things we create, be it by cooking, sewing, woodworking, etc.
Here is Will at two weeks old in his oh-so-tiny pants. At nearly 5 weeks, he’s already so much bigger than in these photos.
And this is the vest I knit for Bea — she wore it when she was four months old. Then I lent it to my sister for her babes, and it came back as a newborn vest — thought I sent along washing instructions but you know, sometimes things get tossed in the dryer accidentally. It’s still darn cute. 
Bea adores dressing up her new doll brother.
I haven’t unpacked my sewing machine since we moved — and did I mention we’re approaching one year in this house?! For several reasons, it has been easier of late to pick up the knitting needles rather than try to tackle the half-unpacked boxes in my sewing space. So. Here are a couple finished projects: first, an Irish hiking scarf for Adeline made with Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed. I’ve used this yarn for several projects, as it always seems to be on sale at our local yarn shop. And I finally realized during this project that I just don’t love it. It is a cotton/wool blend and I don’t like the way it drapes. And knitting with yarn you don’t love is just laborious. So I’ve given myself permission not to use this (or any) yarn I don’t love in the future — and I’ll be more careful when picking out yarn from the bargain room.
Next up: tiny pants in KnitCol for the yet-to-be-born one. These were so fun and quick to make! I promise you that the legs aren’t really lopsided, it’s just the angle of the photo. I’ll get a better picture when he is wearing them.
I figured since the needles were flying I would try to squeeze in a few more projects before spring (and baby and garden) brings my knitting season to an end. I may have been overly ambitious in my planning.
Some of them may languish half-finished over the summer, but for now I’m enjoying working on a boneyard shawl, a puerperium cardigan, and a little something for Bea.
These photos are from yesterday, April 22nd. Yes, that is snow.
We waited for snow all winter, but it didn’t decide to show up until April. I’m going to venture to say (without bothering to check the facts and look up the actual numbers) that we saw more snow in the month of April than in all the rest of winter here.
But the thing about April snow is that you know it can’t last too long. The grass underneath is already green(ish) and our lettuce has sprouted. In a day or two (at most a week or two), temps will be rising and we’ll be tending the garden.
Also, April snow just means more opportunities for Adeline to wear her new vest (the Neighborly). But she has some stipulations: she will only wear it in the house and not out in public. Apparently she’s embarrassed, even though she picked the yarn (knit picks Chroma in a now-discontinued colorway) and couldn’t wait for me to be finished knitting it. When she was two she refused to wear the things I made her out of sheer obstinacy; now that she’s five she’s afraid people will laugh at her handknits. Did I miss some very brief magical window of time where she would actually, willingly, joyfully wear the things I knit her? I think my next few projects will go to someone who really appreciates all that hard work: ME! 🙂
Just two weeks before Bea’s birthday last July, Adeline decided she wanted to sew her the ragdoll from Sewing for Children. But oddly enough, two weeks wasn’t quite enough time to get it finished. She kept working at it though (with much help from Mama), on and off through summer and fall. But somewhere along the line, Adeline decided that since she hadn’t finished it in time for Bea’s birthday, maybe she could keep it for her herself. And make Bea another one later. Riiiiight.
So this is Watermelon. There are plans to make more clothes for her, of course. And the book has patterns for shoes and a jacket, too. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. We’ve had it for a couple years and made several projects from it, though none of the others have made it to the pages of this blog. It has plenty of projects that even the littlest sewists can help with. Adeline is currently working on the applique pillow project. She says it’s going to be a gift for Bea . . .
This idea spent a couple years in my head and then a couple more in various stages of completion, and is now finally residing on our living room wall. The inspiration was originally provided by the family tree in Alicia Paulson’s Stitched in Time, with further prompting from the tree project in Amanda Soule’s Handmade Home.
I think I started this just after I finished our coasters (using fabric from the same bundle) — which means that it only took me two years to complete! Now, on to the living room quilt, using up the rest of the AMH fabric. Two or three more years ought to do it!
