Life After Eid

Ramadan passed too quickly and we deeply miss all its wonderful routines and busyness. Eid is over too, and life is slowly returning to its mundane routine. It is hard not to experience a dip in our energy and mood, as the holiday comes to an end. However, life suddenly seems a lot less hectic. That is good news, as I can now make time for some back-to-school preparations. (Schools open here in second week of August.)
  On the knitting front, I did finish the linen st top and will blog about it in the next post. A couple of smaller craft projects are also coming up, soon.

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan (1436 A.H) starts here on Friday. Today will be a busy day, with me doing the last-minute, pre-Ramadan cleaning of the house, etc. My already dwindling craft activities will essentially come to a halt during this month, though I might do posts about a few ongoing projects.
May this blessed month be beneficial and wonderful for us.  Taqabbal Allahu minna wa minkum.

Ramadan Mubarak

We, in Pakistan, have our first fast tomorrow. May Allah make this blessed month beneficial for us all!

As for my month-long absence from this blog, I was slightly under the weather. Intense heat, coupled with load-shedding and the resulting water shortages, made for a very harsh June. That seemed to sap all our energy and all we could do was wait and pray for some relief in the form of rain. We did have a premonsoon

rain spell bring some relief and now that we have had some monsoon as well, the weather has become so much pleasanter. Hopefully, it can last through the rest of summer.

This week, I have finally taken up my knitting needles again and cast on a sweater for my older daughter. I am not sure about the color my my daughter seems OK with it, so I am going ahead with it.

Ramadan Knitting

Ramadan this year was very busy, more so than usual, so that I found little time for anything not related to the month. While the blog got totally ignored, I did manage to knit a few rows a day to make progress on a baby set for my toddler. It is a DROPS pattern which I have knit before for my older daughter. I have finished the trousers and am up to the yoke on the jacket and working on the sleeves right now. Hopefully it will get done more quickly after Eid.

Ramadan Mubarak

Tomorrow is going to be the first of Ramadan here in Pakistan.May we make the best of this blessed month. Ameen. Ramadan Mubarak!

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan moon has been sighted here in Pakistan. This year finds me a little ill prepared for this holy month-  what with a new baby (who is currently running a post vaccination fever), a bit messy house, inadequate pantry and all. But I still feel more motivated to make the best of this blessed month, than last year, inshaAllah. Meanwhile, I won't be posting much as the crafts take a backseat.

May Allah make this blessed month beneficial for us all!

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan will most probably be starting tomorrow for us, here in Pakistan. We will know in a cuople of hours whether the moon has been sighted or not.

This year Alhamdolillah, I feel I am better prepared than the last year. The groceries have been bought, laundry has been done. My daughter's Eid clothes are done. Shami kebabs, chicken cutlets etc have been made and frozen (which is a great deal, considering cooking is my least favorite job). Thanks to the recent house paint, my home is already de-cluttered and clean, mashaAllah. Now it is time for de-cluttering and cleaning  of the soul, inshaAllah.

I don't plan on knitting or  sewing this month, so the blog activity will be minimal, though I might do a post on my daughters Eid clothes and another when my pattern comes out.

May Allah make this blessed month beneficial for us all!

Ramadan 1430 AH

Alhamdolillah for blessing us with this holy month. Here in Pakistan, we have our first fast tomorrow. Hopefully all of us can make good use of this month, inshaAllah. It's Isha and Taraweeh(prayers) time for me :)

Stuck At The End

I have been working on the clover pattern shawl for the last many days, hoping to finish it this weekend. The rows grew shorter as I progressed (this shawl is knitted from outer edge inwards), but my stress level rose as my yarn ball gradually diminished in size. However, I still could not be sure if I had enough yarn at this point.

But this little ball of yarn was good for only another 1.5 pattern repeats, leaving me short of yarn for the last 6 repeats. I am guessing I need about 100 m more. So, until I can find that amount of matching yarn, this project is on hold, sad really as I was hoping to finish it this weekend.
However I am taking this as the point were I have fulfilled my resolution of finishing two FOs before casting on any more. So I will be casting on a project or two over the weekend, inshaAllah.
On another note, Ramadan is just two weeks away and I have the intention of limiting my craft activities during the month and concentrate on the spiritual side of things, inshaAllah. I have started work on my Quranic Arabic and hope to read the Quran with understanding. I can manage some already but hope to polish it further.

Eid Mubarak!

