Crafty Mama

Good morning

2007-08-19T10:42:00.001-07:00

Good morning, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I look forward to this moment in the morning: Amelia's eyes flutter open, she arcs her body in a stretch, and then notices me watching her over the edge of her crib.

I'm trying to create a collection of special moments in my sketchbook. I'm thinking I'm going to slowly work them into a storybook mixing drawings and applique. Grandma (Bobo) Martin is a book artist, so I'd like to collaborate with her on a special original edition for Amelia.

Big plans, but who know what will really happen.

Bundy's new hat

2007-08-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

Bundy's new hat, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Every summer for the last 3 summers, I've taught a hat class for CCA's summer program for middle-schoolers, YASP. I teach them how to make hand-felted hats. This little sample has a separate brim sewn to the crown. The felt is decorated with different blue wools and yarns.

Bundy has a new hat

2007-08-14T12:29:00.001-07:00

Bundy has a new hat, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Now if only it weren't impossible to get her to sit still!

This is a hand-felted wool hat. The bottom of the brim has a layer of silk chiffon felted into it, mostly just to see what it would look like (not terribly different than without).

It fits her a little too tightly now, so I have to look around for some object to re-block it with.

Bad, Bad Blogger

2007-08-11T18:00:00.001-07:00

Illustration Friday: Discovery, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Okay, I've broken the blogger rule of "post at least once a week."
I'm a bad blogger. I suppose the worse sin is not taking myself seriously enough to do anything at all to get my blog viewed, so it's pretty much a ghost town around here. I suppose I'm waiting until I have a big archive of interesting posts and some momentum...

Meanwhile, here's a little sketch I did of Amelia a while ago. She's really sketch-able. I'm working on a project that may or may not actually happen --a little book (in collaboration with my mother-in-law who does book arts) of Bundy Portraits. She loves looking at faces now, so I hope she likes it.

sketching trip

2007-07-16T21:25:00.001-07:00

What I see, looking Down, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I was feeling kinda blue today, so I took a walk with Amelia to cheer me up.

We stopped at a little neighborhood parklet, and I sketched things while she slept. Soon enough, she woke up, and was very keen to examine her surroundings. It was such a lovely excursion, I'm thinking of trying to get out and sketch a little every day. I have such a hard time building good habits like that, but I'll give it a go...

Here's a little sketch of Amelia in her front pack. It's sort of deceptive, because I couldn't actually see everything in this sketch all at once--I had to look from side to side, squashing my chin and craning my neck.

Amelia in a Blue Dress

2007-07-10T17:04:00.001-07:00

Amelia in a Blue Dress, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

whew!
The last week and a half has been super busy! I'm making a wedding dress (I'm a collaborative clothier in addition to a new mom), so I had time to throw this pic up on Flickr, but never added it to my blog.

Anyway, I designed and made this little dress for her while procrastinating about the wedding dress (which is going really well, despite procrastination). The little flower is in the style of some accessories I occasionally make for sale.

Bundy looks so pretty in Blue!

..Oh yeah, her nickname has become "Bundy." The original derivation is long and silly, but you can think of it as short for "Bundle of Joy," which she certainly is.

Balding Beauty

2007-07-10T16:57:00.001-07:00

Balding Beauty, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Another shot of Amelia in her new blue dress. This is before washing; the flower is now charmingly crumpled.

stacking rings

2007-06-30T12:07:00.001-07:00

stacking rings, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I made these stuffed fabric stacking rings for Amelia. Once she can sit, I'll make a little wooden post for her to stack them on. For now, she likes to practice her new ability to hold things with the green and blue rings.

unstacked rings

2007-06-30T12:01:00.001-07:00

unstacked rings, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I wanted them to have hidden properties, so:
the orange one jingles,
the green one rustles
and
the yellow one stinks.

I meant for it to smell pleasantly of jasmine, but I overdid it, and my entire apartment reeked for a week!

knitted cat toy

2007-06-20T14:31:00.001-07:00

knitted cat toy, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I used Fuzzy Mitten's siamese cat pattern, with minor modifications--I did the ears differently than directed, and modified the face shape very slightly.

I used a great alpaca/wool/silk blend for the body: nice and firm, but soft. The darkest brown yarn matches Amelia's baby blanket

kitty profile

2007-06-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

kitty profile, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

the way I attached the head, kitty wants to look up. It's endearing from certain angles.

Amelia and kitty

2007-06-20T14:24:00.001-07:00

Amelia and kitty, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I put jingle bells in the body, so I can shake it in front of Amelia--she seems to like it.

I want new clothes!

2007-06-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

wow, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

After 3 months of wearing whatever would go over my distended body, I've been dying for some new clothes. Specifically, I want a dress: dresses are so cute this season, and I like dresses best anyway. Unfortunately, they're also the hardest thing to nurse in, so I'm planning to make a couple myself, engineered for easy nursing! They may become prototypes for a line of nursing clothes I'm considering making...

