Hiatus is now over

I think it’s safe to say that my blogging hiatus is over. Last week, with its wonderful warmth, was just the initiative I needed. All that vitamin D absorbed affected just the right parts of me and did its dutiful job. I’m in full creative mode. Every time a the sun streams into our living room I find another idea brewing in me and pull out materials for its execution.

On ocassion during this last week, I have gone to wash my hands and been dumb struck by the person in the mirror, looking back at me, shell shock. So it’s also safe to say that despite my productivity I’m still adjusting to having two kids. I figure at some point I’ll arrive at the new normal (chime in, please). I recall feeling the new normal settling in around crawling/walking with bilingual baby, which was just before her first birthday. I get the sense that it takes me longer than others (or so I’m lead to believe) to adjust to new motherhood. I think that, in light of that fact, having fall babies and heading into winter to hibernate with them is perfect for me. It gives me a chance to settle in. But, hey, that’s all I know. Perhaps if I had had winter babies and had a 2 month old in March I’d be saying that I love being able to walk around with my new baby, yadda yadda.

With my sewing machine nearing permanent removal from the room upstairs, I can see many sewing moments ahead. A moment is all I get sometimes. I sew one seam and attend to baby brother; one more stitch and serve food to bilingual baby. It breaks it up a bit but at least I get some sewing in during the day. See, once bedtime sets in, I am confined to bed with both kids. Granted that’s my choice and I welcome the rest but it still limits me. I just know, now from experience, that it doesn’t last long. What’s a year? If you had a job for only a year you’d be asked why you left so soon, right? That’s my perspective.

Spring projects:

Another podeagi

Family of knitted bunnies

Knitted wool wet bag

Small sewn bags (I’ll go into the details of this project as I’m excited about the design)

there’s more but now is my time to read with bilingual baby while baby brother is napping.

Finished baby

Here it is! I finished it about a week ago but didn’t get time to post the picture. The head actually has wool that gets stretched across the top of the head, to make it nice and round, and then is gathered at the bottom of the head to form the neck/chest. The bottom half of the bunting holds the millet while the top is cushy thanks to the wool. I do think I filled it up with too much millet. My instructions said to put in 4 cups and it didn’t look full enough so I added another cup. I hope its not too heavy for bilingual baby.

I still have clothes to make for heavy baby (bb’s name for the baby) but everyone seems to be happy for the moment so I’m gonna wait for a bit. In the meantime, I’m making a family of bunnies for bilingual baby.

I did finish a scarf for bilingual baby. Short rows. I’m blocking it right now.

An invention: The Random Craft Wheel

On a lighter note, I came up with another invention as I was nursing bilingual baby down for a nap. Wouldn’t it be great to have a Random Craft Wheel? I’m not set on this being a wheel but something (probably a computer program) where you would enter a certain number of preferences and you could “spin” the wheel to find what craft you could/should make. It would be really great for pregnant crafters (or others) who are having a hard time making up their minds.

Some of the preferences could include:

Type of craft (paper, knitting, crochet, sewing, etc)

Time involved (in minutes): 30, 60, 90, 120; (in days): 1-2, 3-5, etc.

Pattern needed: none, free, purchase online, purchase in store

Difficulty of project: You’d check a box on level of ease from 1-5

Tutorial available online: yes or no (and further specify with or without pictures)

Materials needed (in cost): scraps, $5, $10, etc

Anything else this program would need? Besides a creator.

Crafting my last days of pregnancy away

The hum of my sewing machine no longer draws me near. Rather it’s the clicky sound my knitting needles make that calls my name. (Actually, I use bamboo needles, so there’s little clicking.) I had been stashing away left over balls of yarn with no idea how I would use them later. On ocassion, I’d even buy one skein just because it was so beautiful I needed to have it come live with me. Well, with all of our purging (which takes a long time cos I can’t just throw things into the trash) I’m also wanting to do something with the yarn I have. It’s not really that much yarn and I think I can do something with it (which is what I’ve been saying for a while).

But I’ve got it in me to knit little squares and turn these squares into a blanket! That’s the idea. I’ve got this perpetual knitting stitches calendar and I’m going through it making squares. It’s kind of fun to try out these different patterns at the same time that I’m making something. So, yay me.

I got a kiddie pool! and other wonderful adventures

I’m getting myself addicted to reconstructing the old into the new. It makes me feel good to refashion old clothes but even more so it makes me feel good to use what we have. It’s the economic depression the U.S. is in right now. What’s cool is that there are many people who are making the old fashionable much like women used to do during the depression. Well, I don’t think we’re far off there.

