A New Website & A Birthday

16 Thursday Jul 2015

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Today is pretty special.

I have turned 36 today!! I guess I am now nearer to 40 like my little lady pointed out to me during a Math lesson of “Rounding Off Numbers to the nearest 10”. As if I needed reminding 😀

But what’s even more special about today is that I just started a new website/blog

http://www.life-and-all-things-nice.com/

I had read a lot of insights from other bloggers on having a hosted website and I thought I’d just go for it, without thinking and planning too much. I’m still not entirely sure if it will be beneficial for me, but I think I’ll learn as I go along. Its in its beginning stages and I think its somehow connected to WordPress too. But I don’t know yet how all of you lovely people can see every time I post something on it. Well, I will just have to figure it out and learn new things.

Do check it out, won’t you?

In Light of Recent Events

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Bessie V in My Faith

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This is a blog by a pastor in the US. I am sharing it, because I feel his sermon puts a lot into perspective, not only on the same-sex marriage, but even on other society issues. We need our love for others to reflect what Christ would do.

JimsBlog

This is the text of the sermon I preached on Sunday, June 28, setting aside my summer sermon series to address a number of recent events in our nation. I publish it here by request:

On Thursday Christy and I drove from Richmond, Virginia, to Niagara Falls, Ontario, which means that we waited in line to cross the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side of the border. I don’t know why. You can see the falls from the American side. But we love international travel, and it only cost $3.50 to cross the bridge, so we did it. And, besides, we had reservations at a bed and breakfast on the Canadian side. To avoid roaming charges we switched our phones to “airplane mode” and spent a blissful sixteen hours ignoring the news. When we crossed back over the next day it seemed that everything had changed. Christy sat in the…

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Yarnabout Monday – Alpaca

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Know Your Yarns

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Alpaca

Here’s another really adorable and fluffy looking, smiley-faced, fiber producing animal.

The Alpaca!

They are a domesticated species of the Camelid family and resembles a llama.

Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of southern Peru, northern Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Chile and are bred specifically for their fiber and meat.

Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, similar to wool. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world.

The fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 16 as classified in the United States.

Alpaca fleece is a lustrous and silky natural fiber. While similar to sheep’s wool, it is warmer, not prickly, and bears no lanolin, which makes it hypoallergenic. Without lanolin, it does not repel water. It is also soft and luxurious. In physical structure, alpaca fiber is somewhat akin to hair, being very glossy. It is also flame-resistant.

The price for American alpacas can range from US$50 for a castrated male (gelding) to US$500,000 for the highest of champions in the world, depending on breeding history, sex, and color!

Brands featuring 100% Alpaca yarns in their collection are :

The Alpaca Yarn Company / Blue Sky Alpacas / Lion Brand Baby Alpaca.

Reflections

04 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Family, Life In Kuwait

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Reflections, Solitude

Its been a hectic week, both at work and at home, and following a short break of “staying at home during weekends” because of the very unpleasant incident that took place 2 weeks ago here in Kuwait, we ventured out yesterday evening.

Aft 20150703_212749 er dinner at a small joint that served one of the best chicken tikkas, we went to the beach opposite our church.

I had never, ever been to this part of the beach considering Kuwait has a coastline of approx. 200 km with a lot of beach areas to choose from. The evening was very warm and the beach was quiet and peaceful. Quiet, mostly because it is the Holy month of Ramadan and the majority of the people were breaking their fasts at home with their family and loved ones. So we had the whole area to ourselves apart from the few cats strolling and lazing about, occasionally being screamed at and chased by my 2 cheeky monsters.

We sat on one of the benches savoring the solitude, talking about the week that passed and planning our one-month holiday that’s due in just another 10 days. How quickly the days have flown by. We then sat and watched the tide go out and come in. Watched the twinkling lights of the boats that are far at sea. Watched the reflections of the city lights shimmering in the still waters.

A sense of calm came over me and all the stress from the week that passed just melted. I was so glad we got out and came here. Felt more at peace with myself and the world and a lot more refreshed to begin a brand new week.

