Hello, My Name is Babbit

I love this little guy. My sister made him for the baby for Christmas. Isn't he adorable? He's made from a thrifted wool sweater that my sister and my mom felted, and his ears, nose, and flower are felted wool roving. He's just the right amount of squishy, and he's the perfect size for a baby. Something tells me he's going to be a favorite around our house.

Knit, knit, knit

It's so nice to sit back and relax now that Christmas is over and the intensive pre-holiday crafting hustle is past. I'm knitting myself the Pashmina Cowl from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (yes, feeling a little guilty about making myself a gift when I still have a knitting project for Todd that I want to make, plus some baby gifts to sew) and enjoying the mindless pleasure of knitting a simple tube in the round - just going around and around until it's the correct length.

I'm a binge knitter; I can go for months without touching it and then suddenly plunge into multiple projects simultaneously. I think part of my problem stems from my impulsive need to design my own patterns when I'm not really that experienced as a knitter. I am currently haunted by two unfinished sweaters; with both of them I knit to the armholes and was then paralyzed. I'm not entirely sure how to maintain the elaborate stitch patterns (yes, I couldn't just choose stockinette - maybe I should take a photo to illustrate the extent of my warpedness) while shaping the armholes and neckline, and the sleeve shaping is just a mystery to me despite researching it and reading as much as I can on the topic. I suspect that if I just spent an hour or two examining my notes and measurements I could probably muddle on, but truthfully I think that I'm too lazy. Maybe it's because one of the things I like about knitting is the relaxing watch-tv-while-you-make-something aspect of the craft. Perhaps I should have thought of that before I started the sweaters?

Yesterday we went for a walk and found ourselves at the famous Purl of Last-Minute Knitted Gifts fame. What a beautiful shop! I meant to take a photo of the outside to show you - it's painted a lovely fresh robin's egg blue - and the tiny inside is packed to the ceiling with the most amazing yarns; vibrant colors and textures fill every cubbyhold on the walls so that it's almost overwhelming. I was so fortunate that we had taken the stroller instead of the carrier and the baby had fallen asleep; I parked her in the corner and gaped at the selection until she woke. Maybe I'll force myself to finish a sweater or two before I allow myself to return. It might just be the push that I need.



My model wasn't cooperating today, but this is a hat my grandma knitted for one of us sisters. I'm crazy for the pointy top and the mitred rib design. The photo doesn't show it, but the ties are two different lengths, presumedly so you can tie the hat on one side of the baby's chin. (Grandma doesn't make mistakes; this was most certainly intentional, believe me.)



Meanwhile, my neighborhood knitting shop gave me a pattern that I can easily adapt to become this adorable scarf from the cover of American Baby magazine. And I am aching to make one of the mini sweaters and the drawstring pouch from the cover of Knitted Gifts. Hmmm. The relaxation is vanishing rather quickly....

Totes

My mom made such cute oilcloth totes for her daughters for Christmas. Here's a photos of mine, which I've been using constantly since we returned home. It's the perfect size for the essentials when we run to the library or to the park:


She bought the oilcloth on-line, she said, I think from Denver fabrics, right Mom?

I love the print inside the bag. What's really great about the bag is that she used plastic canvas to make the bottom of the bag solid so it doesn't sag when you put something in it. But I don't know how she topstitched the bottom of the bag - I struggled with the machine when I sewed the bottom of this tote. The arm of the machine was just too short, or I'm just not very nimble-fingered.



I wanted to give a small gift to a friend and wanted to make it special, so I pulled a Martha Stewart and customized a tote bag we had received as part of a goodie bag from a benefit. The Kaffe Fassett fabric matched the bag perfectly. I put the gift (Bailey's liqueur - her favorite once-a-year indulgence!) into the bag instead of wrapping it.

Another crafty Christmas gift

Hurray! Christmas is over, and I don't have to keep any more secrets!

