Been working on something ...

... for about six months.  Figured I might as well give you all a sneak peek.

  

Made a few receiving blankets too, but those are in a suitcase in a closet and being six-and-a-half months pregnant, I couldn't get it out by myself.

This is my excuse for infrequent blog posts.  I've been trying to stay off my feet, which is challenging with two high-energy toddlers running around.  I had grand plans for a full hand-sewn layette, but the above (and those blankets) might be all we end up with.

Stay tuned, as I do have some stuff to blog about, including a road trip we took to Yerevan earlier this month, and some more crafts.  Hopefully I'll find some time to blog about those in the near future.

Why is sewing poop catchers so much fun?

I wonder what kind of weirdo hits I'm going to get on this post title.

Anyway, the last week has been very busy.  I have been sewing a few things, but wanted to wait until I was finished to post a group shot.  We spent Saturday prepping for a barbecue we threw on Sunday, and then used Monday (a local holiday) to recover.  On Tuesday, Jeremy began his year-long stint in the political section.  I admit, I have been spoiled by the predictable hours he worked in the consular section.  On Tuesday he didn't get home until close to midnight, and on Wednesday it was 7 p.m.  Tonight it will be later.  I know I will have to get used to it.

This week we have also had two sick kids - one still down for the count, actually.  So I haven't finished all the sewing I had planned to.  But I did sew these four fitted diapers.  I used a pattern I made myself, which is predictably lacking.  They fit the girls (who both wear mediums) adequately and do the job for which they were intended, but I know I can do better.  So last night I actually bought a pattern and will try that one out for future diapers.

I've now used up all of my absorbent diaper fabric.  I had snagged some hemp jersey and bamboo fleece very cheaply from a WAHM (work-at-home-mom for you not in the know) diaper maker who was going out of business.  So I've ordered more and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.  Sadly, it was not near as cheap, but still better than buying disposables for the next two year.

Homemade cloth diaper

Some of you are going to think I'm really nuts after reading this post.  Not only does this girl voluntarily reuse poopy diapers, but she actually makes them herself.

I sewed my first pocket diaper this week.  Z just wore it for two hours and it did the job.  My pattern does need some work.  For example, I realized after uploading these photos that I totally put the pocket on the wrong end.  That's why it fits a bit funny.  Oops.

I'm famous!

OK, that might be an overstatement.  But I am guest blogging about cloth diapers today over at Vanessa's Crafty Nest.  Figured it was a good way to talk about one of my favorite topics without doing yet another post about it here.  Maybe I should start a mommy blog.

More fluffy mail

Pardon me while I discuss cloth diapers for a minute.  These days, it's my favorite subject.  I recently completed a huge online shopping spree to bump up our stash in preparation for #2, and the packages have been trickling in over the last week.  The latest shipment is pictured in the photo.  The three columns of diapers are teeny tiny newborn fitted diapers for #2.  When Natasha was that small, we used prefolds, which are what you think of when you think of cloth diapers: rectangles of cotton that are fastened with a pin or a Snappi.  We are still going to use prefolds, but I have heard that fitteds contain the newborn poop better, so I figured we'd try some out.
The diaper on the left is a new fitted diaper for Natasha, shown for comparison's sake.

Fluffy mail!

I have been going a little crazy buying new diapers in anticipation of #2's arrival.  Yesterday was mail day here at post, and we got three packages bearing these diapers.  For those who are into this sort of thing, the zebra one is an all-in-one Goodmama diaper (that means it is waterproof on the outside and doesn't need any covering up).  The aqua one is a Haute Pocket pocket diaper, and the three on the bottom are Grobabies, a "hybrid" diaper, which is a type I've never tried before.  The stack of white things are inserts to go in the Grobaby diapers and the Haute Pocket.

These days, cloth diapers actually excite me more than yarn does.  Who knew that was possible?

Excuse me while I talk about poop

I actually think it's kind of amazing that Natasha is eight months old and we have yet to discuss poop on this blog.  Well, today's the day.  We started using cloth diapers with her when she was three days old.  They worked great for us and we happily used them exclusively until she was about seven months old.  Then we switched to disposables temporarily for a couple reasons.  First, I had a pretty good case of morning sickness, and dealing with poopy diapers made me vomit.  You still have to deal with poop when you use disposables, but with cloth, once a baby gets more in her diet than breastmilk, you have to scrape the poop off the diaper into the toilet, so there is an extra poop-handling step.  I also didn't feel like handwashing diapers in hotel bathrooms while in transit, so we started using disposables.  We tried several different brands, and while I did find that one worked better for us than the others, I truly hated them all.  Up-the-back poop all the time, leaks and worst of all, the stink!  I don't know who thought that scenting disposable diapers was a good idea, but I have to say that it's not.  When Natasha pooped in her disposables, the smell was this putrid mix of poop and chemical perfume.  Kind of like when someone tries to cover up a bad case of BO by putting on perfume.  Not good.  Plus, we had several times more blowouts in a month of using disposables than in seven months of using cloth. 

Anyway, we've been in Moscow over a week, and I was still using disposables until yesterday, because it had been awhile since I'd done diaper laundry and I had built it up to be something more difficult than it is.  But yesterday was the last straw.  Natasha woke up soaking wet.  Then around 11 a.m., she pooped all over herself and me.  I couldn't stand to put another Pampers on her (not least because of their recent smear campaign against cloth diapers - sorry folks, but at least cloth doesn't give babies chemical burns!), so I pulled out one of my Bumgenius 3.0 pocket diapers.  No more blowouts.  No more leaks.  No more wretched poop-perfume stink.  I freaking love cloth diapers.  I really hope I can keep up with it when #2 arrives.

Soaker city!

So I think I might be soaker'd out. Problem is, of course, that the thing I really want to work on is a sweater for myself. Only that makes no sense now, since I can't exactly try it on as I go and hope for an accurate fit.
It is the first big project that I have designed myself. I was kind of making it up as I went along when I laid it aside last December to work on Pop's vest. It's going to have short dolman sleeves and a cowl neck, and is meant to be worn over a turtleneck or long-sleeves shirt. I'd gotten this far in the weeks I worked on it. I'd like to say that I'll get back to it after Figlet makes his/her appearance, but all indications suggest I will have little opportunity for complicated knitting for quite awhile ...

Soaker-mania

I LOVE knitting soakers and longies. They take no time to knit, use up odd balls of yarn in my stash, and are just so darn cute! Stay tuned for more. (I think this might be what they call "nesting.")

More duds

Yesterday I finished Figlet's first soaker (to go over cloth diapers). The cloth-diapering ladies on Ravelry rave about wool's ability to repel moisture and its natural hygienic properties. So I'm going to give it a go. I had wanted to embroider something on the back of this soaker, but decided not to overestimate my talents, especially given that the baby will probably only fit into this thing for a few weeks. I've been thinking a lot about Babuskha, though. She embroidered beautifully. If only I'd had the foresight to learn it from her while she was still alive!