Category Archives: Crochet

Block 5 – Moogly CAL 2016

11 Friday Mar 2016

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I’m done with my Block 5 of Moogly CAL 2016.

It was quite a trying little block. I must have done Round 9 of the pattern at least a dozen times before I had the good sense to check out the Tips n Tricks section of the group on Ravelry to find out exactly what I was doing wrong. And then got it right.

The block is Persephone’s Garden At Night by Rhondda Mol.

Here’s my block :

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The next square I included for my afghan is the Tristan Square (shares the same name as my 2 yr old). This square is a part of the Lovestruck Collection by Polly Plum – a group of 12 afghan blocks. I first thought the pair for this square would be named Isolde. But its not. Tristan’s pair is Yvaine. The colors that Polly used to make these 2 are absolutely dreamy!

Here’s the Tristan Square with my color scheme :

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I’m so pleased with it.

But my 11 yr old isn’t. No surprises there, eh?

 

 

Summer Splendor Doily

04 Friday Mar 2016

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I had a couple of doilies lined up to make after the Mantilla Doily project.

Last week, while rummaging through my stash of yarn, I came across a set of 6 thread yarns that I had forgotten all about. The better half got it for me on one of his trips to Turkey at the time I had first started crocheting. I didn’t really know what sort of yarns were out there and what to get. So he got what he saw and this was one. Its the Tulip range by YarnArt. Color is Cream/Ivory shade – Number 402 in their list.

I decided to try it out for my next doily project – The Summer Splendor Doily.

And I’m in love with this thread!

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I think its quite the versatile yarn. Has a very satiny texture and shine to it and just slips and flows.

The best part is, the yarn makes every round of the project stay the way it should. Sort of like it blocks itself. Here is my completed doily and doesn’t it look like its blocked? Maybe not perfectly, but it still looks a damn sight better than my Mantilla Doily. I’ve used up one whole ball of this yarn with a very small amount left over and a 3.25 mm hook for this project.

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I LOVE IT! Got 5 more balls left and need to check out other things to make.

Block 5 of Moogly CAL was out already yesterday; so gotta get started on that. And I’ve found another square pattern to include in this CAL blanket that’s named the same as my 2 year old 😀 How cool is that!

Will share them with you once I’ve made them.

I did a check to see if there were any squares named the same as my 11 yr old, but, couldn’t find any. I’ll keep lookin’..

 

Block 4 – Moogly CAL 16

22 Monday Feb 2016

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Block 4 of the Moogly CAL debuted on the 18th.

Its the Cathedral Wheel Square by Lorene Eppolite.

I’d completed mine three days ago with some adjustments to the final rounds. I think I like this square more than the others.

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20 more to go, officially.

30 for me, based on my plan of including more squares for a larger piece 🙂

I’m seeing lots of brilliant colors and pattern variations that the other lovely ladies in the group have made. Going now to admire them more.

New Crafty Supplies and a WIP

11 Thursday Feb 2016

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The better half went to Vegas for 2 weeks to attend a trade fair. Came back with a few lovely crafty things that he got from Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores.

One of it was not really a surprise because I had told him specifically to get it. Its a Martha Stewart Knit and Weave Loom set that I wanted to learn to do. I had seen it on one of the video posts on Facebook (by Petals to Picots, I think it was) and wanted to give it a try.

My 11 yr old saw the video too and said she would learn to do it instead. She even went ahead and assigned us roles : I would stick to crochet and she would learn to weave. Was I glad she showed an interest 🙂 ! She had wanted to learn to crochet too; but she couldn’t get her fingers and hook to behave the way they were supposed to. So gave up on it.

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We still haven’t taken the loom out of the packaging. She’s got her finals coming up in 2 weeks and once that is done with, we’ll jump to it. Until then, its stashed out of our way so we don’t get enticed.

Other crafty things in the bag were 2 varieties of Pom-Pom makers, bunch of fancy and cute buttons, a coloring book by Leisure Arts (I soooo love them; I could sit for hours with it and forget there are needy humans in the house.), a scrap-book kit and 2 sets of paint-by-numbers for my 11 yr old (she’s only just begun learning to paint with water-colors).

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Really pleased with them all. These are sure to bring us some mother-daughter quality time together :). The 2 yr old can just watch us and kick up a fuss for not including him.

This evening after work, we saw another beautiful sunset. Drove past the beach to admire it more. We sat in the car for a while watching it, listened to some old Indian music, talked about nothing in particular and got lost in our day-dreams 🙂

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Later at home we had a game of Snakes and Ladders. Its been ages since we played a game together. We didn’t have the actual board with us. So my 11 yr old drew one and made chits with numbers from 1-6 to choose from 😀 . We played 2 rounds and she won both.

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And lastly, I’ve been working on a small new project since 2 days – The Mantilla Doily. Making it in a solid color.

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I decided to spend time on smaller, pretty projects; especially the ones that I had saved on Pinterest since I’ve already got a large one – the Moogly CAL afghan – in the works. Will put up the completed pic of the doily once done. I have more of them lined up to make 🙂

So that’s that for this week! Looking forward to reading all about yours too 🙂 !

