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Nadya Rubina Привет, странник!

Меня зовут Надя. Я живу в Риге, в столице небольшой прибалтийской страны, Латвии.
Я - мама трёх девочек, интроверт и творческий человек. Мой любимый вид творчества - это фотография . Я творю для себя, для семьи, для знакомых и для незнакомых.
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http://nadyarubina.eu/
Надя Рубина
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Category Archives: Crafts

The latest making — crocheted cover for a night lamp

The latest making — crocheted cover for a night lamp

Sorry for the week of my absence, but I had some reasons. One of them is that my littlest one got ill this week. It’s just a usual cold, but since she is only five month old, a running nose is a tremendous problem for her and for me eventually.

Таги: crochet, крючком
September 10, 2014

Summer life outdoors

Summer life outdoors

July rewarded us for our patience with a lot of sun and we finally got some really hot weather here after a rainy June.

Sharing a crocheted flower-shaped rattle pattern

Sharing a crocheted flower-shaped rattle pattern

As our little girl was growing older, she started grabbing things and it was the best time to make for her a mobile. I searched for ideas through Pinterest and Google, but absolutely nothing was found that could catch my eye. Then one day I noticed that Marge likes to observe a crocheted flower in her cardigan and the idea was born. It was decided to make a few crocheted rattles with flowers on top covering plastic egg containers.

Scratch it!

Scratch it!

Quite a few weeks ago we had our reason to visit a toy store and let older daughters choose something for themselves from there. We ended up with a toy guitar and 3 art sets. One of the items we bought was Djeco Scratch cards set. It turned out a really marvellous buy — the activity kept girls amused at least for 3 days. They followed instructions and scratched only suggested patterns at first. Then they started to think up their own patterns. But in the end they completely removed all of the upper layer just to see the patterns hidden inside.

Seeing my kids excitement about this set, I remembered an old good art class from my elementary school. What we did there was colouring a paper with watercolours, then covering it with candle wax and applying a layer of a black ink over it. Then we took something sharp (a nail, for instance) and scratched out our designs or illustrations.

Photo-08.07.14-15-13-09

Sharing a crocheted flower pattern

Sharing a crocheted flower pattern

This is a pretty easy pattern for a nice crocheted flower. I used it to decorate cardigan for my little Marge.

Pattern of a crocheted hat with flower for a girl

Pattern of a crocheted hat with flower for a girl

All of a sudden a heat wave came across Riga.  But it won’t prevent me from sharing a pattern of Veronika’s new hat.

Writing activity with kids: tiny books!

Writing activity with kids: tiny books!

One article from a foreign blog caught my attention a few days ago . It was about different ways of stickers’ usage in children’s activities. There was one point that I liked most. It was about writing and illustrating your own tiny book. The original idea was taken from the Nurture Store blog. I decided to give it a try.

We’ve always liked stickers, so I had some in my drawer and we could try the idea in the same day.

The result was even better than I had expected. Children accepted new challenge with a great enthusiasm. And of course stickers made this activity more attractive in children eyes.

Anastasia made a book about flower fairies. She wrote a story and illustrated the book all by herself. Veronika did a pretty nice work too, but it was hard for me to keep her within few characters per one story. She doesn’t write yet, so I did it instead of her. She told me the story, that I helped her to turn into short clear sentences and then wrote it down.

 

We made two books with Veronika. I suggested to her a plan of how to write a story:

  • Start with “once upon a time” and set a scene: tell, who is the main character in your story, where and what did he do
  • what did happen
  • how did it all end

 

 

The second book Veronika made backwards: in front was the last page and the book itself had to be read from the back to the front. Dealing with this issue, we decided to put page numbers. Veronika promised me to be more careful next time. We made our books using French folding as it was suggested in the original post. Book had six pages and every two of them could be devoted to one point of the plan.

Our written stories can be read by kids to each other or for toys. We liked this activity a lot and we’ll do it again for sure!

Crocheted stool cover

Crocheted stool cover

A few days ago I stumbled upon a wonderful idea of crocheting a stool cover with a hook of a big size. This had inspired me, and today I have a result of my own. Our kitchen stools has a completely new look now. We have a rather dark and partly green colored kitchen, so it was great to find in my stash one dark green skein of DK yarn. Though it was barely enough of this skein.

My order from the Hobbyset.lv online shop has arrived yesterday. Now we have a pile of plastic eggs for a realisation of our crafty ideas. And also a lot of jars for my beads. The site had mentioned the exact size of the jars, but still I was expecting for them to be somewhat larger. But still, to have them is better than not to have. Though a part of the beads had to stay in packs.


And maybe it just happening in my mind, but it seems that it’s finally getting greener outside!

 

Пасхальные петушки на яйцо крючком.

Пасхальные петушки на яйцо крючком.

These beautiful little Easter Roosters will be happy to join you on your Easter brunch!

I used Alize Bella yarns for my roosters and a 2 mm hook.

You will need:
– a small amount of a light yellow cotton yarn,
– even smaller amount of bright yellow and red cotton yarn,
– a black thread,
– needle,
– stuffing and a marker (optional).

See this page for abbreviations used in this pattern.

Now, the pattern!

The Head.

