Northern Wind Cardigan

The only cardigan I knit this winter is for my eldest daughter. My husband picked out the color and yarn, while my daughter selected the design. The yarn is some Turkish acrylic from our local yarn shop. The design is a free DROPS pattern.

It was a fairly straightforward knit, nothing too exciting or boring. I managed to finish without running out of yarn which was a win. The real callange was getting the lower scalloped edge to not curl. I crocheted two rows of slip sts to counteract that and it works for now.

My daughter is happy with it and that is what I was aiming for. Next up are a few smaller projects.

Spring Knitting And Sewing

The spring in definitely in the air, here in Islamabad. The winter chill is gone and we have days at a stretch, of warm sunshine, interspersed with spring showers. My latest projects suit this change in weather.

My old reader might know that I have a thing for girl dresses with knitted bodices. So, I recently got hold of two balls of cotton yarn, in light fingering weight, to make a couple of spring dresses for my 6-year-old. I bought the yarn online and was a bit worried about running out. But in the end, I managed two get both bodices done, using down to the last inch of both yarns.

Next, I went to shop for matching fabrics and thankfully found some suitable ones quickly. It took one evening to sew up the dresses and another to sew on the buttons.

I love these part-knit part-sewn dresses and would love to test some other stitch patterns in the futre, insha Allah.

In other accomplishments, I did an early spring-cleaning of my craft closet and it has made me resolved to use up some of my stash. I'm still undecided about what to cast on next, socks maybe, or a stole.

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.

Making of A Dollhouse

It all started when my eldest daughter wanted a dollhouse and I offered to make her one. I had built one before, when she was smaller, but it was pretty basic. It was made of thin cardboard and was unfurnished. She had very little interest in dolls and their houses at that time. My younger one played with it, but it did not have a chance of lasting _ flimsy as it was _ in the hands of a toddler.

So, I thought now was my opportunity to improve on dollhouse design, and go the whole nine yards. This one is going to be for barbie-sized dolls and is going to be fully furnished. I am utilizing all available resources and skills at my disposal. At the moment of writing this post, I am about 65% done and it is coming together nicely. Not a masterpiece, but good enough for a child's dollhouse.

As for the materials, it is being constructed out of cardboard, popsicle sticks, paper and hot glue being the other essential components. Before actually starting the construction, I measured out the area where it is supposed to go, and calculated the dimensions of the whole thing, as well as the different rooms. I had a basic plan in my head and after a few youtube videos, and lots of inspiration from pinterest, I was good to go.

 Now for some action shots, I started with a sturdy double cardboard base and then put up the walls. I wallpapered them at the same time.

These first windows were very tricky. Initially I tried bamboo sticks to make the window frames but those did not hold well. Later, I ripped them out and used the popsicle sticks. (These popsicle sticks must be the unsung heroes of the paper craft world. I feel sorry that I discovered them so late. And they are very inexpensive too.) At this point, the kids informed me that the dolls must have a staircase to get to the upper floor. To maximise room space, I attempted a spiral staircase. My skills were very rusty at that point and it is not very neat but I covered it in tape and it became satisfactory.

 Next, I put a wooden floor in the living room, with the popsicle sticks. Because I ran out of paper for a wall, that wall got some wooden panelling. It was at this point that the actual magnitude of the project hit me. It was going to take me a few montns, at least, to get this done. Since then, I have been tackling it, one task at a time, and that has worked really well. Back to the living room, you can see the new window panes. The staircase fit best in the kitchen/ dining area, so it went there.

After sanding the floor ( that aiming-for-the-whole-nine-yards thing), I painted it with a mix of water colors and acrylic colors. I did not have a brown color then, and had to mix up red, blue and black. This shows in the color variation on the floor. It was such a relief when I actually got a brown, that I am OK with the vareigated look.

In the next post, inshaAllah, some more details from the living room, including curtains, wall art and furniture.

Poppy II

So the first finished project of 2017 gets to be a hat. More specifically a school hat for mu pre-schooler. She would wear no hat except her older sister's Poppy, so I decided to make her one of her own. This one too, is in DK weight, yarn probably being some ancient wool blend, I got from my mother-inlaw. It got done well before the preschool reopens on Monday, just right in the chillest and rainy part of our winter.

Lemongrass

This pattern must be easy to adapt, because I successfully managed it with different yarn weight, needle size and guage, considering too, that I knit this adult-sized sweater for my 10 year old. The ease was for most part due to the top-down construction and loose fit.

 

 I simply cast on with the sts for smallest size and winged it from there. I did do little math and worked out the number of sts I needed to have at the underarm, considering my gauge. (I do not remember the exact number, as it was mostly in my head). I also drove my daughter crazy, having her try it on several times along the way. Beyond the armholes it was all plain sailing.