So, over the weekend, I made bilingual papi a bag for his gym clothes. I kept seeing him using a plastic grocery bag (and we’ve stopped using them almost entirely for groceries) every day. Every day unloading sweaty gym clothes into the laundry pile… but where did the plastic bag go, you ask? So, in my endless online search (this is enjoyment to me!) for ways to refashion old clothes, I went looking for a tutorial for a cloth bag fashioned after the plastic bags from the supermarket. Here’s the tutorial- it’s a good one, too. And that’s how I made bilingual papi his new bag- which, I understand, he’s using today! Yippee! Two-in-one! I enjoyed making it and he’ll actually use it! What more of a “thanks” could I get than to see it used. Check out my flickr page for a photo of the bag.

Another project on the sewing horizon is to convert regular pants into maternity pants for my sister. I’m excited about this project and am sad I didn’t figure out how to do this earlier in my pregnancy. I’m actually all set for clothes for this pregnancy and I really want to focus on “after” baby, which includes making nursing wear that I’ll actually wear and feel good in. Anywho. I bought all the materials to make these pants new so it’s not quite a refashion from used clothes but I really want to make these pants for her. Plus, what could feel better than to make something for someone when they really need it.

I’m set for maternity clothes for this pregnancy and post-partum, though I may just convert some of my favorite pants into post-partum pants (cutting the waist and inserting a stretchy panel) but other than that I’m good. On another note, a friend of mine drove me over to the hardware store to buy a kiddie pool. Oh. my. stars. It felt sooo good to get into the icy cold water today. Bilingual baby seemed to enjoy it, too. She used her tennis shoes to collect water and pour it over the two of us. Yum. It especially felt good since we had just been doing some gardening with this friend of ours. The water’s still in there and I’m going to suggest that we leave it there… indefinitely. In the meantime, I need to find out if it would be unseemly to live in a swimming suit for the rest of the summer. No need to dirty other clothes, right?

Now that I’m home

I just want to knit and sew and purge. I’ve got projects that I’d love to get done before baby 2.0 arrives. One of our projects is to clean out our book collection. We did a big purge when we arrived in VT almost a year ago and we’re ready for the next level of purging. It feels really great. Though I have to say that I’d love to move the project along cos sitting in a room with books all over the floor isn’t my idea of a purge we’ll have to take the time it takes to move all these books to new homes. Some of the books will go to Norwich University’s library, some to be sold at one of the local bookstores and the rest given away to friends and/or just given away. (Here in town it’s customary to see boxes of things sitting on the sidewalk with a FREE sign. That’ll be the fate of some of these books.)

As much as it’s beginning to feel go to get rid of these books there are other projects I need to focus on as well. We’re going to be reorganizing this room (opposed to our bedroom) so that there’s room for bilingual papi and baby to sleep if baby 2.0 and I need more space. Bilingual baby isn’t moving into her own room yet… not until she’s ready. Until then, this second room needs more “pruning”. On my to-do list is to consolidate my sewing stuff so that the table all of it is on can also become the computer desk. Tall order but we’re up for it. That means I have to finish all these projects I’ve started (or most of them) in order to get the table cleared off.

Here’s a pair of pants I’ve had in the works… just finished this morning. I’m calling them toddler dancer pants, for all the dancers out there that love wearing dance clothes even when not on stage or in the dance studio (like me).

They’re made of a poly velour so you can wash them easily. They fit bilingual baby in the waist (elastic is 15″) and I still need to decide if I want to hem them or leave them with their natural curled hem. I also need to decide if I want to keep them for bilingual baby or sell them on etsy… but that’s another project.

Springy Dress

This is the dress I made from scratch for one of bilingual baby’s friend. Her mom asked if she could use my sewing machine to make it admitting that she hadn’t touched one since the 7th grade.

One day, the four of us sat in my sewing room (we also call it the computer room, the other room and more recently: the ironing room- in the future I hope to call it the rumpus room or the lounge) and we designed the first version of the dress. The red band was actually at the bottom of the dress. Then, weeks went by. A month might have slipped by, actually. I was nervous about messing up her dress. It was especially for their upcoming trip to a place that doesn’t submit their population to the freezing temperatures we “enjoy” here.

