Handmade Inspiration

With the arrival of my newest "baby," my new sewing machine, has come a renewed interest in all things sewing. I've been pouring over sewing books and magazines. In fact I've requested just about every sewing book I could find from the library. Who knows when I'll have the time to go through all these books.....but that's not the point.

I've also visited dozens of websites and blogs which brings me to Gussy Sews. I've had this adorable blog on google reader for what seems like forever. But I had lost track of it, which is bound to happen when you subscribe to a million blogs (okay, this might be an exaggeration, but only slight). Well, revisiting Gussy Sews has inspired me. So today I am joining in her very first Inspiration Workshop to share some inspiration.

In a weekly newsletter, Gussy will provide an inspiration prompt to share on Thursdays and this week's prompt is all things handmade. Now this made my head spin at first because I love all things handmade. What's not to love? So it's taken quite a bit of thought to narrow down what I'd like to share. For instance,I thought about scouring Etsy or Flickr. Or maybe sharing a handmade gift that I've received or given. But what I finally decided to share today is the picture and memory of my very first knit project--a baby hat and sweater I made for my first born, Rebecca.

Learning to knit was a major accomplishment for me. I come from a pretty creative family (if you're interested you can read more about my family here), yet in 2004 at age 30 I was still discovering my more creative side and fumbling through it at times. When I learned I was having a baby and then discovered she was a girl, my creativity was ignited. She made me not only want to be more creative, she made it a need. 

One of my grandmother's many talents is knitting. She knits the most gorgeous Christmas stockings for each member of the family, which is a family tradition she's carried on. I wanted to make sure that I would be able to help with this tradition so I wanted to learn to knit. My grandmother attempted to show me, but it was a challenge for me (which frustrated her a bit--how could I be so smart, yet so dense when it came to knitting?). 

I still didn't want to give up, so I took classes at a local shop. I was successful and here's the photo of Rebecca, my pumpkin baby, in her hat and sweater. I used this photo for Rebecca's birth announcement. I know it's not the girliest, but she was born on Halloween so she is forever my pumpkin baby.

And here's my other daughter, Katherine, in her hat. She was born July 2007, so I made her a watermelon (in more girlie colors).