 

The yarn is our good old acrylic. I am planning on adding a third button to the sides, to decrease gaping. Other than that, it is all done and looks good. 

New Addition And Blue Flowers Cardigan

I know this blog has been neglected for too long, but life has been crazy busy lately. It has been hard to find a moment to catch my breath and slow down, let alone find any time for knitting or other craft. Besides all the usual stuff taking up my time, there was one unusual (for us, at least) thing as well.

 Let me introduce the cutest and bounciest cause of my full days, the newest addition to our family, Ginger. We rescued it form the streets, couple of months ago. He was in a very bad shape, being very sick, weak and abandoned by his mother. After many weeks of love and care, we finally have him thriving. It is a full time job, keeping him out of mischief.

For the last two months, the only knitting I managed to get done, was a few rows here and there. The knitting was put on hold for several days at such points that required some mental calculation, because I was not free enough to sit down and do that. Extreme but very true. And thing look even bleaker for the coming months with ever-increasing loads of homework,  exams, projects that need a hand, on top of all the housework and errands.

  

     For now, I have managed to finish a cardigan for my five year old. I had a hard time picking a pattern for this yarn. I finally took inspiration from a picture and equipped with that picture and a Google Translate page for the pattern, I set about knitting this cardigan. Other than the flower chart, I did not use the translated pattern but did my own construction,knitting a round yoke and other omitting the collar.

It was an interesting knit and went smoothly for most part, except at the end when I forgot how to crochet. I kept holding my crochet hook and yarn like I hold a knitting needle and wondering why it felt weird. I had to do a net search before I figured out the problem. The little grey cells are really feeling the age.

My daughter is happy with the sweater and keeps asking when she can wear it. It will not be long now as the weather is turning cold now.

Boxy Lace Sweater

 Finally a post about the Boxy Lace sweater for my eldest daughter. This was the July sweater for my year long a-sweater-a-month plan. I got a little late in getting it done and later in posting about it.

Here it is, all done and worn (getting my daughter to wear in the heat and humidity of our monsoon season, was no easy task). It is a heavily modified version of the original pattern, downsized to tweeny size, with a lot of help and inspiration from the ravelry project pages. All the technical details can be found on my ravelry project page. The yarn is our local worsted weight acrylic.

 For my next project, I am having a difficult time selecting a pattern. I have been searching the ravelry library and pinterest to find one. I did not get a pattern per se, but lots of inspiration. So the next sweater will most likely be a hybrid of different design elements and involve a lot of improvisation.

Eid Dresses

Here is the promised post about the Eid dresses I made for the girls. It took a few days to get cool and dry enough weather to get a photo shoot. The fabric for all three dresses was the same, though I used only two color schemes. (Could not find a nice enough color for the youngest, so used the same color scheme for her as the oldest). Fabrics are diamante chiffon for the tops and dupattas and jamavar for the bottoms. And gota trim on the shirts (kameez).

For the younger two, I sewed Kameez with shalwar/straight pants.

Now for the interesting part, and the star of my sewing _ the gharara. My nine year-old has recently developed in traditional flouncy pieces, so I offered to sew her a gharara. Gharara is a traditional dress of the Muslim women of the indian subcontinent. Although no longer part of our day-to-day wear, it is one of the staples at weddings and makes a fashion come-back every now and then, with a modern twist. This year happens to be one of those years.

It is essentially a pair of extremely flared pants, the lower part of which is cut on bias and gathered at the knees. The seam at the knee is adroned with some trim or embellishment. It is worn with a short (and sometimes long shirt and a dupatta/stole). Its construction is quite complex and tricky. At least it was for me, as it was my debut attempt. The slippery fabric made it all the more challenging. And I had no idea how much yardage I would need. All things considering, it turned out quite satisfactory. 

My daughter had a great time wearing it, so it was all worth it. She still wants a ready-to-wear lehnga (traditional flared maxi skirt) for the next Eid. (Losing interest in your mom's handmade stuff has to be the first sign of growing up, I had to bribe her with a matching hand-sewn clutch).

In knitting news, I am just starting on the sleeves of the July sweater and hope to get it finished soon.

Summer Sewing

Ramadan, our favorite month of the year, is down to its last 11 or 12 days. We had a wonderful start to the month, when we were able to sight the Ramadan crescent ourselves.

Since then, it has been all business, fasting, the suhoor (pre-dawn meal) and iftaar (the break-fast meal) and adjusting to a different sleep routine. On top of the hot June weather, we had to deal with a viral fever, which took all four kids in turn. That made the start of the month especially full.

