One of my Wise Mama bits of advice: When you send your (young) children out to play in the snow, set a timer for 30 minutes when the youngest goes out the door. When the timer goes off, start the kettle. It usually works out that I’ve just finished mixing up everyone’s cocoa when some of them start heading back in, pink-cheeked and in need of some refreshment. So much easier than having them clamoring around my knees and telling me how cold they are while we’re waiting for the water to boil.
I was doing so well yesterday. I was teaching, I was answering questions, and I was engaging in witty banter with my beloved offspring all while trimming down some hexies to baste. Voila! Lots of hexies, and school going along on schedule to boot.
My inner celebratory dance spasmed into consciousness, knocking over the can of Diet Coke I had been enjoying but a moment beforehand. Knocking over the can directly onto my fresh-faced hexies. Knocking over the can so violently that the carbonation went out of control and spewed Diet Coke all over everything in its vicinity.
Hexies, chairs, worksheets, notions case, everything in the notions case. Tidal waves of Diet Coke surging outward and destroying everything in its path.
Good feeling gone.
I didn’t freak out; I calmly dealt with the offensive can of explosive horror, wiped everything up, and then commenced with watching my once-starched hexagons curl up and peel away from their freezer paper templates throughout the remainder of the day.
This is what happens when moms dance, even just “pretending” in their heads. Heed the warning. Lock it up.
Hopefully Diet Coke washes out, and hopefully freezer paper re-adheres…everything was going so well yesterday. Until it wasn’t.
The long sides of my little bag are pieced, and now I’m working on appliqueing the teeny hexie strips to their proper places. I decided to go with the hopscotch print for the main fabric of the bag because I just love it so much, it should be the main fabric, right? Let’s just hope my girls don’t think that the bright pink earmarks it as only appropriate for the under-thirty crowd.
I do my handwork while listening to my kids recite their various school facts, or else I go insane sitting and listening to the things I recited as a young school child. (The brain can only take so much–when you start in on the third kid’s schooling, you’re just kind of done.) BUT, during my second grader’s math lesson, these little hexagons came in handy:
It was a lesson on angles, and she’d forgotten how many angles a hexagon had. Hee hee. Crafty teacher mama for the win!
Linking up with the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts, and Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.
There’s all these link-ups on Fridays for “Finished” items, but I have no finished items to share. Boo.
However, I did finish a step in the construction of my Aspen Frost…table cover/runner/mini quilt…thing. (What am I going to call this?) Hee hee, chevrons make me smile.
I’m thinking that I’m going to do a minimally-pieced backing instead of just one fabric. I love the aqua blue in the Aspen Frost fabric collection, and so I’m going to try to get some yardage. Then, after using the chevron side during the Christmas season, I can flip it over and enjoy the very appropriate winter hue during January. It will be quilted with red, green, white, and blue thread…but I think it will work.
Or I could go with a plain color back and just let the quilting shine on the other side. So many options. I’ve never done a pieced back before, and I totally love the look of the ones I’m seeing in Elizabeth Hartman’s The Practical Guide to Patchwork, and would like to give it a try.
Decision, decisions…what do you think?
Oh, hey, look at that, a “Finishing” link-up that doesn’t require a fully-finished object. Awesome! I’m linking up with the Link-A-Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts.
I’m trying to be a good little auntie.
I have a weird sibling situation that I finally came to a conclusion upon last year about how I’m going to treat all my present, former, and kind-of siblings: I’m just gonna love them all. More love always wins, right?
One of my sisters had a baby last week, and there’s nothing like the actual birth of a baby to really light the fire under one’s rear end to finish the crafties intended for said baby. She had a little boy, and he is beautiful.
I’ve been working on this layette since October. The plan was to finish it all before Christmas and then ship it so it’d be there before the birth, but…yeah. Whatever, it’s finished, and it’s heading to the post office in the next couple of days to make its way to the chilly, chilly Canadian town that boasts one more beautiful baby boy as of last week.
The cardigan is the Little Coffee Bean Cardigan pattern, knit up in Plymouth Yarn’s Jeannee Worsted (51% Cotton, 49% Acrylic). The buttons are from JoAnn Fabric. I knit up a matching hat following the Basic Hat Pattern in The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, by Ann Budd.
The blanket is crocheted, as is every blanket I’ve ever made from yarn. (The idea of knitting a blanket makes me twitch a wee bit.) The pattern is “Pastel Waves,” from Leisure Arts Our Best Baby Afghans, which I’ve owned for years upon years. I used good ol’ Red Heart Super Saver for it, despite its baby-melting acrylic content. I just haven’t reached the point where I can buy that much cotton yarn at once. That also makes me a bit twitchy.
