Mithai!

The best think about Indian Festivals is the food and specially the sweets (Mithai). The best sweets are always home made and I still fondly remember the gujiya's my Grandma made in holi or the besan laddoos my Mom made. I do not have the skills to make Indian Sweets in reality but I wanted to try to do them in Amigurumi. So I made a Motichoor Laddoo, a couple of Besan Laddoos, Kaju Katli, Kaju Roll and a Doodh Peda.

  The Motichoor Laddoo has Silver Vark on top, Besan Laddoos with Pistachios stuck on top, Silver coated Kaju Katli, Silver coated Pistachio stuffed Kaju Roll and sweet and simple Milk Peda.

 

I will be adding free patterns for these cuties soon so you can have a go at them yourself.

#crochet #amigurumi #crochetlove

Potli Purse

Potli literally means a small sack and was traditionally used to carry all kinds of things, gold coins, grains and even clothes. In modern times, the potli purse is a great accessory. It is basically a drawstring bag. I made up this pattern as I went along using cotton yarn that I got from a great yarn store in Paris. I love the beautiful sage green, violet and indigo blue combination and this was a quick and easy make.

I used a knitting doll to make the chord using the indigo yarn and it turned out really well.

I have been using this purse a lot since I made it and it seems to be the perfect size to carry a wallet and phone and a few essentials. Since its made of granny stripes, there are holes so I could line it up but I enjoy the look of things peeping through the holes so for now I am going to leave it like it is.

The pattern is pretty simple, started it off as the usual amigurumi spiral increase and when the base was big enough just started granny striping it. After I got the desired length I just did a few rows of decreases by dc2tog and added a scalloped edge to make it look prettier.

The bright colors in this one really cheer me up!

#crochet #crochetbag #crochetgrannysquare #crochetaccessory

Capelet for the Best Mom in the World!

I wanted to make a smart shawl/cape/poncho for my Mom as a Birthday gift. After trawling the world wide web, I found this absolutely stunning Spring Capelet Pattern on Ravelry by Merri Purdy. 
What I particularly loved about this pattern was that it looked really smart and as my Mom is a professor I thought it would really suit her. In addition, it used the Caron Cake yarn which I had been meaning to try for a while.

I used two yarns for this pattern Cygnet Aran in Cream and Caron Cakes in Red Velvet.

It was great fun making this pattern. Although I have to say Caron Cakes was not as soft as I had expected. I guess its just because it has wool in it. But if I had to reuse Caron Cakes I would probably use the Caron Baby Cakes which I hear is much softer.

It was a fairly straight forward and fast pattern to crochet. I loved how it turned out. I have posted it to my Mom for her Birthday I hope she has a great year ahead!

Love you Mom!

#crochet #crochetcapelet #crochetlove #crochetclothing #handmadeaccessory #caroncakes #cygnetyarns #crochetgirlgang
 

Indian Amigurumi Series : Malini the Bharatnatyam Dancer

 I have been meaning to get back to amigurumi for a while as I have been busy doing some clothing and accessories for the past few months. I am continuing my Indian Amigurumi Series with this doll inspired by Bharatnatyam dancers. Bharatnatyam is a beautiful Indian dance form and it has really intricate costume and jewellery which perfectly compliments the graceful dance movements.

For people who are not familiar with Bharatnatyam, here is an image from wikipedia on what the costume looks like:

 

image courtesy:wikipedia

 

I cannot hope to ever match the details on a real Bharatnatyam costume so this is my interpretation simplifying it considerably. Despite this, there are many separate sections of this pattern and it did take me a long time to get it to look right. I do not think anyone would want to recreate this as it is fairly complicated but I still wanted to write the pattern down for my own record and to keep it as reference for future patterns. I do love how it all turned out.

Crochet Pattern:
Material:
DK Yarn Blue Color 50 grams
DK Yarn Green Color 50 grams
DK Yarn Beige Color 50 grams
DK Yarn Orange Color 50 grams
DK Yarn White Color 50 grams
Fingering Weight Yarn Bronze Color 50 grams
Embroidery Thread Red,Black
30 small silver beads for the anklets
Two 4mm Safety Eyes
4mm and 3.25 mm Crochet Hook
Yarn needle and scissors
Sewing needle and white thread
stitch marker

This is a fairly advanced pattern for me and I had some trouble getting the proportions just right. I did this differently because I stuffed and combined the pieces as I went along. This way I could get the look right in an easier way. This was just my personal preference though. If you would like to remake this doll you might need to adjust things a little bit to make things fit just right. Or even make all the pieces separately and then combine it all together at the end.

This pattern is no longer available for free.I am in the process of setting up my etsy store and will be selling it there.
Thank you!

 

 

Rainbow Sweater!

 My First Knitted Sweater! It was such a pleasure to knit this. I got the pattern from a baby knits magazine and it was great to use lots of color. I hate the fact that most of the clothing for newborns is pale pastel colors.I love bright hues and when a really close friend was having a baby I was so excited to start on this project. It went really quick and I got it done in less than a week! I am a much slower knitter compared to when I crochet but there is something about the knit weave which works so well for baby wear.

I have sent the sweater to my friend in Canada and hopefully the baby can get to wear this soon!