Diwali DIY Decor

Diwali is round the corner and I have plans to decorate some empty glass bowls and use them for tea light candle holders.
So here it is...our first DIY project with bowls.... done by my son.

Stay tuned for more Diwali Decor.

Where does the quest end?

What if there’s an emergency? What if someone needs to reach me right away? All these questions came up the day my mobile phone remained switched off. I had not taken the battery discharge warning so seriously. My mobile-phone free life hardly lasted a few minutes but it left a big impact. The way I  look at technology has permanently changed since than, as should yours.

Mobile phones have become an integral part of our life. Life without one can’t be imagined. How many of your remember the days when we had a small diary with everyone’s name, address and telephone number written down. I had rectangular one with a silver cover which I carried with me for many years. Those were the days when electronics gadgets were not needed to remember phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Life was so simple.

I remember the first mobile I saw; a big walky talky with a dangerous protruding antenna. While we were very excited to see it, the owner of the mobile was thrilled to see others gaping at his new gadget. If the phone rang he would speak as loud as he could, not bothered if others were disturbed.

The pager or the so called text messaging service had a very short life span. I got connected to the world of mobiles when my brother bought a mobile. How I used to wait for him to get back from office and then I would pounce on the mobile make secret calls to friends, excitedly learn its features and experience a great sense of satisfaction. That was the era when mobile phones had very few features, but it was a different world.

My first mobile phone was gifted to me by my husband. It was just a base model manufactured by Motorola. Holding the brand new gadget in hand I thought I had everything in life. Dialing numbers....desperately waiting that somebody would call me.....sending a sms for no reason....it was all very exciting. And just like me I guess many must have had these basic models.

Trying to catch up with technology and trends I bought a new mobile, but I kept my Motorola phone back in the box where it remained till my son used it as a toy. Now it is nowhere to be seen and sometimes I really miss it.

My new phone with its camera and lovely music was everything to me. I enjoyed having it and thought to myself that my search for mobile phones has ended here. But things are not what they seem, and one fine day I came across a phone with touch screen and it just grabbed my attention. It was a Chinese make, black with silver lining, a sliding phone, What a cute little gadget. It just fit in my palm.

At home I thought my multimedia phone was giving me problems.........my fingers experienced a lot of pain pressing the numbers. Finally in sympathy to the pain my fingers were going through I bought the new mobile. I thought I was wrong in thinking that the multimedia model was the best .....this was  indeed the best and I took as much care of it as I did of my family.

Then suddenly Android phones came along. There were so many stories going around about the phones. I was dying for a better understating of the technology. My husband bought a new android phone and it had everything.

Now my Chinese phone looked like it belonged to the Shivaji Maharaj era. The only option left was to buy an android phone. One fine sunny day the phone arrived; 4.5 inch touch screen, 5mp camera, so many apps, document editor, email, GPRS, Google maps, FM Radio, browser. I am using the phone right now.

As we all know technology keeps evolving. But somewhere in the bargain we complicate our life and then struggle to make it simpler. Go out. Play with your kids, grandkids, nephews and nieces. Hike, bike or run, Read or demonstrate. Dance Write.

My Twistofied New Life

My Twistofied New Life  

It was late one night, when I realized that this is the last night I am going to be in this house. The house where I was born, the playful days, the cries, the laughter, where I grew up to be a smart  brave SHE, my loving parents and my siblings.  I sat on the bed with my face resting on my knees. A strange feeling of mixed emotions.

Since my engagement with him there was a lot of excitement about my marriage, of going to the new house, new family, new relations and trying to adjust to a completely different atmosphere. The excitement of marrying the person I love and being tied together in the most beautiful relation called “Marriage”.

There was lot of noise all over the house, everyone busy preparing for the grand day, and I was advised to take rest and sleep well to wake up to beautiful new morning  which would take me to a beautiful new world. 

The sky was so clear and bright, chandamama (Moon) was shining bright trying to play hide and seek with me, I guess he is the one who could understand the feelings in my heart, my nervousness and my excitement. All the stars were glittering to join in my celebration. I smile at them, again and again. I take  a deep breath, say a small prayer to the almighty thanking him for the wonderful life he has given me. 

I run down the steps to greet my Mom, look into her tired eyes and as tears roll down my cheeks, I hug her sand say “Mom, Thankyou for everything, for letting me marry the person I love, for your love and care, I am going to sleep Mom, wake me up early, I have to dress up to look like a Princess”. Mom’s beautiful princess.

