Crochet Chevron Infinity Scarf

Namaste Gorgeous! Thank you for joining me here today. You may be wondering at my cheek, just appearing out of nowhere, after being away for so long. Hmmm...guilty as charged! Well, you know... life happens...with its bits and bobs...some good, some bad. 

One good bit that I just cannot resist sharing is that we went on our very first overseas vacation!!! Yippee :)  :)  In the month of May, we went on a 10 day trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Yes, I have lots of photos and tons of things to share...you know me - blah, blah, blah. But I will control myself for now. The main reason is that for a blog named "Crochetkari" I have been sharing lots of stories about moving, travelling and vacations and very little crochet! So my next few posts are going to be about crochet, hopefully :) 

The ripple pattern is one of my favourites, so when I came across this pattern for an infinity scarf I just had to try it. 

The pattern is called Rolling in the Deep infinity scarf by Cre8tion Crochet.

I love the three different sections in the scarf and you can decide which colour you want to play up depending on you mood for the day.

While I made this scarf with orange and white, I like the designer's suggestion that you should use two colours which are opposites on the colour wheel. Maybe I will make one more scarf using that idea. 

I am still working on finding the "best" spot for photography in my new home. I am missing my swing so much ...boohoo.

Nevertheless, here are some more photos:

The pattern was free for some time on the Cre8tion Crochet site, but you can still get it HERE.

Do you like my infinity scarf, do let me know.

As my crochet hook is attached to my arm, :)  there are tons of finished projects waiting for their Ta-Dah moment, so do come back.

I have not been commenting much, but believe me I have been keeping up with all your blogs and thoroughly enjoying your posts. But please don't be like me and do comment below. A strange thing I noticed while blog hopping was that many of my blogger friends have been away from their blog and most of them are resurfacing now, just like me.Weird coincidence!

While the internet connection in my new home is very fast, it keeps getting disconnected. So frustrating! 

Here are two more ripple patterns I tried earlier:

The Ocean Waves Ripple Afghan

The Serenity Ripple Scarf

What is on your hook, right now? I would love to know.
See you soon.

Memories of those swinging times

Namaste Gorgeous. How are you? Thank you for joining me today.

Life has settled into a routine at our new home and sometimes I cannot believe that it is only three months since we shifted here. Feels like we were always living here! Yes, the human mind can be fickle at times.

The main reason that I do not miss the previous house could be that it was  a rented place and we always knew we would be shifting out one day. While we always assumed that we would shift back to Mumbai, this new home in Ahmedabad was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. 

But if there is one thing that I am sorely  missing it is my photo studio...er...I mean my photo prop... okay actually I mean the wonderful swing in the balcony in the old house.The swing was the place where all my WIPs were finally christened as FOs. (Am I the only one who finds "FO" to be mildly rude?)

The swing got the best light throughout the day and it was like being outdoors while still being inside the house.

So here are a few photos, in memory of the swing :)  :)

My ripple blanket. Get the pattern HERE 

My first knitting pattern. Click HERE for the the free scarf pattern.

 

An apple cozy for the hubby. Go HERE to see his reaction to my "gift" ;) and a link to the pattern

One more gift for hubby. Click HERE for the instructions for this Steering Wheel Cover.

The swing was a place to play with colors. Get the free pattern for the Rainbow Mandala HERE

 ...and a place to display and gloat over my crochet babies

 

Click HERE for pattern details of this lovely yellow purse

 

 Crochet nesting bowls

Crochet Basket weave basket

Crochet Rose basket. Click HERE for instructions

A custom order for Poonam who was so happy with the Cup cozies that she became my student!

Corner to corner baby blanket. Get the pattern details for the blanket and the border HERE.

Crochet triangle granny shawl. Click HERE for pattern details.

Hope you enjoyed these pics of my Swinging times. Ahem... I hope you did not land here looking for some other kind of Swinging tales. Sorry to disappoint you...hehe!!

I have not yet found an ideal place in my new house to click my pics. No swing, no balcony and no open spaces. So I guess my crochet Ta-dahs will just have to wait a little longer! :(

I am writing a pattern for a crochet scarf and I can't wait to share it with you. Would you like to test my pattern? Write to me at crochetkari@gmail.com. 

Life is short, so make time for your hobby or go ahead and learn the new skill you have been wanting to.

Back after a hiatus

Winter has come to an end and it is time for me and my blog to come out of hibernation. The moving and settling in into my new home was time consuming and back breaking. You would think that I would be used to it by now as we have moved ten times in the 22 years of our marriage. Yes that is right 10 times, but each time it has been for something better or bigger. And this time we have moved from a rented place to our own house.

There was a lot of unpacking to be done, decluttering, arranging stuff, buying new furniture, followed by a visit from my mother-in-law, so the blog was the last thing on my mind. Okay, actually I am lying! The blog was always on my mind and I was feeling guilty about neglecting it because I have realised that I really love blogging.

