Confinement

Sadly I have been unable to find a job - even temporary work. The whole summer has felt as if I have been under confinement - with nothing to do or prepare for except the birth of my child. Honestly, the preparations are not a huge, time-consuming endeavor. I have cleaned the house, re-organized, and purged till it became obvious that I had to stop because I can no longer lift heavy things.

I had grand plans to learn how to sew, but I am currently stuck as I am really scared of needles. I have read the manuals and understand the basics, however a machine with a needle is still quite scary to me.

Therefore, much of my time has been spent crocheting items for the little one. I have gathered various patterns for bibs, sweaters, toys, etc. I started some in Houston and have finished a few.

The bibs were the first things I have completed because they seemed less complicated and pretty straightforward. The only difficulty was that the pattern I selected had ties on the bib which I am not fond of - ties seem dangerous to me. I wanted to put straps on the bib instead which resulted in some problem solving. The end result looks quite charming in my opinion.

(REMEMBER: you can click on the picture to get a bigger image!)


The frog bib front followed a pattern I got from Lion Brand Yarns and the other bib follows a pattern I found in one of my crochet calendars I get every year at Christmas.



Here you can see the straps I added onto the frog bib. I can see how the ties would look better with the frog, but I think the straps are safer. Plus one gets to choose cute buttons! I just hope they are not too much of a chocking hazard.

The next bib pattern I attempted also came from Lion Brand Yarns and was an owl.


Here is my attempt using a variety of yarn I had left over from previous projects.



Here it is with the straps, which I fear I attached to close together - it might be better as a bib for a toy or doll later.


An unexpected result of the owl bib is I was able to have my own Rorschach test! Here are the results so far:

Lance - "oh, a dog! Nice!"
Renee - "A monkey!"
Megan - "A little fish!"

I have not developed a rubric for what these responses tell us about each individual, but I was confident that the bib did not look like an owl at all. I started to make another owl following the color scheme in the original pattern.

When I went back to look at the pattern, someone commented that it really was too cute a design for a bib and I quite agree. So I am making what hopefully resembles an owl, but I will make it a stuffed toy. I am also working on a pear-container with a snail toy inside. I will post those pictures when I finish.

I was also able to complete a cute sweater - I am stuck on what buttons to put on it. I could also choose one button at the top for a more swing-coat like design.



Here is the sweater up close.



I also finished a blanket. It was supposed to have a hood, but after looking at the picture long enough, the hood would make the baby look like a tiny, colorful Ku Klux Klan member. Not wishing to encourage idiotic behavior, the hood was out of the design and I made a tiny hat instead.



The hat looks like a little jelly fish. Lance was quite fond of it and wore it on his head as a fascinator.


He is starting to get a little sentimental about the cutie - all the little clothes are making him realize there will be a little person in our lives soon. I will take sentiment over what he said in the first months of my pregnancy which consisted mostly of scatological references and diapers.

More of what I have been making just as soon as I finish it!