Well, here I am, on another chilled January eve in South Jersey, and I am waiting to witness first snow fall in my life. I just  hope it will snow on a day instead of evening or night, so that I can give enough justice to it. Before it snows tomorrow, my goal is to crotchet a winter hat, that will tightly fit around my head, covering my ears, keeping me warm.

The yarn I am working with -

 ….and here is my unfinished work….

I tried a new puffy hat pattern and truly loved it. Courtesy : http://www.crochetnmore.com/puffstitchbabyhat.htm

The hook I used- Size H (US)

Yarn- Bernat Cotton tots- pretty in pink.

Stitches I learned- :

SC Puff stitch-  YO, pull up loop 4 times, 9 loops on the hook, YO, pull through t 2 loops, push puff to front of the work, work next stitch.

FPDC- Front Post Double Crochet-: YO , insert hook from the front of the work right to left around the post of the indicated stitch on a previous row;

Yo and pull up a loop (3 loops on the hook)

Yo draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook)

Yo draw through 2 loops(1 loop on hook)

BPDC- Back Post Double Crochet:  YO, insert hook from the back side of the work right to left around the post of the indicated stitch on a previous row;

YO, pull up a loop (3 loops on hook)

YO draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook)

YO and draw through 2 loops (1 loop on hook)

The  image has the close up of the puff stitch. Right at the bottom of the puff stitch,  there are FPDC and BPDC alternating each other. Then the hat is finished with a round of slip stitch.

The top of the hat are just the simple rows of single crochet.

Another effort has been successful…:)) I love one skein patterns. I wanted to try a scarf which has a funny, soft feel on touch. Found one!!! Made this one with one skein of fun fur. This one is shared by Cheri. 

I made couple of changes in the original pattern-:

First, I changed the color.

Second, I changed the length of the scarf, made it shorter, so my one skein fun fur made total of 8 rows instead of  6 rows  including staring chain.

When I was in the store, buying this fun fur, I was a little hesitant to try my first scarf pattern with such a slippery, soft and a bit confusing yarn. As I started playing with it, I started to feel more and more comfortable with the yarn. Sometimes I got lost, in to single crochet stitches and the threads of the yarn,( you will get the idea from the photo below),but  when I found one, I couldn’t help to keep the smile off of my face…:)

This was surely a funny fur to work with.

oooh. .. and did I tell you, that I finished this one in just two hours…not at a stretch though…:)

I selected this pattern because:-

• I am a newbie, I was looking for an easy pattern to try.
• I wanted an item to be wearable.
• I wanted to gift this hat to my niece in Australia, whom I will be visiting  this December.

This is called Thick and Quick hat by Alexandra Lockhart which I found here.

Thank you Alexandra for sharing this pattern. This is a perfect pattern for a beginner like me.

As the pattern suggested, I used Lion Brand Jiffy Thick & Quick Yarn. I used different color with size N , 10mm crochet hook.

The instructions given by Alexandra are very easy to follow. 

Another view-: night mode on my camera

I thought, this pattern will be done in a day, but I was surprised , I finished the pattern in an hour and 45 minutes, from start to finish…:)))

Loved the pattern. It was so much fun.  Really enjoyed it. 

Though I made this hat for my niece, I will be making one for me sooner or later….:)

Oops..speaking of gifting this one to my niece, I will have to think about gifting something to my other niece….:) That means I will have to keep crocheting….well that’s a nice reason to keep me busy in to stitches and needles, yarns and furs….:)

Enough are the reasons, but the truth is I genuinely forgot my password, for quite a some time or rather some days. One more truth is I had lots of recipes to share on my food blog, that they became my preference.

As I am back, I will be paying much more attention to my own thoughts which will ultimately lead to new blog posts at manalliscribbles. 

Stay tuned for…

• A couple of crochet patterns with pictures of course!!
• My appearance on foodbuzz.
• A story of a hardworking, ambitious very poor lady, I met in India.

Diwali is truly the time to visit India. There will be lights all over my city, cool breeze roaming all over, tasty sweets and savory snacks will keep my mouth watering. And yes, there will be fireworks….:)

Diwali is a festival of lights, it’s about finding and lightning the good side of a human being over evil. I take this opportunity to peek inside my mind, and wash all those tiny little evil things( if any) hiding around the corners of my mind. Enlighten my strengths and overcome weaknesses.

This is the best time to be with my family. Share the funny moments with them, which are going to last forever and ever.

The only thing I am going to miss ohh  there are two things actually. First, my exercise routine which was going on for more than a year now. I won’t say I have lost much weight ( 13 ponds to be precise) but I can certainly say that exercise changed my attitude completely. I am getting better as far as my fitness is concerned and my mind is in much better state than it was 3 years ago. By keeping this in mind I will have to figure out a way to keep my exercise on while I am in India.

Second is my regular postings on my food blog Cravings. Ohh.. I am going to miss that big time. I will still try and post some traditional Diwali snacks and sweets, with the pictures. If not recipes, at least some description for sure…:) ohh and not to forget fireworks…..:) (I mean the pictures)

There are lot of things that are still due and I am just two days away from flying. Lots of shopping still due for my family and friends back in India. The clock is ticking and so is my heart….:)

I should get back to packing….:)

It took me all these years to understand that if you engage yourself in to a creative activity, that will eventually teach you a lesson or two. If not anything else, it will still give you a sense of satisfaction, a sense of achievement, and most importantly a sense of happiness. I now see part of all these years being a little waste for doing nothing, but just sitting, thinking that everyone else is wasting their time.

What amazes me more is that, it just took me two blogs to reach to the Knotty generation, to be inspired for crocheting.
When I started writing my blog, I also started reading the blogs from the same pool.One of my favorites, is Nupur’s One hot stove. I came across a picture of a smart and simple pattern done by Nupur. The pattern called Bracelet purse was originally done by Pam Gillette from Knotty Generation. Thanks Pam for sharing sweet little pattern with us.This was perfect to try because I was looking for something that can carry my cell phone, and it seemed simple. I haven’t had any experience in crocheting at all. So I was a little hesitant to try. But when I read Nupur’s blog on this one, I was convinced that this might be a good start. My guess was right….:)
So the question was, where do I begin? Just a basic 101 question and answer was in the Nupur’s blog. She recommended a book which was very helpful to me called Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. )))))))
I worked on the basics, and must say those were even simpler than I thought. I really loved the pace of crochet. You get a good idea how the pattern grows. This is one of the reasons I picked crocheting. …..And I entered in to the world of crocheting just after a month of reading the pattern……:) I love it. Here is the picture of my first Bracelet purse-: I was so excited, that I arranged a nice little background for my first piece…:) Just checking how it’s will go with my favorite punjabi suite….:P Here is a close up of my neat work…lols!!!! You got to try this cute little pattern. It’s so much fun.

We found a nice deal at Costco. I should not say cheap… It was $830 for a nice Nikon D60 with additional zoom lens. We could have gone for a cheaper one online, but this came with an instructional video DVD. I think this is what made the deal worth- “Complete instructional videos for a newbie”.  I loved it. It made everything so simple for someone like “we” who did not have any previous knowledge of basics of handling the SLR.

We mastered the skills in no time. I applied all those skills while we were in Colorado. The pictures on the right side of this blog is my first serious attempt towards photography. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the end of this blog, I am also going to upload some of the long shots I have taken with my favorite Nikon D60.

My food blog cravings is another place where I can fulfill my cravings for photography. There is no fun in the food blog without pictures. Right?

I am very happy that we made a right choice…:)