The struggle to make for me

This whole week I have been buzzing with excitement as I see my little one wear her new lovingly handmade skirt and tunic. If you’re interested, my last post goes into further detail about those two recently finished garments. Now, after finishing these two projects I am back on my slow going adult garments. I am loving the adult knits but I do struggle to actually finish them and long to wear them.

Which leads me to ponder are there any tips for getting through the adult projects quicker?

Does anybody else struggle with making a handmade wardrobe for themselves but the kids are head to toe in mummy made items?

Making for the kids is the thing that got me back into knitting and it is the main drive for my making obsession. I love dressing my children in items that I have made and to be honest it is much more affordable buying a sweater lot of yarn for a little person than for me. Also the gratification is achieved so much quicker with children's projects.

I hope this yummy sweater lot of John Arbon Viola yarn  will become an actual sweater in the near future. Yes, HOPE.

However, I really want to build my own handmade wardrobe and this is motivated by more than the sweater envy I felt while on The Craft Sessions. I want to make my own clothes so that I can be excited about wearing my self made clothes as much as I am excited about dressing my kids in mummy made things.

I also want to engage less with consumerism and the desire to shop when I don’t need. I have become more conscious about how unethical the fashion industry is and self making is a small way that I can make a stand against it. I am also trying to be discerning about where my materials come from and how they have been processed. I am making myself question whether the source is ethical, sustainable and authentic. I want the fabric and the yarn that I use to be natural and that whatever processing it has undergone has maintained the integrity of the natural fibre. I also feel more comfortable knowing that what I’m wearing has been made under fair conditions for the workers.

I saw this saying posted on FB recently, “Why buy it for $7 when you can make it yourself for $92 of craft supplies.” Though the statement is a tongue in cheek jibe at how much makers spend on supplies I read it as a justification for why I make. In my humble opinion something that we can buy for $7 has probably been made by a poor child in a developing nation, who will barely receive a fraction of that money for their labour.

So, with all these thoughts in mind, why is my wardrobe still predominantly store bought? Lack of time obviously is a big factor but there is also a small element of guilt as I work on items for myself. A friend of mine recently confessed to me that she is a selfish maker, preferring to sew and knit for herself than for her kids. So I wonder, is it selfish to work on ‘me’ projects?

Something else I started pondering about was do makers make for fellow makers? Or are our own queues so long that we don’t have time to make for a friend who can make for themselves?

This winter I commiserated to my husband that I desperately wanted some handknit socks but I had too many WIPs already. I wanted someone else to knit some socks for me but to my woe I don’t have enough knitting friends and the ones I do have are probably working on too many of their own WIPs to be able to make socks for me. In the end I did cast on a pair of toe up socks for myself but I barely got beyond the toes because I knit too slowly and I had too many projects on the go already.

The whole making process is a great joy of mine. I am addicted to the authenticity of homemade items. Items where I have personally and lovingly selecting the materials and made by my own hand. There is something organic about the process as I see the beginnings of an item and I watch and feel it grow to completion. I’d just really love it a lot more if I could get through things much quicker.

I'd like to hear your thoughts so please comment and add to the conversation.

Re-evaluating handmade gifting

Some of the gifts that I've made this year

Sometime last year I decided to challenge myself to give handmade gifts rather than buy commercial mass produced items. I also wanted to personally make all the gifts so that I had an excuse to do lots of knitting. So I have been regularly busy with projects for new babies and for friends and family since the middle of last year. 

Well now that knitting has become more than just a hobby but a lifestyle to me I don't need excuses to knit; I knit everyday at any spare moment I can get. This results in loads of projects that I want to do and I'm also allowing myself more 'me' projects lately because I believe you need to treat yourself in order to continue to love what you are doing.

This leads me to today's reflection that I need to realistically reevaluate my commitment to handmade gifting. If I hand knit things for every baby born and for all the birthdays I am going to have very little time to work on those beautiful sweaters and shawls that I have been longing to knit. When I put it that way it sounds really selfish, but it's not just the desire to make for self that leads me to reevaluate, it is also the pressure of time. I do feel a little bit of stress when I am working to a deadline and often stay up late trying to finish off projects. I also feel a little sore in the hands lately and I think that is telling me I need to take some rest days from the needles - not that I can make myself stick to it.

