My mom recently mailed me my grandmother’s embroidery box. I had been telling her how I have this bizarre urge to embroider something, like a kitchen towel, even though I don’t know how and don’t have the stuff. So she sent me this:

Isn’t it fabulous? I’m so happy to have it!

The story with my mom’s mom is a bit sad. Her name was Polly and she had my mom when she was 40 (an accident; my mom is a lot younger than her siblings) so my grandparents were already pretty elderly by the time I came along. My grandma looked after me when I was a baby, and apparently took really good care of me. My mom says she never, ever let me cry and loved me dearly. But then she died shortly after I turned one, so I have no real memories of her. Apparently I’m quite a lot like her so it makes me really sad that I don’t know her. Is it possible to miss someone you never really knew? Well, I do miss her and I wish I knew her. It seems like she was a pretty cool lady.

My grandmother and my aunts apparently did a lot of embroidery during “the war”, in the evenings when they weren’t allowed to have lights on. Some of the contents of this box really are old — metal hoops and such. The floss, though, is fantastic and I love all the colors. I can’t wait to sort it out and use it!

The other thing in here that’s particularly charming is my grandmother’s darning egg. Since I now know how to darn socks but don’t own one of these, it’s nice to have hers. The handle comes off. Isn’t that funny? It’s been well used too.

Somehow these sorts of connections make me really happy, like I’m participating in some history I didn’t even know I had.

Anyway! Just like my dad giving me his mother’s dressmaking shears made me exceptionally happy, I’m now thrilled to have my mom’s mother’s embroidery box.  I am one lucky girl.

We’re at that stage where the baby drools constantly and gnaws on his hands incessantly. He also seems to love pulling up on his clothes and chewing on those, so I thought perhaps some bibs were in order. Maybe something colorful with some texture to it, to really grind those gums into. YUM.

These are great for two reasons. 1) They’re really cute. Dontcha think? 2) The cotton yarns are leftovers that Liane was getting rid of, and that’s always a good thing! Oh and 3) They were really quick. That’s a bonus, these days!

There’s no pattern for these. The square one is evidently a Mason Dixon pattern but I don’t have the book and really, how hard could it be? Garter square with something to go around the neck. CHECK! These are 28 stitches across.

The other one I decided to curve it a little but the gauge was really a bit too big to curve nicely at the top, so the square one looks better. But oh well. It will still catch drool so I don’t care. Incidently that’s two different yarns changed every two rows. Love how that turned out :)

OH and I did something clever. The Boo outgrew his bibs pretty quickly so I made these adjustable in that there are two buttons and two (or three) buttonholes so that there can be a variety of sizes. I think they will work just fine.

This is a pattern from One Skein. I think it’s cute, but to be honest it was a ridiculous amount of work for a bib. And tying the i-corn will probably be annoying so I’m not going to make any more of these any time soon. Plus I had a hard time getting the short row count right. It was probably just me, but everything seemed to be off even though I corrected every single time. The ends also curl up something fierce. But considering it’s a bib that might be a good thing :)

This one uses leftovers too. I ran out of the colored one but I think the brown looks nice, so there you go. We can discuss putting pink flower bibs on boys at a later date!

When my friend Liane announced her second pregnancy, I immediately started plotting baby knits. Making baby presents is quickly becoming one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. Unfortunately. I’m not all that “quick” about it, these days!

First I started some booties, had some gauge issues, finally settled on itty bitty booties, and finished those. Then I thought… what else can I make? This is a baby in California due in the middle of July. Her talented mama has already made a whole layette of fabulous things, so what else could I make to contribute? More hats or sweaters are probably not going to be all that useful.

Then I thought.. TOYS! I’d been wanting to make that Puzzle Ball from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Bingo.

Just let me say this pattern can make your head spin. Twice now I’ve sewn things that have seams crossing at three points and I still don’t understand how they’re supposed to make a point when you turn them inside out without undoing one of the seams a bit. Once I got going though it was pretty easy and once I gave up understanding the directions for sewing it together and just did my own thing, that went okay too. I LOVE the colors in this and obviously want to make one for my baby too!

