When something should but does not go right

One of my favourite restaurants in Doha is a Japanese fusion restaurant offering an eclectic choice of the world's best cuisines, taking one's tastebuds on a delivious trip of a satisfying feast! The interior is beautiful. It is all NYC industrial loft style with warm undertones and exposed brick walls; powdered coated distressed black steel frames, softened with beautiful lantern style light fittings. What I really love about the restaurant, is the tiled floor suprise in the cloakrooms. It is stunning, the Teen and I always take a few spins of happiness in this very small space whenever we lunch here.  

After hooking the fabulous #rusticlacesquare blanket that is still sweeping through IG like a storm  (see all the hashtags by various posters on IG), my eye was drawn to another similar, oversized lacy square design and I womdered whther that would be another great pattern to enjoy.  

I noticed the floor, I noticed the pattern, I gave it a go, I failed. Urghh!!! I really struggled to get the gauge right, in creasing and decresing stitches, started over a few different times and concluded that it simply was not working. As rerwarding as the first pattern was, as frustrating this one turned out to be. Idea: shelved!!

Trivia:

Susan named the unnamed square #rusticlacesquare after my own IG account, rawrustic (I wish I could ditch the "pigtails" moniker you see, hence a differet account name on IG)   

 Just look at this!  Mirrored wall, tiled floor, simply gorgeous.

I enjoyed playing with my failure on a photo app though!  

Teen Fashion

The Pattern - feel free to give it a go!!

 The restaurant as seen moments before it got silly busy,just after opening time

Have a nice week, cheers!

Living the slow life

Hello!  I have been enjoying living The Slow Movement so much over the past few months that one could almost say that with regard to blogging it temporarily became The Stopped Movement! But fear not, I am baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!  I have been around all the time actually, creating new projects and making draft postings, but never took that final step to add text, to publish; and in academia we all know the phrase "Publish or Perish"!

I already shared the final result of this gorgeous The Garden afghan on my @rawrustic Instagram account, but here are a few more photos that did not make it onto IG. A great number of IG Hookers, were indeed inspired by this vintage looking (and it might very well be an original vintage design) lacy square and you can trace all the beautiful projects under the #rusticlacesquare hashtag.

You might also want to head over to Marianne Dekker's awesome blog maRRose to read more about how this pattern took the IG community by storm. Marianne's version is to die for, her joining simply superb and I want to dig my head in the sand when I compare the clever, neat way she joined her squares with my wonky result.  Mind you, the slip stitches on the back of my afghan looks neat, it just does not translate to the front! The very first #rusticlacesquare project can be traced back to the wonderfully talented Cornel Strydom, one of a trio creative souls who are behind Hello Hart, the best crochet blog in the Southern Hemisphere and perhaps the Northern one too!

I blogged about this project on two separate occasions for those interested in yarn, hook size and pattern details - Flower Power and The Garden

Back to the topic of The Slow Movement in case you are wondering what this is all about! Slow is the opposite of “fast” - fast food, fast money, fast living - and all of the negative consequences “fast” has had for the environment and for the health of people and societies. “Slow” embodies cooperation, respect, sustainability, gratitude, grit and resilience. It is about leaning to savor and fully engage with life.

In another week we are departing for a month of Slow Travelling - destination Croatia. One of the defining elements of Slow Travel is the opportunity to become part of local life and to connect to a place and people. Slow travel is also about connection to culture. We will be connecting with local artists (in Dubrovnik we will spend a week living in a converted art studio) and will indulge with people belonging to slow food movements.  Ah bliss, from Zagreb to Istria to Dalmatia, we are looking forward to an incredible time in what looks like one of the most beautiful countries in the world!

Enjoy your weekend! 

The Garden

Hello, I am just popping in to wish you a Happy New Year! Please accept my apologies for not participating in Instagram and blogging initiatives at the moment. As mentioned in the last posting, I am snowed under with professional projects, research work and business travelling.  