This is a photo from an old issue of Marie Claire Idees. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while but hadn't quite decided just what it would be:


And then the Barneys holiday catalog arrived. In it was this photo:


Well, now I really had to do something. And since Christmas was on its way, what a perfect opportunity to make something for my niece!



Sorry the photos aren't so great. I wanted my decorations to be a little more random than the medallion/necklace motif on the sweater from Barneys. I fused printed fabric circles to craft felt (i.e. polyester, nylon, whatever it is) and stitched the circles onto a Gap sweater, also adding some swirls and a few buttons. The big pink flower is something my Grandma brought back from Mexico many years ago - it has a buttonhole in the center, so it can be buttoned onto something as embellishment. I thought it was fun as the centerpiece for the sweater.

When I was home last week, we stopped at Goodwill to pick up some wool sweaters to felt and I found this merino cardigan on the racks for $4. I think I might have to do another sweater for myself with it! I like the velvet on the center plackets; it looks vintage and worn, which will be perfect for this sort of embellishment.

Danger Baby

Remember Freddie the Rescue Cat? Well, Freddie has a younger sister who wants desperately to keep up with him and is a bit of a daredevil in her quest to be just like her big brother. As a result, Freddie has nicknamed his little sister Danger Baby. (I love the 4-year-old mind - it's always working!)

And that's what this was all about.

Thus, I hereby give you Danger Baby - Freddie's sister's Christmas gift:


the face was modeled a little after Lola


feminine in her dress and Mary Janes...


...but note those bandages on the arms and leg (small price to pay for the opportunity to play with your cool older brother - this is what happens when you launch yourself off stairs, you know)



I had so much fun making her! I think I may make another one for Bebe's first birthday. And I learned so much while making her, I'd like to make a few changes to the way I made her, and I'll make the arms and legs a little longer next time. But I can see how these little softies are rather addictive!

Stockings and a little nostalgia

My sister wrote a beautiful, thoughtful piece about stockings the other day. When I was home last week I took a closer look at those stockings and they started me thinking.

In my family, gifts from our parents were opened on Christmas eve. Then we bundled into the car and drove across town to sing in the midnight service at the church where we went to school. For most of the ceremony we sat in the balcony with our schoolchums/choirmembers. It was always a gorgeous service; I remember blurring my eyes to look at the enormous Christmas trees at the front of the church, all covered in white lights and white and gold ornaments. But the very end of the service was the truly memorable part. All the lights in the church were turned off except for the glowing trees, and all of us in the school choir stood in the dark at the perimeters of the church while we sang Silent Night, first in English, then in German, a capella. Then the adult choir members proceeded into the church, each choirmember carrying a single candle as they formed the shape of a cross down the center and front aisles of the church. We sang Glory to God the Angels Sang, and the sopranos of the adult choir sang a breath-taking descant that inevitably brought me to tears. Once the two songs were finished a hush fell across the entire church, and we were all very still, not wanting to end that amazing moment. I looked forward to that service and that lovely tradition every year as a child.

I seem to recall that we opened gifts on Christmas eve because our own church had its services on Christmas morning, so Christmas eve was really the only time available for the family to spend together. But I secretly suspect that my parents didn't want us waking them at some unreasonable hour on Christmas morning. After all, for a number of years my schoolbus arrived at 6:30 am, and I still remember waking on Saturdays and turning on TV only to find the colored bars and music greeting me from the screen - it was still too early for cartoons!

Gifts from our sisters (we are five girls in my family) were always placed in our stockings for Christmas morning. There was no waiting when it came to stockings - they were fair game the moment you woke. And there were always lots of candy and Hershey's kisses (my favorite) in the toes of the stockings once the gifts had been opened.

Here they are, hung above the fireplace at my parents' house. I can't believe Mom let us play with our stockings when we were little! We had an elaborate Santa game that involved filling the stockings with things found around the house. I recall cramming a lot of small toys into each stocking until they were stuffed and bulging, and I don't think we did it very gently.

