The Grand Unveiling

I finished my sweater last night. Which is to say, I finally attached the buttons. Forgive the terrible picture. The heat has apparently affected my eyesight. Or my camera.

Tiny Buttons

I'm on the hunt for sweet buttons for my little sweater. Here are some contenders from Etsy:

Wooden buttons from Overspill's Shop


Butterflies from Wholeport's shop


Birds from stefaniexu's shop


Or these darlings from appleandeggs shop

Too many cute options! I don't know how I'm going to decide.

Blankets & Visitors

BB's Mom is coming for a last minute visit and we're so excited. I'm on tidying duty tonight and am mentally assembling menus that I think she'll like. We're lucky because Boston is in bloom and looking particularly pretty. So all we really need in the way of entertainment is to step outside.

I've been hit by the crafting bug again lately and am a mere two rows away from completing the monster, cabled baby blanket that I started well over a year ago. And I already have my next project queued up. Another baby blanket! ( I swear I'm not expecting.) I randomly checked Erika Knight's Natural Nursery Knits out of the library last week and am completely entranced.


It's the Cellular Blanket that caught my eye.

Fabric Stamping Admiration

I've spent this morning admiring the heck out of HomeSweet's beautiful hand stamped products.


Her results are truly inspiring. My screen printing has come a long way, but my fabric stamping skills are dreadful. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in her studio and pick up some tips!

Staycation

Much though I wish I didn't have to use the word "staycation", that's exactly what I had over the past few days. And what I learned is that I'm not so bad at cleaning, chores, etc as I thought I was. I'm actually pretty great at it when I have the time. Unfortunately, I have to take days off to have the time.

So I did the big Spring clean, purged a ton of stuff that we don't use and cooked and crafted my little heart out. For example, I finished making this little mouse:



And found a home foe this Shaker tray:


And finished little Julian's socks:

I even baked muffins and refrigerator pickles (documentation to follow). Sigh. I need more days off.

Socks for Julian

What's this peculiar looking thing? Why it's only the cutest little baby sock in the world for my friend's new baby, Julian!


Ok, it's probably not the cutest baby sock in the world, but it's the first one I've ever attempted & I'm feeling proud. I'm using the Striped Socks pattern from Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino 2 book, with a few modifications. It knits up super fast on two needles. I knit this up over the course of two hours last night. (Full Disclosure: I knit really slowly and I was watching Lost. I'm sure the pattern actually knits up much more quickly.)

You just sew up the back of the piece to make it sock shaped. Plus, it doesn't have a ton of ends to weave in because you carry the alternating yarn colors up the side. So far, I'm a big fan of two needle baby socks. I'm actually mentally designing a pair right now...

Heather Ross on Spoonflower

Some of Heather Ross' classic designs are now available for order on Spoonflower! Squee!





The palates have been reworked, so they're not identical to the originals. But I think they're grand! And isn't Spoonflower just about the coolest thing you've ever heard of?

More Screen Printing

Here's phase 1 of my next screen. The blue dots are the screen drawing fluid. Once they're dry, I'll coat the screen with screen filler. Then, after that dries, I'll rinse the whole screen off and the blue dots will wash out, leaving a pattern for printing.


As you can tell, the screen printing bloom is still on the rose.

Granny Squares and the Dresser

The granny square blanket is looking a bit wishy-washy to me, so I've decided to add a more pronounced border. I'm going to use the two purple tones that I've already used in the squares. Cross your fingers.


Oh and here's a long overdue shot of the new dresser. It needs a picture or something, but I still can't get over how clean it looks (excepting the screen printing materials and loom on the right).

Babies and Grannies

The granny squares have been assembled! School was let out early yesterday, which gave me an unexpected and lovely pocket of free time to work on Erin's blanket. It's not quite ready for its unveiling yet, as I'm still working on the border.

And in far more exciting news, my friend Brandy had her baby last night! They had a beautiful boy named Julian. And now I'm trying to figure out how to make a butch version of the baby bloomers. I don't know that it's possible.

Here's a little of the baby boy inspiration that I've been perusing while I ponder.




*all beautiful baby gifts above are from Oeuf

Granny Square Distraction

My granny squares have been completed and are laying out, ready for assembly. The assembly will be happening tonight, in theory. But Lost is on and I suspect the evening will have more smoke monster than crocheting.

So here's a little granny square inspiration to keep me on the righteous path.





So pretty. I will crochet tonight. I will only partially pay attention to the smoke monster. I will persevere in the face of explosions, time travel and wild exposition.

Oh, on the granny square front, Alicia Paulson is selling the pattern to her Sunshine Day Baby Afghan. it's absolutely gorgeous and well worth checking out.

