Welcome 2012

Crocheted Multipurpose Pouch

Here is my crocheted multipurpose pouch. We can use it for keeping essential things like mobile phone, keys and money. A cute little thing to carry with.

Crocheted multipurpose pouch

There are two compartments for this little pouch as shown in the bottom left corner. I got the idea from a video in youtube which I have seen long time back. Now I don't have the link. 

I made two crocheted pieces. First one with height needed for my pouch and the second one with its double height. Arranged the first piece inside the second and using a tapestry needle and crochet yarn, stitched it together to form the basic carrying structure. Then on top of one side, attached the flap using double crochet. Added single row of shells at the end, attached crocheted chain in the middle of this  row. And finally, added a button. 

See you next time....

Jisha

Glorious Pineapple Doily

I did a glorious pineapple doily this week. This is my  first pineapple doily.  An easy and interesting pattern. Pattern link is here. Used knitting thread size 20 with 2mm steel hook.

Glorious Pineapple Doily

My daughter 'helped' me a lot while  doing this pattern. She used to sit by my side and talk continuously about all those things happened in her school, about her teacher,  friends....  I have to give an ear to that and the  effect was I will be doing 3 rounds and will be going back to the first round again to correct the mistakes...Finally I finished this doily when she was in school... She is a wonderful naughty kid. 

I finished a larger hipster doily too.... It is an enlarged version of this Hipster Doilies which I have done earlier... One of my first attempts... I like doing hipster doily pattern.... Here is the pattern link.

Large Hipster Doily

See you next time.....

Jisha

Oval Placemat and Coasters

It was my long time wish to crochet something in Oval shape. When I went to Nima's flat few months back, her oval doily drew my attention. After that I started collecting oval crochet patterns....

Oval Placemat and Coasters

This pattern is from Red Heart website. I made one placemat and 6 coasters. Now I plan to crochet more and more ovals.... See you next time...

Jisha

Happy Diwali....

Barakt Al Harthy - the Hero...

Omani sprinter Barakat al Harthy won gold medal at the inaugural GCC Games in Manama on 17th October2011. He qualified for 2012 Olympic Games. 23 year old Barakat broke his own national record in 100m in 10.17seconds yesterday. He dedicated his victory to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. 

Barakat in Guangzhou, China - Novermber 2010

Barakat timed 10.28seconds in 100m event in 16th Asian Games held in November 2010, Guangzhou, China. There he won his prestigious bronze medal which he dedicated to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the people of Oman during the 40th National Day Celebrations of Oman. Later in June 2011, he achieved the gold medal with 10.29seconds in the 100m event in Zgorzelec meet in Poland. 

Link : Barakat Al Harthy on IAAF webpage.

Wishing him all the very best for his wonderful career.....

Winter Breath and Spiral Simplicity Doilies

At last, I blocked my first set of doilies yesterday. I did both of them before the summer holidays. ie; in August.  I did this Winter Breath Doily first. The stitches are little loose for the first few rounds. I used Ecru/off-white for both of the doilies.

Winter Breath Doily

This is the second experiment with Ecru/off-white. The Spiral Simplicity Doily.

Spiral Simplicity Doily

Following is a scene from my first adventurous blocking trial.

Blocking...

Jisha

Fish Pickle with Gravy

Last week, we bought shark fish from the supermarket. It was fresh and I prepared pickle with it. Here is the finger licking recipe for that.

Ingradients
Step 1
Fish     - 1/2 kg (cut into small cubes)

Marinate the fish using Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp, Salt- to taste,  Chilly powder- 1 tbsp, Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp and  Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp. Keep aside for 20 minutes. Fry the fish in any vegetable oil.

Ingradients

Step 2
Ginger                 - 100 gms
Garilc                  - 100 gms
Green chilly         - 4
Curry leaves        - 2-3 springs (randomly chopped)
Take half of the ginger-garlic and finely chop. In gingely oil,  fry it with green chilly and curry leaves. When it is golden brown, transfer it into a plate.

Fried items for the pickle

Step 3

Take half of the ginger and garlic kept aside and grind it to a fine paste. In the remaining gingley oil, fry this paste till oil separates. Add chilly powder - 2-3 tbsp, fenugreek powder - 1/2 tsp. Fry for few seconds, add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of vinegar. Bring to boil. Add the fried items and enough salt into this mix. Simmer for few seconds and remove from the fire.

Fish pickle is ready...!

Note: According to your taste, you may change the quantity of chilly powder and vinegar. You may add 1/4-1/2 cup of boiled water to adjust the thickness of the gravy before removing the pickle from the fire. Store it in air tight container. The pickle tastes good after 2-3 days.

A trip to Misfat Al Abriyeen

During Eid Holidays, we went to Misfat Al Abriyeen. It is a must watch place in the Sultanate of Oman.  When we reached the city Al Hamrah, we all were really fascinated by the beauty of the old style buildings.

A scene from the city Al Hamra

A street in Al Hamra

Mind catching scene...

Can't resist clicking my camera...

Fascinated by these scenes, we continued our journey to Misfah, one of the oldest villages in Oman. A mountain village with plenty of palm trees - just amazing.

On the way to Misfah...

We parked our car and had a walk around the place.  We found an information board of Oman Tourism regarding the historical importance of the village. Now the villagers are enjoying modern facilities of roads, electricity and telecommunication. Even then they give special interest in preserving the valuable culture they inherited. 

Seems like in wonderland...

We heard the sound of a traditional Omani drum. We walked towards that direction and reached in front of the entrance of a multistoried builiding. 

Entrance...