Some stockings were sewn and hung with great care (to temporarily, at least, distract me from our very untidy bookshelves). The green and red ones, Jake’s and mine, I made last year (they were the prototypes for my tutorial). This year I made Bea’s (also using my tutorial) from one of my old sweaters — one of the oldest articles of clothing I owned (since my high school days ordering from the Delia’s catalog! I was a little amazed to learn that Delia’s still exists). It was quite happy to take on new life as this stocking. The flowers were an attempt to recreate the ones in this tutorial, but I don’t think I need to go into the atrociousness of my hand-sewing yet again. Adeline’s was made with help from this tutorial, using the last unstained and un-holey bits of the blanket I used for the back of this quilt. She loves the pom-pom holly berries.
I don’t know if I’ll be back in this space for a while, so a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!
Way back in June I misplaced our green-and-white checked beach blanket. I still have hopes that we’ll find it when we eventually move (one of only two good things I can think of about moving: you find stuff you’ve lost — though usually you lose stuff, too). But it’s gone for now. This impelled me to finally sew the beach blanket from Handmade Home.
The quilt top is all thrifted vintage sheets and pillowcases. I had planned to follow the pattern in the book, except I wanted to make it a little bit bigger. But somehow my measurements went wrong and it ended up way too large, so I just started cutting and cutting and re-piecing it together, which is why it ended up not looking like the one in the book at all.
The back is an old white chenille blanket which my parents used as a drop cloth for painting; when I asked my mom if I could have it she looked at me sideways but said nothing, as she is so good and tolerant of my sometimes unconventional ways. Really the only reason I wanted it was for the awesome bobble fringe, which I painstakingly cut from the original blanket, then sewed around the edge of the new quilt. It almost killed my sewing machine, but I was not going to give up on that fringe.
So now we have a new beach blanket … and it’s autumn, so it will have to wait a whole winter before it actually gets to go to the beach. Until then, it gets to spend some time out in the yard and on the living room floor, which it likes just fine.
I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that deadline sewing is just not something I should attempt at this season in my life. Every time I try to finish a project in time for birthday/Christmas/what-have-you, it causes great stress and anguish and ultimately is not finished on time anyway. So for now I’m giving myself a break in the handmade gift department — gifts will still be made and given, but not on any schedule except my own (i.e., whenever I get around to finishing it).
This set of sleepover pals was supposed to be Adeline’s Epiphany present last year, and the dolls were indeed mostly finished on time. But then there was the little matter of every single one of their hair and arm balls coming loose and needing to be re-sewn. And what fun are sleepover pals without their sleeping bag? None of this was very difficult, but for several reasons (analysis paralysis, mostly, along with the fact that I’m fearful of hand-sewing) it took me until September to get the sleeping bag finished and all the little details completed.
The pattern for these dolls is in Wee Wonderfuls, which we love, and they are not difficult, but I wasn’t thrilled with how they turned out, since so much of the hand-sewing is visible (unlike on Edith), and, as I may have mentioned a million times here before, my hand-sewing is not what it should be. I simplified the sleeping bag; rather than making flaps that fold down to tuck the dolls into, they each just have their own little pocket.
Adeline was thrilled and played with them non-stop for about three days . . . and then like everything else, they just ended up on her shelf. Bea loves them, though of course Adeline shrieks whenever Bea tries to play with them. She will try to get Bea to play with Edith (who also spends a lot of time on the shelf), but Bea does love to aggravate her sister…
See that smug look on Bea’s face? She loves to get a rise out of Adeline (and it is unfortunately easy to do).
The doll is returned to its rightful owner, which of course leads to this face:
Every time I finish a doll, I think it will be my last. . . but it never is. There is another one in the works right now, though it is mostly Adeline’s project. I’ll share more when we finish it.
Reading: An amazing book called No One is Here Except All of Us, about a small Jewish village in Romania that re-imagines its own world in order to stay safe and hidden during World War II. It’s turning out to be a bit sadder than I expected — until I reminded myself that this is a book about a world war, for goodness’ sake. Of course it’s sad. But it’s beautiful, too, and reminds me of a Chagall painting.
Knitting: This blue leaf headband, with the leftover yarn from a hat I made for my friend Gi. So our heads will be the same color this winter.
Yarning along with Ginny today.
This is the second gratitude wrap I’ve made from Amanda Soule’s pattern. I think it makes a good graduation gift, although I sometimes wonder if those young ones write letters anymore. Anyhow, they should, so I’ll persist in giving these. They’re fun and quick to make.
making life 