted this somewhere in my jotter, but hadn’t.

 

I took some time to understand this pattern. The pattern is straight forward, but handling the yarns were bit difficult for me. But you know what, if you can place the yarns on either side unwinding a long working yarn, to an extent this difficulty can be solved.

 

So now that I have learnt this pattern, it prompted me to make earrings and within no time, I had my own set of earrings. It turned out to be so crisp and cute earrings. I liked it very much. But sad that I am not able to wear it outside as it is so cold, icy, rainy and sometimes snowy that I have to get tucked in the jerkin. But I didn't give up. I wear it at home (hahaha).

 

My ladybird liked the earrings, and she wanted to wear it. I will make it for her when she grows up. Wait my dear, until then.

 

Hope you liked this small creation. See you in another post, until then its bye from Kala.

Happy First Birthday Yarnoments and Give away!!!

Yes... Its one year since I launched my Yarnoments. I feel so happy for this moment. Of course, without God's grace and support from my dear and near, I won't be able to reach this far, that is for sure. Ohhh, getting emotional here...... Also, I see that day by day , visits to my blog is also increasing which motivates me to explore more and more about crochet.

I organised a give away to celebrate this. Decided to choose three lucky winners from my WhatsApp group. Kids were also so enthusiastic as me. Luckily they were having vacation, so I got some more time to continue with the finishing touches for the give away. Also, this is my first experience too. I wasn't so sure of how to do this. But in the end, everything went well. I asked my kids to pickup three winners from the lot of names. My ladybird wasn't sure what to do. She was picking up name after name (hahahahaha)  and then putting back all the papers in the bowl. Continued this for a couple of times. I then asked my older one to show what to do and tiny tots followed him.

Don't you want to know what was the give away??? I crocheted three purses for the winners made out of bulky yarn. Added a flower applique too. My friends liked the idea and the gifts. I am so happy to read it too.

 

I was planning to upload this post a couple of weeks ago, but my ladybird fell ill and as she was recovering, she developed ear ache as the aftermath of her illness. Then the school reopened and I was held up with my routine tasks as well. I almost lost the track. Excuse me for that, (I am sure my readers would do that, thank you so much). However, I didn't sit idle these days. Tried to snatch some time in between the schedule to learn new a couple of new things about crocheting a curtain, a new stitch, made couple of earrings, worked out on cushion cover (continuing that, these are the pending ones that I had to give it to my brother) etc. Shall soon post about it.

 

See you soon in my next post, until Kala signing off for the day.