Crochet Rainbow Clip Organizer

Can a girl have enough clips?

Can she...no never...Being in one of the fashion capitals i feel there is just too much accessories in HK, heck people even accessorize their accessories here!! Do you know what i mean? Like they buy a smart phone case. And then they decorate it with bling, then they add more cartoons and such stuff to the case. Add some sparkles. They they put the mobile in a pouch, then they add some stuff to the pouch..and then the pouch goes into a LV/Prada/Gucci/Coach bag..!!

But having girls as your kids is so much fun, there is a street in HK known as Fa Yuen Street where you have more than 100 shops just selling clips and hair bands and what nots for girls.. I scumb to temptation and go there once in 2 months ...cos i know i ll just go crazy there and buy too many things..This weekend i had been there and ended up with dozens of hair bands and even more clips..All of them by the end of the day were lying scattered all through the house and my daughter even managed to put allll the clips on her head once!!

I decided to CLEAN and get organized and that's when it struck me! Why does she throw all her clips? She is a girl, she needs to see the entire store before she picks an item :) So i thought, why not make a clip organizer for her clips?

Wanna see it...

Rainbow clip organizer.. Ta-daaah!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me tell you girls...I had so so so much FUN doing this..

It is pretty easy..will let you know how to whip up one in a few hours!!
Get your hook and make your girl this organizer. She will love it :)

My girl says, "Mamma, this is for my clips?"
I say, "Yes, sweety!".
She says, "Wow, its so beautiful, now i can select my clips on my own!"

Ha ha ha..Hurray for small independence :)

My accessories for decorating this piece of joy..

Want to know how to make it??


Yarn :: Rico Creative Design in rainbow shades and cream. But you can use any cotton yarn. I feel cotton is better as it is a decor item.
Hook size :: Matching to your yarn, gauge is really not important here, its more of a fun thing right?
Lots of buttons and beads and cute animals
Some ribbons/ Ric-racs
Sewing needle and thread.

Warning :: A bit of simple sewing is needed. Just to attach the ribbons to make the racks for pinning the clips.

How to make this color blast clip case:

1. Start with a simple chain of 48 stitches. You can do any other width to suit your needs.
2. SC in second chain from hook and SC throughout.
3. Turn, chain 2. SC in next chain and throughout.
4. Repeat step 3 till the piece measures about 1.5 inches.
5. Turn, chain 4. TRC (triple crochet) in the next stitch and through out.
6. Turn, chain 2 and SC throughout.
7. Repeat step 6 till piece measures 1.5 inches.
8. Repeat step 5 again.

Continue this till you get to the length you desire. Its all very simple and flexible. Treat this as a guidline and do your own fun thing basically. I used a row of TRC's in between to loop my ric-racs. Can you see it below? This way, i stitch the ends of the ric racs or ribbons if you wish and i get a row of band to clip the clips! Hope i am talking sense..Else let the picture guide you guys :)

I even made to pockets and added them for storing rubber bands.
Clipped on my clips at the end..Cheeky mommy - thats me for sure!

Hooked bands of SC's and added a button hole on the last row.
Stitched some buttons on and used a hanger to hang it all up!!

Decorate it as you please.
Use other color combinations and stitches, maybe granny squares too..So many options..Sigh!!

On another totally unrelated front, the summer holidays are here and i am SO HAPPY to be going to India!!! Yahoooooooooo... India calling!!

No more cooking...

No more getting up in the mornings..

No more attending to what is missing in the house...

No more wifey duties...

No more running to school to drop/pick up

More of eating my mom's yummy food..

More of sleeping late and just playing with kids..

More of friends and family...

More of shopping..

I am travelling to Bangalore tomorrow and i am yet to start packing... Let alone the cleaning i need to do...So i better rush!

Stay creative, stay happy, feed your family!

Have a great weekend...

Love,
xxx.

Marigold Garland

Hello my lovelies!

