Stash Buster Camera Cozy

I remember when I had made my Thrifty Camera Cozy and taken it to office, one of my colleagues Stephanie had asked me to make one for her too. I promised to make her one instantly and even started one in pink. However, I did not like how it turned out so I frogged it. Later on with the turn of events, it so happened that now its been a year, I have moved to California from New York and Stephanie still doesn't have what was promised. Finally, now, after a year, I realized her birthday is coming up, so I am going to gift her a cozy.

I just randomly came up with this design while playing with some stash cotton ease. Love how it turned out so I went ahead a wrote a pattern for the same. It can be found here on Ravelry. Direct Download Here

In other new it feels great and encouraging to see more projects of my designs.

Crocheted Headband

Garnet

Hoping to see more soon.

Plus I have added two more crochet tutorial videos to my Youtube Channel. I hope you find these useful.

I went to Maker Faire

Warning: Photo heavy post.

All the while we were in NY/ NJ I used to read blogs about the fun people had at the Maker Faire and wondered if I would get a chance to see it.

Well this weekend was my chance and I made sure I used it. I dragged everyone at home along with me... MIL, FIL, Hubby and Baby :D and we all had great fun.

Happy New Year and More Baby Stuff !!!

A Very Happy New Year to all who read this post. Wish you and family a prosperous year ahead.

Also, many thanks to you guys to leave your thoughts on my last post. The moving company has not found my stuff yet so we are gonna have to claim insurance and settle for peanuts in reimbursement for all my stuff, since we decided not to take special insurance before moving. Lesson learnt there !

My Baby almost came last to last week when I started having premature pain. We went to the hospital and I was there 4 hrs after which I was told to go back home and take bed rest for the rest of the term.
I have been doing just that. Well, alongwith working from home on my laptop. And ofcourse I have been doing some more knitting for my dear baby.

I finally made a BSJ for my own baby and I am quite proud of how neat this one has turned out. Not to mention the color combination with my favorite shade of red. The pictures above and below show the front and back when I had finished knitting it. I have since added an I-cord border all around the neck, front and bottom of the jacket. I still have to sew on buttons, I chose some transparent ones in medium size. Will try and post some more pictures with my baby coming soon now. In fact, any day !

It's the same combination as the vest I showed in the last post.

That got me thinking that since I have more of this yarn, why not make a whole set for the baby. Maybe a home-coming set.

So I made this

Elfin Booties

and this

Little Baby Socks

and this

Baby Cap (my own pattern)

and this

Baby Leggings by Elizabeth Zimmerman

So that's the whole baby set.

I still didn't have enough, so I made this.

Sunshine Round Ripple Baby Afghan

Then I wanted to crochet something out of thread, so I made this...

Spiderweb Doily in Colorful Doilies to Crochet from Annie's Attic

It's still unblocked, I will get around to it I guess soon.

More to come... stay tuned.

Old and New... Lost and Bought !!!

A lot has happened this past month.

I lost my precious treasures... all my knitting notions and accessories and everything else. That's right... :"(

The movers lost a carton which had all my knitting goodies. Everything that I had got from my grandmother, everything that my mother gave me, everything that I bought myself in India and everything else that I had bought after coming to USA. All of it !!!

Although its been like 4 weeks that I have been following up with the movers, they have no news on where the carton vanished. Some of the stuff in it was brand new. I had never even used it once :( Moreover, I discovered yesterday that one of Elizabeth's DVDs was also in it...

I just cannot get over it.

How can I ever get even near to owning everything I had :(

I guess that teaches me a lesson. Never put everything you love together... Scatter it !!!

Anyways, since I had so much to knit for my baby to be and so much more I had to buy at least enough to get me started.

So I ordered some a straight and a circular knitting needles set from knit picks together with a set of double pointed needles.

I was so disappointed that I had to work on something simple, something that did not require me using my brain... so what better than working on a "Baby Kick Sack". I found this pattern on Ravelry, looked fairly simple, so I thought, why not !

I was not thinking while making it initially... I was so preoccupied with the thoughts of my loss, I was not seeing what an awful job I was doing while changing the stripes. The lower end of the following picture shows how I was not thinking, even though I knew better. I know how to make lovely jogless joins and also doing beautiful stripes in the round, but I was not thinking.

But I did regain my consciousness towards the end of it. Here is the finished object.

While I still cannot get over the loss, I knew better. I had to move on and concentrate on the projects I have in mind for my baby and me. So I made this.

I still have to embroider the facial details, but apart from that it is done. This pattern is from LionBrand Yarn and is also on available on Ravelry.

Next I made this little cutie.

I found this pattern on Ravelry as well ! (Yes, I needed a pattern since I had no clue about size and other dimensional details for baby knits.) However as you can see where the original pattern ended below, it was definitely too small.

So I improvised. I frogged back to just where the crown decreases had to be started and knit in stockinette till I thought the size was fine. Turned out so great after adding that cutie pom-pom on the top, which is btw my first attempt at making one (yeah first pom pom I made).

