Crafts, leisure and happiness

I have a 2 yr old and only last week did I learn about the Amazon Mom membership program. It is a really cool program and I'm really bummed that I learnt of this only now when I'm about to start toilet training him! Once you sign up for this program you are automatically enrolled into Amazon Prime (free 2 day shipping) for the first 3 months and then for every $25 you spend in the Amazon Baby store you get an additional free month. You also get a whopping 30% discount on diapers if you sign up for Subscribe and Save!  This is another cool program where you can schedule regular deliveries of almost anything, like diapers and wipes etc. And best of all both these programs are free and you can cancel your subscription to Subscribe and Save anytime! Read the FAQs, it just gets better and better. I'd thought that Amazon did not have the best deal in diapers and had avoided buying from there. But with this subscribe and save it is by far the best deal I know of anywhere and no ...

I recently bought these walking shoes because I realized I enjoy taking a walk around the block and of course I knew it's a great way to burn off some calories. These shoes have a pocket into which I can place a chip that can talk to my iPhone and track my walks - miles, time, calories burned, pace, etc. I can even program my iPhone to play my fav music while tracking these walks. So I was inspired. The first day I walked with these shoes I found out I walk 1.89 miles in 35 mins and I'm not even tired.  So I figured, maybe I should have a goal. Until now my goal was just to get some exercise in. So I thought hmm how about walking/running a 5k race. So I started researching on what it takes to participate in a 5K run. All it takes is training and consistency. I think I'm up for it. Have to find a community / forum for encouragement and support probably. Anyone up for a run with me? First there is an 8 week program for beginners and then a 6 week training for the 5K . Ok,...

Not that I was out of town or anything. I was just away from my blog for quite some time now - 3 weeks since my last post. I did have a few things to blog about but let's just say I did not feel like it. What did I do then? I organized a birthday party for my DS he turned two recently. Here's the cake I'd ordered. Isn't it beautiful. I was heart broken cutting it. I'm almost done with the choo choo sweater. Just have to seam and weave in the millions of ends. That's been the case for the whole of last week. I finally started on finishing it today. Lazy lazy. Well not really. The last couple of days were spent on this really nice book that Tami suggested - The Hunger Games . Tami, I love it! I finished it in 2 days. I meant to buy it but then I found it at the local library so I grabbed it. I might have to buy the second book in the series - Catching Fire because I'm in a long line to borrow it at the library and I can't wait. I hope it's as good...

This morning's conversation with the lil dude. He turns two next month. Lil Dude: Sounds yike a choo choo (when he "heard" the light rail hooting in the distance. He could not see it) Me: Where is the choo choo? Lil Dude: It's eside a tunna (It's inside a tunnel) Me: Oh. Where is the tunnel? Lil Dude: It's behine a tee (It's behind a tree) Me: Where is the tree then? Lil Dude: Okay It's that time of the week again and I finally have something new to show. I've started the "Choo choo tain (train) sweater" that I've been wanting to make for him. Here's how far I've gotten. The second picture is of the motif and the different colors that will be going into this sweater. Most of the colors are for the train. I hadn't realized how slow color knitting can be, especially when you haven't practiced enough. But it is fun all the same. I also managed to finish the bolero last week. And I'm glad to say the rec...

Here is a link to the host of the Work In Progress Wednesday Meme . And here's this wednesday's WIP. I know I've been posting the same bolero and scarf, but I AM a slow knitter. I do have two other swatches on needles, one for Bubba's (DS) sweater and one for a KAL I'm on. But each of them just has a couple of rows on them so a picture will hardly show anything. So I'm saving those for next week. Here's the bolero. My excuses for the slowness - This is the first time I'm doing short rows, so I had to look at multiple videos online to learn it. It's such a cool technique. I had to use it for the high neck of the bolero.  I misinterpreted the pattern at one place and a fellow raveller had to come to the rescue.  My family thinks knitting is my hobby and should be done only in my free time! And they think doing the dishes, vacuuming and other such odd household chores and spending time with the hubby and kid etc should take a higher priority.  In ...

The last couple of mornings have been gray mornings. I don't like to call them gloomy because I actually like gray days. Maybe it's a Bangalore thing, most Bangaloreans I know love the rain and rainy days or maybe I'm just nostalgic and missing home. It might be because of the fresh smell that the rain brings or the cleaner green leaves on the trees or the fact that it gets a little quieter in the neighbourhood during the rain. Or maybe it's the sound of the rain. I would stand on the balcony (picture taken on one such day) in my house with a cup of freshly brewed ginger tea and just stare into the distance and listen to the pitter patter and the many different sounds it brings with it. The sound of the rain falling on the railings, the sound of the water flowing out of the water spouts. Even the sound of the vegetable seller calling out in the distance is different when it rains. Or I'd sit on the bed by the window with my feet tucked under me, reading a book wh...

