Category Archives: crafts

Some Solo Dyeing

Since the Little Mister is so fond of rainbows these days, I decided to dye up a huge Eco-Wool hank, in rainbow hues, to make a special something just for him.

It didn’t quite go as well as I had hoped.

~This was my pathetic attempt at spreading the yarn out so that it would dry before it rained.~

First I set everything up, only to find that I didn’t have any green or blue and very little yellow. But everything was set up and getting anything involving water going around here is no small task, so I decided to forge ahead. I noticed that the very edges of one of the colors turned a blueish shade, so I started experimenting to get more of that. What I ended up with was a whole heck of a lot of mauve. My reds were all tending more towards pink as well and I was generally not a happy camper.

And this here is where Steve get’s extra credit, good husband points, for offering to run to the store to get me some green, blue and yellow while the yarn was still wet. Furthermore, this offer was made full well knowing that it meant almost an hour round trip on a dark and rainy night and without any real investment in the outcome of said yarn beyond the potential happiness of one mama and one wee boy. Now that’s love I tell ya!


I over-dyed it upon his return. The blue and green help a bit. There was only so much I could do since it had been dyed previously. It’s still w-a-y heavy on the shades of pink, when I wasn’t trying for any pink at all! And it’s just generally a whole lot more fruity-loop-y, pastel and cutesy, then I had in mind. But once you tell a three year old that you are dyeing a special yarn for a special project just for him, you kind of have to use *that* yarn, like it or not.

I have to say, after all this, I’m crazy curious to see how it actually knits up.

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crafts, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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A Rainbow of Colors

I’m not the only on getting ready for the winter holidays. Galen, whether from hearing me talk about it, or some other influence, has been eager to get his gift making underway.

The children’s choir rehearsals season has started, which means that the little, little ones and I have one night a week, where it’s just us. Some times we go with them and walk around town. Occasionally I need to attend a parents meeting, where Steve and I take turns entertaining the Littles. And some weeks, like last week, we stay home to just spend some time being together.

Galen has been going through a trying phase. It’s trying for both of us. He’s frustrated a lot and acting out. It’s partly developmental, part situational, and part of it is just the bumpiness of growing as a family. Whatever the reason, I know that this time together where it’s (mostly) just us, is so, so important to him right now. With that in mind, I’m trying to make the most of it. In following his lead, I decided to ask him for the details on the gifts he wants to make. Oh my, but there were a lot of details! I finally talked him down to his top 3 gifts for Màiri; two for Christmas and one for her birthday which falls shortly after. I didn’t have anything to fit his vision (this boy is all about rainbows right now and I had none on hand), and I came up with the idea of setting him up to dye the fabric himself.

These little bits below were made by using a paint brush to paint the Kool-Aid onto the wool…And they are the first part of this grand scheme.

His plans for his brothers were less well defined. I suggested that since we were to have the dye set up anyway that perhaps we could dye them some yarn.


He liked that idea and he *loved* wielding that baster! Honestly we both had a lot of fun.

I think the boys will appreciate their gift. They are both rapidly gaining skills in various yarn crafts and it will be a treat for them to have their own specially hand-dyed wool instead of scavenging through the little bits and pieces leftover in my yarn basket.


We used the remainder the Eco-Wool from Màiri’s vest. The one in blues and greens if for Iain and the shades of orange for Elijah.


Being just a bit too little, in a family that is full of people who are constantly making practical, useful things, whether it be furniture, food or clothes, is such a frustration for my poor little Goosey Boy. It’s such a joy for him to have something to be proud of. To be able to make and give something that will be appreciated and useful, rather then the usual sort of preschooler gifts. The kind that are sweet and cherished by motherly hearts, but destined for no more then a spot in a box somewhere, serving as a childhood relic.


I’m so glad to be able to give him that.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Homeschooling, Mothering, Yarn Crafts
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Thinking about dyeing

~A day’s worth of dyeing. The yarns on the end are from left to right: madder root, turmeric and beets~

All the pictures in this post are from 2005 and 2006. That was before I had a blog and before I was in the habit of taking pictures of my crafts. They are all of relatively poor quality, so sorry about that. I went through a phase back then of doing A LOT of dyeing. These are just some of the things I managed to find pictures of. There are so many more that aren’t pictured.