Here in Pakistan, we celebrated Eid yesterday. Eid came upon us in a sudden, dramatic manner when Pakistan's moon-sighting authority announced the sighting of Eid moon at around 10:45 pm, after intial reports to the contrary. So, we who were mentally prepared for a 30-day Ramadan, were suddenly thurst into Chand Raat (night of the moon). We were up till 2 am with the Eid preparations. I put some henna design on my hand.

Eid was/is great fun. After the Eid prayer, morning was spent doing the Eid cooking etc,while the rest of the day was spent in visiting relatives and wishing friends and family a happy Eid. Kids had a wonderful time. They got a lot of toys and eidee (money) and spent the day playing and having fun. They got two additional sets of Eid clothes from their grandmas, (so my daughter got to wore these, she will wear the ones I made for her today,inshaAllah).

A Typical Iftar

Iftar is the liveliest and most wonderful time of the day during Ramadan. Last evening I got a picture of our Iftar dishes. I think it is a good representation of what we usually eat at iftar (breaking of the fast). Starting off with water or date in accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW), we normally also have fruit chaat, dahi bhalay and pakoras. On this occassion we also had a few samosas and my husband's version of the french toast.
Fruit Chaat is basically a fruit salad with a variable seasonings. I like to add only a little sugar and orange juice. Dahi Bhalay is basically pakoras made of gram flour or lentil paste, dipped in yogurt,of course with a load of red and green peppers and other seasonings.

In craft going-ons, I am done with the back for baby jumpsuit. It is a Drops design, quick in garter st with simple inceases and decreases. Looks a little weird right now with long arms and legs but these are supposed to fold over. So it will look quite all right when done, inshaAllah.

Also, I'm nearly done with my daughter's second outfit and will start on my son's clothes this weekend, inshaAllah. Will post pics when both are done.

Eid Preparations

I am so busy and so tired these days. It is not because of the fasting but rather due to an excessive load of self-imposed chores. All these preparations for the Eid and the wedding later on, is wearing me down.
Next year, no handmade gift items unless those are done before Ramadan, inshaAllah. I have to do a few craft gift projects for my in-laws. Plus, seeing the baby surprise jacket lying around, I decided to make a jumpsuit as well and gift both to the newborn baby after all. (I may have to knit a cap as well, to round off the gift). Also, I decided to sew traditional Eid clothes for my kids. All this on top of the routine household jobs. Usually I enjoy all these activities, but for some reason my stamina is not up to the mark this year.
With all this, my February sweater is progressing at a very slow rate. I did finish my daughter's Eid dress today:

It is the tradtional Kameez(shirt) and Shalwar (pants). The embellishment on the shirt is taken from one of my wedding clothes and sewn onto the fabric in applique-fashion. I might make a small dupatta (stole) for my 2-year-old to acccompany this. With this will be matching bangles and mehndi (henna) for my little princess:), inshaAllah!
Next on my sewing table is a Kameez Shalwar for my son and then an outfit for my daughter for the upcoming wedding.

For My Mom

Although I have been quite late in jumping on the bandwagon, I did at last cast on for the February Lady Sweater. I am knitting this for my mom. The yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease. So far, I have done the yoke and am just starting the lace portion. My modifications so far have been knitting the yoke in st st rather than garter, after the intial garter st border. Also I knit the eyelet row and the 2 adjacent rows in garter. I decided on st st because I was worried about the yardage (I have five balls at 180m/ball).

I have decided to go slow this time, because there is so much work for me right now. I have a lot of Eid preparations as well. Next year, I will try to do all these chores before the start of Ramadan, InshAllah, so I can concentrate on the fasts and their Ibada aspect. As it is, the material jobs take so much time and energy, there is very little left for the spiritual part.

Welcome, Ramadan!

It's moon-sighting time here in Pakistan, tonight. If the moon is sighted (there is high probability according to the met dept), we will have the first fast tomorrow. It is exciting time for us. We will be out on our roof to try to see the moon. The holy month of Ramaddan has its own cool and peaceful routine. Besides the fast of course, there are the additional Taraweeh prayers at night. Also as all good deeds done during the month are to be rewarded several times more than in other months, muslims are at their best during the month. There is a lot of charity going on. There is also the festive part to the month with preparations for Iftar (breaking the fast) and for Eid which is at the start of next month. So, it will be a good, busy time for us, inshaAllah.
Regarding the knitting, I am still left with half a sleeve to knit on the lilac cardigan. I got side-tracked with some baking today. This is the cake I baked after...er..so many years.

Now I am off to eating the cake and then moon-sighting.