Yarn shopping

 

बड़े दिनों से एंकर के धागे रखे हुए थे उन्हें छांट कर अलग-अलग कियाऔर  उसका कुछ बनाने की सोची अब हमारे शहर में तो दुकानों पर भी ये धागे नहीं मिलते। जब मैंने धागों की दूकान से कुछ और धागे लेने की सोची तो दुकानदार ने अपने पास रखी कुर्सी के पास एक कार्टन में कबाड़ की तरह उन्हें रखा हुआ था और उन्हें तीन रूपये प्रति गुच्छी के हिसाब से बेच रहा था.मैंने कुछ गुच्छियां खरीदी,और दसुति के कपड़े पर एक ना चती गुड़िया बनाई।   

These  Anchor threads were kept in a box for a long time, few days back  I sorted them out and thought of making something creative out of them, now these threads are not available even in shops in our city. When I thought of getting some more threads from the yarn shop, the shopkeeper kept them like junk in a carton near the chair he had sitted and was selling them at Rs.3 per bunch. I bought some bunches, and embroidered A doll on Dasut(adda) cloth.

xoxo

Lace Tablecloths

Earlier this year, I had to make a quick trip to Delhi and I managed to sneak out from the Ngo’s work schedule and buy some nice lace table cloths. They're nothing exotic nor valuable; in fact, I think they're some inexpensive, romantic garden stuffs but they look gorgeous in the HOME too.

They have coordinated patterns (in this case, flowers) its self print; I have another set with geometric designs (not in the photo), in the same color. Two ends are fringed, while the long sides have a jagged pattern on its senepa.

Any how I wanted a beautiful tablecloth a sheer romantic lace one for a long time and now I have it. In my mind, these tablecloths look better when we set the table in the garden, with warm weather and the sun shining..

xoxo

New Purchases

The vibrant colors and unique  texture  in Kalekhan ’s new collection look just like the

 ones I remembers from my childhood. When I was a little girl in Haryana, I spent a lot of 

time at my Grandma’s house (Dadi means Grandma in Haryana). Her garden was an 

adventuresome place. The colourful plants  grows like weeds in many places in Haryana, 

including my Grandma’s garden. I remember being allowed to pick the colorful flowers 

that were growing in places they weren’t supposed to, like the walkways and the yard. 

That was heaven for a girl who was used to making bouquets and wreaths out of Rohada 

and Aak flowers; adding the striking colors of the berries was like giving an artist paint. 

Just picture this collection transformed into a pretty quilt to brighten a sunroom!

The concept for this fabric program began with my Mom and Sis’s support and advice r. Our distinctive collection includes a vibrant focal print - a galaxy design with layers of stars circling on a dark sky ground. In addition to our terrific coordinate prints, we have a truly unique label design. As soon as I bring them all in our home my daughter and niece grab most of them for their fabrictees and shirts. Let see what will remain for the projects we planned to do.

The fabric in this picture  is a folk art collection with a floral on a nicely textured ground, two smaller florals, a little tie and dye, spirals, leaves and a stippled texture, all in deep eggplants, dark greens, beiges, golds, and reds. These designs are just right for making appliquéd blossoms, country dresses and jackets, home dec projects, and for ragged edge appliqué. I bought them in one meter to 4 meter pieces. xoxo

yarn,thread,wool

I cannot help myself taking home more yarn. Wish I could have a craft room. My stash is now full of yarn, including some I bought from local store, a lot actually, not to mention to crochet thread! 

My sister   asked me once, "when do you expect you will use up all these yarns?". Honestly I have no idea... Just keep adding to my stash faster than I can use from it. I'm crazy about yarn, am I??? But I'm trying, so much, to attempt to keep it under control. Maybe one of my resolutions next year is "not to buy more yarn"!

i crocheted a pag cap for rehana

in my lap on couch

baby in new frock

with her mom 

xoxo

Early morning sun

The early morning sun surprises our eyes and embraces us warmly. Big Brother and Little Sister  sit peacefully side by side in the living room reading newspapers and I find myself singing out mantras of sun in loud:

This is a most powerful Sun or Surya Mantra. This mantra is dedicated to the Sun or Surya; the only living God we see; without whom we cannot exist for a single moment.I used to chant this mantra 108 times at sunrise every morning after having a bath. It seems This Mantra removes all negative and malefic auras and energies me from my surroundings and ushers in the positive and powerful rays of the Sun Rays come to us through papri tree in front of our house. . This ensures that all my innermost desires get fulfilled . A new radiance comes into my being with the daily practice of this Surya Mantra. Also I offer a jug-full of water to the SUN

I took this photo from my front yard in the morning last week

"It's all right." Although these mantras are the words of Vedas but it seems the words appear from nowhere and are meant only for me. I notice that I am singing my own mantra. At least twice a day I sing affectionately for the sun - but never for myself. Why would I? But then, why would I not?
Big Brother and Little sister take enormous pleasure in a humming mama. For that brief moment, all is right.