The photo above is an update of The Garden throw, the most beautiful pattern I blogged about previously.  I have finished about forty 25x25cm squares to date.  It is gorgeous, I cannot wait to see it in all it's full glory once finished.

We made time to visit a great new souq/bazaar here in Qatar, located in a town with the name Al Wakra, just south from Doha.  The maize of buildings stretches for 3 kilometers along the Arabian Sea with an esplanade running down the open beach side. It is build to reflect the town's fishing village heritage and features aged walls and brightly painted wooden doors. The souq will eventually be home to hundreds of shops and eateries. Only a handful are open at the moment and judging by the beautiful cafe in which we enjoyed coffee and cakes, we can look forward to atmospheric and quint eateries. Magical, I love Arabia!

Have a great week.  Cheers!

Flower Power

See Floral for links to the origins of the non crochet floral images

Hello!  Over the years, I have seen this pretty pattern appear in my Pinterest feed many times and always thought it would make a gorgeous blanket.  I absolutely love making this square, it is fun to be working with so many different colours and to be mixing cotton and bamboo yarns to reach the desired effect. You definitely want to stroll over to Instagram and take a look at the gorgeous projects featuring this square by Cornel and Elsbeth and also read Cornel's posting on the HelloHart blog. 

Hook size: 4mm. These stunning squares are about 25cm x 25cm unblocked in size each! 

Yarn: A mixture of Vinnis Nikkim, Vinnis Serina, Vinnis Bambi, I Love Yarn Imagine and King Cole Bamboo Cotton.

Patten: The pattern was published in the magazine Para Ti - guia de puntos but I have no idea which edition. Please feel free to enlighten me!

It is a very busy time here in the Pigtails Palace and I am slightly overwhelmed by the volume of activities I am faced with on a daily basis (including working full time!) I will also be blogging about the progress in hunting down beautiful pieces for the Girl Teen's room soon, show some pictures of what the interesting Doha Downtown area looks like, finally blog about the African Inspired Blanket (hijacked by the Dude Teen) and so forth!

Have a great week, we are celebrating Qatar National day this week and from what I can see, it certainly is a massive event here every year. Until next time, cheers!

Liebster Award!

Last week I was awarded a Liebster by the ebullient and vivacious Beatrix Snyman of Btrix Dsigns. Thank you so much Beatrix, I really miss connecting with you over a cup of coffee and a ball of yarn! I also miss seeing your sales skills in action, no-one I know can close a deal quite in the way you do! Somehow I always spent more money than intended with you around, but I ended up loving the yarn so much, it didn't matter you rascal! In fact, the Istanbul inspired blanket published in Simply Crochet is the result of one such dealing between Beatrix and I. To any South African readers - if you live near Beatrix in South Africa and you haven't met her yet (whether to buy yarn or to attend a workshop) you are losing out! 

1. Why did you start a blog and what do you mainly blog about?  Blogging to me is a hobby as much as crocheting is. I blog to stay connected with other bloggers and observe patterns and trends with regard to craft and social media alike. I blog about crocheting and living life as a global nomad.

2. Did you realize that crochet is becoming the new black? Why do you think it is becoming so popular? Li Edelkoort in Trend Tablet nailed it when she spoke about crocheting, knitting and other textiles "In reaction to our virtual existence, we will need more real emotions and unknown surprising scenarios: tactility and dimension to compensate the flat screens in our lives, to give pleasure to our fingers."

3. What is your biggest reason for crocheting/knitting? Connecting with people and hearing, seeing their stories as told through craft.

4. Do you prefer working from a pattern or do you make up your own pattern as you go? Why? I do one of three things - design my own simple pattern; adapt an existing pattern or use an existing pattern. I always learn new techniques and manipulate yarn in either one of these three scenarios.