Here are the booties. It’s the Herringbone Bootees (why am I the only person who thinks that is spelled wrong?) pattern from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit.

I believe it’s Rowan 4ply cotton and size 0 (!!!) needles. I don’t know why it’s curling up at the edges. Perhaps they need to be blocked ;) The only concern I have is that the cotton won’t hold the ribbing on the inside and they’ll fall off. I hope not though! It’s very similar to the recommended yarn (Jaeger 4ply cotton I think) so it’s not like I was being reckless or anything.

I didn’t manage to send these before the baby was actually born, but that’s okay. She’s so cute she totally inspired me to finish things up and get them sent off! I do think they make a nice pair for a baby gift :)

Congratulations, Liane, and happy babymoon! Do try and get some sleep ;)

Besides making toys, we’ve started to dabble in costume-making! This is a very exciting development.

This is a pirate eye patch, requested by the Boo. It’s super cheap and dirty. Crap felt, velcro at the back, sewn together hastily. He was a happy camper though! I should make a better one with elastic at the back so it has more life to it.

This wool felt crown was my idea. I originally got the idea from the Creative Family book, but the pattern in the book requires enlargement on a copier and I don’t have ready access to one of those. So I went web surfing and found a pattern on the Balancing Everything website. Yay!

This crown is made from wool/acrylic felt, actually, and he doesn’t wear it for long. I wonder if it itches? I should make one for myself ;) The boy picked out the buttons himself, which is why that one on the side is not the best choice since it doesn’t lie flat. Oh well, he seems to like it, despite ripping it off after 5-10 minutes.

I am proud of one thing — I didn’t have to do the cloth covered elastic at the back. I somehow managed to save some really thick elastic that I cut off some pair of trousers or something a while back, and it was the PERFECT size! So that was handy. Also,  these would make great gifts for parties :)

Now, if I could just figure out why my pictures are so crap lately! Is it me or are they out of focus? Hmm.

P.S. Now to figure out how to make a spiderman outfit. Ay yi yi.

I made my first ever washcloth tonight, finishing up while watching Doctor Who. I don’t know why I don’t make more of these. They’re so fast! And useful! Two of my favorite things when it comes to knitting.

Until recently I had never used a handmade washcloth, and I used to wonder why people bothered making them. But seriously, they’re quite good! Liane gifted us two as part of a baby gift and they’re awesome. Boo and I both love them. Clearly we need more!

This one is actually special and not for general purpose use. I think el bebe is starting to teethe a bit and I thought it would be nice to have an organic cotton washcloth to do the whole “freeze a wet washcloth” trick for him. Except I don’t have an organic cotton washcloth. But I do have some leftover scrap organic cotton yarn! (From the Boo’s baby blanket — eons ago!)

So yesterday I dug it out and it’s turned out to be more than enough. Maybe even enough for two! Very cool. Going to wash this quick and get it in the freezer.

Well, this picture couldn’t be any shittier, but there you have it. It’s the world.

I would be talking about the orange thingy in the background and not the ocarinas. I love ocarinas. Can you tell? I did not make the ocarinas by the way, although I would like to know how.

Anyway. This pot is two bowls put together and then decorated. I think the clay is terracotta, thus the orange, but I’m not entirely sure. I don’t think it’s glazed orange. The bottom (where you can’t see) has waves for water, obviously, the middle section has mountains, and the top has, you guessed it, clouds! I’m so clever.

I think I got the idea for the clouds and then the world because you have to poke a hole in the thing somewhere else it will explode upon firing. The hole for this pot is at the very top so I squished some clay up there and poked a hole in it, then vaguely thought, hey, that looks like a cloud. Go figure.

H thinks this does not look like the world at all, but I really like it nonetheless. I never claimed to live in reality.