I have craved a simple moment of pure happiness like this for weeks and weeks now. Maybe the temporary blindness, caused by the overwhelming power of the sun, made me let go of my uneased mind. And engaged me to literally listen to my intuition's voice.

xoxo

shopping is a fun

Friday is the day I often stop at the market on my way home to treat myself to a bunch of flowers if there are any that tickle my fancy. Thankfully, the dahlias are still going strong (yaay!) and I picked out a most gorgeous bunch of mixed blooms to bring home  It always feels like such a bargain (a mere  re 10 a stick), and carrying them home wrapped up in paper makes me pretty much want to skip down the street with joy. After almost twenty-six years of living in this town, I still really get a buzz out of shopping at the market, especially for locally grown seasonal flowers.( sorry that i didn’t able to have a shot of my flowers I shopped on Friday) 

My balcony flowers in the  morning. 

.....perfect. Sigh. Absolutely perfect in every way. Such a glorious display of colour to welcome in the weekend.

I bought some rickrack as well as some beautiful wooden nautical anchor buttons that I would have bought, if they had enough for a cardi, this giant rik rak was what most caught my eye. My inspection says it's hand made, but I couldn't quite work out how. Another project in the offing!

xoxo

My Caladium, my yarn

Today  was such a beautiful day here in my area. The sun was out and the temp went up

to 25 degree, so I spent the day doing a bit of gardening.  Although I live in north western

 part of India  we do get very cold winters   and our temps get low enough to put the

plants to sleep.  We also have not had much rain in this semi-arid area so the grass( in the

front park) browns, if not watered each week. 

Ok, so it may never happen but this is what I want my front yard to look like.  I have the

space and I have the corner area and started with pots with plants in the corner   but I 

 don't have the proper soil.... I bought some sand from the village nearby having sand

dunes, black soil from another cotton growing area mixed them both with vermin-compost

I bought from the lady  we helped her in making vermi- compost ( we conducted a training

under income generating programme of our project) then I put the mixture in my recycled pots

This is my sad wintery yard today. Everything is dry and sleeping and it's a bit depressing but  like most  gardeners around the country, I am patiently waiting for Spring!

I bought  a large number of Caladium bulbs today and planted them in groups of color all around my front yard.

Look at the colors of these beautiful Caladiums below.



These Caladiums are in their full bright colours

My yarn 

So excited about my new yarns! I will admit openly that I am a little bit (a lot) in love with these silky shiny  Yarns. Company is an Indian  yarn and fibre small business located in a village , near Delhi. If you love beautiful yarns in gorgeous colours and textures, please go support this awesome business and have some yummy yarn.

In the above photo:

Top - 3ply  red and blue  that my gorgeous best friend bought me for being awesome. I have no idea what I'm going to make with it. I may just keep it beside me to pet and hug.

I am  free this weekend. So my plan is to catch up on washing, and knit my little heart out on the cruise shawl so that I can get to making pretties with my new stuff!! 

xoxo



shoping and Stitching

I did lots of shopping and decided to stitch all the dresses at home!

 A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, our stitching and unstitching has been naught. William Butler Yeats

rajasthani khadi

Linen

 lizibizi dress material

 Madrass cotton fabric

Unfortunately, no progress at all on my dresses sewing projects. I got sick for a week and then summer came in full force, melting my sewing mojo with the heat. So I’ve been spending the last few days lounging around in front of the fan. How do you get your sewing mojo back after a period of stagnation?

Anyway, I desperately want to sew something yesterday but cutting a dress seemed too much of work to do. In times like this, I always turn to sewing lingerie. It’s small, quick, with almost always cute result. Perfect for curing my sewing fatigue!

I got the fabric from kalekhaa. fabric is double-gauze. I will post the photo of the fabric and the lingerie later on……….