A grand day awaits every princess and every princess awaits for this grand day in her life.  After every night the Sun rises with new hopes, new aspirations and yes, am anxiously waiting for this new twist in my life which will take me to a whole new world of hopes, dreams and new relations.  

LIFE – the most beautiful gift from God. I always thank God for this beautiful life. Life is definitely not a straight road, it has its own ups & downs, frowns and smiles, failure & success and twists and turns.  

Twists and turns are always not bad sometimes twists can be the most beautiful thing to happen in one’s life and the most beautiful twist in my life was my marriage.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Knitted Bookmarks

I had lot of yarn stash in different colors.  The best thing that I could do with these was to knit bookmarks.

Bookmarks are easy to knit,  fun and require very little yarn.  Knitted bookmarks can be a lovely gift for the book lover in your life. 

They can be knitted in light weight cotton yarn,  thick yarn or even the embroidery yarn will work best for bookmarks. 

I like the lace stitch patterns for bookmarks and then I add my own patterns either with garter stitch or the seed stitch. An eyelet row can also be added to tie the ribbon.

As I Look Back

Besides my Arts & Crafts and my Knitting, when I am not doing anything this is what I do. Pen down short stories, short articles on whatever inspires me, true life experiences and my favorite writing fiction and non-fiction stories. 

Below is one such Story. 

                                         AS I LOOK BACK

Long drives are always a thrilling experience. But once in a while a wrong road, a wrong direction, a wrong sign board can be a nightmare. We had never thought when we began our journey to this magnificent destination……………………

The arrow to the left was a beautiful landscaped road, the greenery, cool breeze was a thrill for driving. But there was no sign of any vehicle and I was wondering how could people dodge such a beautiful road. Driving a few more kms, we came across a narrow road with trees on both sides almost resembling a jungle but we drove further hoping it would take us to the highway. 

Could hear the birds chirping, some horrifying sounds ……I said to my husband where are we going? His silence and confused look, gave me the answer. I held my 6 year old son tightly in my arms and covered him with a shawl only to give him extra protection. I could recall all the memories of the jungle book stories, the ghosts, the lost treasure and all the scary tales.

A glance at the petrol indicator was a sigh of relief since there was enough fuel in the tank to drive ahead. With no mobile network I could hear my heartbeat more and more louder. As we drove the jungle grew more and more thicker and darker, the dense forest was covering all the sunlight. I remembered all the Gods, the temples I have visited so far and prayed to all, to get us out of this jungle mystery.

A sudden brake made me look ahead only to see a huge animal crossing very gently at its own pace. What if he had to stop, turn, look around and see us sitting in our car. My heart was in my mouth. At his every footstep I prayed at least a 1000 times with my body temperature dropping to minus zero. I thought of all the horror in this 3 minutes of his leisure walk to the other side of the road. And why not its their jungle, their hometown and we were uninvited guests.

With God’s blessing’s, a little further we noticed two aged men. We drove a little closer and inquired about the mysterious road. The reply was shocking …. Why did you take this road, this is the jungle road and not very safe, you have to travel more 10 kilometers to get connected to the highway. 

As far as I understand mathematics,10 is a small digit but in the jungle it was the longest digit that would calculate all the astrology for us. We had no other choice than to continue our jungle journey with hopes, prayers and the confidence to reach our destination. Finally we got connected to the highway, stopped the car, drank water which tasted like honey. Looked around to check the sign board not once but twice.Thought to myself what were the two men doing in the jungle?

Reena Bino

Knitted Scarves

 I love scarves and I think they are the perfect match with any evening wear.

I have knitted these scarves with with Lion Brand Yarn (55% Acrylic, 45% Cotton).
Length : approximate 60 inches.
Hope you like them.

Knitted Bean Bag Characters

These bean bag characters are knitted with Set of three double pointed needles, bits of colorful yarn, beads for eyes and filled with bean bag granules.

They can be compressed into different poses and they love to be photographed.

It's Sunday

Knitted Baby Hats

These baby hats are knitted with set of two single pointed needles with baby soft yarn which is soft for the baby's skin.

The hats are knitted in garter stitch and than k2tog for the decrease. The decrease in stitches forms the pattern. 

With the  last remaining five stitches, a cord can be knitted to give it a better look or a twisted cord can be knitted using around 60" of yarn and the cord can be attached to the hat. To  knit the cord the stitches have to be transferred to double pointed needles.  

The pics above does not a cord attached to them. Its plain bind off and than weaved in the ends.  