5. Who is your favorite crochet/knitting designer. Why? I really prefer the work by all the unknown women of Africa and Asia - those who produce the visions of designers such as Sophie Digard and Anne Claire Petit. These women are hugely talented and almost no one is telling their stories!

6. What is your favorite fiber to work with? Why? Any natural plant fibers because it is most suitable to the climate in the Middle East and South East Asia. I have a great passion for raw, natural materials opposed to man made ones.

7. Which is your favorite yarn brand and why? I have a great love affair with Vinnis Nikkim, Bambi and Serina as well as Colours of Grace. These yarns define my style and everything I make in either of these stand head and shoulders above any other yarns I use.

8. In short, give an overview of your craft journey since it started. One word: hooked!

9. I assume you have a few WIP’s. Who doesn’t? So what inspired your current WIP’s? Yes, name all of them! Ah, never assume! I work on one project at a time and at this very moment I do not have a single WIP to my name since I am awaiting delivery of a special hand dyed yarn order to start a special project!

10. Where is the most unexpected place you ever crochet/knitted?  I have enjoyed hooking in many interesting places - from the overnight train between Penang and Bangkok to the beach in Teluk Bahang National Park overlooking a village build in the ocean. I also kept yarn and a hook in my lap whilst driving in the very slow moving Penang traffic, crocheting a few rows or rounds at red traffic lights or when stuck in traffic.

11. Which project/design/pattern was your biggest challenge up to now and why?  The Barcelona jacket/bolero because it is a poorly written pattern and I am also not an expert in making wearables, meaning I couldn't improvise!

The Questions for my nominees:
1. Animal fiber, plant fiber or other fiber? 

2. Variegated or solid?

3. Colours or textures?

4. Pattern or plain?

5. How do you organise your stash?

6. Favourite projects to make?
7. How many WIPs are you working on?

8. Where is your favourite hooky place?
9. What three words best describe you?
10. Which travelling destination is on top of your bucket list?

My nominees are:

Andree, About Crochet

Sylvia, Tama Pollo

Gamze, Vintage Peony
Jeszizsu, Teszek-Veszek-Vacakolok

Ingrid, Little Birdy

Chrissie, Chrissie Crafts

Congratulations, you have just been awarded a Liebster!

Indian Cotton Mattresses (gaadi)

Hello!  Our furniture has at long last arrived last week and I have been crazy busy organizing the Pigtails Palace ever since. Ah hell, I am clearly not 20 or 30 or even 40 years old anymore. My muscles are aching, my knees buckling. Three story palaces are really most suitable to the young and restless, not the middle aged! As soon as I unpacked my beautiful Vinnis Colours yarn though, I was feeling young and dandy again! 

 Friday morning I took a respite from unpacking to enjoy breakfast at Souq Waqif and stumbled upon the most interesting little street in downtown Doha. In fact, Doha is packed with interesting streets and I just love being able to finally explore the city now that the weather has cooled down significantly. This street is home to a few Indian Cotton Mattress (also known as gaadi) makers and traders.

 

Such shops are common in the towns of cities of India and it was a surprise to also stumble upon the same in Doha. Production of cotton mattresses (pillows and quilts too) is a labour intensive activity since it is all hand stitched. This YouTube video demonstrates the beautiful process, it is well worth watching to see how they pack the cotton sleeves, hand stitch it closed  (referred to as knitting in this video), flatten and compact the cotton with a stick before finally adding the edging to both sides and sewing the quilt like stitches. Indians are masters with scissors, thread and needles! These mattresses are very comfortable and suitable to hot and humid climates, however, it also loses shape quickly and the cotton needs to be treated and re-packed after a few years.

