Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Winter passion continues !!



After longing to give more time on my hobbies for years..finally this december, after choosing from work to home option and thanks to the management of Peoplestrong management team, I could find time for my hobbies as after work I don't feel guilty of not spending time with my son.


I have just bought woollen yarns of different colours to try my hand in crochet and knitting. And I have made then into woollen balls, the way my mom used to make. This is one great way to make as the balls doesn't roll when u keep knitting. I can easily keep this woollen ball in one place and nicely and easily the strand will keep coming out..woow..isn't it. here is a pic


We used to have a machine at home in manipur which makes woollen balls like these. My mom got the idea of how manually also we can create from that machine.

The tip which is poking out from the ball is the one where we will start. I am uploading one more pic which will show exactly how it nicely comes out from the ball.
I have started knitting socks with this wool. I have never in my life knitted socks as knitting with 4/5 pins looks scary..haha..
But now I want to at least try my hand. I am half way through with the first pair. I am worried this might not turn out good...lets see...

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Knitting - Poncho

Poncho....hmmm..looks nice..right??
I tried to make one for myself last year..couldn't finish till date..
This year..I am going ahead making a poncho for pratham's elder sis...I never thought..it will take this long a time to make one...




I will keep uplaoding pics of the progress..:)
I keep knitting this ...but alas! the length never increases. This is the first time I tried knitting a poncho. I was actually encourage by my colleague Nikshubha who created a beautiful poncho for her neice.
Finally I had to redesign the entire poncho and created in crochet. The result is quite satisfying. The pic below just before cutting the last strand of wool.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Knitting - Winter Passion

I used to love knitting for my dolls. My mom is a very good knitter, but now she doesn't knit much due to age and eyesight problem.
Every year during winter, I try my hand at knitting at least few tiny goodies. Whenever I plan to work on a full size project, it stretched to at least couple of winters...:)
This winter of 2008, my passion is back with a bang. I have already done 2 half sweaters for Pratham (will upload the pic soon). Planning to work on one more half sweater for my best fren's son "Yojit" before I shift to Ghaziabad..Lets see..
I have asked Pratham to pose for me with the sweater to upload on my blog. He did pose but after lots of pampering as he wasn't in a mood to get himslf clicked. Anyways, here are the pics..




The entire sweater is made in K1P1 pattern. I liked the finished product. :) .

This sweater is made out from the left over wools from the last season. I almost finish this one in a day. Pratham like this one better than the previous one due to the V neck design. I like the polo neck look of the sweater but he feels irritated of the wool around the neck. So, from now on..I have make only V or a round neck designs..
I am halfway through yojit's sweater..I will be able to upload the pics by monday..

I could finally finish yojit's half sweater..its not come as out as nice as I expected due to time constraint..:)

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Smocking Embroidery

I have been yearning to learn smocking for a long time. However it keeps seeping out of my mind for no particular reason.Finally in the last week of August, I started browing net to find self help tutorials in smocking. There are quite a few articles and tutorials on the smocking embroidery designs, but for pleating- people use pleating machines. I am not sure whether we get pleating machines in India, so I browse the internet more for manual pleating. Luckily I found couple of guides in Manual pleating.
When I started pleating at home during the weekend, I got confused whether I need to use an elastic thread or any normal thread. This confusion is because after the pleating, there was no elasticity in my fabric, however I have seen smocking gives elasticity in the fabric. Whenever we are lost..what do we do...Google dadu....he he. So, I login again and start my search..I wonder how we use to learn before google dadu's birth..Anyways finally I came across an article which says that we can used any normal thread for pleating, the elasticity of the fabric is due to the embroidery pattern on the pleats..after we make designs on the pleats, we need to cut the threads holding the pleats..damn easy..
I have done my first smocking and will uplaod the design asap..