 

 

 

 

 

 

Block 3 – Moogly CAL 16

09 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Block 3 of the Moogly CAL 2016 was released on the 4th. Its the Winter Bloom Afghan Square.  I’ve completed mine and it looks different because I modified it to repeat Row 6,7 and 8 with the necessary increases.

I decided to get all my blocks to 10 inches. So this one is now made to size 10.

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Block 3 : Winter Bloom Afghan Square

I re-did Block 2 as well because it looked wonky from all sides and I really wasn’t very pleased with it. So scrapped it and made a new one with some modifications so it looks a little less lop-sided now. Plus, I have re-adjusted all my blocks to 10″.

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Block 1 : Flame Square

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Block 2 : 3D Flower Granny Square

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Prince Protea Square (not part of Moogly CAL)

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Spring Fling Square (not part of Moogly CAL)

I’m quite pleased with them all now. So soft and squishy and looking great together already 🙂 Can’t wait for the end!

 

Crocheting Towards a World Record – MICQ

31 Sunday Jan 2016

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Dreamstime - Gandhi 2

Its official!

The anticipation had been building up and as of today, I’m super proud that India now holds the World Record for the World’s Largest Crochet Blanket of 11,148 sq m – a title that was formerly held by South Africa for their 3,377 sq m blanket.

The project and mission pioneered by Mrs. Subashri Natarajan (read her story here) has brought Indians together from all over the world to bring this masterpiece to life and break the record. They’ve built a community and connected together online by the name of Mother India’s Crochet Queens (MICQ).

The project that began in August 2015 with more than a thousand Indian women and children as young as 4 yrs old involved, has finally come to an end today. With a well-deserved world record to show for all their hard-work.

The aim was to crochet granny square blankets, each one a minimum 1 sq m in size, that in the end would all be sent to Chennai in India to be joined together to make the final blanket. After the record is set, the blankets would then be distributed to various charity organizations. Talk about a noble cause too!

Check out the pictures of their efforts, the event and a short video of their journey on the group’s FB page : https://www.facebook.com/groups/468779636631544/

They had a group here in Kuwait as well working on the project; but I got to hear of it just 2 weeks ago and by then it was too late to be a part of it. A missed opportunity for me, sadly. But I did join the group so I can be a part of any future projects they may have.

An absolutely awesome inspiration and example of the wonders one person’s dream with a little bit of unity and support can achieve!

 

 

 

Block 2 – Moogly CAL 2016

28 Thursday Jan 2016

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Block 2 of the Moogly CAL 2016 was released on the 21st.

The pattern is the 3D Flower Granny Square.

I put the final round to my block just this morning and here it is :

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I know the clarity isn’t really there in the picture. Took it with my lousy mobile camera.

This one measures 9.5″. And the first one was at 9″. Looks like an additional round would be required for the first block. But I shall wait to see how the next few blocks turn out and then make a decision. This pattern was pretty straightforward and I loved the colors the pattern designer (Sarah Zimmerman) used to make her square. You can see it for yourself when you go to the pattern page in Moogly blog. Really beautiful!

And I also saw quite a few eye-catching color combos in the Ravelry Group photos too. Everyone has done a great job there.

Now, I really need to get a start on the blocking of my squares. I hope they straighten up and turn out well. Pretty worried about the process.

 

 

Additional Block 1 (Moogly CAL 2016)

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

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I have some 300 amazing squares pinned to my “Crochet Squares” Board on Pinterest.

Do have a look here : Crochet Squares

So since I was given a suggestion of making additional blocks for my Moogly CAL Blanket because the size of my square was comparatively smaller, I had been going through the squares on my board to see what I would like to make to compensate. And here’s the pin I wanted to do : The Prince Protea Square

Based on that pattern, I’ve made another one. And I love it!! (Please note, this one has NOTHING to do with the Moogly CAL Scheduled Squares. This is just an additional square that I’m including to this project to make a larger blanket).

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I still haven’t gotten round to blocking the first one. I don’t know what’s keeping me from trying it out. But I have to. Even this one needs to be blocked since the pink round looks curled in and needs to be stretched out a little so the stitches are properly visible. Maybe this weekend…

Block 1 – Moogly CAL 2016

11 Monday Jan 2016

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I’ve completed Block 1 of Moogly CAL 2016 – The Flame Square. Enjoyed it very much, I must say.

Here it is with the color combos I chose –

Moogly Block 2 of 1

The pink is actually a hot Pink. And very vibrant which doesn’t reflect in my picture. I like the overall effect, though. There was a bit of imperfection in one of the corners where most of the rounds start. I doubt it will be all that noticeable when they all come together.

But, my block turned out to be only 9 inches; 3 inches short of the ideal 12 inches. I thought blocking might increase it to 12. One of the Ravelry group members explained to me that 9 to 12 is a long stretch and to just leave it be as the whole block would get distorted beyond recognition. So as long as I use the same hook and yarn for the rest of the project, it doesn’t matter. Just that my afghan will not turn out as large as everybody else’s. And I would probably have to add on more blocks if I do want a large one.

Will see about that later.

But I still need to block to straighten out the square. And that’s going to be the hard part for me. I’ve never done it before. So until the next block is revealed (can’t wait!), my eyes will be glued to You Tube to find out how blocking is done. I hope I don’t ruin this 🙂