So I’ll send this off, with much love and many wishes that I could live closer to this new soul. It’s somewhat heart-breaking to watch all these nieces and nephews grow up, and know that I’m only seeing it in photographs instead of experiencing it in person. Sigh. But, perhaps, they’ll be reminded that I care when they snuggle up in a blanket or sweater I’ve made for them.
That’s the hope–that they’ll feel my love and know that I wish I was right there with them.
Happy BIRTHday, Little Baby J.
This post is participating in Small Thing’s “Yarn Along,”
“Anything Goes Monday” at Stitch by Stitch,
and “Sew Cute Tuesday” at Blossom Heart Quilts.
They’re little, teeny half-inch hexagons that will embellish the side of a project bag found in Hexa Go-Go by Tacha Bruecher. (Sorry, Jessica, for name-dropping on someone else’s hexie book–but rest assured, your hexie book is on my shopping list!) The fabric is just completely random scraps I found in the bottom of a stash box.
It was the Life Under Quilts and A Few Scraps blogs that first introduced me to the idea of English Paper Piecing/hexagon quilting last year. (Ironic that my first hexie book wasn’t Quilting on the Go…) The idea’s been sitting in the back of my mind since, and then I saw Hexa Go-Go at the fabric shop I visited with my bestie over Christmas break, saw the author’s little blurb about how hexagons were “quilting’s answer to knitting,” and I decided that it was time to learn. Lack of portability has been my main reason to avoid sewing and quilting all these years, and portability is one of the reasons why I love knitting so much. I’m no stranger to crafting in public, and I’d love to include sewing and quilting in my arsenal of portable crafting!
Making hexies is fun. It’s super simple and they come together really quick, and they’re way, way cute. I’m planning to make my son’s upcoming “big boy bed” quilt with some sort of hexagon design element because I love the technique so much.
I’m trying to decide on the fabrics for the rest of the bag, so my sewing desk looks like this:
Too much cute! (And can you tell that I mostly make things for little girls?)
I know, I know, Christmas is over, but I received Christmas fabric in my stocking and I just can’t leave it alone! Part of the Santa Stash was two charm packs of Basic Grey’s Aspen Frost collection, and I succumbed to temptation over the weekend and started a new project:
I’m finally acknowledging my affinity for chevrons, and I keep seeing beautiful chevron quilts, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon and making one of my own! If my math is right, this will end up measuring 36 x 36″, so nothing big, just a teeny wall hanging or table mat. I’m excited about how it’s going to turn out!
I have a few ideas about how to quilt this–I started learning the basics of free-motion quilting before the holidays, so I’m eager to try out some new skills. Hopefully we can all just get along and have a good experience? Alright, Aspen Frost? We’re cool, right?
I guess we’ll see…
My second published pattern to date! This cute little thing was designed for a scarf and cowl contest at Harmony, one of my local yarn shops.
Yes indeed, it is crocheted. And it is lovely–I crocheted it in Blue Sky Alpacas’ Sport-Weight, and it is completely luscious-feeling against the skin! I am definitely making more of these!
I’ve named it the Harmony Wave Cowl, in honor of Harmony’s contest, and for the obvious wavy stitch pattern. It’s a quick pattern; I whipped this up over the course of two days of teaching school.
The original creation is on display at the Harmony shop until the end of the scarf and cowl contest on December 12.
*Offer is good for one individual download of Harmony Wave Cowl pattern until 11:59 PM MST, December 12, 2013. Please visit Cara Brooke’s design store on Ravelry.com to complete your transaction. Registration for a free Ravelry account may be required for redemption of offer.
Because it’s October,
Because I have an adorable little nephew who is going to totally rock this hat,
And because I’ve harbored a secret desire to design knitting patterns for almost a decade.
Here it is, my debut pattern, self-published on Ravelry and available to any who wish to partake of its cuteness.
Yes, I’m proud.
Broken down to its bare bones, this is just a simple little hat with cables and a little bit of colorwork on the top. This particular version was knit with Rowan Felted Tweed DK, which was quite nice to work with. I prefer DK-weight yarns for kids’ hats because of its lighter weight. Worsted can so easily get too bulky on wee people, but DK-weight just works so perfectly.
Monkeyboy is modeling the hat, but it has been knit to fit a slightly smaller child, so it’s a tad snug on my boy’s noggin. I’ll probably knit him one in the 2-4 year size since he was such a fan of wearing it for the pictures.
You can read more about the pattern over on Ravelry, and you can buy the pattern if you’d like. There’s just something about knitting up little pumpkins this time of year and watching little people run around with stems atop their heads. Makes me smile so much.
That Crafty Cara 