Incidently, this is the last of the ceramics pictures for now. There are more out there — my favorite teapot (the poisonous lead-laden one) is boxed up somewhere so no pics of that, my other favorite one (a coil teapot, it was so cool!) got sold in a yard sale (what the hell was I thinking? On the other hand, someone bought my art!), and there’s for sure a few pots in actual use holding pencils and things like that. I hope to get more pictures… umm.. one of these days! I wouldn’t hold your breath :)

I have a dilemma that I need help with! If anyone has an opinion please comment or email me. Pretty please?

I’m making this cardigan/kimono:

The sleeves are done and I’m working on the back. It’s slow going. But that’s not the question.

The question is this: Should I do the drawstring empire waist or not?

Here’s what I’m thinking: I have a very funky body shape at the moment. It’s not my normal body shape, which I fully expect to return in the next, oh, year or so. I’ve been through a lot physically so I’m not highly optimistic that I’ll get in pre-pregnancy shape any time soon. My pre-pregnancy shape requires bust darts, but usually everything else is okay. (By the way I don’t mean “in shape” shape, just my normal shape!)

Okay, so I just measured where to start the eyelets for the drawstring (I’m making it a lot longer seeing as I have a long torso) and, um, my gut is seriously in the way. I really don’t want to short row the front below the bust darts I’m already planning because if/when I get back to pre-pregnancy size, the front will be too long if I do that. On the other hand, I’d like to wear this, like, now (OK not NOW as it’s 80 degrees inside, but soon), and I’d like it to fit. And the drawstring is the only shaping in the entire garment.

SO! Do I do the drawstring and hope the bust darts work well enough so it won’t matter? Do I leave it off and make kimono-style ties instead? Or use a pin or a single button somewhere as closure? I’m also a little worried that with said gut, if I do the drawstring it’s going to seriously look like a maternity top. And god knows I’m sick of wearing maternity tops.

Any takers? I’m currently thinking I’ll just leave off the drawstring and do something else. On the other hand, I love empire style tops. Argh. Help!

The advent sock project is getting away from me. March is still missing, and it’s nearly the end of June it’s July! Damn, seriously, how did I not know it was not nearly the end of June but in fact June was OVER? Eek!

Here are April’s installments:

And here are May’s:

I’m seriously loving the santa fun fur stuff, obviously. And I love the green stripes.

Ah well. I’m going to have to do lots of makeup work at some point. I shall not stress about it! The point is to have fun, not get stressed.

Right now I’m dedicating time to my kimono cardigan. To the back, at any rate. I think Mama deserves a little knitting time for just her sometimes, right? After all, I am the one doing the knitting!

And it was not very good:

Making plates is really, really hard.

This is the better one. There’s another one… somewhere. These are as heavy as iron ore from a meteorite. I think it’s pretty ugly so I’m really not sure why I’m keeping it other than I made it.

It’s unfortunate that this assignment was in combination with carving patterns for a particular glazing effect. It’s not an effect I like much.

I was prompted by an upcoming birthday to make a felt book for the gift while simultaneously making one for the lad — something I’ve been meaning to make for quite a while now. Fortunately it turned out rather well!

I have to admit I didn’t really understand felt books at first. I’ve seen them in stores (mighty expensive!) and H has talked about playing with felt boards as a kid — but I didn’t get it. What do you DO with them?

Well, simply enough, you just play with them. I cannot emphasize how much the Boo likes this book. He’s been playing with it all day, asking for new creatures (sea urchin!), ripping off crab claws (oops), sharks have been chasing fish, lobsters have been hiding under rocks, animals have been hitcihng a life on the manta ray.. it’s incredible. I thought he might like the sharks but I had no idea how into this he would be.

Fortunately I left it rather open ended so he’s also requested dinosaurs (dirt is dirt and blue can be water or sky, no?) and I have an urge to make a farm scene for some reason. There’s also a pocket on the back to hold the shapes. I haven’t sewn on the button to actually close it yet, but I found the perfect ones — stars!

I used a wool/acrylic blend (from Colonial Crafts) and it was definitely an improvement on the stuff from the craft store. However, I’m still hankering to try out the 100% wool felt. You can expect to see more felt crafts in the future because I have some left over. I’m thinking wool crowns. Yay for felt!