busy as a bee !

ALHUMDULILLAH, the past few weeks went very busy hence i was unable to update my blog. But now i have a list of interesting posts to publish, INSHAALLAH. Most of you who live where i live will be knowing about the summer festival thats going on here - global cultural fair by aramco, weekly fireworks, dolphin show, circus and interactive shows at the malls, etc. INSHAALLAH, i will be posting some of the event's pics/videos but for now here is some of my crochet work that i was busy in simultaneously. These are diamond shaped kiddy purses.

The back of the purses are made of normal hexagons which were made following no pattern, ALHUMDULILLAH. The flowery hexagons are crocheted using the pattern from colour in a simple life. i surfed the net for a simple bag strap but didn't find any so i simply crocheted a chain of desired length with two colors of yarn, turned, double crocheted all the way thru from the 4th chain and the mission for quick simple strap was completed, ALHUMDULILLAH.

crocheted play cubes

I usually like to visit the toy section of a store (no i do not throw tantrums to buy them) but it reminds me of childhood days, the innocent desires to own a particular eyecatcher, the pleasure of seeing a new interesting toy. The baby toys aisle is the best. Play blocks are very common in those places but they are mostly made of soft fabric and have some cartoon faces or couple of alphabets on them. So, i decided to gift a handmade crocheted play cube to my baby niece (S3), MASHAALLAH. The plan was to make 5 cubes having all the letters individually of both Arabic and English on each side with a picture relating to the english letters. The result turned out good, ALHUMDULILLAH.

Heres the written pattern for the play cubes:
ch 13, sc in second ch from hk. sc in all the ch sp till the end.

Turn, ch 1, sc in all the sc sp from 1 st round till the last sc. Repeat from * to ** till 12 rows are formed.

Now with a different colour, join in any corner edge with a sl st. ch 2, 1 dc in same sp. now continue all the way around with 1 dc in each ch sp and 2 dc at the edges, join with a sl st in the top of the beginning ch 2. don't finish off. 

start with ch 2, 1 dc at the corner edge and continue with 1 dc in each sp with 2 dc in the corners. join with a sl st at the top of the beginning ch 2 of this round. Finish off. Make 6 sides of the cube in this way.

Take a square block of hard sponge. Now placing the crocheted sides on this block, join the sides to each other with sc through all sides. you can embroider any design, alphabets or numbers on the crocheted sides before joining on the sponge block.

ALHUMDULILLAH, this is an original pattern and is under rights of mib trends. So, if you have to share please link back, do not copy, type and write any part of the pattern without written consent from mib trends.

a cap for a little lass, MASHAALLAH.

This is a girl version of the cap found in accompaniments of a layette. I added a girly edging to it which gives it a feminine touch.

Heres the pattern for this simple and quick edging:

Join in any ch sp with a sl st,  sc in the same sp, (hdc, 2dc, hdc) in the same sp, sc in next, *(sc,hdc,2dc,hdc) in the next, sc in the next sp** and repeat from * to ** till u reach the beginning sc. sl st into the first sc and finish off.

plarn bag.........

This was something unusual for me. i had never tried or even heard about plarn but when i saw the crocheted things made out of plarn i thought why not give it a try. ALHUMDULILLAH, the bag turned out really good.

plarn made of plastic shopping bags.

i added a crocheted yarn flower and used a black ribbon as handles.

the pattern is a modified version of recycled plarn net market bag.

accompaniments of a layette........

ALHUMDULILLAH, finally got a chance to crochet this. For a long time, i wanted to crochet something cute and tiny. Its a baby hat with a pompom, tiny little shoes and a pair of mittens.

These shoes are a modified version of baby boy slipons, pattern found here by crochetdreamz. I wanted a pair of shoes but liked this version of slipons, so first made them as slipons and then added 2 layers of hdc's at the back leaving 4 ch sp gap in between the flap and the hdc layers at the ankle. Then joined the front flap and the ankle hdc layer by a ch of 2.