Bloomer Mania

Catch it! Far from simply finishing the waistband on my first pair of bloomers, as planned, I started a second pair. And they seemed to be finished in moments. I love little projects like this. Minor commitment, adorable finished product. I think I'll make a third pair in my purple crown fabric and gift Erin a trio of purple bloomers.

Here's the completed first pair:


And pair number two:


All together now:


My bouncing baby brother is coming up this weekend, so it should be bloomer free. But one never knows.

Bloomers

I started a test version of the baby bloomers last night on a piece of scrap fabric, so that I could figure out my modifications before cutting into my hand printed stash. Here are some pictures of phase 1 (sans elastic):



I finished the elastic around the legs too late last night to get pictures. But I'll get you a finished product shot by tomorrow. I decided to go with elastic thread around the leg holes, as suggested by Ms. Heather Ross, because it seemed less restrictive for little baby legs. My only issue with it was that the elastic on one leg shrunk beautifully and on the other leg only shrunk a bit. So I'll have to hit it with the iron again tonight and hope for the best. Or find a baby with one fat leg.

Octopus Temptation

I saw this Octopus Rubber Stamp at Papersource yesterday and think it would make an adorable fabric for a child's room:


It's tough because I really want to create my own patterns for Erin's baby gifts, but this pre-made octopus is really tempting...

BB and I also went to Ittyo at Porter Exchange for lunch yesterday and they had octopus balls just like the ones in Osaka! Talk about octopus temptation...

Also, check out these Pewter Octopus Napkin Rings:

Arrows

So our friend Jeff and Caitlin own Beatles Rock Band and we've been playing it obsessively. I find myself strangely entranced by the arrow set they performed on when they played the Ed Sullivan Show. I'm thinking that my next fabric design will play with the idea of arrows within arrows. Is it strange that two out of three of my first fabric will be Beatles inspired?


I especially like the triple arrow action behind Ringo's platform.

Birthday Ball

Brooke over at inchmark has a great post about Santa Balls. I think that I might borrow the idea and make a Birthday Ball for Dave's little cousin Kayla. She'll be turning ten and I think the idea of unwrapping layer after layer of crepe paper to uncover hidden gifts will really appeal to her. It's exciting, but not babyish.

I'm wondering if it might be less time consuming to use streamers, rather than cutting tissue paper strips.

Pink Prints and Chocolate

My painted screen worked! I'm still getting a feel for the consistent application of pressure, but I actually really like the variation that resulted.



I'm going to partially screen the edge of the fabric tonight and then heat set the whole thing. I think this is going to become a very simple dress for Erin's baby. And a throw pillow with whatever is left.

While I had the camera out, I thought I'd show you the adorable chocolate clogs that my Mom put in my Christmas stocking.

A friend of my Grandmother's, who they all called Tante, used to bring these to my Mom and her sister whenever she visited. They've become something of a family legend. My Mom always wanted to get they for my brother and I when we were young, but could never find them. So it was such a surprise to see them in my stocking! Mom and I each tried one and she swears they taste exactly like she remembered. Isn't it nice when that happens?

Non-Toxic Bonus

I just found out that Speedball Screen Drawing Fluid and Screen Filler (for fabric printing) are both non-toxic. Which means that my whole printing set up is actually non-toxic. Honestly, I just grabbed the two smallest bottles of these products available without knowing about their toxicity because I didn't think I would be doing much beyond stencil prints.


But now I find myself quite encouraged. Although I do feel a bit silly for wearing rubber gloves as I worked last night.

Hand Painted Screen

So what's this pretty thing?


Why just the screen that I made last night using drawing fluid and screen filler, thanks!

I had so much fun doing it. And even though I botched up initially and painted on the wrong side (against a piece of paper no less), it still turned out just fine. It really is like magic.


It had to dry overnight, so I couldn't print with it right away. But I'm going to tonight on a lovely lightweight linen. I'm thinking in pink for more baby gifts. But I think it would also look cool in something neutral like white or navy on linen, for a throw pillow or bag. I'll let you know how printing with a hand painted screen compares to printing with a stencil.

Print Session #1

I hunkered down to my first real screen printing last night, with decent fabric. And although I wouldn't call it an astonishing success, I would still call it a success.


I was listening to Abbey Road while I was sketching and the crown stencil was actually inspired by "Her Majesty". So I may need to send a swatch to Paul McCartney as a thank you.


Just kidding. This fabric is going to become bloomers for my friend's baby girl. Sorry, Paul.

The nice part about screening my own fabric is knowing that non-toxic ink has been used on it, so I can feel confident about making baby clothes out of it. The only frustration is having to wait until tomorrow to make a second printing pass. It's funny, knitting makes me unusually patient. But printing makes me want to go, go, go.