I have had little time or inclination to do any craft work. Here I am sharing the sewing I did a couple of months ago, for my eldest daughter. These are a couple of lawn fabric tops and a dress.

The first one is a chevron print sewed into a Japanese-style top, inspiration for which abounds on pinterest.

The second top is a floral peasant blouse with raglan sleeves.

 And lastly, there is the multicolored polka-dot dress with a circle skirt. All these were my own drafts.

This summer has been very productive sewing-wise. I have sewn a lot of things, most of which do not make it to the blog. The most ambitious of  all was the sewing of Eid clothes for the girls _ glittery, shear, hard to manage fabrics, turned into cute, fun traditional dresses. I do hope to share them here after Eid.

In knitting, I have an almost done sweater front, with lace details, to share. In the next post, insha Allah.

Little Pullover For June

I reclaimed this yarn from a baby sweater, that I had knit for my littlest two years ago and had since then been outgrown. After searching through all possible patterns and failing to find a suitable one, I improvised one of my own. It has turned out on the smaller end of my target size range, but I am just glad to have a finished sweater.

This sweater marks the sixth sweater of the year, namely the sweater for June. I have already cast on for the next one, which promises to be a lot more exciting.  Still, Ramadan is round the corner,  and I plan to take a break from my crafty pursuits during the holy month. To this end, I am rushing through my Eid sewing,  these days. My girls are getting some sparkling, traditional dresses this year.

Toddler Dress

The finished sweater (in this case, I use the term loosely to include all types of clothing) for the month of May, is the dress for my youngest daughter that I started last October. It was a good thing that I cast on for a size bigger than her size at the time, seeing how long it took me to finish it.

 It is another DROPS pattern, one which I have knit once before,  back in 2010, for my niece. I knit the 3/4 year size, and the skirt portion had knitting in it equivalent to an adult sweater.  It got boring and went into time-out, at the end of last year. But I got it out a couple of weeks ago and knit the remaining few inches on the skirt. From then on, it went relatively fast, and I am happy to have it finished.

Now that I have no project on the needles, I have been dealing with the pre cast- on inertia, where I take my time getting things like pattern , yarn and supplies ready for the next project ready.  And some quiet time to actually cast on. This may happen tonight or tomorrow.

 Meanwhile, we have a birthday to celebrate. Our middle daughter  as turned five today.

Selina Tunic

The March sweater got finished on Friday.  What can I say about it, it was just my kind of project _ a yoke full of colorwork, and stretches of plain stockinette stitch for mindless knitting. And it turned out pretty cute as well.

The pattern is another DROPS free one, the yarn, our local acrylic. My daughter did not want crosses in the center of colorwork,  so I replaced them with some flowers.

I have selected the pattern for the next kids' sweater, but the yarn for it still needs to be wound. While I wait for that to happen, I have started a vest for myself.
And as it is spring already, I have many sewing projects lined up.

March Sweater Progress

My knitting resolutions for 2016 include knitting at least two full-fledged sweaters for each of the four kids, plus a couple of vests and a sweater and vest for myself, insha Allah. It roughly amounts to a sweater a month. I finished one sweater for my son at the start of the year, and completed the second one for him, last month. Now I am working on the third sweater.

  It is to be a tunic/dress for my second daughter. Now that the fun part of knitting that is colorwork, is done, I feel my progress slowing down. But with half a month left, I am optimistically hopeful that it will be done within my set deadline.

Meanwhile, I am shortlisting patterns for another five sweaters for my girls. Do you have any favorites to recommend?

Bulle

It must be the longest a finished project of mine has taken, to get posted on the blog, but life has been very busy lately, and I survive by triaging my to-to list. So this is the sweater for my eldest daughter which got done last week.

 The pattern was a pleasure to knit, easy and super fast.  I even took it on a car ride, which shows just how desperate I was for some knitting time, because I almost never do that. Only modification was that I lengthened the sleeves to full-length. I used red yarn for the pockets. It turned out very cute.

 

 It was very well-received too, she loves to wear it and pockets always clinch a deal with the kids. My husband suggested I also knit one for our middle one.

I am already well into my next project, which is to be a cardigan for me. And yes, I am still avoiding that baby dress on tiny needles.

October Update

I have no pictures of any wonderful FO (finished object) yet, but my knitting has picked up speed lately. I started this month with a dress for my daughter. Fingering weight yarn on 3.25 mm needles, made ten days of knitting equivalent to this:

At that point, I decided to take a break and start something else. Almost-worsted weight yarn on 5 mm needles made a for much faster knitting and this sweater has come this far over a few days:

I have finished the sleeves since I took that photo and hopefully there will be a FO within a day or two, insha Allah. Which means, it is time to pick my next thicker yarn project, to knit alongside the toddler dress.