dusting off the dye pots!

I haven't dyed in months. It's too awkward to dye when large and pregnant, so I avoided it for the bulk of my 3rd trimester, but today, I had a hankering for some color and a brand new bump of wool arrived a week ago. My mom came over to snuggle the baby and I used every burner on the stove + 3 electric burners and blazed through a full 22 lb. bump of Merino and about 5 lbs. of BFL in four hours.

Just last week, we celebrated my toddler's 3rd birthday, and I'm sure her gift has nudged me back into feeling artsy. We bought her an easel, and I could wallpaper the house with a weekend's worth of toddler art. Love love love.

Even though my little babe sleeps a lot, he's started to wake more during the night, so I'm imagining an hour of carding each day will be just enough to give me some me-time with my favorite wooly activity without making me go loopier than I already am. I haven't knit a single stitch, and my wheel has been inactive. All I want to do is cuddle the baby, play with my dinosaur-princess-toddler, and keep the house from spiraling into chaos.. and now, card! I can't believe how anxious I am to get into a new routine, and how easy it is to manage sleep deprivation the second time around.

my new little one

I'm so happy to share that my son Ira was born on 11/14 at 4:46am. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. and was 21.5" long at birth. It was a wild and fast labor with no gory details that I can remember, though I was in a hazy fog of pain and can't remember much other than I barely made it to the hospital in time - he was out and nursing about 40 minutes after we arrived.

I was discharged from the hospital the very next day, and though I didn't feel quite ready, we packed up and arrived home in time to pick Ingrid up from preschool. I'm still not feeling quite ready (emotionally/mentally) to juggle it all, but I'm fortunate to have both my parents and in-laws nearby for help!

Ira is a sweet and content little fellow. He's perpetually hungry, but other than that - not too fussy yet. He's even started sleeping a 5 hour stretch each night, which is absolutely luxurious for me if I can get into bed early when he starts the stretch around 10pm. Ira seems so strong and hardy compared to his preemie sister - he can already hold his head up for a while, is acing tummy time with plenty of kicking and head rolling and even pushing himself a couple of inches forward on the carpet, and he follows movement and sounds with his eyes - some of these milestones took my little Ingrid months. I'm also convinced he's gained at least 1 lb. since birth! Our only issue was a pinch of jaundice (like everyone else in our family), but he never had high enough levels to need the lights, so we won't be seeing the pediatrician for a full month after his initial "new patient" office visit. He has a full head of short chocolate brown hair, dark navy blue eyes, and an adorable little button nose. I think he's a handsome fella, but I'm clearly biased.

 

Ingrid is madly in love with her new brother, though I'm seeing the green-eyed monster more frequently, especially when he's cluster-feeding in the mornings and evenings. I'm sure this jealousy phase will pass, but for now, one on one time is still very important to her and we're desperately trying to carve out little niches of time for make-believe play and crafts when the little bear is snoozing.

I'll be adding one hour of MDS&W prep each day starting next week, especially if little Ira continues his current napping schedule, though in all honesty - I'm just not ready to even think about jumping back into fiber just yet. I tried spinning the other day but it didn't work out so well, and I ended up taking an extra-long bubble bath instead. The enthusiasm will return, but until then, I don't want to fret away my little one's sweet babyhood with a strict production schedule. Our family is complete now, so these are my last "newborn days" until grandparenthood, and I plan on savoring them as much as possible. My booth at Maryland might have the same amount of product as last year instead of the extra I had planned, but that will be good enough!

one last batty blast

Ok, here it goes! One final blast of batts from my studio, and then .. well, shipping it all out and making sure I don't have any loose ends hanging, but then - maternity leave! I'm really looking forward to spending the next two weeks puttering around and finishing laundry and figuring out storage solutions for all of this baby gear that I've been digging out.

Here's a collage of the whole shebang that's going up tonight.

I had hopes of finishing up a couple of new RollyBatt colorways, but after a driving band failure on one of my carders (and way too much time spent obsessing over fixing it!), I ended up storing those projects for later. Who knows, I might get the itch to delve into the studio within a few weeks, but I think a break from the studio is just the thing I need to start bonding with my new bub.

tiny details

I've never been *this* pregnant before. By this point in my last pregnancy, I was already holding my wee babe, so going past 35 weeks is a new and slightly uncomfortable experience, though I'll happily take these weeks at home with a tiny kickboxing fetus instead of at the hospital with a tiny milk-refusing preemie.

Last week, I did something really bold for an awkward introvert like myself - I hired local professional photographer Jeremy Wolfe for maternity/spinning wheel pics. I spent the entire day worrying and fussing over silly details like my toenails and hair color, and then after pouring an embarrassingly indulgent amount of time into self-pampering, it rained. Surprisingly, we didn't cancel the shoot and the entire experience was one of the wildest evenings I've had all year. My best friend came along for the ride, holding a flash and helping me laugh off my uncomfortableness.

