Because I
had to finish work early before giving birth, I discovered that I had some time
on my hands. After finishin Red Dead Redemption in
about a week I found myself looking around wondering what next. Obviously I could have scrubbed the house,
but that particular nesting need was yet to kick in. I started spending a lot of time on the
internet, doing nothing much at all.
Actually, I spent most of the day on Pinterest
(you can follow me here, btw)
lusting over baby products. Days were
slipping through my fingers and I had nothing to show for it except a great
relationship with the TNT delivery dude.
I needed to
find something to do, and fast. I
waddled over to visit a new (also pregnant) friend one rainy day and she showed
me a baby blanket that she was half way through crocheting. At that moment a light came on in my head and
I knew what I would be doing for the next few weeks; making a baby blanket!
Off to the
craft store I lumbered and managed to spend the equivalent of a small African
nation’s GDP on yarn, then started looking for cool patterns online. I’ve never been much of a Youtube user in the
past, but a whole new world opened up to me in the form of tutorials and
patterns. Before I knew it I was busy making
blankets and beanies and booties faster than I could give them away!
All the
while, my house was not cleaning itself and I was still waiting for the nesting
instinct to kick in. I decided to leave
the mess, as I didn’t want to do a job I so loathed twice and kept crocheting. I was creating flowers, joining craft sites
like Ravelry, and
subscribing to awesome crochet channels on Youtube.
My mum
arrived from Australia and I was still going strong with the crochet. Usually I have short bursts of obsessive
behaviour and then it peters out after a couple of weeks. This new phase was showing no signs of
subsiding, no matter how empty my bank account was becoming! Luckily mum was happy (although happy is
probably not the right word) to take up my housekeeping slack as my due date came
and went with nary a hint of obsessive cleaning/nesting. I was in a world of crochet.
All of a
sudden Raina was born (I was still crocheting through contractions, that's how obsessed I became). It was then that everybody
was certain I would put down the hook and look after my baby, but I couldn’t; I
was hooked (see what I did there?). I
was using the precious moments that I should have been resting madly working on
a blanket. I would be banished to my
bedroom by my kraamverzorgster
(more on that in a later post) for my 12pm nap and I would sneak balls of yarn
upstairs to hide under my pillow in case I was caught when I should have been
napping!
Then
something happened which kicked an already compulsive habit into
overdrive. The Boobie Beanie. Maarten found an article on geenstijl.nl
about a breastfeeding baby hat that was about to go viral and I had to get me a
slice of that action! I looked at the
pictures posted and thought that even with my limited newbie skills I would be
able to make one easily. Then the
plotting to buy even more yarn began! I
stocked up on pink and cream yarn and figured out my own pattern and it turned
out great! But then of course, I couldn’t
just stop at one, so I was obsessively crocheting them one after the other and
proceeding to send them all over the place to people with babies.
 |
| Here's my first Boobie Beanie (excuse the boob, by that stage I was past discretion!) |
So, you’d
think that the obsession would have just about worked its way out of my system
by then, but no! I had a photoshoot with
Raina and Maarten booked in and I wanted a gorgeous hat for her to wear (not
that she needed it as she was born with a head of hair that Stone Cold Steve
Austin would die for). This was the
result:
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| Photo by Rudi Wells |
Once I realised that there is only a certain amount of baby hats that one can make, I started looking for new projects. I started on baby booties, which proved to be a bit of a waste of time as we all know socks and booties do not stay on babies’ feet. So I moved on. To adult booties!
That’s
where I am right now. I’ve been working
on my own pattern to make some Mary Jane slippers out of a couple of enormous
balls of yarn that I bought on Queen’s Day and Maarten was so impressed that he
put in an order for a pair. So I’m also
trying to make a manlier pair especially for him; ensuring that they match mine. We are Dutch, after all.
 |
| My aweseome Mary Janes |
Do you have an obsession? Ladies with babies, what consumed you in the
last weeks of pregnancy?
More importantly, what should I make next? I’d love to hear your suggestions and pattern
ideas, I really love crochet. It’s like
my meditation...
