Sunrays Creations and Yarns

Posted on April 24, 2014 by mindovermanasa — 4 Comments

My very First QUILT!

Its been some time since I blogged. And that’s definitely because I didn’t have anything to blog about… but because I didn’t have time with the amount of crafting that’s gotten done!!! 😀

I’ll start with the latest creation (as in completed last night). Its a QUILT! Yes, I can now proudly tom-tom the fact that I have made my own quilt. And NO, I refuse to make another… ok maybe if u twist my arm some more.. 😉

It started off on Watsapp with a couple of crafting friends, and so we thought, why not?! Google searches were started up, designs dug out.. and in my case, all with the additional word of “easy”. 😛 But we started off.

I though the fat quarters (18″ x 21″) seemed nice for a starter piece. Big pieces, not much of cutting. I still had to use my brand new rotary cutter and self-healing cutting mat. I hauled out my stash, and got to work.

First I pulled out all the fabric and got measuring. Having done that, I figured the best 4 for the blocks, the plain/neutral for the back, and got cutting.

Once I got all my pieces set, suddenly I decided it was all too boring. Huh?! you say? Yes, well, that’s what happened, and out came the searches for other “easy” patterns. Finally zeroed onto something that seemed easy, and called for “charms”. These turned out to be 5″ x 5″ pieces. Back to the cutting board.

It took me a couple of days and serious boredom, but I finally got the pieces cut. Next step was to join pieces into motifs, and then join the motifs to make the sheet. After about the 30th block, I realized that this didn’t seem to look nice at all! Work stalled for a week.

Finally, I got all my pieces together (large and small) and decided to just completed… however it was. Once that was decided, things moved a lot faster. The sewing of the top and back took a single day. A shopping trip for batting later, the combining of the various parts took a couple of days, and a lot of sit-ups. I now have a shapely backside from the sit-ups and a new set of biceps hauling the whole thing through my itty-bitty sewing machine. 😉 😀

The interest panel (?) on the sine — The interest panel (?) on the side

The whole thing, well, it now sizes to approximately 6ft x 7ft. 😀 So

Now the wait for the cool weather starts!

Posted on February 5, 2014 by mindovermanasa — 2 Comments

On a Doily Trip…

I seem to have been bitten by a doily bug! I just can’t get over how fast they get done, and how beautiful they are. To the point that I’ve made 2 since the beginning of this very week. 🙂

I’ve never really got along with knitting cotton in the past. The maximum I made were coasters and a mobile pouch, and then I couldn’t really think of much to make with them. They seemed to strain my arms holding onto the slippery thread. So they were relegated to the back of my cupboard where they languished for a looong time.

With the Ravellenics starting in a couple of days, I decided to challenge myself this way. What better to do than use up old thread and make pretty stuff? So I sat down and carefully looked at all the notes by the designer and thought long and hard. Then I just started doing it! I still wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea… till I starched out my first doily. Then I was hooked!

Both doilies that I’ve made have been designed by Linda Browning, for whom I’m tested earlier. The doily designs were her gift for testing!

So here are the pictures! 🙂

and how they look together! :) — and how they look together! 🙂

Posted on February 3, 2014February 3, 2014 by mindovermanasa — 1 Comment

Intriguing Shawl

This was supposed to be a quick project which I signed up for it. Unfortunately I got so side-tracked with other projects on needles, that I got late for my deadline! 🙁

The nice part is that the designer was cool about it, and had no problems extending the deadline. So here’s my Intriguing shawl, with its lovely design! It was made with a silk-wool blend that I got from IndianSilkShop on 4mm needles and it was also the first time I knit with anything silk! 🙂

I did make a couple of changes to the design namely I cut out on the repeats for the end garter ridge and I didn’t do the picots. Did that make a difference? No, it didn’t, because the focus is now entirely on the design! And a very pretty one it is. 🙂

immediately after blocking :) — immediately after blocking 🙂

Posted on January 31, 2014 by mindovermanasa — 2 Comments

Hat and Mittens – Crafting for Gifting!

Once I completed the Gilbert sweater, I realized I hadn’t made anything for my niece! So I immediately went looking for a new pattern. However, Lara Simonson (who designed Winter Chill reversible hat) connected with me for this new design, Little Elsa’s Hat. It was just perfect for my niece. The cables were not over-whelming, and the button was a fun touch.

So that was the story behind the hat! At the end of the project, however, DH remarked that its “only” a hat, can’t I make mittens to go with them?! But then I didn’t know how to make them. But I figured: how difficult could they be afterall?! Well, the answer is: difficult till you actually get the experience to knitting them. 🙁 After 2 froggings, I finally managed to make these mittens in record speed: 3 days… Of course they were toddler size! 😉

Posted on January 31, 2014January 31, 2014 by mindovermanasa — Leave a comment

HiyaHiya Fruit Lace Socks

This is the 2nd pair of sock I’ve made, the design again from the HiyaHiya Designs. While the name of the lace was funny enough, I really liked it, and would have loved to show it off. However, I had a stash of yarn left over from my Regal sweater, and I decided that it was better put to use as a sock yarn! 🙂

The KAL (Knit-A-long) was for the duration of Dec 2013 – Jan 2014. However, this was the project that I decided to cast-on on the 1st of Jan this year!