It's WIPW 6  but it's only Wednesday 2 for me. I missed last week's WIPW because I had to stop knitting and typing the last few days to give my hands a little rest. Nothing serious just repetitive stress. So here is my work in progress this week. This is a long overdue bolero for my friend's daughter, it's the "Little Flirt" by Sublime. It's a really quick knit for quick knitters. But a slow knitter that I am, and the 10 day break that I took, I've only come so far since I cast on 2 weeks ago. That's the back and the left front done and the right front is on the needle. The edges are rolled up so the shaping for the sleeves and neck are not visible. Still have a border to add all around, then done. Hoping to finish tonight if DH and DS are kept busy. My scarf is coming along fine too. I took some not so great pictures of it again and decided not to upload them. I will upload pictures of the final blocked version. In any case it's just lo...

Ok, this is my first Work-in-progress Wednesday (WIPW) a meme started by Tami , check out her blog for others' WIPs. I think it's a wonderful idea! So here's my current WIP. It's a lace scarf, my first lace project, my first scarf and my first lace scarf! I ripped the first few rows a couple of times before I got it right. So I've started taking all the necessary precautions - using lifelines (the green threads in the picture), stitch markers, a row counter, I count stitches after every row etc. It's very gratifying to see the travelling fern grow. I wonder if I'm knitting too tight, the cast on edge is curled up a little. I'm hoping blocking will fix that. It's interesting how the pics have turned out. I usually take pictures in natural light (the purpler one) and the picture is not true to the color at all, but the pattern is more visible here. The one taken with the automatic flash (the maroon-er one) is a truer image but still not quite there...

Here are pictures of some more of my finished objects. The other offset wraplan I was making is finally done. It's the 3-6 month size, and with fewer buttons, better ribbing, better button / hole plackets, a better finish and definitely better yarn than the acrylic one that I used for the first wraplan (Stripy) . A dishcloth with a lace pattern made using lion brand cotton ease (worsted weight cotton). This is the Travelling Vines Dishcloth. Not sure I can use it as a dishcloth, maybe a pot holder or something. I had a hard time with this seemingly simple pattern. I must've ripped the first few pattern rows at least 3 times before I got it right. The pattern is beautiful for a scarf or shawl don't you think?

Made this little hat for my little one who loved it the first day. He wore it and wanted to check himself out in the mirror a million times. I was so elated then because he usually hates hats, but now that I think about it I realize it was all part of his usual bed time dawdling. He refuses to wear it now. In any case it was a fun and an especially quick knit. Come fall and winter, I hope to get the dude to wear it. Pattern details: Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Solids colors Buff and Cafe. Needles: US 8, 16"circular, and set of 5 DPNs Pattern: Measured the little dude's head circumference with some difficulty and cast on based on that. For my gauge it came to 70 sts, and came up with the fair isle pattern as I went. It is a repetition of 7 stitches. Worked even for around 4.5 inches. Placed markers every 10 stitches and decreased a stitch before the marker every row and then bound off and added a pom pom. Notes: Since I was knitting in the round, there was a jog at the join/sea...

Here are pictures of my recently finished raglan sweater. I love the pattern . It's very easy and goes really fast and I started this on my trip to India with yarn from India. I think the number of buttons on this makes it look cute. But from my experience I realize now that the fewer the buttons on baby clothes the easier it is to dress them. I made it for my friend's little one. I hope he's not as wriggly as my son used to be when putting on his clothes. Ok pattern notes Yarn : Acrylic yarn from one of those little yarn stores off of Commercial St, Bangalore Needles : Size 4 circular, dpns for sleeves, straight needles for the button plackets. Size made: 3-6 months Difficulty: easy Modifications from original pattern: Changed the ribbing, button and button hole plackets to k1, p1 because with the black yarn the original pattern did not look good. I picked up the exact number of stitches the pattern called for, for the plackets and that ended up causing a small ruffle ...

Today, it's 1 yr and a few days since my son has been going to a day care and he, my husband and me have come a long way since then. We're planning to move him to a different day care and we were trying to list out everything we wanted in a different day care. And it got us thinking about a lot of things. We have learnt a lot of the American ways of bringing up a child and there are so many things we just refuse to learn. And I was trying to think and logically reason out why we refuse to learn certain things. In India we coddle our children for many many years and sometimes forever. It's just our culture to do everything for our child and love them and give give give to them. Out here (in the western world) the focus from the time the baby is born is on making them independent. We realized, being independent and being attached are not really mutually exclusive of each other. If a child is attached to his parents, it does not mean he's not going to grow up to be indepen...

During my recent trip to India I had the opportunity to travel to Chennai from Bangalore (in Brindavan Express) and I realized I'm a rookie train traveller in India. That's the lowest level of expertise in train travelling in India, then there is the regular traveller, the frequent traveller and the expert traveller. The rookie train traveller "tries" to buy tickets online, does not understand the various quotas (s)he can fit to buy tickets from, does not know what a waitlist means and that a waitlist for tickets bought online is different from a waitlist for tickets bought at a counter and that if (s)he is waitlisted even after chart preparation it means that (s)he is not on any list if the tickets were bought online and is considered to not have a ticket and has to restart the process or look for some other train or means of travel. That's what happened to me. Then the TT (that stands for Ticket ...er .... ummm... Checker?) told me to read the fine print from th...