Wishing you all a great week too!

New Experiences : Crochet Diagrams

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Crochet

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Crochet diagrams, Crochet symbols

Starting today, I’ve decided to learn how to read crochet diagrams.

I have seen crochet patterns in other languages with no option of translating into English and most of them also come with these diagrams.

Imagine trying to decipher this one below!!

crochet doily symbol diagram

I’ve never bothered myself with it before, but I think its time to take a step up and advance myself a bit (I hope being able to read diagrams is a sign of advancement and not something that should have been started with in the first place 🙂 ).

Once I familiarize myself with the symbols, I thought I would start with a simple Granny Square diagram.. something like this :

Hope I manage and learn something new 🙂

Yarnabout Monday – Cashmere

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Know Your Yarns

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Cashmere

Today’s yarn-about is on Cashmere.

Considered as one of the most precious and prized commodities in the world, Cashmere is actually not wool, but hair obtained from cashmere goats.

The Cashmere goats produce a double fleece that consists of a fine, soft undercoat or underdown of hair mingled with a straighter and much coarser outer coating of hair called guard hair. For the fine underdown to be sold and processed further, it must be de-haired. De-hairing is a mechanical process that separates the coarse hairs from the fine hair. After de-hairing, the resulting “cashmere” is ready to be dyed and converted into textile yarn, fabrics and garments.

Cashmere has been manufactured in Mongolia, Nepal and Kashmir in India for thousands of years. Famous shawls are the Jamavar with the famous paisley pattern. The fiber is also known as pashmina for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir.

It is fine in texture, strong, light, and soft. Garments made from it provide excellent insulation.

Lion brand and Pepperberry Knits feature 100% cashmere yarns in their collections.

Crochet Cruises – What a fun way to experience the art of crochet!

25 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Crochet

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Crochet Cruises, Cruises

Look at that! Crochet cruises!

Its founded by the Crochet Crowd to bring fans and crocheters together on a cruise!

What an absolutely wonderful and innovative idea of having a fun vacation and at the same time enjoying some crochet-learning-time with other crocheters!

You can read more about it here :

http://crochet-cruises.com/about-us/

Yarnabout Monday – Mohair

22 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Know Your Yarns

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Angora Goat, Mohair Yarn

Here’s another yarn that I have in my stash, but never used (the ones I bought just by the pictures and hated them?). I find it a fright to work with. Gets all knotted up and unraveling it is a nightmare.

The yarn is Mohair.

True to its name, it looks all hairy too. And fuzzy 🙂

Mohair is a silk-like yarn made from the hair of the Angora Goat. It is nick-named the “Diamond Fiber” because of its high luster and sheen.

South Africa is supposedly the world’s largest mohair producer.

The fiber is warm in winter as it has excellent insulating properties, while remaining cool in summer due to its moisture-wicking properties. It is durable, naturally elastic, flame resistant, crease resistant, and does not felt. It is considered to be a luxury fiber, like angora and silk, and is usually more expensive than most wool that comes from sheep.

Mohair is composed mostly of keratin, a protein found in the hair, wool, horns and skin of all mammals.

Fine hair from younger animals is used for finer applications such as clothing, and the thicker hair from older animals is more often used for carpets or rugs.

Mohair is a very soft yarn when compared with other natural and synthetic fibers and is often blended with wool or alpaca.

The ones that I own are blended with Wool and Acrylic (the same range shown below – Nako yarns).

Berroco / Sirdar / Artyarns / Debbie Bliss are some brands that feature Mohair blends in their collection.

Do let me know if you have used Mohair yarn and what you think of it? It could inspire me to use mine and finish it off 🙂

My Work-In-Progress? Complete!!

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Crochet

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Crochet Capelet, Shells and Bobbles capelet

Introducing : The Shells and Bobbles Capelet.

Ta-dah!

I’m sooo happy its done and finished. And I don’t think it looks too bad considering the amount of hair-pulling that’s been done over the few miscalculations here and there which I think aren’t too obvious.

