Roly Poly and African Flower Bag

Hello!  I just realised that I still owe you a picture of the Roly Poly Pillow Seat I hooked for the Teen.  Here we go:

The yarn is Vinnis Nikkim Colours in 100% cotton, hooked in size 3,75 with hdc's.  They now have their own webpage, take a look at the various yarns on the Vinnis Colours website.

 Oh, I have to confess that on the photography and creativity front I am inspired by sensory rich surrounds and societies that function on chaos, where the energy is palpable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It is the multi-sensory ambiances of every day urban life that keeps me going; these sensuous experiences that bare complex accounts of social formation. In short, I miss vibrant Asian living whether it be in the Middle East or South East Asia. 

In my current setting, I see people experiencing a daily sociological numbness, deafness and general anesthesia in the absence of any street culture; in the presence of horrific crime. The spectacle of real life is a threatened one here, the society aggressive on one hand and completely desensitized on the other.  

Bare with me until I find a new source of inspiration that will nudge me towards picking up my camera again so that I can once again produce interesting pics. Meanwhile I snap my photos with my mobile phone on the Vignette for Android app.  

I am hooking up a storm to complete the Babette-like throw so that I can move on with a new project.  I bought shades of grey to aqua to green but am still awaiting inspiration for what exactly I will be making! 

This is what African Flower handbag nr 2 looks like, hooked from the left over Roly Poly Yarn:

Below is the layout of the two sides before they are first joined at the bottom, then folded and joined at the sides.  

There is a teeny little corner that looks like a "step" at the bottom of the bag once all sides is joined too, that I simply push in with my pinky to create a smooth, rounded bottom corner.  The image to the left also shows the reverse side of the African Flower after I worked away all the yarn.  Neat huh?

Have a great week!  Cheers!

xxxxx 

African Flower Tutorial

Handbag - still without lining and handles

Yarn: Elle Premier 100% cotton, DK, Hook size 3

The African Flower: Pattern

1. Chain 5 and close circle

2. Chain 3 (first dc), 1 dc, ch1, 2dc, ch1, 2dc and repeat until 6 clusters of 2dc each with ch1 between each cluster. Close with ss

3. Join new colour, ch3 to the right of the join (first dc). 1dc in same space as ch3. Ch1, 2dc in same space

4. Into next ch1 space from previous round: 2dc, ch1, 2dc. Repeat (6 sets) and close with ss. Don't join a new colour as this round and the next one will create the flower petal - unless of course you prefer it slightly different to this

5. Slip into space created by ch and ch3 (first dc)
6. 6dc into same space (cluster of 7)
7. 7dc into each space and close
8. Join new colour and insert hook into first ch space

9. Sc into each dc of previous round (7) and then 1dc.  This dc will appear long but will be creating the petal shape
10. Repeat until whole flower has a border of 7sc, 1dc
11. Join new colour, 4sc and then ch1 and 1sc in same space (you are in the middle of the petal and the sc, ch1, sc will create on of the corners of the hexagon). This round is originally hooked with dc but I prefer the look of the sc.
12. Continue sc until you reach the middle of the next petal once again and sc, ch1, sc.  Repeat and close.

The completed African flower (above) and when stitched together (below)

For a more detailed tutorial, head over to Heidi Bears. Cheers!

Hellooo!

OMG it has been many weeks since I last connected with you!  We have relocated, but are still stuck in South Africa. The husband is looking after the office's ME, North Africa and Indian affairs BUT from behind his desk in SA rather than Asia for the moment.  The internet [or lack thereof] is still a massive frustration.  I have no idea when we will be connected and here in SA wi-fi hotspots are also few and far between.

I just saw an interesting comment from Diaper Mum below and will be popping over in another few minutes to take a look.  Sounds fabulous and thank you so much in advance!  Welcome also to all my new followers.

I have been hooking 2 great bags in the African flower pattern and will load detailed pics soon. Sneak peek:

PS: The pic on the left bottom corner is of the reverse side to show you how neat I hook ;-)

Meanwhile, I snapped pics of our home with my mobile phone and attach these [in the absence of the great street shots I planned to take in Mumbai]. Internet time running out, soooo sorry. Cheers!

Lounge & dining

 Study

Main bedroom [above]

 The Girl Teen [above], the boy Tween [below]

 Pantry, kitchen, bathroom [above], more study [below]

Tiny Hexagons for new Handbag and the Karoo Floral Kingdom

Since I posted two weeks ago I not only finished the stripey round handbag I posted about previously, but also a 70 granny squares [eight rounds per granny] single bed afghan for the Teen! I am itching to show you how both turned out but a current bout of rainy weather is hijacking my plans for pretty pictures.  

Above is my current work in a progress, tiny hexagons from all my left over Vinnis yarn which will become a great handbag for someone special.  I was about to churn out African flowers when it struck me that these tiny hexagons fit right in with our latest travelling experience through the Cape floral kingdom - I like connecting impressions of places visited with my projects. We recently spent a weekend on a Karoo farm near Laingsburg and the flowers and shrubbery of the region is simply beautiful.  Some of the flowers in the photos below are no more than 2 mm in either height or width!  Unbelievable. Cheers until next time xxxx

 These [directly above] are all teeny weeny and no more than 1-3mm in size each! I got as close as I possibly could with my camera. The below ones are "normal" flower size ;-)

Hexagon & Granny's Soccer Ball Cushion and Handbag

The Tween's room is mostly a blank canvas of white which is spruced up with a few interesting objects among others "paintings" on raw wood that she purchases every alternate month or so from the quint Amelie Cafe in Armenian street, a favourite space of ours. Various bloggers have documented Amelie and to get an idea of this cafe where everything is recycled by the artist owners take a look here and here. 

As soon as I came across the beautiful African Flower pattern designed by two South Africans, I decided to give it a go and fell in love with the satisfaction of hooking these Grannies. The Tween and I selected the colours at random from our stash of yarn (yes, she is hooked on hooking too!) and it was great fun to see the flowers evolve. I hooked the borders of the hexagons in green and the pentagons in blue, a combination that popped all the colours beautifully and created harmony between other objects hooked in the same tropical colours. After 8 years of desert living in the Middle East we love the vibrancy that comes with living on a Tropical Island.

The "soccer ball" cushion is assembled with 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons and unfolded looks like this [you might also want to head over to Crochetbug for a tutorial on how to assemble the ball]: 

You might also want to head over to Imaging Maths to see it unfolded in a different way:

Or use this one:

The pattern for the beautiful Summer Garden Granny Squares can be found on the lovely Attic24 blog.  44 Squares were used to create the bag.

The pattern for the African Flower is illustrated and described step for step on the fabulous blog Heidibearscreative