Pumpkin flower
My mum says this is a pumpkin flower (that is, a flower of a pumpkin plant), but there will be no pumpkin if there is no male and female flower on the same vine. I think she said this was a female flower. We’ve yet to see a fruit, so I guess the male flower was a no-show.
Pretty, anyway! I love how cheerful it looks.
Dainty touch: Crocheted lacy-edge handkerchief (and a super-simple how-to)
Mi lady's handkerchief
Lace is fascinating. Lace is mysterious. Lace is femininity personified. And when I found out how easy it was to crochet a lacy edge to almost anything, I had a bit of a eureka moment.
There are 2 ways you can crochet a lace edging into a piece of fabric:
1) Machine-sew or hand-sew a blanket stitch onto the edges of the fabric, then crochet into the stitches. (Click here for a tutorial on the blanket stitch.)
2) Crochet directly into the fabric (this requires some elbow grease to get the crochet hook right through the cloth, though).
So, here is a quick little project that’s super satisfying, using the blanket-stitch method.
CROCHETED LACY-EDGE HANDKERCHIEF (a super-simple crochet how-to)
1. Make a handkerchief — all you need is a square piece of cloth. Cut it to the size you prefer, and hem all 4 edges.
2. Using sewing thread, blanket stitch all the 4 edges.
3. Using a small crochet hook, join the yarn at one edge. Sc in each blanket stitch. At the corners, sc twice into the same blanket stitch. Repeat till you’ve done all 4 edges. Sc into the very first blanket stitch (the one you started with, so that you now have 2 sc in that blanket stitch).
4. At this point you can switch to a larger crochet hook if you like. *Ch 5, sk 3 ch, sc into the 4th ch. Repeat from * all round your handkerchief. Fasten off and weave in the ends.
(Note: US crochet terms used in this pattern.)
Abbreviations:
sc – single crochet
ch – chain
sk – skip
I didn’t count stitches, so my four corners are not replicas of each other. If you’re fussy about that, go ahead and make sure you have an equal number of blanket stitches on each edge, and that the total of stitches is divisible by 4 (eek!).
I’d say just have fun with it!
Wordle fun: better than a personality test
I don’t really think of myself as a “personality test” kind of person (okay, okay, I’ve done my share of them but that was many, many winters ago). But this is enlightening. Often you don’t realise the little quirks and habits you’ve got — and this little widget called Wordle tells you a little more about yourself: words that are used more frequently will appear bigger.
So, I’ve been lurking on quite a number of sewing(ish) blogs, which is how I stumbled upon it (it was on this blog). Saw it again today on U-handblog, and I decided to give it a whirl. I find it funny that one of the words I use most often is “one”. I know I use “anyway” a lot, but “one”?
Anyway (I couldn’t help this one), if you have time to play around with something rather non-useful, try it!
A bit more digression:
I’m a world-news peruser, and like most observers, I take a mild interest in the dramatic unfoldings of the US elections. I found this particular article about Mr McCain’s “verbal tic” to be a rather apt footnote for my post today. Read it here.
Cambodian scarves
This is probably going to be the last of my Cambodia-related posts. Sorry if you are starting to get bored of the subject, but I’m still over the moon about my trip, so please bear with me for one more post. 
These scarves are called krama, and I saw a couple of ladies in Siem Reap wearing them on their heads. The most common design is a checkered one, and I saw red and blue ones on sale in the markets. I didn’t buy any even though I wanted to, because it looked like something I would be able to get back home (albeit not in such a light cotton; the ones back home I’ve seen are slightly heavier. Back in secondary school, the apron I used for home ec class was made out of the same red checkered cloth!)
The ones that I did decide to buy are pretty sweet, and I bought them meaning to give them away as gifts. I did toy with the idea of using them in my craft somehow, but I’m not sure what I could make out of such lightweight cotton. I’m sure if I put my mind to it, I’ll come up with something!
(To my millions of fans out there: sorry for the silence. Dog dramas abound…. And this blog is not the place for the stories, so please enjoy the scarves instead. )