I think I need to take another look at my make list and strike off a few of the projects I have hoped to make. So far, I haven't stuck to it very well this year. I have made loads of extra things for others and on top of that I have decided I wanted to make a couple of jumpers for myself. I think I will still aim to make things for my family but I need to cut myself some slack when it comes to friends and their babies and kids. I can already think of other ways to still give a handmade/ homemade gift to friends. A meal for the family for those early days of adjustment after the birth of a new bub is an example of another way to give without buying mass produced items. Supporting independent makers and buying their wares is another thing that I can do.

There will be a time when my kids are at school and I've got a wardrobe full of hand knits and I will start making baby items and other things for gifting again. Just right now I will allow myself to take it easy and find other ways of blessing those around me.

How do you manage your gifting? Do you make more than you buy or vice versa?

How do you balance commercial knitting and personal knitting?

I've been knitting this bella shawl as a commissioned project for a friend.

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of commercial knitting lately. I often get asked if I sell knitted items and I have always admitted that at this stage in my life I cannot make enough to sell because I am barely staying on top of my personal knitting projects. I spend what little knitting time that I get trying to make gifts for others and items for myself, my husband and the kids. As you can see from my making list I have attempted to carefully map out the projects that I will work on this year and the list just doesn't have room for knitting items for commercial sale.

My main daily knitting time is the couple of hours at night after the kids have gone to bed. I try to steal as many extra little moments as I can such as knitting a couple of rows while supervising bathtime or while waiting for my boy's swimming lesson to end. I would like to spend my whole day knitting but my current season of life does not lend itself to that luxury.

Recently I took on my first commissioned knit. A friend from church asked if I could knit her a shawl. When I agreed to it I was feeling on top of my making and thought I could manage it. I find myself making slow progress on the shawl and have been interchanging my time between working on it and working on a hat for my brother's birthday in a couple of weeks. I have assured my friend that I am working on the project but I have to admit that I feel bad that I cannot work very quickly and that it may be some time before she will receive the finished product.

I know that there will be a time in the future when I can knit more so maybe a commercial venture is possible in the future but definitely not now. However, I do still wonder how do other people do it? How do you manage to fit in knitting time amidst daily responsibilities? For those of you who knit for 'work' do you sacrifice personal knitting? Or do you manage a healthy balance?

Please comment with your thoughts and experiences.

Apologies if you were looking out for a 'What to knit Wednesday' post. I'm just a little too disorganised this week to pull it together.

Stash busting tips please.

My messy bundle of project remnants.

Everything looks so much nicer re-balled.

We're still in the throes of illness here with both kids coughing and sniffling now and I've got a strain in my back, so it's another short post this week. I hope that once I get my head back in the game I will have the brain space to write a much more thoughtful post.

Anyway, with all the time that we have been spending at home under self imposed quarantine I spent some time organising my stash and working out which yarns to pair with which projects. After this bit of planning time I am excited to tackle the stash and knit up some of that beloved yarn into some lovely patterns that I have been crushing over in my favourites list on Ravelry.

While sorting through the stash I also took the time to tidy up the scraps or remnants that I have kept from finished projects. I balled up all of the substantial remnants and I wonder what am I going to do with them. The really scrappy bits I throw in a bag and use for craft with the kids or for tying up gifts, but I don't have too many ideas with the bigger balls that I have left.

So, I thought I would ask you my readers a few questions. What are your best stash busting projects? How do you manage all your scraps? Or are you usually spot on with your yardage and end up with very little scraps?

"I like what I made, but do you?"

I've been pondering this last couple of days about my choices when making for others. I wonder if the things that I have gifted have actually been to the taste of the recipient or other factors such as is it suitable for the climate that my friend lives in. I am asking myself have I made a good colour choice? Do they even wear cowls? Isn't Texas too warm for a woolly beanie?

A lot of this questioning has arisen as I near the end of finishing the High water jumper for Sir S. I knit the stripes on this jumper with a beautiful grass green yarn but I am doubting my colour choice a bit now because we have suspicions that the dear boy is actually colour blind - particularly a reduced sensitivity to green.

I couldn't resist buying this beautifully soft yarn in a lovely vibrant green

We have suspected that Sir S is colour blind for about a year but I had bought this delicious green yarn long before this realisation and I had always intended the yarn for the stripes on this jumper. Now that I have finally started knitting it I wanted to avoid buying more yarn but unfortunately I don't have any thing else that is suitable for this pattern. 

 The stripes are so simple but such a classic touch 

I like the green stripes and I know that S will still wear the jumper regardless because he is excited that I made him something.  

Did a fit test today and the sizing is looking perfect

But, is it okay to just make what I like when I'm making for someone else? I'd like to hear some thoughts on this, so please comment.