Catholicism+Wine

I am still with you

Mr. P and I have had an eventful four years and change: we married in 2003, moved to New York City, and I pursued and received my MA.  Meanwhile, both my grandmothers and my grandfather passed away. When we moved back to the Napa Valley in 2005, we were only here a year before my father-in-law passed away and I experienced a miscarriage. Now here we are in 2008, God willing, and everyone seems fine for now. Little P is due in September.

Of all of our family losses, I really find myself missing my maternal grandmother the most. We really connected, and I always admired her. She was a classy, cheerful and loving lady who wrote beautiful letters, by hand, when it would be easier to call. She loved art, especially that of Georgia O'Keefe, and painted many subjects herself. She also crocheted, knitted and embroidered all through her life.

After her passing, when my mom was going through some of her items, a few unfinished projects were found. One of these, a crocheted baby blanket with its pattern, was handed on to me. I didn't really touch it or get it out of the bag it was in for about a year- baby things still made me feel a little "blegh" after the miscarriage, and I also had focused more on knitting.

So about a month ago I took out the blanket to look at it. One of the first things I noticed was the smell of her perfume on the yarn- even after years- and I wasn't sad. I was thankful for this reminder of her. I gave the blanket to my sister and she had the same reaction.  What an unexpected gift!

She completed most of the afghan- so I've decided to finish it.  When I work on it, I'm connected to my mom, who first taught me how to crochet, who learned from her mom; and I'm literally picking up the yarn and going on from where my grandmother left off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please remember Virginia, my grandmother, in your prayers.

Saturday Cobwebs

It's a sleepy Saturday morning in the valley. Mr. P and I are cruising around on the internet, and Mr. D is dreaming of catching blue jays (probably).  Just a few notes...

 

<sigh> Not only would I not mind being in London, but I would love to assist at this Pontifical High Mass that Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will be celebrating in June! Read more about it at www.latin-mass-society.org.

On an unrelated note, I'm discovering that the baby goods industry is just as full of marketing and messaging as the wedding industry.  If anything, it is worse: being a new parent, one is worried about "messing up" or not doing things correctly, and there are all kinds of goods out there to "reassure" you that by buying their goods, you're being a better parent. Examples abound.  Magazines are a good place to start if you want to see what kinds of gadgets are out there for anxious parents. I just read an ad about a "Prenatal Education System" that you strap to your belly.  The gadget then broadcasts "lessons" of various sounds to your unborn child. Spending the money on this product and giving your baby these lessons is supposed to yield all kinds of benefits- smarter! more ready to nurse! etc!  I wonder who gets suckered into these things? I recently talked about language development with a professor from BYU. He listed for me all of the abilities that infants have, innately, when it comes to language absorption and retention. An 18-month old, for instance, already knows syntax- well before he even comes close to reading. Babies have abilities that the rest of us will never have again in our lives. And Socrates, and Thomas Aquinas, and Einstein never had prenatal learning systems that their mothers diligently strapped to their bellies.

So some baby stuff is bunk, or at least easy to reject out-of-hand. But then there's the things that are traditional, and can cost a lot of money now: mobiles! wicker bassinets! strollers that look like old-fashioned prams! These are MY Achilles' heel. I almost buy these things, in my happy baby fog.

I realize, though, that darn it, I am a crafty person who was raised by a crafty mom. When we needed costumes, she made them. When our American Girl dolls lacked clothes or fancy steamer trunks, she made them. And she loves doing those kinds of things-and she passed the love of handmade goods onto us. I can knit and crochet, sew a little and embroider. My sister knits even better than I, can make soap, and does wonders with pastels and paper.

I was at the Pottery Barn website. If you want to see expensive items, especially for little people, go there. They have these adorable mobiles- one was even on sale. I was tending towards the sale one, when something shook me out of my consumer stupor: I could make some of these! They had soft, home-sewn stars and moons on them. I think I even made something like these stars for Girl Scouts in 3rd grade. So there's another project to add to the pile. A challenge, really: I want to make this mobile in such a way that no one knows it's been homemade.

I've also been hung up on baby furniture. I NEED a baby dresser, I thought. We're short on closet space. Then I returned to reality, again, and realized that I already have smaller, modular dressers that are even the right color. With new knobs, they will look very nursery-ish. Done, and hundreds of dollars NOT spent.

A dear friend of mine works at a magazine. She sent me copies of tons of wonderful, old baby patterns, mainly knitting patterns. Among them is the pattern, with a whole photo layout, for a sweater that Princess Grace knit for Princess Caroline. Imagine! Even princesses once knitted for their babies, even though, unlike for other moms, the need for knitted items was absent in Princess Grace's case. But other households traditionally relied on home-knit undies and baby items. And here we are now, not even considering that we could make some of the things that we buy. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I don't HAVE to knit a whole layette set. But as we try to consume and waste less, making certain things from scratch can be really economical. And it cuts the clutter from our lives.

I told you that this was a random post.  I just hope that it didn't add to the clutter of your own day!

Spring Knitting and Embroidery

...not just because I am expecting... but because there seems to be a lot of baby showers lately, and on the horizon. And with Easter came a whole season of baptisms, as well. So here are some projects I'm working on:

 

A burp/ all purpose towel, with various baby designs on it. The towels are flour sack ones from a local hardware store; I washed them in hot water before putting on the iron-on transfer and beginning the work, just in case they'd shrink.

The patterns come from Pattern Bee , the website that I've blogged about on another occasion. They have just a huge number of iron-on transfer patterns from the 1920s-50s. Their transfers can be used a couple of times- I think three (and a very faint fourth) was the max for me before the image really didn't transfer anymore.