~Play silks for wrapping Christmas gifts in~

In the years that these were taken, we were still really sick. I was past the crisis stage by then, up and about, but still ill much of the time and exhausted all of the time. Exposure to a trigger still sent me to bed with my oxygen tank and we were very limited in what we could and could not handle, but I was well enough to go about most of the normal work of life, a fair bit of the time.

~The Boys tie-dyed these as a project for Iain’s 6th birthday~

It was during this time that we found out we were expecting Galen, which was, admittedly a bit of a surprise. We had wanted more children, but I had been so ill and we still didn’t have safe housing. I think I met that pregnancy with equal parts joy and over-whelming fear. It was a really scary and dark time for me and I became deeply depressed. No one could tell me if he was going to be alright or not. There were many times when I would be so sick that I would start to feel myself loose consciousness. Steve would get my oxygen mask on me and things would improve. But I knew that if I was experiencing the effects of oxygen deprivation then he had been experiencing it for longer. Every day brought a new risk to him.

~So many different dyes here! I know that the bright yellow is turmeric and the main color on the sweater is madder root. As for the other colors, I think there is some beet in there, some coriander, maybe some coffee.~

We are so lucky and have been so, so blessed with his general good health. He has residual problems with allergies and yeast, but beyond that no other permanent damage seems to have been done. The joy of his existence, of his wellness, brought me through some really difficult times.

I’m not really sure why I’m talking about all of this right now. Seems like a rather odd lead in to a post about dyeing yarn, doesn’t it? But I assure you, they are connected.

~A close-up. I remember being so pleased with this yarn as I was painting it. Then I tried to steam it and all the colors blended and mixed and lost a lot of their vibrancy. That little soaker is so tiny! I think I was around 24 weeks pregnant when I knitted it and I remember thinking that the baby would have to be born right then for it to fit! But it fit him perfectly for the first couple of weeks, when nothing else did. Màiri on the other hand was too big for it on the day she was born!~

Aside from the obvious, one of the major problems that we were having during that time was finding safe clothing for the children. I had boxes and boxes full of hand-me-downs that I couldn’t go near and they couldn’t possibly wear. Even our own things that should have been passed from child to child were useless. We had all started reacting to the detergent that we had used years before (Mrs. Myers in case you are wondering). So, here I was, with two kids that only had a couple of things to wear and one on the way with nothing at all.

~A couple of baby things; both natural and dyed with black walnut hulls. I always found it interesting how different fibers picked up the colors differently. Those wool booties are from the same dye pot as all the brown cotton above.~

So, hand-me-downs were out, as were thrift stores. Regular new clothing presented a problem as well; needing to be soaked for several days and then washed many times over before it could be worn (and making me sick all the while and leaving me feeling ill at ease about what I might be exposing my little ones to). Organics were great and what I wanted to be dressing them in anyway, but the cost was prohibitive and the selection extremely slim for the older children. I think there are more options these days, though it’s still expensive and limited, but back then it was even worse.

~Toddler sweater knitted from yarns dyed with fustic (the rust color) and madder root (the red)~

What I did have access to were several co-ops that were around at the time (they’re no anymore, so don’t bother asking) that did buys for organic fabric and yarn. I crunched some numbers and figured out that I could make most things for about a quarter of what I could buy them for. And so I took on the task of making most of Iain and Elijah’s clothes and all of Galen’s. I had all but stopped sleeping anyway, out of fear and worry, so I stayed up every night, dyeing and knitting and sewing until I was so exhausted that I would drift off, usually with knitting needles still in hand.


~My Dad holding Sweet Baby Galen, who is wearing a pair of shorties, knitted with yarn that had been tie-dyed using chlorophyll~

I was really excited to find some gorgeous color-grown materials and I worked with then extensively for a while. There got to be a point when I started getting really bored with always working in shades of cream, brown and green. I remember Iain coming to me one day (I think I had just given him a new shirt) and sighing wistfully saying, “Can’t we ever have anything blue? I mean I like green and cream and brown, but…” and then he sighed again.

