Tag: babies

Of baby things, part deux

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Crafting, Thoughts

A much-loved second child has added to my friend’s family. As baby number two is born within two week of my godson’s birthday, I’ve been passing on baby clothes. Even for someone who isn’t a mother of any human children, I find baby clothes to be so sweet and, of course, remember how adorable my godson looked in so many of those suits! (The four-legged furry children don’t take kindly to being dressed in clothes.)

A while after my godson grew out of his first batch of baby clothes, I was speaking to his mother about how she had a certain attachment to some of the suits, particularly the special “coming home from the hospital” t-shirt and pants set we’d picked out. I made the suggestion, why not “upcycle” the clothes into something the baby can keep? For those not in the know, upcycling is the trendy term for a kind of recycling, crafting new things from existing materials.

We came to the conclusion that upcycling her favourite clothes into a stuffed toy for the baby would be awesome. At that age, my godson had a fascination with owls (not without a bit of influence from me, of course…), so I sketched out a pattern for a big stuffed owl and spent a couple of days cutting and sewing together panels of his old baby clothes into a toy.


These days, Owl-cush is misshapen and deflated from all the baby love-wrestles he receives.

The belly-panel with the puppy picture, and the pale blue eyes, tufts, beak, and feet are from my godson’s coming home suit. The other pieces were either deemed super cute, like the grey elephants and mint stars, or I picked them for the matching colours. All in all, I discovered baby clothes don’t have nearly enough fabric for crafting with – which is why there ended up being so many sections – and it’s rewarding to make a keepsake which the baby will love, and the parents will cherish for the meaningful inclusions. Plus, no one feels like they’re keeping too-small baby clothes solely for sentimental reasons!

And it gives me more excuses to make cute things.

~A

Boobook has a family!

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts

I always keep an ear open for the call of the boobook owl who lives on the sprawling grounds of my workplace. Every so often, I get to see a flash of his grey wings as he zooms by, no doubt on the hunt for some delicious mouse or moth, but he is a reclusive fellow. I do hear him from afar, though, and sometimes call back to him with the sound that names his kind: “boo-book, boo-book”.

In this past week, I’ve been doing some different duties at work, and its taken me to other areas on the site which I don’t normally see. Since I work afternoon-evenings, it’s been dark by the time I get to these locations. There are plenty of large trees, and so many kinds of birds and even some microbats, that nights are filled with animals sounds and the constant movement of insects and creatures.

In one of the lovely great trees I’ve been walking under each night, I could hear an odd chittering sound from within the branches. It could have been any kind of bird, even one confused by the nearby lighting. I’d stopped and tried to get a peek of the animal before, but my eyes just aren’t made for night-vision, much to my disappointment.

This evening, on the final night of my other responsibilities, I look up again at the faint sounds. Where the branches spread out from the top of the trunk is a wide stump. I hadn’t seen it from this particular angle before. Watching with huge, glistening eyes are two small boobooks! My owl friend has a family of his own!

I was overcome with delight; they were so sweet and bobbed their heads and bodies in a perfectly owly way, watching me as I watched them. They knew I’d seen them, and I thanked them for letting me have such an awesome experience, then wished the family well and continued on my way.

I’m so happy that the boobooks are living in the area and have a lovely, secure nest to raise their young. I really do love animals, but these owls will always have a very special place in my heart.

~A

Crochet to the left!

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Crafting

Crochet to the right! I’ve been a busy little stitcher! And finally, a collection of projects has been completed, so now I can share photos of the crocheting that has kept me sane in between the madness of editing. Go ahead and click any of the images for a larger view!

First, is a really super snuggly knee rug or baby blanket. The green yarn is very soft, bulky and fuzzy. This was made with a v-stitch, then just single crochet for the border in a lovely variegated blue yarn.

The next knee rug or baby blanket is made from pale and dark blue bamboo/cotton blended yarn, with a segment of grey yarn for contrast. It is SO soft and has a really nice weight to it. This is just a standard granny square pattern, repeated until I was out of the bamboo yarn.

Carrot baby set! This baby beanie was requested by a friend, made with cute little curly carrot leaves. I whipped up the little carroty shaped bib to go with it, because the idea was just too cute!

And lastly, for now, is the most ridiculously adorable thing I’ve ever made: a flopsie-eared bunny beanie. The pink yarn is very soft, with little glittery bits through it. I really love the brown and cream yarn. Honestly, brown is such a great colour for baby things, especially as it goes really well with bright, rainbow colours.

With these four pieces finished, I still have a whole pile of other crocheting to get through. Good thing it’s a great activity to keep my hands busy while I’m trying to puzzle through my writing – any time I get a bit stuck at the moment, I just pick up the crochet and work on it until I’ve thought through my problem. Awesome!

~A

Of baby things

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Crafting, Other Writers

My lovely friend, Katy-Rose recently welcomed her firstborn son into this wild and magical world. He’s a gorgeous little man, and I had the decided pleasure of crocheting a baby beanie for him!

Katy-Rose requested a Halloweeny pumpkin design, which I was so super excited to make. Not that I wouldn’t wear a pumpkin beanie myself, but I haven’t really had a reason to crochet any of the awesomely cute baby things, except my personal favourites: baby blankies.

So as a treat for my interested readers, who have been asking for photos of things since I started talking about my projects, here’s the hat I made!

All I really needed to do was look up online the best way to make the lines for the pumpkin body, and that turned out to be very simple! It was a flat rectangle, and you just crochet into the back loop for every row. Non-stitchers will probably think I’m speaking another language, and that’s okay. Trust me when I say this was a very, very easy thing to do (much simpler than many other things I’ve crocheted).

The leaf and curly-q designs were just invented as I went, crocheting whatever worked to make it look right. The curly-q is just a chain with single crochets all along, and it curls naturally. Making the pumpkin shaped leaf was fairly basic, since I just kept adding stitches until it matched the photos I was working from of actual pumpkin leaves!

I’ll hopefully get some other pieces finished soon, and take photos to share!

~A