Crafts, leisure and happiness

A new giveaway on my store blog  here . Giving away a skein of lovely banana silk yarn in a color of your choice. Here are some pictures. Detail on my store blog! Happy crafting!

I've been living in the USA for a while now and like most NRIs I miss Namma Bengaluru a lot. Notice I did not say "home". I don't do that anymore. For now USA is my home where I have my space, my life and I feel most at-home at my home here. But there is that eternal longing to return. There's also that nostalgia when I hear a particular song or eat a particular food but those are just momentary and they pass. I'm pretty sure though, that if I move and make my home in Bengaluru, I will feel most at-home there. I do make it a point to visit Bengaluru often and after the initial couple of days of just-returned-from-the-states attitude (which I'm pretty sure annoys my sister), I begin to notice how things ARE getting better there. The roads are not as clogged, the people are driving better, there is just a little bit more greenery than the previous visit and the roads are cleaner. I saw more sensitivity among people driving. The "Me first" attitud...

A new giveaway on the Amber Threads blog . I'm giving away a coupon for a discount of 15% on your entire purchase from my store. Plus free shipping this entire month. So hurry and check out how to enter  here !

I'm hosting a giveaway on my Amber Threads blog. I'm giving away two gorgeous skeins of Duke Silk Yarn. Here are the details. And here's a pic of the yarn I'm giving away. 10 days to go!

I'm really excited to share that my online yarn store is now open! Check out http://amberthreads.etsy.com ! Also check out my other blog http://blog.amberthreads.com for generous giveaways every month and lots of yarny info. Here are pictures of some of the yarn I have in my store!

I went to the local craft supplies shop and was casually browsing the bead aisles. Well, I always wanted to take up beading as another hobby (in addition to spinning, dyeing and weaving), but I'm not a big jewelry wearer. So it was easy for me not to indulge. But I always browsed the beading aisles out of curiosity and the last time I saw these things called toggle clasps. And it occurred to me that these would make great snag free stitch markers. And that's when I caved in, and bought all the tools needed. Different kinds of pliers, head pins, wires, beads and toggle clasps. And here's the outcome. And while I was looking online for tips on using the various tools I came across  this tutorial  on making stitch markers. It's a nice step by step tutorial with great pictures. What d'ya know, my idea was not so original after all. Well the square stitch markers probably are. The stitch markers are lightweight and snag free. The square ones can fit up to US size 11 ne...