| Swahaste tvahastam (from my hands to yours)

Crochet Paradise – Waaah!

December 23, 2005 in Uncategorized | Tags: Links, Patterns, People | 1 comment

For "stageacter" who was looking for Denise Augostine's Crochet Paradise site, ~~you can~~ one used to be able to find it through webarchive.org here.
But checking today, I find that all I get from the archives is a domain registration site….Waah!

The Wayback machine is a good resource for finding any website that has become defunct, just enter the last address you remember for it and it gives you the cached archive. Sometimes pictures don't load properly, but you can often do a directory search and see them.

Meow!

December 23, 2005 in Uncategorized | Tags: Cats, Fun, Me | 1 comment

From Sara's blog, I couldn't resist!

You scored as Couch Potato Cat. Decorative pillow? No, that'd be you sitting on the couch, even still. Hmm. . . I'm guessing you have Web TV.

Couch Potato Cat

75%

Ninja Cat

67%

Pissed at the World Cat

67%

Nerd Cat

50%

Deranged Cat

50%

Love Machine Cat

33%

Drunk Cat

33%

Which Absurd Cat are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Drumroll

December 22, 2005 in Uncategorized | Tags: Indian, People | 3 comments

Please welcome the second crochet blogger from India……Yasmin! She does amazing, lovely work. Yay!!!

Oh phoooey!

December 22, 2005 in Crochet | Tags: Indian | Leave a comment

Never thought I'd use the term in real life, but that's how I feel right now…Remember the Yahoo group I started for crocheters from India? Well, I'd written to Needle n' Thread magazine (from Coats India) asking them to feature my letter about it in their next issue. Today I get a call from them saying they wouldn't be able to do that, because they have their own website! Phooey is the only term I can come up with right now. That website is the site of the UK/US Coats and Clark (the site http://www.coatsindia.com never seems to work), while mine is obviously just a grouping with no commercial purpose whatsoever. I guess it's a great thing we even have a needlework magazine in India. Sigh!
So we'll have to think of other ways to publicise the group. Right now we have 10 members.

Notice I have absolutely no hesitation in naming names, knowing I have nothing to gain.

Spike bag with Windmist

December 22, 2005 in Crochet | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Crochet | 4 comments

Okay, so the Windmist brushed acrylic yarn Fiona sent me was calling out to be a bag, so I moped around the net and hassled Cordelia all day a bit, before rediscovering the Spike stitch bag at Crochet Me. Here is my version:

which looks absolutely nothing like the designer‘s. That’s why she is a designer and I am a copycat.

As I hate seaming, I decided to crochet in rounds, with a Crystalite size G/6 4.00 mm hook. I also turned the finished tube upside down to fix the bottom.

And here is another photo with my foot for scale.
Please don’t mention the clashing colours of the bag, I give a very good impression of being colour-blind even when I’m not.

The thing still needs handles, more of which in my next post.

Weird fact #1. The fuzz is mostly concentrated on the “wrong side” of the bag, why?

Update: Or what makes a scientific mind! Noricum gave me the answer to my weird fact question:

The fuzz is probably mostly on the inside because when you pull the yarn from back to front, the fuzz gets left behind.

Now why couldn’t I think of that?

Bagged!

December 22, 2005 in Crochet | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Crochet | 4 comments

ETA 23.06.2010: Discovered this wasn’t in my Rav notebook (imagine that!) and just entered it, and created the pattern entry in the database as well. Hopefully the designer can fill in the blanks, as several of the links in this post are now dead.

Finished the spike bag last night. Yay! Did the handles on the French Knitter. The bag will need a lining, obviously, and I’m still pondering what sort of closure to put in…..

From a distance:

Close-up:

Handles:

To recap:
Yarn: Windmist Brushed acrylic (100%) in Ocean Blue (50 gm) and Hollyberry (50 gm) and some scrap yarn for the handles
Hook: Susan Bates Crystalites size G/6 4.00mm
Pattern: All in my head, derived from Crochet Me‘s Spike Stitch challenge
Time: About 4-5 hours
Size: 9″ by 10″ by 2.5″
Extra: Used knitting knobby for cords for handles

Update: Thanks everyone for your nice comments! Yes, Sheila, I will be keeping this one for myself. If I can just get off my butt and line it… And Sue, Sara and Jomo, it’s good to know you like my work :D! Darn, I wish Blogger would do smilies….