I've blurred the beautifully embroidered names to preserve privacy for everyone, and the stockings for the two youngest grandchildren are not quite finished yet. But I think they look so nice hung together like this.

Christmas card

Most of the Christmas cards should have reached their destinations by now. We didn't do anything very fancy this year. The cards are stamped with snowflakes and a star that I drew and had made into rubber stamps, with a Bible verse inside the card. But I'm relatively happy with the results; the ink made the cards look printed instead of stamped. And it's kind of fun that each card was different, although I got a little tired of stamping: approximately 40 stamps per card, 50 cards...you do the math.


the initial snowflake and star designs


the stamps and ink


the card, envelope, and tri-fold letter enclosure


a scan of the front and back of one card

The Christmas star (in more ways than one)

My niece has a **starring** role as the Christmas **star** in her church's upcoming program. I would love to see her performance (we live too far away!), not only because she is my niece but also because she is fearless in front of people and has a great sense of humor. I know she has lots of lines and a secret, special part that no one knows anything about. Something tells me it will be a show to remember.

While the baby and I were visiting my parents, my sister requested a costume for her little star: apparently the existing costume was a bit bedraggled or too big - I'm not sure which. Anyway, we were on the verge of a large sewing project (think tulle and shimmery satin) when we got the call: the costume was ok. So instead we stuck with a crown/tiara as an addition to the existing costume. Here are a few photos:




I made the tiara with twisted 24 gauge wire and some inexpensive beads we found at JoAnn Fabrics. The big fancy star at the front is from a silly Christmas ornament we found on the holiday ornament rack - it came as part of a pair that looked more like oversized earrings than tree ornaments, but it was perfect for the crown. I made sure to add lots of dangly bits on the crown so it would sparkle and shine even in the back rows. I hope it will do the trick and make our little star even more glittery. And now I can feel a little bit like I supported her, even though I couldn't be there to see her shine.

Perhaps I'll have some photos of the full effect to show you after the Christmas Eve performance? I hope?

Returned

We arrived home last night despite the MTA strike and our delayed luggage. It's always good to return home, no matter how great the trip. Here I leave you with a few highlight photos:



the Christmas tree in the capitol building




some Christmas-y berries


a sunset we saw during our walk near my parents' house one very cooooold afternoon


the not-very happy sledder (she only wanted a nap!)




going home: a true cheesehead?

I have lots of things related to our trip that I'll be posting about during the next week or so. Can hardly wait to show you some projects that we worked on and some other ideas and inspirations...

White dove of peace - or wool, anyway

I bought this ornament at Hable Construction the other day. It's made from a really thick wool felt, and the wings and tail have been treated somehow to make them more stiff - starch? It's so beautifully made; I thought it might give a few crafty people some inspiration.




Oh, by the way, I hade posted a while ago about purchasing yardage from Hable. Uh-uh: they sell to the trade only. So if you are or know a decorator you might be able to buy fabric, but you can't just call or stop by to purchase a yard or two. And I see that their website has been changed so it's not so misleading about that, which is good.

Off we go

I made Amy's wonderful gingerbread recipe today - so delicious, and we made sure to eat it with lots of whipped cream, as required.



Tomorrow morning the baby and I are flying to visit my parents in Madison, Wisconsin for a week. Provided that the weather holds up and we don't get stuck in an airport someplace (O'Hare), it should be a good trip. I probably won't be posting much while we're away, but you may hear from me once or twice.

Birthday cards

I like to make my own greeting cards, and since we have a rather large family I've been economizing lately and making an edition of birthday cards each year. Last year everyone got a card with stripes painted on it in watercolor. This year I made collage cupcakes for everyone. Now that the year is nearly over and almost everyone has received their card I don't think I'm giving anything away by posting a photo of one:


I haven't yet decided what the 2006 birthday card will be, but I recently came across this little blurb and photo in Harper's Bazaar and thought it was a clever idea. Dear Yves. He always uses the word "love" in his New Year's cards. Not that I'll be making cards that have love all over them, but I like the idea of a consistent theme from one year to the next. Then the recipient could collect a complete edition of the cards, and the cards might be even more meaningful as a group.

file under: Wow!

