I began a counted cross stitch project on a pre- stitched aida on a towel, sold as a kit from pony online. I am nearly there and  the next will be a book mark with a Stonehenge motif.

Summer Projects

I have been so out of touch with crafting that I decided to retrain my fingers with the needle. I began an easy Anchor stitch kit project, they have such lovely themes from in and around India. I had finished the cartman  long ago. I call  it "Musafir."

In this I followed instruction exactly, not daring to innovate. Its nicely framed and on my wall now.

In the current project called Fisherwomen, the ready stitch-kit, I am innovating by changing the directions in the thread. Not every area is filled by vertical velvet stitch. I am adding some horizontal and diagonal patches. I seem to run out of the thread length so make sure you have enough stock if you want to try this. This project looks good even as the outlines are being done. I am going to call it "the sea you and me."

 I hope to be finger-good enough to do some cross stitch next month. BTW its too hot to knit so some UFOs have been put away for now. I am going to try my next recycle project, a tote bag from an old Tee shirt. Will see how that works out!

For 2011

This New Year begins with a recycle resolution. Thanks to FB friends for all the ideas. I am going to make five handmade things/ recycled projects to give away over this year.
1. recycled towelettes with cross stitch patches
 2. Newspaper woven place mats
3. hand painted gift bags for jewelery gifts
4. pen stands out of cardboard boxes
5.innovative money plant bottles (custom decorated old glass bottles)

For myself
 I will deal with two UFOs ( unfinished objects)
create a foot mat out of an old bath towel,
 finish an artwork in quilt
try covering a note book with fabric
try my hand at wood working during vacation

Muffler cum cap : warm and soft

I had been busy planning to come to Berlin and in my real hurry to pack unpack and prepare there was time to knit, but not to blog.

This time, my cousin and his wife from US got me LION brand homespun wool in a lovely meadow color. I decided to knit a muffler cap, like the one I saw in mussorie. It is knit in two pieces, three sections.

Section one : all rows front and back in knit.

This piece is a 70 inch long muffler with 20-25 sticthes ( for a very thick wool) thinner yarns may need more. The width of the muffler is only 5- 5 1/2 inches so it can wrap around the neck nicely.

Tip: if thick wools are done in knit one side purl the other, (st stitch) it curls up, so use garter stitch for keeping the muffler flat.

After the 70 inches long muffler, knit a flat piece with 35 to 40 stitches again in garter stitch but make it about 12- 14 inches. I measured mine around my head like a head band up to my neck over both my ears to form a "pallu."

Fold this in half and from the side of the knitted piece pick up as many stitches as there are rows and knit them in circles to make the back of the head piece. Knit for about 6 to 10 rounds and reduce the stitches as for cap knit two together one row then knit and kit two together and then knit another row. Finally bind off the last 10-14 stitches.

I know it sounds complicated but looking at the pictures will give you a good idea.


Center the head piece to the muffler and stitch it along the bottom of the cap . I added fancy fur tassles and also some to the hood to make it look like a fur cap!








Tip : First time knitters! Do use a different contrast colored wool ( I used green for this )to stitch your garments loosely. Check if everything is okay then stitch neatly using same colored wool. That way if the piece is inside out or not rightly placed, you will find it easy to cut off the coloured wool without cutting the knitting.

Happy winter!

This took me a year! This celtic dog birth sampler counted cross stitch dogged me but now that its done, its off to be framed and gifted to the baby next week in time for its first birthday!

Its still scarf and cap Knitting time.

 In honour of arne naes, the deep ecologist, I inagurated my new fashion knit cap and muffler on ignite 2 bangalore 09.

 Its a simple knit in the blue yarn brought from thailand by by freind annu.

 If you look closely you can see abutterfly clip on the cap. Its a shiny hair clip that I attached to the cap to make it prettier.

The next project will take a longer time as i am finishing the cable vest started long ago (seen half done in the earlier blog)

 also progress gets slower on knitting when my Phd speedens up!

Baby socks and grey cap

Its getting hotter and so making my projects smaller. The good news is that I seemed to have started an epidemic of knitting that is fast spearding in my institute. People will get sweaters with thier PhD. any way here are some photos!

My first project with circular needles that are attached with a wire.

Cute socks for a baby.again with circular needles. I used kitchner stitch to finish and it looks like a once piece work. Very clever stitch and loads of instruction on the net.

Break from knitting to finish a nice cross stitch project.

Section of the project, a birth sampler.