Now that everything is in its place (sort of) I finally got the time to have a good look at my surroundings. Here are a few photos I clicked of the new housing complex:

This huge metal ant is the first thing that will catch your eye when you enter the complex. While creepy crawlies really freak me out I like this giant ant. Can you see the last building behind those trees? Well, that is where we stay and it takes a good 7-8 minutes just to reach the gate!!

As you move along there are more of these ginormous ants, like this one near the badminton court,

  A splash pool for the kiddies,

A place to play cricket for the youngsters, covered with nets on all five sides. So no fear of broken window panes!

The platform you see in the foreground, covered with glass bricks actually provides sunlight to the underground parking area plus it is used in the evening as a seating area by children and adults alike.

One more ant near the kids play area,

The kids-only sections,

The Club which has a gymnasium, library and swimming pool,

And now saving the best for last...huh! While my bloggy friends out there are sharing pictures of lovely verdant green rolling English countrysides and white snow covered mountains, I have this - a concrete jungle. I guess it is one of the perks(!) of living in a big city. :)

So, how do you like the view from my bedroom window?!
 
I hope you liked the pics.

I have finally managed to do a bit of de-cluttering on my blog. Does it look a little bit better?

In all this chaos, I did manage to crochet a bit and I will be back with some crochet Ta-Dahs soon. Would you guys like some free crochet patterns? Do let me know. Happy crafting.

 

A New Year and a New Home

Namaste friends. Wishing you a very

~*~ HAPPY NEW YEAR ~*~

 A Big Thank You to my regular readers for not giving up on me and coming to visit me again in spite of my prolonged absence. A warm welcome if you are visiting my blog for the very first time. 

As you can guess from the title we have moved to a new home. No, not back to Mumbai which is the logical guess with me constantly harping on the virtues of life in Mumbai. We have moved from one part of Ahmedabad city to another part which could be considered as the old city. While this move has been mainly to help my hubby cut down on his commuting time it has taken me away from the few friends I had made near our old home. Pity!

But our new home is in a large housing complex consisting of fifteen 12 storied buildings with well maintained premises, a kids play area, a gym and a swimming pool so it is not such a bad deal after all. Of course I am yet to enjoy any of these facilities as moving and settling in is taking much longer than anticipated. Also with hubby away at work, doing everything on my own has been back breaking and boring too. I will share photos of my new home soon.

During this move I realised that over a period of time I have accumulated a ridiculous (shameful) amount of yarn. I think this condition is known as SABLE - Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy which in this case just might be true. Add to this the fact that we have moved from a huge house to a much smaller one....making it impossible to hide my yarn inventory....haha. I am having a really tough time. My husband keeps looking at the cartons of yarn and my 1000 odd books overflowing all over the place and just keeps shaking his head. But of course he cannot actually voice his displeasure...LOL. I guess I will just have to crochet more and faster too.

But this post is not about crochet. In fact I was supposed to write this just after Diwali but an unexpected trip to Mumbai really upset my blogging plans. Last year Diwali was a very quiet affair for us as it was only the two of us with sonny boy now settled in Mumbai. So instead of doing the usual  splurging and gorging on sweetmeats, I decided to something different. Something that I wanted to do ever since we moved to Ahmedabad. And that was to visit the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram.

Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati

The visit to the Gandhi Ashram was  wonderful, almost like stepping back in time. You feel a sense of peace and tranquility as soon as you enter the gates, which is amazing as the Ashram is within the city. As you move around the pictures and artifacts you are transported to another era. 

Here are a few pics from our visit:

 The Ashram looks so calm and that is exactly the feeling that envelopes you once you enter inside.

Gandhiji and his wife Kasturba in 1918.

Gandhiji's handwriting in various Indian languages.

Gandhiji's room in the ashram. A peek into this room makes you realise that to do great things you do not need the great trappings of modern life or huge offices or fancy stationery. A really humbling thought.
 

Gandhiji with his Charkha or Spinning Wheel which became a symbol of revolution and ultimately gave birth to Khadi. Khadi is hand spun and hand woven cloth mostly made of cotton. Sometimes silk or wool may be added to khadi. Khadi was promoted as a movement to make Indians self reliant  on cotton and not depend on high priced foreign goods.

 This gentleman would show visitors how the charkha works.

A multi dimensional representation of the Dandi March also known as the Salt March or Salt Satyagraha. Gandhiji undertook a 24 day march from Sabarmati to Dandi as a non-violent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India.

Gandhiji picking up salt at Dandi. (So lifelike)

A view of the Sabarmati River from the Ashram.

Mahatma Gandhi - The Father of our Nation.

I hoped you enjoyed these photos. I will be back soon with a crochet post.

My resolution for 2015 is to Beat Procrastination (which I think will solve all other problems). What is your resolution for this year?

On my telly: Monk and Downton Abbey.

Ciao,