We went to visit some friends last weekend. She is a talented knitter who once owned a knitting shop in New Jersey. And look what she made the baby!




The entire blanket is fairisle - even the ruffle at the edges. The pattern is from Jean Moss, and apparently I've been hiding under a rock because I've never heard of her! She designed sweaters for Ralph Lauren and many other well-known designers once upon a time, and I don't know where I've been to not know this.

People have amazed me with their generous and thoughtful gifts for this kid.

The organizer

Trying to do a little online Christmas shopping while feeding the baby yesterday, I came across this thing:



Apparently it holds all your stuff for you so you can be organized.

I wonder if I could sew a bunch of them together and wear them. It would make a very interesting texure for a sweater, or perhaps an apron (!). Maybe then I wouldn't have locked myself out of the apartment last week while doing laundry during the baby's nap?

Busy busy busy

Cutting, pinning, stamping...seventeen crafting days left (minus shipping time) until Christmas. I think I need the help of a few elves over here.

Eye candy to get your crafting fingers tingling

ISBN4-09-310377-1
Originally uploaded by lieslg.

Aaaah. Not that I have time to read it right now, but I'm so excited about this Japanese craft book that just arrived. It's got lots of really great embroidery projects in it, and the directions are amazing! Very clear stitch directions and then a separate project section with patterns and sketches for every step. Frankly, I purchased the book because I liked the cover. But the inside looks just as good! See more photos inside the book here. ISBN4-09-310377-1

self portrait Tuesday

We were waiting to talk to the FedEx man the other day - picking up our new camera! - and while I was keeping the baby entertained I noticed our reflection. It's a rather obvious choice as far as reflection photos go, but I thought it was especially ironic and appropriate since we don't have a car and go almost everywhere just like you're seeing us in this photo - Bebe strapped to my front, zipped under my coat, me walking along. And I suppose this is how everyone we pass is seeing us.

Why I blog

Lisa suggested that we craft bloggers write what our blogs mean to us: why we blog, what has changed about our blog, etc. And I've been thinking about that a lot in the past couple of weeks, so although she doesn't know me or my blog (I don't think), I am going to participate anyway.

I've had the privilege of working with some amazingly talented people. I left my job after Bebe was born, but until then I was incredibly fortunate to love my job, enjoy my colleagues, and to find a great deal of inspiration in going to work every day. The decision to leave my job and stay home with the baby was an especially difficult one for me for precisely this reason. And for months after I left I felt isolated: what would I do without the community I had come to reply upon?

I once responded to Todd, who has been blogging for nearly 1 1/2 years now and was teasing me that something he did proved he was smarter than me, that I was in fact the smarter one because I didn't spend my time blogging. But after reading/lurking around several other craft blogs (Loobylu, Erica Mulherin) for many years now, I realized this past summer that I wanted to be part of this group of creative people. I needed the contact with other crafters in order to stay inspired, motivated, and to keep myself going without the regular interaction with my work colleagues.

However, joining this group of bloggers hasn't been everything I had hoped, and over the past few weeks I've been struggling with some disappointment regarding my blog. I'm writing for myself, yes, but I had hoped for more interaction with other bloggers as well. There are 66 feeds in my Bloglines account - which means that I'm reading and often commenting on 66 other blogs. So I find inspiration reading and commenting on other blogs, but I'm not getting the feedback I had hoped for my own. And I know I shouldn't expect comments. But the interaction was what kept me going at work and what I hoped to establish by blogging. I see it happening on other blogs and I sometimes wonder what I'm doing wrong. Is it that I'm not selling things? I haven't created a site that encourages group participation (the "_-along")? My stuff isn't that interesting or creative? Is there just no room in the craft blogosphere for yet another blogger?