I've been trying to practice making French Knots with the flower centers in this pattern, and I'm just not having any luck with it. Instead of making French Knots I just end up making a few regular ol' American knots in the thread before bringing my needle back down into the fabric again.

All in all, though, I' m really liking the colors and look of this pattern. I just need to brainstorm now as to what other fabrics I'll embroider: bibs? collars? smocks? socks? With me and a needle and thread, nothing is safe....

Another source for projects:

"Easy Baby Knits" is a book that I decided to purchase after browsing the baby knitting book at Borders. I liked it because 1) I knit slowly, and the tot would probably be in short pants before I'd have an elaborate pattern done- these patterns are all fairly easy, though, and many are quicker 2) There wasn't an "angle" to the baby patterns- they weren't funky or frilly or rock-starish or full of crazy colors or patterns. Just pretty and simple baby things. Call me boring...

So I'm working on this bonnet. I happened to have some soft white Karabella merino in my stash, and it is working out beautifully so far. 

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With this book I've also vowed to tackle my irrational fear of baby bootees. Why bootees? I don't know, maybe because they're like little socks, and I'm convinced that knitting socks must be the hardest thing on the planet besides weaving the Bayeaux Tapestry (though I haven't tried to knit a sock yet). But This Time... no excuses. (I could make all kind of crude "boo-tee" jokes now, but why spoil a good thing?)

A New Year....

... and a new knitting book!

I'm just mad for my new book, Fitted Knits.  Not only are the patterns almost all genuinely cute and wearable, but they're mostly knitted from the top, down, making them easy to try on and fit to your figure. They also have a little retro-"Anthropologie" flair to them, something I'm a big sucker for.

 

I am working on this vest- I love fitted, knitted vests over dress shirts. I have some tweedy Elsbeth Lavold cotton/wool blend yarn that I will be using for it, if all goes as planned.

 

And I think that the author of the book knows her target audience. Look! It's an Elizabeth Bennet cardigan!

I don't mind if we lose power today- or tomorrow- I can always knit by candlelight! Like Elizabeth might have done....

A Cozy Time of Year

So I'm sitting here with Darius on my lap, and he is purring away, being very fluffy and orange. Pretty cozy way to spend the short winter afternoon, if you ask me!

Speaking of cozy, I recently finished knitting one of Jo Sharp's patterns: a wool tea cozy. I'll be giving it to a friend for Christmas:

 

It's a bit big for the teapot that is modeling it, but I love the lace rows and the "thermal underwear" look of the moss stitch. A fun and easy pattern- I just don't like weaving ends in!

Knitting Bleg: Odi et Amo

(delightfully cheesy!)

I love knitting, especially when the pattern is easily understood, the nice-feeling and pretty fibers are turning into a neat and shapely object, and I can escape from the world for a while. But every now and then, I become perplexed by the craft, and have to put it away.

Take my current, recently finished article, a Vogue deep-ribbed sweater vest. Now in the description they call it "sexy," but in no way was I fooled by that ("sexy" and handknit= marketing ploy). But regardless, the vest looked sharp, from the picture, and worthy of the time it would take to knit it. Used size 7 needles, and it went relatively quickly.

So it has been blocked, made up, and is ready-to-wear. But there's only one problem: I don't even think I like it! It seemed like a recipe for knitting bliss: a creamy Rowan tweed wool yarn, classic design, easy to knit. But I try the dang vest on and I don't know whether it looks homemade (in a pathetic way), or homespun (in a J.Jill way).  And I can't be objective about it at all, and I would really like the vest to disappear for a while. My sister, who will give an honest appraisal, is coming over tonight, and I plan on putting her to the vest test.

Fellow knitters: has this happened to you, especially with items that are meant to be clothing? Why do you think this happens, if it has happened to you? I don't know if it's because I made the thing... or because I know the mistakes I made in it, or because I have just seen it too much in the past few weeks... what do you think?

Knitting for a Cause

Knitters are known for their generosity. If the first act of a new knitter is to learn how to knit and purl, then it seems that the second act of a new knitter is to give some knitted-and-purled thing to someone.  Whether these knitted gifts are appreciated or not is another topic (one would hope so!). If you want to ensure that your knitted goods are well-loved, and do something good for someone this Lent, then here are some ideas!

1) Many knitters make booties, bonnets and baby blankets to donate to their local crisis pregnancy centers. Call the center near you to see if they can use your knitted baby items.

2) Nursing homes can often use knitted/crocheted afghans, shawls or slippers. Contact homes in your area to see if you can visit (a good thing in itself!) and give out some of your handknits.

2) Orphans in Africa, some abandoned when their parents died of AIDS or other diseases, others just abandoned, can benefit from your knitting skills. Send $3.00 to the Mother Bear project and knit a bear for an orphan. The $3.00 covers postage for the pattern (which they will send you), and shipping the bear to Africa. For more info, go to www.motherbearproject.org. I received my pattern awhile ago, and need to start it. It's really an easy pattern, and you can use any yarn you want, as long as it's washable. I do believe that the pattern is available in crochet instructions, too.

Do you know of any other charities or projects that can benefit from knitting/crocheting efforts? Let me know,or post here in the comments. 

(Photo from a Namibian orphanage, from www.motherbearproject.org)

 

A New Chart

My mom gave me my first sampler when I was about 10 years old. Ever since then, I haven't been able to put down this little-old-lady-before-my-time pastime. In fact, I've added knitting and crocheting to embroidery and cross stitch... now where's my orthopedic shoes and 10 cats?

Anyway, right now I am excited about the chart below that I just pre-ordered from European Cross Stitch. These are the kinds of samplers that I love- they will never look dated (in a bad way), and are so beautiful, they are worth every stitch. Great hare-and-hounds border. Ok, I won't inflict anymore needle nerdiness on you today.