Two men recount how changes in the bedding industry in India, is affecting their craft:

Anser Basha Mattress Maker from Chennai

Khurban, Mattress Maker from Bangalore

I fell in love with some of the fabrics used to create these mattresses, not to mention that the mattresses and pillows are gorgeous items in its own right. My mind is spinning, I am thinking that this offers the perfect solution with regard to seating, or rather lounging, here at the Pigtails Palace. We have two great outdoor spaces, the one an L-shaped courtyard which also features a build in plant bedding on ground level and the other an entire rooftop area with beautiful wooden lattice shutters dividing space between the water tank and the rest of the rooftop. The space is accessible from a door on the third floor. It is the perfect weather now to develop the full potential of these spaces with the help of  Indian cotton mattresses don't you think?!
 

Have a great week!

The mud and dust, the soil and sands of Africa

Yarn Elle Cotton On DK print 051 Ash, Photo of Rhino by Christine & Michel Denis Huot

Hello!  The kids and I arrived in Doha with a suitcase and one piece of cabin luggage each. We are light travelers and since I am the boss did the packing, I distributed 4 kg yarn between the suitcases before I even considered how many pairs of shoes we have space for. 

I have just started working on a new blanket using my lovely yarn from South Africa. I initially planned a colour palette in rich reds and purples, but I reconsidered and settled on a palette of white, beige, taupe, grey and coal in 25 different shades, featuring no less than 9 different types of yarns! The palette is stunning, inspired by the mud and dust, the soil and sands of Mother Africa.

Images: Pinterest Raw Rustic

When I think of my childhood, vivid images of digging my hands through the cool earth, sinking my feet into the soft soil, boring with my big toe through the cracks of dried mud prevail. The picture of a White Rhino charging through dusty plains, cemented the idea for using a palette that represents the Mother Continent.

I am deviating from the initial idea and pattern, but decided to do a separate posting later in which I will be discussing crocheting techniques and personal likes/dislikes. 

Pattern: Hexagon from loopknits

Hook size: 5mm

YARN:

Vinnis Colours Bambi Bamboo/Cotton mix in White, Natural, Clouds and Midnight

Vinnis Nikkim Colours Cotton in Blue-Grey, Aluminium, Steel Grey and Midnight

Vinnis Serina Bamboo in Natural and Silver

Imagine Bamboo/Cotton mix by I Love Yarn  in Windswept, Abyss and Monet

Elle Premier Mercerised Cotton in Grey and Taupe

Elle Rustica Wool/Acrylic/Tweed mix in Charcoal, Aran and Natural

Elle Marco Cotton/Tweed/Wool/Acrylic/Nylon mix in Charcoal and Aran 

Elle Cotton On in Ash

Elle Pure Gold Acrylic in Pepper, Ivory, Silver and Titanium 

All the yarn is available from I Love Yarn in South Africa. They also ship internationally.

Thank you for visiting and enjoy the rest of your week!

A Picture is worth a Thousand Words

THE STORY

Moroccan Inspired Throw for my Dad

(Follow Link to previous posting)

YARN:

Vinnis Bambi, 100%  Bamboo, 5 Skeins, 50gr each

Colours: 5 Skeins in total of Clouds, Dark Denim, Denim, Blues Brother, Baby Blue

Vinnis Nikkim Colours, 100% Cotton, 28 skeins, 50gr each:

Stone, Old Gold, Aluminium, Steel Grey, Blue Grey, Blue Bell, Denim, Kingfisher, Baby Blue, Deep Blue, Cloud Blue, Blue Canard, Pale Blue Green

Images: Raw Rustic Pinterest

Moroccan Inspired Throw for my Dad

Throw in progress inspired by Zellige terracotta tile work as seen in Moroccan Architecture, especially the cities of  Fès and Meknes. In this ancient art form, terracotta tiles are covered in enamel and chips are set  into plaster to create the most beautiful geometrical patterns. The art of Zellige dates back to the 14th century and was historically a statement of luxury (homes) and sophistication (inhabitants).

Yarn:   Vinnis Nikkim and Vinnis Bambi. I am using 16 different shades of blue and grey with old gold as an accent to lift the palette.  The squares and the throw will be edged in Stone.

