Doily – Sunrays Creations and Yarns

Posted on May 20, 2014 by mindovermanasa — 2 Comments

Hooking Away

As a couple of friends pointed out here, I’m just too used to “needles”. And I finally found the need to change my terminology to “hooks”! 🙂 Crocheting has recently become my go-to option when I’m tired of knitting. While knitting usually involves wearables of some sort, they take a lot of time to complete. On the other hand, I crochet only to take a break from garments. So these are small projects, doilies to be precise.

Here are a couple that I’ve completed recently:

Floor Show: Every bit of this rug/mat is a gift. The yarn was a gift from Rinku, and the pattern came from a crochet magazine gifted by Swapna… And I just couldn’t resist putting it all together!

Mallika: My very first test pattern. Designed by Srividhya, and tested on the Crafty Dozen forum on Ravelry.. and helped through the process by Jaishree and Swapna on WatsApp! 😉

Dove Doily: I wanted to challenge myself… and challenge I did! It definiltly challenged my patience to stick to it till it got done. As it is i skipped the last few rows. 😛

Clematis: this was pretty motif that I found in a book… and decided to make a couple. Not sure what I’ll do with them though….

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 August 29, 2013 by mindovermanasa — Leave a comment

New Achievement: Doily in Thread!

Well, lots of people knit with thread. But this is the first time I actually managed to make something big… in thread. Now, we’re not talking knitting cotton, but proper thread. The type used for doilies, crochet and heavy embroidery! 🙂 So, YAY me!!

I did manage to knit a doily with the Crossed test knit. But have been thinking about the thread one long and hard. I started a couple of times with lace weight wool. But I figured I liked that even less than thread. 🙁

Faced a couple of problems at the beginning. I managed the center crochet cast-on but wasn’t very happy with it. But I still plowed on to find a massive mistake that I made on Line 7. That meant ripping up completely. So I decided that the 2nd attempt would have a knit cast-on. Well, I should have figured there was a reason for the center to be crocheted! Mine turned out messy. But I wasn’t in the mood for ripping again. So I plowed on, and made the smallest size possible!

But it’s done, and that’s all that matters! 🙂

without the flaws visible! ;) — without the flaws visible! 😉

Posted on August 6, 2013 by mindovermanasa — 4 Comments

Crossed!

This is my first doily, and also a test knit. Designed by Linda Browning, it has a very different look and structure. I definitely like the geometric look of the doily, which was very unusual.

So here are my pics of this lovely, quick knit.

Posted on April 14, 2012 by mindovermanasa — Leave a comment

The One-Day Coasters

I’ve been struggling for some thing as to what to make for the current placemat/doilies/coasters C/KAL going on in my Ravelry group.
Finally decided to challenge myself and make a knit lace doily. Easier said than done.

I couldn’t work the delicate stitches on DPNs or Circular needles (which I was using for the first time ever!). So decided to make a ‘trial’ mat using spare DK variegated yarn. after 10 mins i realized this was going nowhere. I just couldn’t understand the design!!!

So my solution was to continue doing my last stitch over and over again till I got a coaster. And it worked!!! I just skipped the lace part, and kept repeating the center “base” part of the design. 😀

So I’ve finally got a quick and easy coaster. that takes approx 2hrs to churn out!! 🙂

Project Complete! 😀