By any name

December 16, 2005 in Knitting | Tags: Accessories, Techniques | 2 comments

Here is what I am using to make the cord for the bag handles:

It is a Pony French Knitter also called knitty knobby, knitting nancy, spool knitter…. The instructions that came with the thingummy weren’t too clear, but I found this excellent site with pictures and stuff.

Here is what the cord looks like. Magic, isn’t it?

Best of all, this toy is Made in India and for a change, it is actually available here. *clap vigorously* I got it for Rs 42 on my last trip to Hyderabad. (And yes, I do have rather a lot of lines on my palms.)

Chenille hat being knit

December 13, 2005 in Knitting | Tags: UFOs | Leave a comment

Or…never frog a chenille!

Here is my progress so far on what I hope will become a hat from the Bernat chenille I got from Grace in August (for June CAT).

This thing is striping, but I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if manufacturers included information on how many sts would make a symmetric striping? So if we wanted symmetry, we’d follow the sts or else not…

But, the yarn absolutely dies if it’s frogged…Serious, I’ve had clumps of the stuff shedding on me…

Wanted: Someone with a head small enough for 85 yards of chenille! Finders will be suitably rewarded.

Elfed!

December 13, 2005 in Uncategorized | Tags: Fun, Supplies | 2 comments

Yay! I got my first Crochetville elfing for the Xmas wishlist in the mail today! Took 7 days to reach me (fast by some standards), but what yummy stuff!

Here is a pic:

The yarn is Made in Italy for Yarns Brunswick (the company seems defunct now), colours are Ocean Blue and Hollyberry. It’s a fuzzy brushed 100% acrylic. Yummy!

Also in the package were 4 different flavours of Lipton tea: Plain, Honey, Lemon Ginseng and Mixed Berry. Should I drink these cold or hot? I’m more a cold coffee/iced tea person….

One Hershey bar (in fridge right now for resuscitation after the long journey reduced it to pulp).

Two pattern sheets (for baby cardigan and Xmas runner), a recipe for caramel corn (what is Karo syrup?) and a handwritten greeting card from Mumbles, my elf!

Yay again! Sure feels good to know someone thought of me…

I knit, too!

December 10, 2005 in Knitting | Tags: Accessories, FOs, FOs - Knitting | 3 comments

Yes, I do! Although this my first knit show-and-tell since starting this blog, there was a time when I knit more than I crocheted….

Anyway, I had Cordelia’s DAOK Yarn Bee Wild Child Eyelash in Fiesta calling out to me and it looked like it would dazzle in knit rather than crochet, so I dusted off my needles (Gasp, I even had the recommended size 7/4.5mm!!!!).

While carrying on a conversation with Cordelia, I cast on 20 sts and stitched away in garter stitch to produce this creature:

Isn’t it beautiful? I keep expecting it to mew at me. I wish it would, too. (Weird colours for a feline, but who cares?!)

Later in the evening I had an epiphany and decided to make it a “keyhole” pattern. Therefore without much ado, I frogged back a few rows,, knit 8 st, BO (Bind off, silly) 4 st, knit 8 st for one row, then knit 8 st, CO (Cast on) 4 st, knit 8 st the next row. Voila! I now had a “hole”. Garter st the rest of the way….

At the end of the ball, I had 24 inches of furry pleasure…the only question is, who will it fit?! Round my neck, for example, it looks like this:

I cropped off the photo so you can’t see my tongue sticking out (just kidding!). Not to mention the hole seems to be rather unfortunately located, so the entire arrangment is lopsided. *sigh*

Can someone tell me what I could do?

1. Frog and store
2. Hats with fringe
3. Find a small funky child in desperate need of neck warmer

4. Any other suggestions you might give me

I love the yarn!!!!

Update: The keyhole has now been moved to a more comfortable place and now I can even breathe while wearing it. Only thing is, I’m still not funky enough for it. Maybe I will be when I grow up…

Noricum: How wide should a skinny scarf be? This one is 4 inches

Sheila: Yes I used the entire skein, not a cm left to talk about…I’d forgotten what colours the Cheshire cat was. Maybe I will keep this…