How z your weekend going on?? I am really excited this weekend as my college friend is coming over to Hong Kong. We are planning on a girls out weekend filled with shopping and eating and relaxing and in general letting our hair down :) Something about school/college friends right? They are very special and cannot be replaced by the new friends we make. They know us for who we were before we became wives/mothers. They don't know us as xxx's wife or xyz's mother and it is so VERY *important* to connect to that woman in you too...

'Torana' means gateway in Sanskrit. A garland made of Mango leaves and Marigold is used as a torana in Hindu homes. In other words, the garland is tied to the frame of the main door of the house. The marigold flower symbolizes auspiciousness. The saffron/orange colour signifies renunciation and hence is offered to God as a symbol of surrender.

I have been wanting to making such a garland for a long long time...very long time.. Finally got down to it and using the flower motifs #9 and #10 from "BEYOND THE SQUARE Crochet Motifs" i came up with this...

Inspiration came from the above flowers... I did not do a traditional marigold per say, but i loved how these turned out, don't you?

Any Hindu garland is incomplete without mango leaves and i had to add them to my crochet garland too..

There it is!!
Marigold Garland Ta-daaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you guys liked it :)
Have a fab weekend and what are the crafty/baking/cooking/hooking plans for the weekend? Spend the time wisely as it is precious, spend it with your loved ones and spread love and fun around!!

C u on the other side of this short breather, hopefully, i will have embarked on my next "big" project soon.. I am searching for patterns for a new blanket. No ripples, no granny squares and no stripes! I officially blame Pinterest for giving me soo many options that i am not doing anything new!!

Have a happy weekend! Keep calm and stay happy :)

Love,
xxx

Garden of Flowers Jacket

Hello my lovely people!

Are you enjoying the weather outside. I must say that its been wonderful here, about 20 degrees with loads of sunshine in the day time. A great time of the year before the horrid humid summer n rainy season set in.

Hope your hooks have been busy and your crafty juices flowing and livening up your lives and homes and studios and whatever space you own :)

I was always smitten by the traditional granny square but when ever i wanted to hook a wearable, it was never a granny as i did not find any good patterns online or in print. Finally i came across an inspiration from the book Granny Crochet Favourites and this is the result..

 ...oooops...he sneaked in somehow.. :)
and is puzzled by what his mom's doing!

Some awesome flower therapy - the Gerbera daisies. They add a dash of color to any dull space and they are my latest favorite flowers, bought from the local fresh market...

 

Wearable crochet is always tricky i feel, especially when you are doing your own pattern and do not know how it will turn out...

I will try to give some info on how this jacket can be hooked. But this is just for idea and NOT an exact pattern. I am too lazy to click step-by-step pics :P

So here goes nothing...

1.Try to read the below diagrams..

 This was the draft for my project. If you click on the image, you will get a more readable size i hope! Basically the first step is to determine the chest size and the length. Crochet a patch of any type of granny squares to meet the requirements. You need to horn your maths my dear friends for this...Not a pleasant zone i hear you say!! Couldn't agree more with you...

Crochet 2 such patches. You can see the color blocks in the pic above.

2. Determine the sleeve to sleeve length and the width of the sleeves. Begin with a starting chain = width of sleeve and do SC's while turning the work after every row.

3. After you reach the length required, you are going to do the back yoke. This was half the width for me. Continue doing SC's till you reach the length = width of chest. NOTE : This yoke length should be equal to the width of your granny patch.

4.Continue with next sleeve by chaining the additional half chains and then working SC's again till you reach the end of the sleeve. Fasten off.

5. Refer to fig again to know where to begin the front yoke and the neck decreases. Any question, feel free to pop in! 

6.Attach the 2 granny patches and your jacket would look something like this now..

 

7.I used SC to attach the two sleeves and the front and back patches too. 

8. Crocheted a simple border of 2 rows of granny stripe around sleeves and jacket ends.

 

9. Also a border of 2 rows of SC around the neck and fastened off with a button to keep it in place.

 

And here comes the Ta-daaah!!!