Take the light yellow yarn. Crochet the rows in a continuous spiral.
Ch 4, join to make a ring.
Rnd 1: Work 6 SC into the ring (6 sts all together).
Rnd 2: Work 2 SC into the each st of the row (12 sts all together).
Rnd 3: * [Work 2 SC into the next st, then work 1 SC into the second st]. Repeat 5 times from * (18 sts all together).
Rnd 4: * [Work 2 SC into the next st, then work 1 SC into each of the next 5 sts]. Repeat 2 times from * (21 sts all together).
Rnd 5: * [Work 2 SC into the next st, then work 1 SC into each of the next 6 sts]. Repeat 2 times from * (24 sts all together).
Rnd 6-7: Work 1 SC into each of the sts along the row. (24 sts all together).
Rnd 8: * [Work 1 SC decrease across the next 2 sts, then work 1 SC into each of the next 6 sts]. Repeat 2 times from * (21 sts all together).
Rnd 9: * [Work 1 SC decrease across the next 2 sts, then work 1 SC into each of the next 5 sts]. Repeat 2 times from * (18 sts all together).
Rnd 10: * [Work 1 SC decrease across the next 2 sts, then work 1 SC into the next sts]. Repeat 5 times from * (12 sts all together).
Rnd 11: Work 1 SC into each of the sts along the row. (12 sts all together).
Fasten off the thread and leave a long end in order to use it later for sewing together the head and the body.

The Comb.

Now that the head is ready, you can make the comb.
Take the red thread and stitch 8 chain stitches across the top of the head as it is shown on the scheme #1. Take the end of the thread underside, fasten off and cut it off.
Now begin crocheting the comb. Start from the front (the comb sits lower on the back side) and crochet according the scheme #2:

Row 1: make a slip knot, insert the hook into the first chain and pull through a loop of the thread, chain 1 (will count as the first SC). Work 1 SC out of each of the other stitches. Turn.
Row 2: Ch 1 (counts as the first SC), work 1 DC out of the second st from the hook, work SC in the same st. 1 SC in the next st.
* [Work 1 SC out of the next stitch, then 1 DC, 1 half TR, 1 DC and 1 SC all out of the same stitch. Work 1 SC in the next st]. Repeat from the * one more time.
Work 1 SC out of the next stitch, then 1 DC, 1 half TR and 1 DC all out of the same stitch.
1 SC in the next st. End with a sl st in the head. Cut the thread off, but be sure to leave a pretty long tail (about 8 inches/ 20 cm) to be able to stitch the knob with it too.

Now that the comb is ready, fill the head with the stuffing and bring the thread through the head with the needle to the place where the knob should be and stitch it. Bring the thread inside and to the bottom of the head and cut the tail off. Stitch the eyes with the black thread and bring the thread inside and to the bottom of the head and cut the tail off.

The Body.

Take the light yellow yarn and Ch 4, sl st to make a ring. Crochet the rows in a continuous spiral.
Rnd 1: Work 1 SC out of the ring and place the marker in it. Work 5 more SC out of the ring. (6 sts all together)
Rnd 2: Work 2 SC in each of the next 6 sts starting with the first SC of the previous row, the one with the marker. Don’t forget to replace the marker to the first st ofnthe current row. (12 sts all together)
Rnd 3: * [ Work 2 SC out of the next st, work 1 SC in the next st]. Repeat 5 more times from the *. (18 sts all together)
Rnd 4: * [ Work 2 SC out of the next st, work 1 SC in each of the next 5 sts]. Repeat 2 more times from the *. (21 sts all together)
Rnd 5: * [ Work 2 SC out of the next st, work 1 SC in each of the next 6 sts]. Repeat 2 more times from the *. (24 sts all together)
Rnd 6: * [ Work 2 SC out of the next st, work 1 SC in each of the next 7 sts]. Repeat 2 more times from the *. (27 sts all together)
Rnd 7: * [ Work 2 SC out of the next st, work 1 SC in each of the next 8 sts]. Repeat 2 more times from the *. (30 sts all together)
Rnd 8: * [ Work 2 SC out of the next st, work 1 SC in each of the next 14 sts]. Repeat 1 more times from the *. (32 sts all together)
Rnds 9-11: Work 1 SC in each of the sts of the row. (32 sts all together)

Continue with the bright yellow thread.
Rnd 12: * [Work 1 SC into the next st, work 1 long SC into the SC from the two rows below]. Continue in the same way across the row. (32 sts all together)
Rnd 13: Work 1 SC in each of the next 16 sts. Make a tail, then go on working 1 SC into each of the sts until the row ends. (32 sts all together)
Fasten off.

The Wings.

To make a wing, take the bright yellow thread and follow the 3d scheme:
Ch 7.
Row 1: Work 1 SC into each of the next 5 sts starting from the second ch from the hook. Turn.
Row 2: Work 1 SC into each of the next 3 sts starting from the second st from the hook and end with a sl st into the next st.
Fasten off, but leave the tail long enough to use it for stitching the wing to its place.

Assembling.
Sew the head to the body with an invisible stitch, inserting the needle under the second row of the body and behind the posts of the last row of the head.
Sew on the wings.

Happy crocheting!

If a kid can’t find an activity for himself

If a kid can’t find an activity for himself

My almost seven years old Anastasia oftentimes tells us that she doesn’t have any activity to do. Usually she suddenly remembers about everything she really wanted to do right in the same day’s evening when it’s already a time to go to a bed.


This made me think of an idea of a list of tips that the kid can look into when nothing comes to his mind by itself.


I made a list in Excel, applied a dotted border. Then I cut 2×7 cm cards of a cardboard and glued a text on them. I used a trinket key chain to bind cards together.

March 25, 2014
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