Storm Baby Blanket

It is raining a lot today. Typical british weather and this blanket is a more cheerful version of the storm sky. I always try to attend the various craft shows in London every year and last year I bought the Bernat Blanket Stripes Yarn in the Storm Sky colorway.

Used the Chevron Blanket from the yarnspirations website for this.

As is clear from the pictures, this is a super squishy blanket and Dhruv loves cuddling up in it. This is my goto for a warm lap blanket for the buggy and car seat.

Mathematical Blanket!

When I realised that I will need to take a blanket with me to hospital when I was expecting my son, I knew I would like to crochet it myself. I then starting searching for patterns and yarn for this special project. Dhruv was born in summer so I wanted a breathable blanket from a light weight yarn.

After hunting around a lot, I chose the Knitcraft Cotton Blend which is a mix of acrylic and cotton and had a really soft feel. My husband chose these colors and I feel they look perfect together.

For the pattern, I took inspiration from my mom who is a mathematician. The Fibonacci Sequence
is a series of number where the next number is a sum of the previous two numbers. So I changed the colors based on this sequence. 1,1,2,3,5,8 First color is 1 row, Second color is 1 row, Third color is 2 rows and so on.

We did use this in hospital and over the past year we have been using it all the time. Dhruv does get over heated too easily so we have been using this blanket in all seasons. It helped us through till end of Autumn and in the Winter months we used another one. More on that in another post.

Crocheted Rakhi: Free Crochet Pattern

This Raksha Bandhan I crocheted three rakhis for Dhruv for his three sisters one in Orissa, one in Uttar Pradesh and one in the United Status.  Dhruv was really cute about it all. He was confused by the rakhis at first but once I tied all three he really loved playing with the colourful threads. I dont know when he will get all his sisters in one place to tie the rakhis on his hand. But until then its Rakhi by proxy!

Here is a free pattern(U.K Terminology) for a crocheted rakhi:

Materials:

Three colours DK yarn just around 15 grams probably less. This is  a great stash busting project. A few scraps are all that are needed.
Yarn needle

Method:
Round 1:Using Colour 1,Make a magic ring and 6 dc into the ring (6sts) Bind off.
Round 2: Using Colour 2,chain 4, 2tr in next st, chain 2 repeat till last stitch,1tr in last stitch slip stitch to close loop. Bind off.

For the straps, using Colour 3, chain 25. Make two.
Attach to the 2 chain gap on either side.

Rakhi is ready for some loving sister to tie to her bhaiyya!

Crocheted Pagdi

We attended a family wedding in Kolkata in the beginning of the year and the weather used to get cold in the evening. So I crocheted this hat using some Aran wool I bought in Kolkata. Knitting and crochet is still really popular there and there are many yarn stores with a wide range of wool.

It was a joy to visit and browse the store and I used the yarn to do a quick turban for this hat. 

The pattern was very simple. Just a long rectangle which is sewn together to form a turban.

I recycled an old locket to make a centerpiece for this turban. My little darling looked like a prince

wearing this. 

Kanha Hat

I wanted to make a pixie style hat for my son and although this is not a very pointed one, it was just a first attempt at me trying it out. I am hoping to redo this hat at some point to get a better shape.

I had some extra chunky cotton yarn which I loved the color and feel of. So I used it to do the actual hat. I added a peacock feather crocheted using DK yarn scraps. It is a long rectangle shape crocheted with end join together to make the cap shape. The straps on this are a little short so I will need to fix that the next time I make this hat.

I did make it in January this year and Dhruv has long outgrown it but I did like the way it turned out so have still kept it. I am assuming I will redo it and resize it to be bigger and make one with another color way for Dhruv to wear it. I will also be creating the pattern for this to upload on my etsy store to be launched in November.

More on that in another post!

Sunshine Blossom Sweater for Dhruvie

I did manage to finish one knitted sweater while on maternity leave and it was this pretty little sweater for Dhruvie. I had bought this yarn almost a year before I was pregnant and it just seemed like the right one to use for this project. I finished the sweater in February this year so Dhruv wore it for just the beginning of spring.

People who are following this blog regularly would know that I prefer crochet to knitting and most of my posts are crocheted. I did want to knit this one though because I thought that knitted garments do have a unique charm and this pretty yarn would be shown to best advantage using knitting.



Pattern Used: Hayfield Blossom Chunky 4677
Yarn Used:Sirdar Hayfield Blossom Chunky in  Pretty Primrose
When I started the sweater by just knitting the rib I realised what a joy to knit with this yarn is.
The pattern was relatively straight forward. I did mess up the front left and had to redo that from scratch but thats just because I am not very comfortable with knitting. I do have around a ball and a half left of this yarn and now that Dhruv is outgrowing this sweater I am almost tempted to unravel the whole thing and redo a crochet jumper for him. He does love wearing this sweater. A few days back he pulled it out of the drawer and just gave it a hug!

Best Friend Crochet Sweater

It has been a long time since my last post. Being a first time mother has been a roller coaster ride for me so far. I spent the first year of motherhood at home and was totally focused on my darling baby boy. Every giggle and hug is so precious but it was really exhausting and any spare time that I did have I spent catching up on sleep. Crochet was really not my priority. But I missed it.

Then after a year at home I went back to work full time and my son went to day care. That was 3 months ago. Since then I have been balancing work and home life and that has been a very creative activity in itself. To be fair I have had the daily commute as time when I could have done some crochet but I was away from yarn for so long that I just could not get my groove back.

I did have one or two projects that I had started but they were sweaters and so too big to finish in one sitting and I was unable to carve regular crochet periods for various reasons. I am lucky enough to have a very helpful and hands on husband and he made it possible for  me to get some time to finally finish this sweater.

It is a gift for my sons' first real friend whom he has known since he was 4 months old. It was meant to be a birthday gift but I could not finish it in time. It took me 3 months but its finally done!

So I proudly present, The Best Friend Sweater:

Pattern Used: Bernat Cozy Crochet Hoodie (left out the pockets and hoodie as I felt it looked more elegant without them)
Yarn Used: Hayfield Bonus DK Azure


Pattern review: The pattern is not a very complicated one and is written well. So it was easy to get going with it. The part about the buttons is the only part where I had a little difficulty but the double breast look is really worth the trouble.

Yarn review: The yarn is smooth and easy to crochet with and has good stitch definition.