We thought that it is a building. But when entered, we understood that we are in a narrow street with stones laid on the floor and houses on both sides of the street. Those buildings are built using stones, baked bricks, mud bricks, palm trees, mangrove poles and lime. Lime is mainly used for plaster and mortar.

Narrow street

Palm trees are used  in roofing and to give support for the structure

This was the source of the Omani Drum's sound

A scene from the pathway... 

The closed main entrance of an unused house.

Some houses are occupied.

 'Jahla' are the traditional pots in which drinking water is kept. Jahla can also be seen hanging from windows of  traditional houses. 

'Jahla' hanging from the window of a traditional house..

Remnants of an old house...

Finally we reached the plantation area where banana and lemon trees are also planted besides the palm trees.

A scene from the garden

Looking back....

Another scene from the garden

Raw dates

Ripe dates

Falaj is Oman's unique water channel system which collects water from the water source and distribute it for domestic and irrigation purpose. 

Falaj... Refreshing cool water from the mountains

It is so dense...

Kids are enjoying...

Our kids don't want to come out of the place. But we have to go back home. Finally we started our journey back to Muscat by evening. This trip will surely be a pleasant memory in our life....

Lazy Days...

Hi friends.....

After the summer holidays, I really became very lazy in many ways.....  Many reasons are there.... Want to overcome all those hindrances.... I am really happy to know from my Stats page that there are frequent visitors for the Kutchwork tutorials. Valuable readers, if those tutorials are helpful to you, please leave a comment.  Hope we will meet soon............

Love
Jisha 

Kutchwork Tutorial - The 5 Point Diamond Motif (Maltese Cross) - Part II

INTERLACING THE FIVE POINT DIAMOND MOTIF (MALTESE CROSS)

Bring the needle up at the outward corner of the beginning and end of the maltese cross.  Keep in mind the following points. The thread always moves in a 'U' pattern.  Interlacing is done in an OVER-UNDER-OVER-UNDER manner. Unless at the beginning and end, never pierce the  fabric. Do not tighten the interlacing thread too much. 

As in the single diamond motif's interlacing begin interlacing the diamond 1. 

     

At this point we have to change the direction of the interlacing.  Remember that the thread should pass in a 'U' manner. See the below picture. Needle passes UNDER and enters the diamond 3.

Kutchwork Tutorial - The 5 Point Diamond Motif (Maltese Cross) - Part I

I hope that you are thorough with the Outlining and Interlacing of the  Basic Diamond Motif.  Now we move on to the Five Point Diamond Motif or the Maltese Cross.  The following diagram shows the the structure of the five point motif. It can be considered as a square or a diamond depending on how we place the diagram.

Outlining the Maltese Cross

We have already done outlining of the single diamond motif. Keep the following points in mind. The beginning and end points are the outward extensions of the same corner. Always keep the thread under the needle while inserting needle at the corners. We rotate the frame during each step which helps to get a rapid idea of where to move  the needle and thread next. 

Kutchwork Tutorial - The Basic Diamond

We are going to do the basic diamond in kutch work.

Fix the fabric in the embroidery frame. Thread the needle.  

STEP 1 - OUTLINING

Points to remember 

1. Always keep the thread under the needle while outlining the basic diamond.
2. Rotate the frame during each step to make outline stitching more comfortable.

 

Bring up the needle at 1. Insert at 2 and bring it up at 3. 

While outlining the basic diamond, always keep the thread under the needle, 

as shown in the picture. (First side is formed)

Notice that I rotated the frame before doing the next step.
Hold the frame and needle in such a manner that the needle eye is pointing towards you.
Insert at 4 and bring it up at 5, again keeping the thread under the needle.
 (Second side of the motif)

Kutch Work Tutorials

I am planning to upload some Kutchwork tutorials in my blog. There are many tutorials available in the internet. I tried some of them. I succeeded in doing the the basic diamond, 3 diamond and 5 diamond motifs. But when it reached The Double Maltese Cross , I was in trouble. After a gap of  few days, I will start again 'Learning Kutchwork'. Most of the time, I have to go through all the saved notes in my computer and try again and again to complete the three & five diamond motifs. I was fed up with this type of learning. May be, I was a bad student. I thought I could never learn the technique and remember it forever.

I have a friend - Maya who knows the Kutchwork well. She learned it from her neighbour Madhavi who is an expert in hand embroidery. With the help of her, I managed to learn the technique of kutchwork. And I am going to share all those simple simple techniques of Kutchwork with you. After you  master  basic diamond and  3 diamond &  5 diamond motifs, I think you won't need any further help to do more complex designs. Anyway, hope you will enjoy those lessons.

Herringbone and Double Herringbone Stitches

Herringbone Stitch

To begin, bring the needle up in the lower line. Keep the thread below the needle. Insert the needle down on the upper line a little to the right. Take a small stitch to the left and bring the needle up. 

Now insert the needle on the lower line a little to the right  and take a small stitch to the left as done before. 

Repeat the steps to make enough herringbone stitches

Make sure that the stitches are of equal size and evenly spaced

Double Herringbone stitch

Now, we have made one row of herringbone stitch. Do another 

row of herringbone stitch in between the first row. You may use a contrast color thread for this. When you make the stitches, weave the thread under and over the first row.  The process of weaving in this manner is known as interlacing. 

Begin at the top line

Insert needle into the lower line, take a small stitch to left and 
bring up the needle.  Pass the needle under (the first herringbone's) thread.

Insert the needle in the upper line and make a stitch to the left. 
Bring up the needle.

Again, weave under the thread

Repeat the process to make a second  row of Herringbone stitch

The upper set is made with more spacing of stitches