Little Backpacks

A few months ago, my daughter (the middle one) asked me to make her a little doll-size backpack. She drew me a picture to explain her specifications.

It took me a while to get to this project but she persevered all along, reminding me of the promise that I would make it "some day, soon". Impressed by her tenacity,  I finally made the four-inch backpacks. Notice the plural, as her youger sister has to have everything that she has. Also, I made three as the prototype needed a few improvements.

Here are all three backpacks, complete with zippers, glue on pearls and all. The green prototype was gifted to a friend while my girls claimed the other two.

By the time of this post, it has been several weeks since the completion of the backpacks and the girls have moved onto newer toys. But they had a good run and are still intact, just hibernating for now. 

Dollhouse: Living Room Snippets

Continuing with the dollhouse, the first room put together was the living room. I started with a sofa, made of fabric scraps and cardboard.  It is upholstered in some leftover cotton from one of my sewing projects.

The I used the popsicles sticks to make a coffee table and a side table. These were later painted brown.

The rug took the most amount of time. It tòk me two weeks to latch-hook this thing. It used up one of the oldest yarns in my stash, but was a lot of work.

I also made some curtains. I'm not sure about them but the girls like them and my husband told me to move on.

Next I did some wall art and built a TV. (My six-year old want me to turn a cellphone into a TV so as to have one with some action.) And a table to go with it. And you can also see a clock there. I rimmed it with green crystal beads.

The wall art for the other wall.

And lastly, I made a chandelier for the room, just yesterday.

The room in its enirety will be posted in the final dollhouse post. Next post, the kitchen highlights.

My Princesses

This project further proves the point that one does not think straight when in the throes of maternal love. At one such moment, I promised my daughters dresses inspired by Elsa's, of the animated movie Frozen. Soon afterwards, I realized the rather tall order I had set up for myself and tried to wiggle out of it, by using the well-known tact called procrastination. I hoped the girls would forget about the promise or move on to something simpler. But the "Frozen" bug is particularly tenacious at our house and it outlived my excuses for procrastination.

 Still, I took my time with these dresses, gathering supplies in February, sewing these up in March and getting to blog about them in April. The girls were very patient (which again shows the hold, the bug has on them) with me and even enjoyed the process, as the dresses evolved.

 

There were a few tears at the end though, when Amma (that is I) played Scrooge over the sequins. In my defense, I was finally trying to hurry things along, and hand-stitching that many sequins is both time- and labor-intensive work. More sequins got stitched on and we had a happy ending.

As for the dresses, my older daughter helped me pick out the materials.I looked around Pinterest for ideas and inspiration.The dress draft was my own. I decided on a detachable train, as I suspected it would be too cumbersome to have a train at all times.

 

 There are already requests for some more dresses, but I have successfully dodged them for now.

Little Red Gloves

 My older daughter requested a pair of red gloves for the chilly mornings at school. She was very particular about the details. She wanted a simple pair in red with a tiny cuff. The only red yarn I had was worsted weight, so I picked out a pattern in that size, on ravelry and got to work. These went incredibly fast especially when they come at the end of a cardigan. The pattern is a no-brainer and goes really fast. I used up less than half a ball of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (Red Fox).

Zozos

My kids had started noticing and commenting on the fact that I hadn't done a project for them for a while. They find it most weird and unusual that I would want to knit something for myself. So, they guilted me into knitting up these:

A zozo is easy to knit up though it has a lot of I-cord knitting and ends to weaves. But result is totally worth it:

My son is now planning a full alien invasion with further addtions to the brood. While he is busy coming up with modifications in Zozo's body parts and colors, I am going to catch up on my regular knitting.

Another yoke...Fair-Isle this time

I had been waiting to finish the Tangled Yoke Cardigan to start a sweater for my son, for which I bought the yarn last month. I had got these to colors with no definite idea about the design.

Finally, when I started, I went for a top-down Fair-Isle Yoke pullover. The fair-Isle design is my own and hence somewhat rudimentary. I added two additional colors for the fair-isle.

Tonight I finished the yoke and will have my son try it on for the fit in the morning, inshaAllah. I am intending a larger size anyway.

Now I have to confess that I was up till 4:45 am last night to knit this and tonight it is almost two already. So, I am a bit groggy right now. Must go to bed...

First Lessons

Yesterday, while knitting my daughter's bolero, I felt a tug at the yarn. I turned around to this:

It turns out, my daughter had watched me wind (by hand) the yarn earlier that day and was practicing on her own. She did a pretty good job too!

On the other hand, my son's first experiment with yarn goes like this:

He acquired this yarn from my scraps and uses it to pull around his toy car, LOL. Yes another thing that interests him in my craft closet is my retractable tape with which he plays yoyo.

DinoMitts

The mittens I promised my son are finally done. It took me about three days to finish the pair. My son wanted a T-rex. I tried my best with the first mitt but my son informs me that it is a spinosaurus.

For the second mitt, I decided on making a triceratops which is better recognizable.

I had thought of writing a pattern at first but then was unsure whether any one would be interested in one.

The great thing is that my son is very happy with his mitts (and so is my daughter with her pair of mouse mittens) and now that I have fullfilled my promise to the kids, I can carry on with my tangled yoke cardigan. I am at the first sleeve right now.
In keeping with the current theme, we plan to take the kids to the Museum of Natural History tomorrow, inshaAllah.

More Mittens

When I finished my Bronte's Mitts a few days ago, my son was rather taken with them. He took the pair to try on and I let him, thinking he will hand it over in a few minutes. He handed them back all right but those were all wet! It turned out, he was trying to block them, Lol. Well, I managed to dry them but he was still hovering around, so for the sake of my mitts' safety, I asked him if he would like a pair of his own. Affirmative. Now what goes for my son also has to go for his little sister and this brings me to this current FO.

I made these mitts for my daughter. This is a heavily modified version of Mouse Mittens. I left out the tail( lesser yarn for her to put in the mouth). I used yarn scrap for this project and it took one day to knit.
Next I have to make a pair of dinosaur mitts for my son. I will have to come up with a pattern of my own and I am thinking hard :) I have not shown my kids these ratty mitts yet as I want to finish the dino pair first and then give both the kids their mitts at the same time. Some time next week, inshallah!

Eid Clothes-- Done

The Eid clothes that I had been sewing for my kids are all done. I made two outfits for my daughter and one for my son.

My son's Shalwar Kameez is relatively simple. I did a bit of fabric painting around the neckline as I was short of time for any embroidery. The flower pattern is of my son's choice, as is the little chick button :)

I already posted the first outfit for dd. I made a little dupatta(stole) to go with it.

The second outfit is a ghagra (skirt) with a small shirt. This is also done in bright, festive fabric used for weddings and such. The embelishment is very traditional gotta work. I made a little dupatta to go with this as well.

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.