~Longies from the same yarn, as you can see, I also did some solid to use for trim.~

I started experimenting with natural dyes, the irony being that most natural dyes produce lovely shades of colors like green and brown.

I didn’t want to risk the toxicity of traditional mordants, so I resorted to vinegar and salt, depending on the dye I was using.

I did a lot of experimenting and more often then not, I had no idea what kind of color I was going to end up with. Which is probably how Galen ended up with such a wide selection of pink things! I never did manage to create a good blue, though I did use indigo to dye the snowsuit I made him and turned a pretty pale grey/bluish-green.

~Cotton jacket dyed with madder root~

The sad thing about dyeing this way is that it simple doesn’t last. The madder and the fustic actually held up pretty well. The indigo developed strange rust like stains while in storage. Everything else just faded until it just ended up looking drab and dirty (even when it wasn’t).

~Galen on his first Halloween wearing a black walnut hull dyed bunny suit. The underside of the ears are madder root pink like the jacket above.~

I’ve been really itching to do some more dyeing again. This week I experimented a bit with Kool-Aid dyeing, now that I’m well enough to do so. I’ll share some of those projects with you here tomorrow. It was enjoyable, but by the end I wasn’t feeling real great. I don’t think I’ll attempt it again without running the air purifier near by. I’m also not sure how I’ll be with knitting it, but I thought it was worth a try!

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crafts, Kids, MCS, Yarn Crafts
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Season’s Round Exchange: Autumn

These are our contributions to the autumn Season’s Round Exchange. The theme was “harvest”. We took a few liberties there, but I think that one the whole, we did alright.


The sun catchers above were made by Iain and Elijah and they were inspired by the sunflowers at our farm. Sunflowers are Steve’s favorite, and we always fill the house with them in early autumn. Well, and what kind of autumn would it be without a jack ‘o lantern or two? We’re hoping that our partner has a window near his nature table!

Yes, his.

I’ll admit I was a bit panic stricken when I realized I had been paired with a man with no children. All along I had been picturing cute childish little things and I was completely stumped as to what to do for an adult. Especially considering the fact that it was out of country and therefore couldn’t contain any bits of nature. But then I got to know Tine, through his emails and his wife Pia through her blog Waldorf Heart and it was such a relief! I was still feeling pretty uninspired mind you, but they are such lovely people that I know they won’t judge harshly and they will accept our humble gifts knowing that they come from the heart. I’m kind of glad that, when I sent out my package, I didn’t know that Pia’s partner was Shelley of Waldorf Mama. Because seriously, talk about the potential for developing an inferiority complex, you know?

In looking through the contributions on the Season’s Round Flickr group (there is some incredible stuff out there by the way), I was kind of surprised to see that more people didn’t get their kids involved in the exchange. Actually I guess it makes sense since most of the people have their own kids to add to their nature tables. Accumulating stuff from other people’s kids is probably not high on the list of priorities, huh? Nope. Perfectly crafted Mama-made goodies where the submission du jour.

My kids really wanted to help out on this one and honestly I let them take the lead. Feeling over-whelmed by our whole housing situation seems to have temporarily stunted my creative mojo. I’m not sure what I’ll do for the next exchange, but for this one it felt right to let them forge ahead.

So, they made up the sun catchers, with a bit of advice from me. And this was my contribution…

in honor of my new love of course. Hey, wool is harvested too!

The boys sorted through my yarn basket and pulled out little bits of any color that they deemed “harvesty” and I just crochet each one in as it was handed up to me. The result is this funky little mat. I thought it would be good for putting a candle or a bowl on. That bright splash of yellow in the middle is some yarn that we dyed with turmeric several years back.

The card is from a local (to me) artist and features a series of farms along an autumnal river bank. It seemed just the thing to add to our package and if they so desire, to their table.

Meanwhile, I’m really hoping that this post hasn’t ruined the surprise! I’ve not gotten word that my partner has received his package yet, which isn’t exactly shocking. I know we sent our packages within a day of each other and his hasn’t arrived yet either, though we are all very eagerly waiting! Photo’s were supposed to be posted by today, so I thought I ought to get this out there.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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As if he wasn’t tall enough already….