The piece is worked neck-down and comprises mostly of shells. The bobbles were worked later on only around the neck-line and refuses to lie flat (could be due to insufficient chain spaces, not sure). I’ll be sewing it down so that the bobbles are visible.

Took clicks of it from every possible angle until my 10 yr old couldn’t take it any longer 😀 And I’ve gazed and admired the clicks to my heart’s content.

So here I am now, sharing the looks with you. Once I’m done with the ordeal of penning down the pattern, I shall put that up too!

I’ve referenced a lot online on the Pineapple Motif and I hope mine looks alright enough 🙂 . But because the yarn is of the variegated type, the motifs aren’t too clear.

I’ve started another one in a solid color and I’m writing down the pattern too while I’m at it. But with this one, I’ve started off with the bobbles and will then work the shells around it. It should, hopefully, not be too complicated.

Do let me know your opinions?

Crochet Easy Headband

18 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by Bessie V in Crochet

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Crochet Headband

20150618_155312

I had mentioned in my earlier post about a project that is under works based on my own pattern (hopeful about finishing it in the next 3-4 days :).)

Before I started it, I was trying out stitches to see what works and what doesn’t. I made swatches in order to check them out better and 1 trial swatch started to look like a prospective pattern (although not usable for the project at hand)!

I ended up converting the swatch into a head-band for my 10 year old 🙂 (Had to unravel it to start with the ends, though).

The pattern is very simple using only Single Crochet (SC) and Double crochet (DC) as well as a Single Crochet decrease (SCD). The decrease is done by doing a SC in 2 stitches together.

This video will help with that : Single Crochet Decrease

The following are the materials I used and how it was done :

Materials : 1. Mercerized cotton (I think if you use a Worsted weight yarn, it could work up quicker with lesser number of rows and with a lot more stretch. Before starting, Please see remarks above Round 10 to decide type of yarn you’d like to use)
2. 4 mm hook
3. Needle for weaving in ends
4. 1 Button

Pattern :

Round 1 : Chain 5. Single crochet (SC) in 2nd chain from hook and across. Turn. (4 SC)

Round 2 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 2 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (5 SC)

Round 3 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 3 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (6 SC)

Round 4 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 4 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (7 SC)

Round 5 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 5 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (8 SC)

Round 6 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 6 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (9 SC)

Round 7 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 7 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (10 SC)

Round 8 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 8 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (11 SC)

Round 9 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch and in the next 9 stitches. Make 2 SC in the last stitch. Turn. (12 SC)

Remark : From the next round on, I had to work the pattern until the 70th row in order to get the band to fit, after also considering space for the other end of the band which will be Rounds 1 – 9 in reverse order. If you use a Worsted Weight yarn, you probably will get your desired length around the 30th or 40th round.

Round 10 – 70 or until band is of desired length : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch. [DC in the next stitch, SC in the next stitch] across; ending with a DC. Turn. (12 stitches)

Round 71 : Chain 1 and SC in each stitch across. Turn. (12 SC).

Round 72 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (11 SC)

Round 73 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (10 SC)

Round 74 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (9 SC)

Round 75 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (8 SC)

Round 76 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (7 SC)

Round 77 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (6 SC)

Round 78 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (5 SC)

Round 79 : Chain 1. Do a SCD. SC in the remaining stitches. Turn. (4 SC)

Round 80 : Chain 1 and SC in same stitch, Chain 6, skip the next 2 SC and SC in the last stitch and Fasten off. (The space formed from the chain 6 was for the button-hole).

Weave in ends.

Sew on a button on the other end of the band.

2015-06-18 19.35.54

I also did a surface slip stitch all around the rectangular portion of the band.

Video link for a surface stitch can be found here : Surface Stitch

I know the instructions look too long. But the whole thing was done in 2 hours, flower and all! (The flower is a modified smaller version of The Blooming Flower pattern by Attic 24). But you can find plenty online.