"witching hour" craftiness, reconsidered
i changed my mind about my big idea for the baby hat. i can now reveal that my big idea was to embroider the finished hat with a design of my own creation, loosely based on a tee shirt i saw at crafty bastards crafts fair. it was going to be different families drawn in stick figures, as if drawn by a child. the different families would reflect the various possible gender combinations families might have, one would have two daddies and a baby, another would have two mommies and two babies, etc.
several factors played into my decision to scrap the idea, but basically it came down to me sitting there looking at a very nice, finished baby hat and starting to doubt whether the wisest thing to do was risk destroying it with an ambitious design in a technique i had never even tried before. after all, so far this month i don't have a very good record of success with my middle-of-the-night craft ideas. anyway, i rationalized to myself that all that embroidery would make the hat much more fragile, after i had gone out of my way to make it durable and washable for rough-and-tumble baby use. so i brought the finished hat to the baby shower "as is."
it was a very nice shower, by the way. i am not a big fan of typical baby showers, with their silly pregnancy games and conversation that never strays from the subject of babies and baby accessories. but as i suspected, this shower was much more pleasant and down-to-earth than the typical baby shower, and i had a good time catching up with the guests of honor and meeting some of their friends and family. nonetheless, i was reminded of Reason #56 Why I Don't Want Kids: baby stuff! i am always trying to have less stuff, and babies seem to require so much stuff. well, at least middle class american babies do; i'm sure that in many parts of the world babies manage to grow to adulthood without diaper genies and special breastfeeding pillows. but i'm sure i'd want the convenience of such things myself, if i had a baby. and the baby stuff is nothing compared to the legos and tricycles and school notebooks and yu-gi-oh cards and then they want a cell phone and a car... ay ay ay! i'm very happy for my friends who are stoked about motherhood, but better you than me!
in other knitting news, i did some more damage this weekend as my online yarn spending spree continued, but i'm done now. no more yarn for me for a long time. soon, i'll be able to get started on the poncho for trav's cousin; i'm still waiting to receive the yarn and the 36 inch circular needle i ordered for it. i bought the 36 inch needle because i want to make it with horizontal stripes so i needed a way to cast on a lot of stitches. the other project on my horizon is the bamboo handle bag from stitch 'n bitch. i'm going to make it out of my recycled rayon sari yarn, but i want to find the bamboo handles before i start working on it so i know what size to make the bag. any ideas on where to purchase such things?
my poor neglected cotton candy hat project is on hold for now.
several factors played into my decision to scrap the idea, but basically it came down to me sitting there looking at a very nice, finished baby hat and starting to doubt whether the wisest thing to do was risk destroying it with an ambitious design in a technique i had never even tried before. after all, so far this month i don't have a very good record of success with my middle-of-the-night craft ideas. anyway, i rationalized to myself that all that embroidery would make the hat much more fragile, after i had gone out of my way to make it durable and washable for rough-and-tumble baby use. so i brought the finished hat to the baby shower "as is."
it was a very nice shower, by the way. i am not a big fan of typical baby showers, with their silly pregnancy games and conversation that never strays from the subject of babies and baby accessories. but as i suspected, this shower was much more pleasant and down-to-earth than the typical baby shower, and i had a good time catching up with the guests of honor and meeting some of their friends and family. nonetheless, i was reminded of Reason #56 Why I Don't Want Kids: baby stuff! i am always trying to have less stuff, and babies seem to require so much stuff. well, at least middle class american babies do; i'm sure that in many parts of the world babies manage to grow to adulthood without diaper genies and special breastfeeding pillows. but i'm sure i'd want the convenience of such things myself, if i had a baby. and the baby stuff is nothing compared to the legos and tricycles and school notebooks and yu-gi-oh cards and then they want a cell phone and a car... ay ay ay! i'm very happy for my friends who are stoked about motherhood, but better you than me!
in other knitting news, i did some more damage this weekend as my online yarn spending spree continued, but i'm done now. no more yarn for me for a long time. soon, i'll be able to get started on the poncho for trav's cousin; i'm still waiting to receive the yarn and the 36 inch circular needle i ordered for it. i bought the 36 inch needle because i want to make it with horizontal stripes so i needed a way to cast on a lot of stitches. the other project on my horizon is the bamboo handle bag from stitch 'n bitch. i'm going to make it out of my recycled rayon sari yarn, but i want to find the bamboo handles before i start working on it so i know what size to make the bag. any ideas on where to purchase such things?
my poor neglected cotton candy hat project is on hold for now.
posted by jen at 10:28 AM
3 Comments:
The hat turned out ADORABLE just the way it was. We can't wait for Lil Smudge to make his appearance and wear it.
The gear factor is pretty intimidating. Some aspects are funny -- like I have absolutely drawn the line at special "wipes warmers." I just don't think it creates undue suffering or inconvenience to wipe a baby with a room temp flushable baby wipe. But they show up on all the automated store registry lists.
But other things seem convenient, or helpful, or "just too cute." And so we get sucked in to hauling around an insane amount of baby stuff.
It was great seeing you over the weekend, and I'm glad the shower wasn't overwhelmingly focused on babies and baby talk. We're on the obsessed side ourselves, but we're also really enjoying these last few months of uninterrupted adult conversations.
I feel the same way about babies. I mean, I like them (especially my little cousin!) but I'm intimidated by all the stuff that seems to be involved in the upkeep of the modern-day baby. Urgh. Show pictures of things you're working on soon, ok? I'm curious...
i would if i had anything to show! i haven't been knitting anything to show, except that baby hat that looked exactly like the other one i knitted. as soon as i get started on the poncho or bag, i'll post pics.
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