Each square measures 17x17cm

Pattern:   Circle of Friends (Ravelry by Priscilla Hewett) or PDF Link

Tip: Remember to turn around the work for the bobble rows, the wrong side should face you so that the bobbles are pushed to the front (right side). All other rounds are hooked as usual. 

Thank you for the e-mails I have received regarding this project.  I have amended the posting to include a link to the PDF pattern in addition to the Ravelry link and also added a tip above.  Rachele of BabyLoveBrand demonstrates an interesting joining method for this square.  I will not be using this method, but it is beautiful nonetheless. Since I would like to stay as close as possible to a Zellige look and feel, I will simply single crochet around each square as per original pattern and join with a slip stitch at the back.

This is a very, very special throw. I am making it for my (still highly active) dad for his 70th birthday.  He loves fiddling with his fingers and I chose a pattern with texture as I know he will rub and roll the bobbles between his fingers all the time. He absolutely loves blue and furthermore has a great passion for measurements and figures. It is second nature for him upon entering any space to immediately calculate floor area and volumetric dimensions! 

As soon as he receives his blanket, he will analyse every square, calculate the number of stitches and ponder the yardage of the yarn used.  To keep him even more busy, I am going out of my way to ensure that every square is unique with regard to the color combination.  My dad enjoyed his travels to Arabia and looking towards Islamic design for inspiration came naturally to me. With this design process, I am able to create something that will always be a reminder of the special bond that exists between the two of us.

 See my previous posting about our travels to Morocco.

xxxxxx  

I will resume conversations about my love affair with Paris and Istanbul in a later posting where I will show you more of my yarn shopping (the Pierrot French Linen and newly launched bamboo/cotton Imagine yarns available from I love Yarn).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sending Ripples

Hello!

Two years ago the children and I lived in a gorgeous villa in the middle of the rainforest on the tropical island of Penang, Malaysia and frequently traveled via taxi, ferry, train and plane to our apartment near Lumpini Park in Bangkok, Thailand where The Husband was working. I loved those train trips as I spent many hours crocheting away listening to the clickety clack of the train on a track. Bangkok was a 1 hour and 50 minute flight away from Penang Island; a 22 hour slow train trip covered the same distance!

A year and a half ago, we all packed up to continue our adventures in Mumbai, India and two weeks before the container with our belongings was to be shipped to India, the company's sister office in South Africa requested The Husband to join them in Johannesburg. Aaaaack! I arrived in South Africa kicking and screaming since I had to withdrew myself from a highly interesting ethnographic research I had just committed to in Asia. 

Today we are packing up house once again. Just because you were born somewhere, doesn't mean you belong there. We don't belong in South Africa, we are Global Nomads feeling at ease where East meets West. We are returning to our beloved Middle East where we raised our family for 8 years prior to living in South East Asia. We experienced Dubai rising from the desert, we are off to Qatar to experience the same all over again. We are beyond excited, we love living in the middle of the world where a 2-3 hour flight takes one to the most amazing destinations imaginable! Iran, India, Turkey and Tibet; the world is my oyster.

Talking about oysters - I used to love wearing neutral shades of oyster, blush, nude and peach, and especially like the combination of these with silvery grey.  I have this major urge to  revamp not only my wardrobe to incorporate more of these lighter colours, but am thinking of hooking a throw for our new abode in the desert in neutrals too.  

This scarf (hmm, yip another scarf!) is hooked in Vinnis Nikkim 100% cotton yarn in Peach-558. I absolutely fell in love with the Vintage Fan Ripple stitch by Janis Cortese and might use the same stitch for a blanket in a vintage colour scheme in the future.  

Note: 

The pattern diagram on Ravelry indicates hdc as the foundation stitches of the fans - it should in fact be sc (US terminology).  Even though the symbols are incorrect, Janis describes the stitches correctly.

Drawings source links on Pinterest  

Print by Jacqueline Maldonado