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 My girl was extra extra happy and gave me loads of kisses and said she will not share this jacket with anyone! Silly things to make my day :)

Some more details:

Yarn used : Sublime baby cashmere merino silk DK in various shades of spring + 4 balls in cream for the sleeves and yoke.

Hook size : 3.5mm

Granny Flower Pattern LINK here. Tweaked this pattern a bit so that it looks more solid and less spotty.

Little Miss:  Totally cute and flower girly types.

Me:  Blissful, satisfied, totally happy as something which i formed in my head and later on paper yielded the exact results i was expecting!!! Yipeeeeeee

 Flower : Sad and broken @ Little Miss's hands.

Hope you guys found some sense in what i have tried to explain. 

Love to hear from you guys as always.. Hope you are safe, happy and crafty...

Lotsa love,

xxx.

 

 

Spring in her step :)

Helllo my Lovely Beautiful people!

How are we doing this day? We have started feeling the presence of Spring already here. Its soooo wonderful. The dawn of new day, new hope and new seasons. Its so wonderful to see the trends of the world, be it festival or weather or seasons reflecting on our blog-sphere. I was seeing spring everywhere, in the clicks, in the works, in the words and in the mood. It wasn't long before i was drawn in too..

Cannot resist sharing this with you guys :

Early Spring by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 
Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plowed hills
With loving blue;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The throstles too.

Past, Future glimpse and fade
Through some slight spell,
A gleam from yonder vale,
Some far blue fell;
And sympathies, how frail,
In sound and smell!

Till at thy chuckled note,
Thou twinkling bird,
The fairy fancies range,
And, lightly stirred,
Ring little bells of change
From word to word.

For now the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And thaws the cold, and fills
The flower with dew;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The poets too.

This so reflects the changes in heaven and in earth. One of my favorite poems.

The above top was done for my princess dear. I just was drawn into crochet with threads and beads by a lovely book. Will share more about it in my coming post.

Ok, honestly, she did not need this top. Neither did i need to crochet this ridiculous idea of mine :) I was in the middle of a spring granny jacket which was in the middle of a blue ripple..he he but yes i had to do this. But but but...no more wandering and loitering. Back to my jacket and then back to my ripple. Everyday i see the ripple in my crochet WIP bag and feel guilty. Do you guys feel such things on seeing your WIP's which should not be IGNORED?

Hope you are having a fantastic season. If not, i am sure spring is just around the corner. To brighten up and make you merry!

Love and more,
xxx.

Pretty Flower Dress

Hello my dear lovely people!

Wishing you loads of sunshine and warmth from here. First i would like to thank you all for such kind words and comments on my Giveaway. Do leave me a comment on that post and remember you have a lot of time, till Feb 18th actually :)

Second thing i need to share with you guys - me and the little people and the banker are taking a vacation to sunny Singapore today! Yeah....after 3 years we finally decided that we can do a week's holidaying with kids. Or many be 5 days :) I finally successfully managed to wean my son off and i am so proud of myself for that. He never drank the formula and was on cow's milk since 7 months.. i know the docs and the internet sites don't advice it... But what do i do when he throws up all the flavors and all the companies milk? I HAD to feed him milk right...so he always sipped from glass. Now he is totally off my milk too and i have been enjoying good full night's sleep since last couple of days :) Hurrraaay!! Feel like my children are all grown up and off to college :))) sigh! Ok, so i am off to the sing land and will be checking my mails and blog after i am back.

Before i am off, wanted to share this cute little frock with you. There comes an idea and you have to have to have to execute it. I had lots to pack, things to do, clothes to sort, but i saw this plain frock i had bought for my girl and had an instant creative idea gushing. Forgetting all my priorities i took my hook and this is what i came up with...

This was what it was before.

Tucking my kids off to bed, switching on my lappy for daily dose of Hustle series i did this..

My girl loved loved it!!!

Before i go, here's the button for my Giveaway.. Do take part and have a great time!!

Love and more...
xxx