Iain has been building his own simple stilts for several years now. He makes the kind with long pieces that you hold on to and little triangular blocks for your feet. Elijah and him get on quite well with them and build new sets and adjust the height of the old ones whenever it pleases them (one of the joys of growing up with scrap wood everywhere).

When an opportunity came up for Iain to take a stilt walking and dancing class with an entirely different form of stilts, we knew it would be right up his alley.


Unfortunately, it was for ages 9 and up, so Elijah had to play spectator on this one. But I’ve now got some “Circus Stilt” plans and when things settle down a bit we’ll be able to make him an appropriately sized pair. I suspect Iain will make a great teacher and the two of them will be strutting around town in no time.


Iain caught on quickly, which is not at all surprising because this is just the sort of thing that he so easily excels at. We are talking about the child who taught himself to ride a 2 wheel bike in less then an afternoon and by the end of the day was trying to fashion ramps and things to make it a bit more challenging. Yeah. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, sometimes I think it takes a really strong heart to raise boys. And I’m sure that it varies from boy to boy (and girl to girl for that matter), but as a women with a house full of self proclaimed dare-devils, I do a lot of breath holding and eye averting. Even Steve, who’s youth was full of antics that I couldn’t even have imagined, has been known to walk on by with a head shake and proclamation of, “It’s a good thing they’re made of rubber!” And it’s true, for all of their stunts, not a one of them has sustained a serious injury yet (I’m starting to get the alarming feeling of running on borrowed time).


The grand finale for class was marching in our annual town parade, followed by dancing on the common.

Iain designed his own costume (because he’s awesome like that). The parade had an outer-space theme this year. Iain and Elijah made all of the planet appliqués themselves.

As we all walked in the parade, I didn’t really get any pictures of the actual event, but some from getting ready before and waiting for the parade to start.

And some from after on the common.

Looking up to talk to him, I laughed and told him that this is how it’s going to be 10 years from now, I’m always going to have to look up to look into his beautiful blue eyes.


And yes, as the day progressed, my hat rather wilted in the heat.

I have to say, this boy of mine is a pretty neat guy…

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, sewing
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Rainy Day Crafting

I’ll save you the intro; if you live in the Northeast then you already know that it’s been raining; a lot. And if you don’t live in the Northeast, well then you’ve probably heard about it from those who do. So, while this post could really be about any week of late, it’s about a series of days back in May (because I’m seriously that far behind in posting), when we were trying to entertain ourselves during some dark, damp days.

First up was button magnets…


because we can always use more places and ways of hanging kid art. This was a mostly kid project, I just helped some with the glue. They choose some pretty hideous buttons (though you are expressly forbidden to tell them that I said so), which frankly suits me just fine since that means that the ones I like were left for sewing projects.

Next up was a Mama-kid collaboration:

This little set was a birthday present for one of their friends.


Mama and Daddy robin, along with their three little eggs, in a needle felted wool and raffia nest.


The robins were based off of the dove ornament pattern in the winter issue of Living Crafts.

And finally, for a bit of solo Mama crafting…

Little Rosebud got a new spring jacket (which has obviously been coming in handy). A buttery cotton chenille on the outside, lined with an embroidered interlock.


The pattern is from Ottobre 4/2007. I modified it by using a woven on the outside and a somewhat stiff knit for the lining. I worked the seams to the inside and top stitched instead of doing the rib binding and used buttons instead of snaps.

The hanger is her favorite part.

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crafts, Kids, sewing, toy making
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Looking Back

~Elijah Rain approximately 3 minutes old~

Those of you who also follow my flickr account may have noticed that my photostream is currently experiencing an odd sort of time warp.

~four hours old~

I’ve been working on a photo project for one Mr. Elijah Rain’s 7th birthday.

~three days old, outside for the first time with Iain and Daddy~

Creating The Big Book of Galen left Elijah as the only child in the family, beyond babyhood, without some sort of organized record of his first year. This is a sore spot for him. And for me!