Next I made this. This is a vest pattern from Drops with button closures on one shoulder. Here it is on Ravelry.


Next in line was this baby. I tried to make this on my own since now I had an idea of the size. Absolutely love it !

All this while, I have also been working on this for me... but I am prioritizing my baby stuff over it. Currently it is only 60 % complete. The entire top is done. More details on this in my ravelry project page.

I found pictures of lovely tops made by some Russian girls on Ravelry and wanted to make one of my own. So I asked around and I started. The initial motif I worked on (see below) for the yoke, had too many big gaps which I didnt like. So I changed.

Will keep posting on the progress in future posts.
Meanwhile, I am also working on making Yeti from Berroco. Here it is on Ravelry. Its an adorable hoodie pattern and I have some homespun in my stash which I am using for it. Currently I am done with the back and front. I hope to finish the sleeves and hood today.

Some more Finished Objects

Life has been going on as usual, with lesser time for blogging and more time for more priorities right after moving - unpacking slowly, settling in the new home while running daily chores as usual between home and office. Well, yeah it does take time especially when I am only 8 weeks far from my due date. That is how there have not been any pics of me wearing my FOs for quite some time. I wanted to change that with this post however, haven't been able to unpack my stuff yet. So I guess have to do with these for the time being.

This is a basic Granny Square Blanket that I made for my baby to come with some yarn I had in my stash. (Some might remember the Star Afghan that I made for Liliana with the same yarn.)

Pattern: Basic Granny Square

Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby Solids and Marls

5 skiens Baby Denim Marl 30300

4 skiens White Blanc 0200

Start Date: 23 September 2008 late evening.

Finish Date: 28 October 2008 late evening.

Finished Size: 48" x 48" (inches)

Notes: The project took this long since it was being worked on whilst our move to California. The movers took over 3 weeks to deliver our stuff so I could only dream of working on this meanwhile.

The entire blanket is made with yarn held doubled.

The second project I finished, and my first one after moving to California is this.

Front View

Back View

Pattern: Ruffled Strap Tank

Pattern Source: Sweaterbabe's Fabulous Flirty Crochet

Yarn: 2 skeins Caron Simply Soft Heather - Autumn Heather 9501

A little Bit of Caron Simply Soft Brites - Blue Mint 9608

Start Date: 30 October 2008 late evening.

Finish Date: 6 November 2008 late evening.

Finished Size: Medium

Notes: This was a very fast project, However I took some time since I was trying out different ways of attaching the strap to the body. For instance the cross back style below. However, I finally decided to go the normal way after a bit of modification. The original strap length was too long and made the tank go very deep, so I just shortened 10 chains on the base chain of each strap and then continued on with the finishing. Also I did not make the upper body in the second color as in the pattern. I just introduced a row of Blue to enhance the waist point. I think overall, the changes were pretty successful and I am very happy with the same.

Hopefully by next time I would have some great pictures of my third FO.

Back in Action... well, hopefully !

And... I am hopefully back in action with this post. I can't believe its been two months since I last posted. As you can guess, a lot has been going on this end with the baby to be and then MOVE... yeah, you read that right, Move ! We decided to move base in my 7th month. What can I say, we love life :)

So I am blogging from my new base in California now.

Things have been busy. Our cousin got married in India and DH travelled there to attend it. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't of course because of various reasons. Well, that aside, I decided I wanted to send some stuff for our families with him. And how could I not send some hand made gifts... so I did.

Here is the Brea Bag I made for my sister in law followed by Baby Surprise Jacket for our almost a year old Nephew.

Here is the Baby Surprise Jacket for my niece.




What can I say, I had all intentions of adding the buttons and embroidering a yellow car on my Newphew's BSJ and a flower on my niece's, but there just wasn't time. Well I will remember to do that in some of my next projects.
Although, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed adding the I-Cord edging on both BSJ's. Loved the look when I was done. I am thinking of making more projects just to add the I-Cord edging :)

Maya (Previous post | Ravelry) was passed on to my sister. I am awaiting her modeled pics so as to post them on the blog.

Ribwarmer was for my Mother In Law. DH says she liked it a lot. As always, awaiting her modeled pics. DH was too busy to get me some.

Stacked Diamonds Convertible (Previous Blogpost | Ravelry) was given to my Mother. Although, I didn't quite add the buttons on it to make it convertible. :p Ma likes it anyways... you know mothers :)


I was working on another project, raglan sweater for my niece of my own design but unfortunately did not finish it on time. So I will wait to send it through someone travelling to India.

The raglan is all Knit, except for the placket, which is Single Crocheted. And yes, I still haven't added the buttons to this. :P

Apart from all of the above, I made something for myself too, but I will wait to post about that till the mover's bring in my stuff from New Jersey and I get to model it :)

More to come ! Till then, Take Care !