So here’s my effort. The only change I made with the pattern was that it was meant to be a mid-calf design, while I made only ankle socks.

Posted on January 31, 2014 by mindovermanasa — Leave a comment

Gilbert

Gilbert was a sweater that I made for my nephew. The pattern was designed by Melanie Coogan, and she was very generous when she gave me the pattern for free! And for no reason but that I asked for it on Ravelry! 😀 Thanks, Melanie!

The sweater is knit seamlessly and knit bottom-up. This is the first time I made anything with such extensive cables, and it was great experience!

Posted on January 31, 2014 by mindovermanasa — 2 Comments

Whew! What a Hectic Year!

I seem to have started the year on a Knitting Sprint of sorts! I have absolutely no time to blog at all. 🙂 This post is basically a catch up of what I did in December.

December started off peaceful enough. I was on a holiday for most of the month and just made a few projects, but the pace kind of increased as the year ended. The projects I finished during this time were:

Winter Chill Reversible Hat (test knit): this one I ended up gifting away. Well, it wasn’t meant to be mine! 🙂

Cephalopod Pot Hat (test knit):

One more hat to my skills! :) — One more hat to my skills! 🙂

Scarflette for my MIL: This was entirely reverse engineered from one of the machine-knit ready-made scarf that my MIL had. This is a common sight around South India, and I just had to make one for her! 🙂

And I started a sweater for my nephew – Gilbert: I’m going to put up the WIP picture of the sweater, as it was at the end of 2013! 🙂

At the very end of the month, on the Ravelry Groups suggested we cast-on for a new project on the 1st, and complete it during the month. I couldn’t resist now could I?! So that’s what I did… I waited! 😀

Posted on January 1, 2014 by mindovermanasa — Leave a comment

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Posted on December 18, 2013 by mindovermanasa — 1 Comment

Complete – Cephalopod Pot Hat

Okay, so that was a tongue twister of a name! But that’s what the designer, Jennifer Law, named it. And I simply call it “Hat”. 🙂

The design is simple, but made complex with errors on the designer’s part. But that doesn’t detract from the overall look, which is pretty cool. But who doesn’t make errors? After all, correcting those mistakes is what test-knitting is all about!

So here’s my funky new hat!

Posted on December 18, 2013 by mindovermanasa — 3 Comments

Regal – Finally Complete!

This sweater has been long time in the making. But yes, it’s been finally completed. I do thank the designer, Linda Marveng, for being nice to me by letting me take my time with this sweater.

This sweater is my first “assembled” sweater, where I’ve made all the part separately and then sewn them all together. It’s been a long journey to get it all together, and I’m really happy with the final result. 🙂

The yarn that I’ve used is a lovely variegated yarn in reds, and is of fingering weight. As is most yarn in India, this too is acrylic. The whole sweater is knit on 3.25mm and 3mm needles to give a lovely thick fabric.

buttonholes made with extra sts to give a slightly loopy effect :) — buttonholes made with extra sts to give a slightly loopy effect 🙂

Mid-week WIPs (sunraysartyarns.wordpress.com)
Finally – Progress! (sunraysartyarns.wordpress.com)

Posted on November 23, 2013 by mindovermanasa — Leave a comment

Quickie Knit: One Path Scarf

This project was part of Project-a-Month-KAL Group on Ravelry. The design was donated by Siew Clark for whom I had earlier completed a test knit: Twist-er.

There isn’t much to say about this project actually. It was made on Nako’s Makilenik lace yarn in light brown, the yarn held double for this project.

The scarf is actually the lace outer edge of the shawl. I wasn’t keen on making a whole shawl, sop the option of the edge itself was pretty cool! Also, it wouldn’t take to make as long as the shawl itself! 🙂

Posted on November 17, 2013 by mindovermanasa — 2 Comments

WIP – A New Crochet Motif

Now that I’m done with granny squares in crochet, I thought it was time to learn something new. Of course, I cannot do this the easy way and look for a nice stitch and learn properly. I HAVE to go for something more difficult. So I decided to make a collage of motifs. I’m not sure how the whole thing will look, but I’ll try anyway.

In spite of the difficult task I set myself, I did manage to land on my feet anyway. The motif I found on YouTube was posted by Crochet Geek, and featured how to make a circle into a square. The problem was that I’d never crocheted a circle, forget making it into a square. But I managed. And I’m pretty happy with the result!

Couple of things that I learnt along the way are:

sc and hdc – I already knew dc but the others had to be viewed a couple of times before I got the hang of it.
Crocheting through a stitch – I had to rip up a couple of times before I got the hang of this one
4-ply could mean anything – When the presenter spoke about 4-ply I assumed she meant fingering weight. But when I got done, it seemed much lighter than the motif shown on-screen. Then I figured that though she said 4-ply she meant anything up to DK :(! While what I used was almost light-fingering. So lesson learnt was to watch the videos VERY carefully, esp when they show the yarns! 🙂

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