~four days old~

And here is where you will get an inkling of how truly neurotic I can be. This has been eating at me for a while now, mind you. So last week when I was having a decidedly Bad Day, I went for a hike to blow off some steam. And as I was walking I started thinking of all of the plans for this upcoming birthday…

~enjoying one of Mama’s carob popsicles~

the gifts we had gotten, the ones still in progress, my own progress in trying to pull together his rather unconventional party request…and then it hit me. In all of the hubbub that is currently our daily life (we do have quite a bit going on these days!), I had totally over-looked the most important thing that I had intended to do for him; finally creating his baby book.

~starting off on an imaginary journey~

The degree that this revelation effected me was, undoubtedly, flavored by my already foul mood, but I started to brood. Oh my. And then my over-active imagination quite got away from me altogether. At which point the fantasy running through my mind snowballed into this terms of endearment/my life without me scenario in-which the frequent headaches I’ve been experiencing turned out to be an advanced brain tumor which abruptly ends my life, leaving my children with the documentation of their early years as the only tangible evidence of their mother’s love.

ahem.

~nap time~

In said scenario I had a vague hope that someone would print off some entries here, on my behalf, to cover Màiri’s first 4 months. But what of Elijah?? No, he was surly destined to spend the rest of his days wandering the earth feeling unloved and unwanted….this dear boy of mine whom I adore more then I can ever put into words.

~on his first birthday~

And with my mind focused on these dim, dark thoughts, my pace became faster and my vision more obscured until I all at once found myself flat on my ass, bringing all of the ranting and raving that I had been uttering under my breath to an abrupt halt.

Thankfully there was little harm done, apart from a bit of tenderness come morning. My little passenger was blessedly unharmed, though rather perturbed at the rude awakening from her generally peaceful afternoon nap.

~saying goodbye after a visit with Me-Mom and Pop-pop~

Doomsday delusions aside, it’s starting to feel horridly middle-child-ish. Though the fact is that it has nothing to do with being a middle child and everything to do with the far more difficult subjects of untimely illness, mold spores and contamination. Still issues that I’m trying to work out.

~at his first birthday party~

But at this point I have a handful of pictures that we had scanned immediately after his birth and a good many pictures starting at around 9.5 months, when we got our first digital camera, which is a starting point.

Once all this is in order, it will be on to attempting to decontaminate the massive volume that is Iain’s baby book.

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crafts, Kids
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(Nor) Easter…


as my husband jokingly referred to our blustery, chill holiday.

Easter is getting out of hand in this house I tell ya! We have our own little traditions of course. In recent years my parents have been visiting in the days leading up to Easter and as they have been quite over-taken by “Grandparent’s Disease” (which manifests in the inability to visit small children without bearing gifts), there is always much to be added to the collective booty. And to top it off, Steve’s parents have taken to sending a large Easter box every year full of strange and assorted objects, mostly culled from a year’s worth of garage sales.

And so, this year for Easter, my children got: organic jelly beans AND chocolate eggs AND cookies. There were books, stickers, activity pads, art supplies, baseball gloves, a bat, a ball, a watering can, seeds, a hand trowel, a set of magnets, a set of beads, mini puzzles, and goodness knows what else I’m forgetting! And I thought I was finally starting to get things back under control after the Christmas deluge. Ha! Silly, silly me…

Little Rosebud had her first Easter basket though. And I did the filling on this one. A basket full of hand-me-down wooden toys, that have long been packed away for this particular occasion, as I suspected that she would just be starting to show an interest in that sort of thing. And one very carefully chosen book; “Spring” by Gerda Muller. She’s a book baby already, cooing and squealing in my lap as I read picture books to the other children, and this one is a beauty that I am happy to share.


As is my own personal tradition, there was of course (!), a book tucked into every basket. In addition to “Spring”, this years selections included “The Story of the Root Children” by Sibylle Von Olfers, as well as “The Wind Boy” and “The House Above the Trees”, both by Ethel Cook Eliot.

We had a fairly quiet day. It is usually so and we prefer it that way. After the busyness and excitement of a visit from my parents (and more often then not, my sisters too) we are usually more then ready for some downtime. This year with the blessing being the day before, that need rang truer then ever.