Here's one of my favorite shots from the night:

When the sky grew too dark, we drove into town and took more photos in an alley, my big ol tummy casting funny silhouettes on a white wall. I can't wait to see the entire collection of images from the shoot, and I'm so glad I invested in documenting this period of my life. After all of that worry and fussing and awkwardness, I read an article tonight called "The Mom Stays in the Picture" and felt even better about my uncharacteristic splurge. Only now, I'm realizing that my mom and my husband's mother are the least photographed people in our family albums. Hopefully I can stay in the picture and not worry about the little details next time someone whips out a camera for my family.

On the studio front, I'm officially unable to continue making ArtBatts, so the few that I've made will get posted with my final update this weekend or in the middle of next week. I always knew that ArtBatts took the most muscle, but oof- they're sending me into flurries of contractions and a reprisal of morning sickness, so I'm calling it quits on that batty format for a while. I'm sticking with Classics and roving this week, with maybe a couple of fresh RollyBatt colorways in the works. I've also gone ahead and made a tough decision to go on maternity leave a couple of weeks earlier than originally planned. We rely heavily on my little businesses income to fuel our family's living expenses, and even though every single week of work counts, I'm physically and mentally in need of a few weeks to prepare for this new little bundle. There's baby clothes to wash, receiving blankets to serge, bookcases to secure (and build), and of course, I've got that crazy nesting instinct to take a toothbrush to the floor.

classically batty

ClassicBatts are stealing my heart and energy these days! Maybe it's because they're my favorite batt style to spin from, or maybe it's because they take a moderate amount of time and require little muscle (as compared with ArtBatts which take gobs of muscle and little time or RollyBatts which take zero muscle and oodles of time).

I made 5 new sets of ClassicBatts last week in quantities of 4 each and just posted them to the shop tonight.

I've got an excess of  luxurious superfine Merino and BFL to work from since the regular 21.5 micron Merino that I card from was out of stock from my supplier, and I'm really enjoying experimenting with both!

In case you're new to my fluff, ClassicBatts are what I started making waaaay back when I first got a drum carder. They're double-blended batts rolled into sweet little balls, and each batt is carded carefully so that plenty of contrast remains. When I started blending ArtBatts and RollyBatts, I needed a name for these cute little bubs, so "Classic" stuck, especially since you'll see versions of these all over Etsy from a variety of mega-talented carders.

Speaking of other carders, I need to fluff my personal spinning stash before maternity leave, any recommendations? Other People's Fiber (OPF in my business accounting records) is always a great surprise to spin from. There's something deliciously unexpected about diving into a batt that has a mysterious center, or contrasts I wouldn't have anticipated. I just might have to go shopping or trading for a few boyish colorways over the next week.

countdown!

Less than 6 weeks to go until I hit my due date, not that it means anything is going to happen on November 15th, but I'm imagining/fantasizing/hoping that this little bub will arrive that week!

I've been slowing down.

I'm finally accepting that cranking batts out at full-speed is a thing of the 2nd trimester past and have resigned myself to working at 50% capacity until little Ira is born, and then I'll take a nice maternity leave until I just can't stay away any longer, and will start back up with whatever bits of time I can find. I remember carding during Ing's newborn naps, so I anticipate that a similar schedule will resume before the new year. Even though I'd like to start up again soon, I'm giving myself a little bit of extra time, because after all, I've got a toddler to juggle and transition through this life-changing event too!

I'm wickedly honored to share that I was featured in Spin Artiste last week. I'm a huge fan of reading Arlene's interviews with fiber artists that I admire, so to be interviewed myself was a huge thrill! I was originally going to delete the code after the weekend of the interview, but I think I'll leave it up for a few more days ;) I've also reduced shipping to very low flat-rate charges for the remainder of this month.. or should I say, the remainder of my pre-maternity leave time! I honestly don't know whether I'll make it out of this month without a baby.

On a final note, I actually finished a complete project - a handspun woven blanket for my sweet toddler.

She's in love with it, and sleeps with it every night! Her reaction to the blanket is more exciting to me than actually finishing something. I should get started knitting something for little babe, but that might have to wait until here's here and snoozing in my arms.

Fullness

Everything's packed tight around here right now from my dyed fiber stash to my expanding waistline! I spent yesterday with my dye pots and realized how uncomfortably far away the sink suddenly felt as I pressed up against it to rinse out my dyed wool. Now that my series of summery adventures are over, concluding with SpinQuest last weekend, I'm really feeling the need to buckle down and make the most of my Fall.

I'm wearing the grey dress, running out of lap-room!

I entered the third trimester last week, or maybe the week before.. and the count-down to BabyTime suddenly feels very short, especially in light of all of the pre-Winter fiber prep I need to accomplish to prepare for both Maryland Sheep and Wool and the busy winter months following maternity leave. Fortunately yesterday's dye session was extra successful and I now have 20 lbs. of freshly dyed Merino + assorted fibers such as tencel and faux cashmere to keep me busy for the next week!