Stay tuned for more baby hats patterns.

Knitting Sets

I like knitting doilies in sets , basically  sets   are variations of the same pattern.   For knitting a set the pattern is the same but the number of rounds differ. For larger  doilies the pattern has to be repeated more number of times and for smaller doily the  number of rounds is less.

Sometimes different stitches are added before cast off so that the doily can give a different and better look, or a particular pattern of a lace stitch can be added before  casting off the stitches.

The above Spiral set  in white is knitted in different sizes with the same pattern, the number of rounds is varied to increase or decrease the pattern. 

This particular doily pattern can be knitted to a size as small as 10” diameter to a doily that would fit the largest round table, probably around 300 + knitting rows.

Though I have no plans to knit the largest doily right now, but my next post definitely will be on a beautiful doily pattern that will remind you of the stars.

Till then stay tuned. ……

Knitting Needles, Yarn, gauge, Oval Knitting Doily

Many times I am being asked about the types of  needles that I use for knitting.  The various types of needles that you can knit with are Aluminium, Steel, Bamboo and Soft wood needles.  Needles are either Single pointed, double pointed or Circular needles .  Different needle size will give different gauge.

The type of yarn that can knit upto a gauge of say 3 sticthes /in, a needle size of 5.5mm to 8mm is just the perfect one.

Also if you are a very loose knitter the  needle  size and the pattern will still vary.  With a thin cotton yarn like Red heart cotton yarn will give a different gauge and a thick yarn will give a different gauge.

Below is the picture of Aluminium and Bamboo Knitting needles (Single and Double pointed)

This Oval knitting Doily is knitted with set of five aluminum double pointed knitting needles with Red Heart cotton thread. 

The needle size used for knitting this Doily is 8mm.

More details on yarn and the type of Knitting stitches in my next post 

Hand Knitted Gift Bag

I love the gift bags whether they are made with paper or with decorative cloth. 

And this inspired me a write a quick pattern for a gift bag. 

The pattern is very simple and its knitted with Seed Stitch and Stockinette Stitch and a eyelet  row to pass the satin ribbon.

I have used the Lion Brand Yarn and the finished piece looks awesome. 

The Birth of Knit n Purl Ocean

I am a working woman, wife and a mother to a 8-year-old son. 

I write short stories and articles on whatever inspires her. I love photography and in my free time I like to learn a new art and currently the latest on my learning list is Paper Quilling.

“But my passion and something very dear to my heart is Knitting. My day is never complete without knitting. It’s enjoyable, fun and relieves the day’s stress; whenever I am sitting, I am knitting,” 

 After dabbling in art, crafts and knitting for several years I have taken part in plenty of online contests where my work has been appreciated. But there was no particular platform where I could showcase my work to the world.

 It’s my passion and dedication towards my work and the appreciation that I get from people because of which KnitnPurl Ocean was born. 

KnitnPurl Ocean is very unique since there are not many who knit doilies and other Home Décor knitted items with set of five or eight double pointed needles.

These are very unique and beautiful patterns. Each individual pattern has its own persona, creativity at its best, and an identity of its own.Sometimes I write my own patterns to suit customised orders. I put in a lot of effort in creating every single piece, which consumes lot of time, patience and energy. The Yarn is personally selected by me, the Doilies are mostly knit in White and Beige colour, unless a customer specifies a particular colour to match the furniture. The final knit product is of much superior quality and it’s something one can treasure for its lifetime, something that brings a smile on everyone’s face, something that makes one wonder “How beautiful is this”.

I do not have any formal training in knitting, but I learnt the art  and the basics of knitting from my mother at the age of eight.

 “It was a memorable moment when I knitted my first doily where I handled all the five needles together and it was perfect. After this it has been a continuous journey, trying to self learn more difficult patterns, the different types of knitting stitches and experimenting them to create new patterns.  I knit Doilies, Booties for babies, scarves, bookmarks etc.  I like to try something new,” 

My knitting Products range from Small Doilies in round, square and oval shape, Table Mats, Table Runners, Centre Pieces for Glass and Wooden Furniture, Dining Table Set, Knitted Mobile Cases, Scarves, Bookmarks for the book lovers, customised Knitted Set for the Living room furniture, Baby Booties, Bay Hats and Baby Blankets.

KnitnPurl Ocean offers a vast choice of Knitting Doilies, Aluminium Embossing, Glass Painting and plenty of creative products which can be used as home décor and as gifts for any occasion.