Hello Kitty Bag

I do not remember how exactly it came about but a while ago, I found myself having promised my daughter a Hello Kitty bag. With my current lengthy projects, it was time for me to take a break and I figured doing a crochet bag would not break my no-new-cast-on resolution ;)

I ran out of the cotton yarn which I was using initially so I turned to acrylic. The bag with all its finishing etc took me about a day. I did not follow any pattern for this though there are many hello kitty patterns listed on ravelry in case anyone is interested. My daughter was so excited and involved in the project, I did not have the heart to put it down. I used buttons for eyes and felt for the nose and bows. Both sides are identical. So here it is done and with its happy owner.

Exciting News and A Blogoversary Giveaway

We have been planning this for a while and now it is done. I have partnered with my friend Shells to offer handmade sock bags for sale. These are available for sale at Shells' etsy shop. Initially we have three different patterns for sale but it may add more if this venture takes off,InshaAllah. We also plan to introduce another line of bags. Also check out Shells gorgeous handspun! (it seems we had our first sale, alhamdoLillah :D )

And this has almost coincided with my blogoversay so I am going to offer one bag as a giveaway (I have multiples). Just comment on this post, stating the one you like best and that gets you an entry. You can link to the giveaway and earn another entry. (Just be sure to add the link's link in your comment.) the giveaway closes July 31, and I will have a draw on 1st August.

A little further along..

I am not posting as frequently as I would have liked, the main reason being the slow progress on my projects. But, as soon as I get another WIP done, I hope to do a few quick projects, and we can have some interesting posts, inshaAllah! Also, I have a blogoversary about to happen and I am thinking of a blog contest. So, things will get interesting around here :)
For now, I leave you with a latest pic of my shawl, it is a little further along than the previous update.

The Gail Glory

After knitting solely and hard on it for the last one week, I managed to finish the shawl today. This project had it's own set of hitches, like after doing 6.5 repeats, I had to frog back to six because I suspected I would not have enough yarn. And as it turns out, I was right, I finished with just a few yards to spare. Also I ran out of beads twice, the last time, I just cut down the number of beads I was going to use as I did not want to wait for more beads.
Here it is unblocked, 30 x 64 inches.

While blocking, 38 x 90 inches:

A close-up:

And the final, blocked shawl:

Hot And Without Power

Like always, this July is also very hot and humid and like what seems always, we again are having load shedding. For those of you who are more fortunate and do not know what it means:
load shedding
the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.
Retrieved July 12, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/load shedding

Currently we face undergo four hours without power here in Islamabad and it is even worse in some other parts of the country. To top it, our power line broke down in the early hours of Saturday morning and we were left panting and heaving with heat for the next eight hours. And of course, the complaint center had taken its phone off the hook. From experience, we know that as long the phone is "busy" the fault is still being traced and no end is in sight. And when they do answer it is usually a promise of power returning within an hour, but it rarely happens and we go back to the phone being "busy". It is a futile exercise really but being without power, we have little else to do. It is either that or running around the roof in the early hours of the day, as our neighbors seem to prefer. Only, they like our roof much better than their own.

Since then, we are back to our four hours of load shedding, but since our load has been "shifted" to another grid, the hours are changed and we only find out which when the computer goes off in the middle of some work or ... It is a miracle really that our appliances are still working.
Not to forget, there is another form of power outage of 10-15 minutes and this is also sudden and unannounced. This happens when our grid "heats up".
It is reassuring however to realize that we have come through a few years of this and what is wrong with putting up with another few!

Toothache and Gail Update 2

I am still here, working faithfully on my WIPs and adhering to my resolution of not casting on any new projects until I get two of the current ones finished. The going has been quite slow these past few weeks due to, besides other things, a toothache! The whole saga is quite painful and morbid, suffice it to say that I had a borderline cavity which had one failed filling and the second one pushed it over to the deep end, so that I am undergoing root canal treatment now. The number of painkillers I have popped in during the last few weeks has to be more than the total painkiller intake during my life (including the ones after the caesarian sections). Anyway, now the ordeal in almost over and I am not having anymore pain, alhamdoLILLAH!
Coming back to my knitting, I have worked most on the gail shawl. Right now I am working the sixth pattern repeat and though the pattern calls for seven repeat, I might continue until I run out of yarn, as I want a big shawl.

It does not look more than a big multicolored blob but stay tuned for the final post blocking metamorphosis sometime next week, inshaAllah!

Shawl Update

After working on it almost exclusively for the last week, this is how far along I have come in my Victorian Lace today's three-corner clover pattern shawl. As this shawl is started from the outer edge, the initial rows are very long and take a lot of time. I am already noticing that rows are taking less time now.

However, I think it is time for a break now and I might resume Gail for the next few days.