Monday, August 25, 2008

Hand embroidery

I love hand embroidery, its a little time consuming but the end result is awesome. There are so many different types of stitches around the world. I want to learn as many hand stitches as I can in my lifetime. Till now, I have learned about 130 different hand stitches. Whenever I could steal sometime from family and professional time, I try to indulge in embroidery.
The ducks are done with french knots, it came out really well and I liked the outcome. I have used anchor thread, double strand. The stitches used are chain stitch, satin stitch, filling stitch, laisy daisy and fren knots. The concept is picked from a japanese embroidery book.

Before I start working, there were ample time for my creativity. Its not easy to juggle between family and profession. I sometimes wants to leave my job and stay at home, spending time with Pratham. But its not easy to be at home too. I had experience of sitting at home too, and the experience is not beautiful..:-) I had kind of become cribbing machine day in-day out. Pankaj literally says "thank god! u started working"...LOL...so life goes on



Another design from the Japanese embroidery book. The best thing I like about this embroidery piece is the yellow hair, its done in Bullion stitch. Looks really trendy...She looks like she is lovelorn and waiting for her love. The stitches used are blanket stitch, satin stitch, laisy daisy, chain stitch, back stitch, long and short stitch and bullion stitch.

These days life starts before 6 am and ends after 12 am. Human robots..uh! chalta rehta hai..chalta rehta hai..Thank God! I have a good hubby who helps me in my running around and also appreciate my creative side. Sometimes...he gets bugged by my way of doing what I want to do...means ..:-) I can start embroidery/ painting anytime of the day..even early in the morning or late at night..literally anytime..and Pankaj is a very discipline person, he has a right time for everything. We are like magnet's 2 opposites



Two ladies out for the walk at the countryside..

The stitches used are Satin stitch, laisy daisy stitch, stem stitch, long and short stitch and fren knot

The stitches used are Long and short stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch, frenknots and finally Bullion stitch for the roses. I love Bullion rose, among all the thread embroidery for roses, bullion is the best. Ribbon rose is another lovely option for making roses.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Fabric painting- sari for my mom in law

Currently working my hand on fabric painting. Actually my first painting on a sari, which I want to gift to my sweet mommy in law. This sari specially is brought by my very dear fren Mandvi Purohit from Kota. Hope the design and idea comes out well...


22-Aug-08, second day of my project:
My hand is moving faster now as I am accustomed to the design now. Sadly while I was deeply engrossed and painting on the sari, pratham had already tried his hand on my design which I had created on the paper. He came to me proudly saying, mama..look..isn't this good. :-) I kind of froze for a moment thinking I have to design all over again. Anyways its always nice to be part of whatever I do.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Recipes

1. Poha:



Ingredients:
- 2 cups poha- washed and kept aside
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 pinch of Mustard seed (big)
- Curry leaves
- 2 green chilli finely chopped
- turmeric
- Salt
- Groundnut
- lemon juice (optional)
- bhujia
- refined oil
- coriander leaves- finely chopped
Preparation:
Heat 3 tsp of oil in a kadai, add the mustard seeds. When mustard started crackling, add groundnut, fry a little till becomes golden. Add onion, green chilli, curry leaves- fry a little. Now add poha, turmeric, salt, stir nicely. Keep covered for 1 min. Add lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves and bhujia. 1. Exotic Brinjal:


Ingredients:
2 big brinjal
2 onion
2 tomatoes
7/8 cloves of garlic
a piece of ginger
Jeera
Garam Masala
Red chilli powder
Salt
Oil
Preparation:
1. Cut the brinjal into cubes and deep fry in oil till a the cubes turn into a little brownish colour. Keep aside
2. Grind into a coarse paste out of tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger, jeera, red chilli powder and garam masala. Add oil in a kadai, fry the paste till oil separates from the paste, then add the fried brinjal cubes, add salt, a little water and cook covered for 5 mins in low flame.
3. Relish with chapati or naan :-) 3. Sabudana Khichadi
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Sabudana (washed and soak in water overnight)
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp jeera
- Groundnut, roast and grind
- 2 green chilli finely chopped
- Salt
- oil
- 1/2 tsp sugar
Preparation:
Heat oil in Kadai, add jeera, oinion and green chilli, saute a little bit. Then add Sabudana, fry a little and add the groundnut powder (this will make the sabudana non sticky). Add salt and sugar, cooked covered for 2 mins and keep stiring every now and then. And its time for a healthy and lovely breakfast:-)
4. Idli and Sambar
Ingredients for Idli:
- 2 cups suji
- 3 cups curd
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp eno(fruit salt)
- Salt
Ingredients for Sambar:
- 1/2 cup arhar dal
- 1 onion, a small peice of pumpkin, a small piece of lauki, 1 tomato (cut into cubes-same size)
- curry leaves
- Mustard seeds
- Haldi
- Salt
- Sambar powder
- 2 whole red chilli
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- water
Preparation for Idli:
Mix suji, curd and water, whishked it nicely. Add a pinch of salt and add eno. Now greased the idli moulds lightly with oil and pour the mixture in the moulds. Steam the mixture for 15 mins in low flame. If you are making in microwave, it will just take 5 mins.
Preparation for Sambar:
Pressure cook the vegetables and arhar dal with 5 cups of water. after 2 whistle, open the pressure cooker, now add tamarind paste. Head a little oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds, red chilli, curry leaves and haldi. Now fry the contents from the pressure cooker in the kadai. Add sambar powder and salt, bring it to a boil.
Now its ready for a yum yum idli sambar!!
5. Vada Pav
Ingredients:
- 5-6 medium size boiled potato (peeled)
- a pice of ginger and 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 medium size onion finely chopped
- pinch of turmeric
- curry leaves
- green chilli finely chopped
- salt
- Oil for frying
For batter:
- 2 cups besan
- haldi
- Salt
- a pinch of cooking soda
Preparation:
mashed boiled potato, add all the other ingredients. Mix it nicely. Make small flat round balls with both palms, keep it aside.
Now heat oil for deep frying, once the oil is hot, dip those potato ball in the batter and fry in oil.
Now slice the pav in half and place a vada as a sandwich.
This dish is my favourite, I always remember my college days in pune freaking out on vada pav. It was almost a ritual to go to Bhandarkar road to eat vada pav in the evening. I have been making vada pav since quite a long time, but the taste of the street food is always preferred :-)
I can have vada pav for breakfast, lunch and dinner...............crazy huh! :-) thats me!! 5. Samosa
Ingredients:
- 5-6 medium size boiled potato (peeled) and smashed slightly
- a pice of ginger and 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 medium size onion finely chopped
- pinch of Garam Masala
- green chilli finely chopped
- Haldi
- salt
- Oil for frying
- Coriander
For Outer covering :-):
- 4 cups Maida
- 4 tbs ghee/ oil
- Salt
- Ajwain
- a pinch of cooking soda
Preparation: Heat little oil in a kadai, fry ginger, garlic, onion and green chilli. Add haldi, mashed lightly the boiled potato and in the masala. Add garam masala and salt. Cook covered in low falme for 5 mins. Let this sabzi cool down and sprinkle coriander leaves

Make small flat round roti, cut into half. Make a cone shaped out of the half roti, fill with the aloo sabzi and sealed the edges by applying little water. Deep fry the Samosa and relish with tomato sauce or green chatni. However I prefer with Spicy green.

6. Momo

Ingredients:

- Cabbage finely chopped

- Capsicum finely chopped

- 5/7 drops of soya sauch

- Salt to taste

Outer covering :-):

- Maida

- Water

- salt

Sauce:-):

-3 tomotoes

-9/10 big garlic pod

-5/8 red chilli

- salt

- Ajino Moto

- Oil

-water

Preparation: Mix the vegetables with salt and soya sauce and keep aside.

Knead maida smoothly. Roll out small rounds like we make for puris, however the size has to be smaller. Fill the vegetable filling and closed like a half moon or a round. Steam in a steamer.

For the sauce, boil the red chillies and keep aside. Now, grind this red chillies with all the remaining ingredients. Heat a little oil and fry this paste nicely by adding water.