The hat pattern can be found here but i removed the fringe knot trim and the ties. The mittens are crocheted using pattern from here. I added blue colour sl sts to match.

my creative space,,,,,,,,,,,

Just a few days back i came to know about our creative spaces through a fellow blogger. Thought of giving it a go and here i am posting my entry for this week. ALHUMDULILLAH, most of my incomplete projects had the chance to be completed this week. i decided to experiment crochet combined with the indian attire. The result - crocheted shalwar khameez.

i don't take the credit for the stitching of the dress as my tailor did that for me, ALHUMDULILLAH. 
The shirt and the sleeves are bordered with a crocheted diamond motif lace, the pattern of which you can find here. ALHUMDULILLAH, the lace of granny stitches on the neckline of the shirt and on the ends of the shalwar are an original pattern that i formed playing along with the yarn trying to give it a different edging.

edging on shalwar

shalwar

neckline crocheted border

now, for the dupatta, i tacked randomly crocheted flowers. The flowers are crocheted magnifying the pattern found here to just the first round, the completed dress was gorgeous, ALHUMDULILLAH.

Summary: Shalwar are loose pajama-like trousers, khameez is a long shirt and dupatta is a long scarf that is worn over both shoulders.

crocheted flower

dupatta

toddler crochet hexagons shirt

This is a crochet hexagon shirt crocheted for my second niece, MASHAALLAH.

ALHUMDULILLAH, this pattern is an original. i alligned the hexagons with the shirt size and filled in the gaps by crocheted diamonds and half hexagons. The belt is a crocheted chain with yellow and black colour yarn held together while crocheting and then i joined the flowers at the ends of the chain by sewing. The pattern for the flowers can be found here.

i don't remember exactly where i got the hexagon pattern from but you can find a similar and much easier pattern for this kind of hexagons at http://oneloopshort.blogspot.com/2009/07/super-simple-hexagon.html.

This is a matching hair-ring to accompany the shirt. The pattern is an original, so can't link to anyone (another pattern added to my writing list).

crocheted baby bottle cozies/covers/warmers.

These baby covers i had made, ALHUMDULILLAH, using this pattern. The strawberry baby bottle cover is exactly as the pattern but i added a crocheted drawstring instead of a ribbon and also made a matching baby cap to go with it, ALHUMDULILLAH.

strawberry bottle cover/cozy/warmer

bottle cover with matching cap

MASHAALLAH, my elder sis gave me an idea to make another cover using pineapple colours as it uses pineapple sts. This is how it looks.

In this cover, i made a lot of changes. The top edging is different. I used the edging from this pattern. The drawstring is a crocheted chain with yellow and brown colors with the ends shaped as leaves, that was not from the pattern. ALHUMDULILLAH, it looks all pineappley.

pineapple bottle cover/cozy/warmer

my first crocheted baby dress, ALHUMDULILLAH !!!!!!!

This was my first attempt at crocheting a baby dress, ALHUMDULILLAH the project was a success.

It is a simple pattern of dcs and the edging is of shell sts.

crochet drawstring cellphone pouches

ALHUMDULILLAH, this is an original pattern that i discovered using 9 rows of v-sts. The drawstring is a crocheted chain with leaves at the ends. The drawstring is inserted into the v-st gaps between row 7 and 8. At the top of the bag i attached another crocheted chain to be used as a handle.

there is a small flower with a fancy button attached on this pouch.

i had embroidered a name on the pouch (on request) thats why had to unscribe it in this pic. These are all crocheted flowers (pattern here http://skamama.blogspot.com/2006/06/picot-flower.html ) and a crochet bow for a hairband (pattern here http://bwalker8706.blogspot.com/2010/01/bows-bows-bows-pattern.html)

flowery toddler frock !!!!!!!

ALHUMDULILLAH, This is a frock that i crocheted a few months back for my cousin's toddler. The neck of the frock is a half-double crochet pattern that i found on the net but i altered the pattern and extended the lower part of the frock with v-stitches and a (2dc-2tdc-2dc) finishing rows at the ends to make it more simple and quick to crochet. i made two hairclips of two crocheted flowers to go with it. you can find the pattern for the flower clips on http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2010/05/materials-yarn-in-any-weight-and-color.html. The other flower that i used for enhancing the neck border of the frock can be found at http://skamama.blogspot.com/2006/06/picot-flower.html

granny's sweater

Last month as it was chilling cold in india my granny asked me if i could try to make her a sweater, so i gave it a thought and attempted it. This is how it turned out. ALHUMDULILLAH it fitted her well and she liked it a lot.

front buttoned up with black rose buttons with blue sl sts at the edges

added a little yellow rose with black edging on the collar

the back of sweater

I started off using a pattern for a cardigan that i found interesting at http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/berme/berme.html but added a few touches of my own by removing the curves, sleeves and the biiiiiiiiiiiiiggggg collar, adjusting the width according to my granny's measurements and adding two lines of v-stitch in between of two contrasting colors (as you can see) and even adding the rose buttons.

folded

parcelled