And then I try to remind myself that a) I've only been doing this for a few months, b) I know my family and friends are reading this even if they aren't commenting and certainly shouldn't feel obligated to comment and c) I do receive comments from a number of people and I really appreciate those comments!

I don't always reply to comments, but I love love love reading them! So I will continue to blog and will continue to enjoy reading and commenting on other blogs. And I will enjoy the comments that I receive. If more comments come my way as well, that's great. I hope that eventually I will find that network I'm craving. Maybe it will be via my blog and maybe I'll find it elsewhere. But for now, here I am.

Sizes. And a first word!

1. Look out because here comes a vent:

I just exchanged on Friday, for the second time, a skirt that I purchased earlier last week. I've been the same size for years (aside from the pregnancy thing, obviously), and I'm very true to size, to the point where until recently I rarely needed to try on anything because I'm always the same size and virtually everything fits. I realize that I'm unusual in this regard, but again I think it makes me extra-qualified to vent. Stick with me:

The baby was with me when I purchased the skirt, so as usual I didn't try it on. Got it home and discovered it was nearly falling off me. So I went back and exchanged it for the next smaller size. Same problem - huge on me. So on Friday, sans baby, I finally went back to the store and tried it on. The skirt I finally selected was still a little big on me but was two sizes smaller than I normally wear! When I mentioned this to the sales associate she said, "Yes, isn't that great?" As though by suddenly being a size 2 I should be really happy with myself. Huh? When I was in high school I was a size 8 or 10. I certainly haven't lost weight in the past 19 (whoa!) years. But ok, sizes have changed and I'm now usually a small 6 (large 4 if the sizing is weird). I think that's a little ridiculous to begin with. But size 2? You've got to be kidding me. I'm 5'8" and thin, but I'm no supermodel. What size do thin, 5'2" women wear: minus 4? Really, let's get a grip here. Wearing a smaller size does not make me thinner or more attractive. It doesn't sell me more clothing. It just makes me, as a designer, feel really silly. Who are we fooling here? Maybe women who are larger sizes than I am really do feel better buying a smaller size, but does it really make sense to keep decreasing our numbered sizes? Where is this going to end?

Ok, you've heard enough out of me. But here's my suggestion to the fashion industry (who isn't listening, I know, but it's fun to expound all the same): let's just establish a standard set of measurements and make it stick. It would be much simpler and more straightforward for everyone, especially the customer. Plus, then I could shut up about it and write about more interesting things. And I wouldn't have to make three trips to the same store in one week.

2. Yes indeedy, we have a first word at out house! The baby is saying "Mama" and meaning ME! Todd told me she was doing it last week, and our new sitter (glory be! Five whole hours to myself every week - absolute heaven!) confirmed it on Friday. She goes to the door and says "Mama"! And obviously I couldn't be more thrilled about her choice of first word, although I thought it was pretty darned cute when I heard about another New York baby whose first word was "taxi"! We're pretty low-maintenance over here and we walk or take the subway everywhere, so I didn't really expect her first word to be taxi, but I was secretly hoping for something sort of urban sophisticated like "museum" or "gallery". I'll happily take Mama instead.

Color

I'm really enjoying this new camera. Here are a few photos the baby and I took on Thursday. The colors are such an improvement over our old camera. Now we just need to work on the photographer and someday we might have some halfway decent pics to work with!

Warning, warning, warning!

I laughed out loud when I saw this. And it reminded me that I've been meaning to post about this as well. May we not become this type of crafter - reindeer sweaters are always a bad idea, I think.

Hurry up, Christmas!

I can hardly wait until Christmas is here. Not because I'm a big Christmas fan or because I hate it, but because I can't post some really fun projects or I'll ruin the surprises for the receivers! I'm also holding off on posting anything about our Christmas cards because what's the fun of opening a card when you already know what's inside?

On the flip side, I need a lot more time to finish several projects, and three weeks isn't feeling like nearly enough time.

Here's a little peak at one project:



You'll just have to wait to see what these stamps are for!