And so we had a day of eating leftovers and way too much candy.


A day of playing cards and stringing jelly bean necklaces. A mostly pajama wearing kind of day with lots of cuddles. A reminiscing sort of day, looking back at pictures of Easter seasons past. That part of the day was what triggered the memory of these little booties; made from a pattern that the big boys spotted when Galen was a wee babe and insisted that our baby simply must have…


the memory of which sent Iain scurrying to rumage through boxes and pull them out once again for a new babe to wear.

All told, I must say, it was a very good sort of day.

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Books, celebrations and festivals, crafts, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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Crafting in the Spring

I’m not the only one in the family bent on creating this spring. The wee ones have been at it with their usual zeal and then some. Yup. in these parts the creative juices are flowing right along with the sap.

~Our favorite smocks= Daddy’s old shirts~

We kicked off our celebration of the coming of spring with a full day of spring inspired collage making.

I had plans for a collaborative effort between Galen and I, but he basically told me to bugger off, oh, about a minute and a half in.

~Galen’s~

And so I remained a spectator on this one; fetching fresh washing water from time to time and settling the occasional dispute when everyone *needed* the exact same bird. All in all as mediation gigs go, this wasn’t a bad one and I got a kick out of watching each child’s work of art evolve.

~Elijah’s~

and

~Iain’s~

Elijah has been working on designing the quilt that he wants me to make him. We recently made the joint decision that he was really getting too old for the quilt that I had been working on for him (already! so soon?? too big for kittens and story book pictures??? Yes, yes, I see it is so, but surely I though it would suit him for a little while. Ah, but this year has been one of a great many changes…and at that this mama sighs, just a wee bit wistfully). So I’ll be finishing that one up for Galen (including taking it apart to remove the embroidered section on the back that reads ‘Elijah Rain’, ahem. Suppose I ought to get on that before he grows out of it too!) and starting from scratch with Elijah’s.


This boy has a vision, I tell ya. I only hope that I can live up to his expectations! Of all my kids, he is by far the most critical of my work. He tends to know exactly what he wants and how he wants it and deviation from the plan of any kind is strongly discouraged. He wants me to make him things, he just wants me to make them his way. So do wish me luck on that endeavor!

He and Iain are also back to one of their old standbys: making paper models of family members and characters from books, most of which stand approximately 3 feet tall (i.e. involving lots of gluing or taping and many pieces of paper). I’m not sure where this little craft idea of theirs came from, but it’s one that they come back to again and again; an all time favorite. We have areas of the house with shelves full of stacks of “people”. I wonder if they will ever go back to making paper models of stringed instruments? That was one of my favorites. They were 3-dimensional and included the tiniest of details. Are my kids the only ones that will get into a groove and make and make and make the same sort of things, in all of it’s variations, for weeks on end, until they have thoroughly exhausted it?

Goosey-Boy has been keeping busy with designing the garden he plans on planting…just as soon as the ground thaws.

Every day as he sees the snow melt a bit or hears us talking of warm temperatures and the coming of spring, he says “and NOW we can make my garden?” Spring is a long time coming when you are three. For the record, it’s pretty darned long in coming at 28 too. And so to tide him over, I’ve been giving him gardening catalogs to cut up and glue, showing me just how he wants his garden to be. Collage suits him. Really anything involving scissors and glue makes for a very content babe. He’s churning out extensive, and I do mean extensive garden plans on a daily basis. FYI, I have no hope what-so-ever of making good on this one, not being in possession of acres upon acres of sunny fertile ground. Thankfully, I think that this boy will be satisfied with just being able to get out and dig in his own little patch of dirt, with the occasional bit of green to show for his efforts.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids
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More little crafty gifts…

from Christmas.

A set of beaded stitch markers for each of my sisters…


And one of the books that I made at our bookbinding class (also for a sister).

Front:

And back:

These actually just went out. I was holding on to them in hopes of being able to gift them in person, but visit after visit keeps getting rescheduled or cancelled and finally I sent the home with my parents last weekend.
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crafts, Yarn Crafts
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