Thursday, January 15, 2009

Aarti & Crafti

Wanna hug?


C'mon... come a little closer!


That's better. Let's rub noses now.


Isn't he cute? It's for my friend Lika's little one, Beckett!

This bear took way too long to make, thanks to a bad bout of perfectionism (oh ok, procrastination). I labored over the colors and textures while Beckett was in utero, started stiching, allowed it to sit unfinished in a basket for months, realised that his birth was just around the corner, decided the colours and texture were yucky, frogged the whole thing, started again, ripped apart my pillow to pilfer stuffing material, and finally finished it a few days after he was born! Phew!

I secretly hope that the bear is bigger than Beckett -- isn't it comforting to have something bigger than you to cuddle? Once I witness the two of them side by side, I will be sure to put a photo up.

While my time away was very relaxing, it was also pretty productive; the cabin in the mountains provides hours of guilt-free "what's your pleasure"... reading, chatting, crocheting, writing. I finished "A Million Little Pieces" and a Frederick Douglass book, in addition to finishing one crochet project, one knitted one, and starting yet another knitted one!

Crochet is fantastic when you want instant gratification. Knitting scares the bejeezum out of crocheters, at least this one... all the specific needles, the counting, and oh the dreaded dropped stitch!

Fear not, lace knitting to the rescue. It's pretty easy, as long as you have the luxury of focus. And the results are splendid! After finishing one lace-knit scarf, I'm making another one! Here's the scarf I made; I didn't block it very well so it's not maintaining its shape as well as I want it to. I might have to block it again:



I had a ton of leftover yarn from the sweater I made so many moons ago; I used it to make the scarf and this beret:



I'm not sure if you can see it very well here. Hang on.


(Whispering to herself: I knew that polystyrene head would come in handy!) Don't you love the bow? Sarah and decided to make the same beret whilst we were in the mountains. Hers was red too. How did it turn Sass?


Full disclosure: the patterns are not mine! The bear came from the Happy Hooker, the scarf from knitty, and the beret from CreativeYarn.

-x-
aarti

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh i want a beret! u must teach me to crochet sometime....

Patte said...

Oh I love that cuddly bear! And the bow on the beret is the coolest!

bodaat said...

Wow, I'm impressed! Especially the scarf. Well but the beret was really cool too. But, the bear he was pretty spiffy. Hmm...they were all excellent!

Rosesq said...

What beautiful crochet!! I do admire your needle work skills and your creativity!! Are you taking orders??

Mum

Unknown said...

nice work on the bear. I tried starting it a couple times and was always stymied by crocheting into the back of the stitch. when it's just a small circle i could tell what was going on. so I gave up. nice work!

Unknown said...

ps- did you get my little pressie?

sarah said...

Yay! So good to see you're blogging again after a relaxing holiday hiatus.
So my beret ended up WAY TOO BIG!
Even once I discovered and corrected my mistake, the hat was still enormous. More Rastafarian than I was going for.
Anyways, I bought some alpaca yarn that is the correct gauge and I'm doing it over once I finish a baby blanket for my friend.
miss you.
i have been a bad blogger, so busy with school and working on a website for my paintings, but i'm going to get back into it in the new year. i hope.

aartilla the fun said...

mum! i'm totally taking orders! is it still cold there?

Rosesq said...

It is a bit cold and I do wear a jumper during the early morning and in the evening, but you know what a snuggle puss I am.

 
all text and photographs on aartilla the fun © 2005-2009 Aarti Sequeira unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.