Finally, the day was encroaching and I had to get working on the dress. It wasn’t that difficult. Just the idea of possibly getting it wrong made me queasy and forgetful of the project. In the meantime, I posted project after project here never mentioning that it was my way of avoiding the scary inevitable.

But I did it and it was so enjoyable to make something without a pattern and figure it all out. It did take a couple of nights of focus and the lack of sleep wasn’t helping. Here I present to you my sweat (yeah, a little dramatic) dress. I love it now. And, I want to make others.

I can’t wait to see it on bilingual baby’s friend. She’s got the cutest head of red hair.

A couple more days and we’re off to the warmer California. Luckily, even if we’re greeted by 40 degree weather, it’ll seem warm and festive to us. I may try to go sleeveless! Wha!

Print Gocco

No, I didn’t get a Gocco printmaker yet. That would be fast. I do want to share some visuals so you can see what other people have made with this homemade printer. All the links are to Etsy.

What’s Etsy? This is taken from their about page:

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade.

Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.

Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice:

Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.

Here are the samples:

The reusable lunch bag by shoofly

Year of the Rat tags by Bamboo Village Press

Bunnies waiting for spring by Amantha

Fairy bib by JemimaOddSocks

Brown Owl by mylittledear

This gives a small sampling of what you could do with the Print Gocco but there are so many options. If you want to, click through the search I did for yourself. Click here to go to that search on Etsy. You’ll see that I have only scratched the surface.

Couldn’t title this to save my life. Common thread: I typed it all.

When I think back to high school, both in the U.S. and in Colombia, I realize that I got good grades but by no means did I learn much about learning. I didn’t enjoy it much but I knew how to get by. I especially learnt how to get by with minimal work here in the U.S. where my little effort was seen as a lot of effort. Go figure. So, I just did as much as I had to do to get the teacher saying, “Good job”- funny, probably why I don’t care for that phrase now as a mom. I’m a product of it not working.

Anyway, as I was nursing bilingual baby to sleep, I was thinking about the difference between my high school and college “careers”. By the way, the high schools I went to were good. I’m not saying that the teachers were lousy. I am saying that expectations were painted with a much to broad stroke. When I got to college, I learned that I loved to learn but not always about the stuff that I was being taught. So I ended up doing a lot of outside projects that were somehow related to the class but not covered by the class. Luckily, by the time you get to the last couple of years and you’re focused on your major (theatre and dance) you really can study what you want and make a project that counts for your graduation.

What am I getting at? It’s implied (but maybe too obtuse at the moment) but I’m going to digress and talk about Print Gocco.

Oh. my. Why did I not know about this? Perhaps it’s because I’ve been more into the textile arts than the paper arts, though I like having paper around. So the Gocco is a home printing device to make original prints in small quantities. They are sold mostly out of Japan but there are some sellers here in the U.S. I’ve gotta get one. Check out the kit:

I found this one on etsy. Looks like a load of fun. Don’t you think? I’m thinking of the drawing that bilingual baby has been enjoying and how cute that would look printed onto a bib for her little sister/brother. Or. Think of the cool things she’ll be making drawing on paper. What a cool way to preserve them by printing them onto a canvas bag or something. Ooooh. Many ideas. Filling my head.

Before I conclude, let me share my latest sewing projects.

The brocade pants:

Red pants for my friend’s son (the one who took me snowshoeing) who just turned 1.

I made these pants long enough to be a size 12-18 month but smaller in the waist. This is what most of my sister and other friends complain about when it comes to clothes for their kids. Either the pants fit the waist or they fit length-wise; they don’t seem to want to do both. Last time I was in California, I made some pants for my nephew who is long and lean. Poor guy keeps on looking like he’s waiting for a flood in his other clothes.

Did I mention I’m excited to see my sisters. I assure you there will be a lot of giggling involved by getting the three of us together in the same house. Lots. of. giggling.

I’m almost done with a summer dress for another friend’s daughter (one who we hang out with all the time). It’s pretty cute. I’ll post pictures when I’m done.

Nighty-night.

More knitting and sewing projects to come

I’ve got a couple more projects I want to finish and have to be diligent about the time I spend writing on the blog because it uses up precious knitting time! Is anyone willing to take dictation?

Here’s the fabric I got this weekend at JoAnn’s. March is apparently Craft Month so they’re having a bunch of sales. I’ll try to get in again. Even though I’ve got bilingual baby in the Ergo, I still get her eager-to-leave squeals.

It’s not as brown as the photo makes it seem.  I’m thinking of making pants with the brocade and a top with the teal.