Thursday, August 13, 2009

Being Crafty

Alright, I can cook. And I can sort of sew, I mean I get by. Last Christmas while my grandma was in town I bought a book on how to teach kids to crochet and a skein of yard. I figure with the help of the Grandma and this book I should be able to get the whole crochet thing down. Well I did. Maybe not the "whole" crochet thing, but I did make each of my children a hat and a scarf. Then I found a cute pattern on-line for monster baby booties, so I've been working on some of those too. I'm still pretty limited in the crochet department, but I still have the desire to branch out and give knitting a try. Problem is, my grandma is no where at hand, and the books I find are incredibly intimidating, until today.

A little backtracking here, yesterday I finally broke down and bought some pregnancy clothes. At 26 weeks, it was about time. Problem is I only ended up with two tops and two bottoms. Maternity clothes are expensive. Besides being expensive, I find most of them ugly. I refuse to pay good money for ugly clothes. So later that day I went online and checked out Old Navy, The Gap, and a few other online sites for maternity clothes. The only things I would be willing to pay for are the things on clearance, which isn't bad, but I hate buying clothes online, I'm lucky if anything fits properly, and a lot of maternity clothes look cute on the hanger but look like a circus tent once put on.

Back to today, so today the kids and I headed out to the fabric store, because I had this genius idea that if I couldn't find cute affordable maternity clothes I would just make some. Again I hit a snag, because maternity patterns are near impossible to find, and even if they're in the pattern book, that doesn't mean the store actually has them on hand. So I looked at some regular patterns that maybe could pass for maternity clothes, but I don't think I have enough seamstress knowledge to comfortably adapt regular patterns to fit an ever growing belly. So once again, frustrated and aggravated, I headed out of the fabric store empty handed when I came across some clearance items. And just like it was waiting to lift my spirits, I saw this Mickey Mouse & Friends I Taught Myself to Knit kit. Marked down to under $5, it included two sets of knitting needles, two yard needles, stitch markers, and a how-to book. I figure if this book can help kids teach themselves, I should be able to muddle through. As far as pregnancy clothes, I maybe have hit another road block, but at least I can give this knitting thing a go. Next up . . . canning!