Crochet Mandala - Vibrant

Hello friends, I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

In my last post I mentioned how I enjoy putting up my projects on Facebook. Well, I was not always a fan of Facebook. In fact I found the whole thing a bit weird and I had joined only because it was the "done" thing. I would log in occasionally and just see what my friends and relatives were up to, enjoy some good quotes and photos which were shared and log out. The idea of sharing my personal pics or writing a comment which could be seen by the whole world was just not appealing.

And THEN, I discovered  "Groups" and "Pages" related to Crochet!!! Now that was fun, joining like minded people, sharing your projects, sharing patterns, discovering new blogs, getting instant reactions to your projects. Yes, I was really enjoying this Facebook thing now.

I am now a member of many crochet groups and have "liked" many crochet pages. Recently I did something else for the very first time. I joined a CAL. Now a CAL is something very common in Blogland and even Ravelry, but I have never joined one for various reasons. Lack of yarn, project too big or uninteresting or being tied up in my own projects.

The CAL I joined was at Mandy's Craft Tales for a Crochet Mandala. The pattern Mandy chose is THIS one by the lovely Petra. In case you would like to join in the last date is 12th April which I think is ample time.

Here is my completed mandala......TaDah

Do you like it? I used Laura Knitting cotton from  THIS stash and a 3.50 mm crochet hook. The mandala turned out 12 inces in diameter. I did this in one night!!

My favourite part is this row which has stitches in two colours on the same row. Something I tried for the first time, quite simple actually.

I really liked this mandala and its Vibrant colour scheme. I plan to make a few more when I am in-between projects. Only not happy with the last scallop row. The stitch count seems to be a bit off. Will have to work it out the next time.

Mandy has made this beautiful collage of all the mandala submissions:

Mandala collage from Mandy's Craft Tales

Isn't it just super?!! (Can you find my mandala?) 

I thoroughly enjoyed the CAL concept. So guess what I did.....jumped right into another one. This one is by The Crochet Crowd and it is for this lovely Ocean Waves Afghan. Click the link for all the details, the last date is 15th May 2013. 

Here are my colour choices:

Will keep you posted about the afghan as I proceed. Anybody want to join me?

Enjoy your weekend and make time for craft. Looking forward to hearing from you.

WIPs Wednesday

Waves Ripple Afghan

Basket weave

 

Shells n Diamonds

Lucy inspired flowers

Newly laid pigeon eggs

Granny Square Baby Blanket

Baby Blues

Hi friends, how are you? I know I did the disappearing act once again. But there is a good reason for it. I wanted to post only after I finished the project in hand :) As I mentioned in my last post I had to very sadly unravel the baby frock I was working on as the skirt looked huge. The granny squares made for the yoke were too cute and I wanted to salvage them. So I made a few more and joined them to make a blanket.

And Ta-Da........

Crochet Baby Blanket

Isn't it super cute!! Okay, I know it is only a small baby blanket, no reason to jump with joy. But for someone like me who is notorious for starting new projects and then just adding them to the huge pile of WIPs this is really something great. The fact that I actually finished a project and a large one at that!

I love "instant gratification" projects, you know purses, coasters, pouches, bookmarks, they give you Ta-da moments very soon. Somehow gathered up all my patience and plodded on through this project, granny square after granny square.... 63 in all, phew.

To keep myself from getting bored I decided to make half of them in reverse combination ie blue with white. 

Okay, confession time, do you know why I actually managed to work non stop and complete this blanket. Because I desperately wanted to try this lovely border!

I just wanted to see how the border would work out and I love the way those aqua jewels peek through the white snow. The stitch is known as Block stitch, I think. I had to unravel the border a couple of times as the corners were not turning out right, but finally it turned out quite nice and neat.

Well, what do you know! A couple of days after I struggle and get the border right, a lovely tutorial was put up by Cherry Heart. If you want to try this border you might want to look it up first.

I just love this blankie, my first actually big project. I wish it was an afghan so that I could snuggle under it. What do you think?

Granny Square Baby Blanket

Bitten by the blanket bug, I have suddenly become ambitious and I have jumped right into making  another baby blanket. This new blanket has a lovely thick texture and practically no "holes". Hope to finish it soon and share it with you.

Another reason I am late in posting this is because I have just discovered the joys of sharing on Facebook. A few clicks and you are done. 

The difference is almost like the one between theatre and cinema. Confused?? Okay  :) Let me explain, as a teen I would watch these movie star interviews on TV (yes, a confirmed TV addict right from childhood) and if they were theatre artists as well, they would go on and on about how theatre is so much more fun, thrilling, how the audience reaction is instant, you don't have to wait till the movie is released to know your fate, how you cannot afford to make mistakes,  and how you instantly know whether your audience is moved or not with your acting.................. Well, now I know what they meant!

Putting up my projects on Facebook was just like that!! Likes and comments follow soon and you can also reply to them soon. And with that done I just forgot to write about it. But I won't let that happen in future  :)

Over the last few days I have been answering a lot of queries regarding the Floral pouch, on Facebook, on the blog, by email, so I am thinking of doing a tutorial for the purse. What do you say, people? Raise your hands for aye. Okay just joking, don't raise your hands just let me know in the comments.

See you soon. Let me know what you have up to. 

Have a smashing week ahead.