To prepare, I padded the boob area of my dress form (which I made) to match my new, nursing proportions. Of course, the rest of me doesn't look like that yet, but: wow.

Ugly baby hat

2007-06-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ugly baby hat, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Presley's mother gave me the little yellow baby hat on the left; it's one he wore when he was tiny-tiny. I love the pattern, but it's acrylic yarn, so I decided to copy it in nicer yarn. In the middle, you can see the yarns I choose. On the right, you can see the hat in progress.

Maybe she thinks it's too ugly?

2007-06-14T17:55:00.001-07:00

Maybe she thinks it's too ugly?, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

The hat came out so-so. The melon-colored yarn is too floppy for the style, and I think the original knitter changed needle sizes for the neck band, which I didn't do. All in all, the original has a much nicer shape.

I'll post another photo when she get's old enough to actually wear it.

Very Small Hat

2007-06-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

Very Small Hat, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

When Amelia first came out, she had a Very Small Head. The lovely volunteers at the hospital make baby hats, but that was her only hat, and it was acrylic (okay, I'm a yarn snob).

I tried to buy her another one, but apparently, baby hats don't come that small, so I resolved to make one.

Wasted Yarn

2007-06-11T12:03:00.001-07:00

Wasted Yarn, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Somehow, I've never knitted anything in the round before, so I didn't know about the Pit of Mobius Knits, and got my first attempt hopelessly twisted. When I finally realized I couldn't fix it (I tried), I cut it in frustration.

Oops.

3 leaves

2007-06-11T12:01:00.001-07:00

3 leaves, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I spent waaaaay too long designing this hat. There are things I like about it, and things I'd like to fix.--I'm knitting a revised version for my sister's unborn baby.

Oh, and BTW--Amelia never wore this hat. By the time I finished it, it was too small.

milk paint

2007-06-07T16:25:00.001-07:00

milk paint, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

...I (mostly) finished the dressers after two weeks of frustration and great deal of help from Presley's mom, Andrea. I learned that lesson: "accept help". I didn't learn the other obvious lesson: "keep it simple": I stubbornly stuck with my original design, including the inside of the drawers in a contrast color!

milk paint

2007-06-07T16:19:00.001-07:00

milk paint, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

This is a project I undertook the first week after Amelia's birth. ...Well, actually the first 2 weeks.

I quickly realized that all those tiny little clothes, etc. needed a place to go, so I ( okay, my mother-in-law) bought some little dressers. I've always wanted to do a project with Milk Paint ever since my husband started using it in his art, so I chose unfinished wood dressers.

I designed two color schemes and sent Presley and his mom out for supplies. The problems began almost immediately: The pink dresser required two colors: Salmon and Salem red--the art store was out of Salem red. They're still out, that's why the top drawer is unpainted!

If any of you have worked with milk paint, you know it's a project just to get it mixed. I did a pretty bad job at first, and ended up needing more white to make up for waste. I also discovered that certain colors--including white & light tints--gel up in the fridge and become unuseable!

The day I started this prect was the first day I experienced "baby blues"--I felt hopelessly incapable.

In the end, I mostly finished the dressers

Baby blanket

2007-05-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

knitting a baby blanket, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

The first project I made for Amelia was a Baby blanket I started when I was 6 months pregnent. Really, it was just an excuse for me to fondle baby alpaca yarn for three months.

Here it is partway completed--I knitted this much mostly over my Christmas vacation--the rest was knitted mostly during my commute to and from work. Keeping it on circular needles made it easy--I just wore it around my neck when I was in between locations. I wore the skein of yarn over my shoulder--someday I'll post a pic of that--It's a really handy way to knit on the go.

knitting detail

2007-05-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

knitting detail, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Here's a detail of the leaf pattern.
I found the original pattern on the internet, but I tweaked it a bit to look more defined. (compare the top leaf with the bottom one).

leaf pattern

2007-05-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

leaf pattern, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Here's the pattern I ended up with, after tweaking the decidedly less complicated original. I have to translate regular knitting patterns into charts, because all that text gets lost in my brain. Charts stick much better...until I memorize it, that is.

The symbols rom the charts were adapted from ones I found on a Japanese knitting site.

The color coding helps me keep track of where I am in the pattern--it's easier for me to remember "pink" than "Row 2."

Finished Blanket

2007-05-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

two recent projects, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

...and here's the finished blanket draped neatly over Amelia at 3 days old.

Mostly, it's not draped this artistically, and it's pretty misshappen and full of pills, but still very soft and warm and useful, and I hope she likes it.

Starting a blog!

2007-05-27T11:05:00.001-07:00

I see lunch..., originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Amelia has inspired a distinct upsurge of creative crafty energy, so I've decided to start a blog dedicated to her. I'll be posting photos and accounts of my projects for her & pictures of her. Here she is, in her first week of life, warmed by the blanket I knitted while pregnant, and anticipating her next meal.

Luckily, she's a "barricuda"--she latches onto boob real quick and starts sucking without much help from me. Which means I can nurse and knit at the same time!