Newborn Mitts Wriggly Arms

Handmade Infant Mitts from Maine Forager $9.95

Newly listed in the shop:  tiny, little baby hand covers to prevent scratching from wriggly arms and hands those first few months.  This listing is for mitts that are ready to ship, made with cream white merino blend yarn.  Custom orders happily accepted and completed within 48 hours.

As for me, the weather keeps getting hotter and my belly (baby) keeps getting bigger.  It’s not a winning combination ankle-circumference-wise, but for the most part these coastal Maine nights cool off pretty well.  Working on something new on my needles this week – should be ready to go by early next week to share.

P.S.  Here’s Maine Forager on Instagram.  It’s mostly cats and colors but might be worth a follow.  😉

Socks for the Littlest Feet

Best Stripes Socks – Size Newborn to 6 months – $22.95 on Etsy with Free Shipping from Maine Forager

Have you noticed a trend the last couple days?  Lots of baby stuff entering the shop.  It may have something to do with a certain tiny stranger that the stork is due to bring to our door at the beginning of this summer, but I have been knitting wee things like crazy.

I really love this sock pattern.  With the ribbed legs and instep the socks grow with baby without squishing any little toes.  The fiber I use is marled and/or striped so the variations hide stains very well!  Personally, we did stock up on a set of store bought cotton socks since we’re having a summer baby, but these are perfect for cool nights which are, love it or hate it, a pretty regular thing on the Maine coast.  These two versions are now available in the shop, click on the pictures to get taken there.

 

Brown Bear Baby Booties – Size Newborn to 3 months – $22.95 with Free Shipping on Etsy from Maine Forager

Hand Knit Baby Bibs

Watermelon Handmade Bib Set, Set of 3.  $24.95 from Maine Forager

New to the Maine Forager shop, handmade baby bibs.  Available as individual bibs or sets of three.  Click here to see the Watermelon set or the Fourth of July collection!

Good Morning

Up with the sun this morning, unexpectedly, thoroughly exhausted but totally psyched about yesterday’s Holiday Sale at the Yarmouth History Center.  Great turnout, and a good way to get ready mentally for Picnic next weekend.  In my sleepiness, I caught the frost before the sun melted it off the clothesline, shingles, sparkly blades of grass.  Of course, I went out there in my jammies and slippers and crouched down in the frozen ground with my camera.  Neighbors must really be wondering.  Totally worth it.

Harbor Seal Babies

Basically, harbor seal pups are kittens of the sea.  I make this onesie in short and long sleeve styles, as so sweetly modeled by O. in the picture above, and any size up to 2T.  Click here for a link to my shop so you can see more about these onesies.

And, not being one to just make these sea kitten onesies, I’ve also found an amazing selection of handmade items if you also happened to be enamored.  Click the photograph to see the selection:

Maine Forager at Holiday Craft Sales 2015

All of a sudden it became the end-of-Autumn.  We’re not really sure how, but in a flurry of apples, cordwood deliveries and early mornings seeming darker and darker (and then, wo-ho!, light again, thank you daylight savings) the season has arrived.  That season halfway between “the rest of the year” and the holidays.  The big box stores, almost all of them, insist it must be Christmas already.  We know better, this pre-Thanksgiving time to come back in to ourselves, light the wood stove and start making lists of all the delicious things we think we’ll have time to make for the holidays.

It’s also the mad dash to knit, fasten, hot glue and sew everything in sight that may possibly make a lovely thing to sell on a craft fair table.  This year, me?  I’m selling at two because both are near and dear to my heart for different reasons.  If you find yourself in the southern Maine area in early December, here is where you can find me and all my hand knits, vintage clothes and jewelry, teas and salves:

Sunday, December 13th ::: 7th Annual Picnic Holiday Sale!

I’m so happy to be setting up my wares at the 7th Annual Picnic Holiday Sale.  It’s located at the Portland Company at 58 Fore St., right in the heart of the quickly changing Portland waterfront.  Events like these are important to our city because it’s by locals for locals, and the out-of-towners can come, too.  This particular event is put on by the good people behind Pinecone & Chickadee, as well as a small army of their friends + helpers.  With music, food, arts, crafts, vintage and body/wellness vendors from all over this is probably going to be the best seven hours of the month for me.  A great time to connect with old friends and if the crowd gets to be too much you can always grab some food and find a quiet corner to assess all your loot to make sure you haven’t forgotten anyone on your list.

Saturday, December 5th ::: Yarmouth History Center Holiday Craft Fair

This is a new one for me!  But I’m so excited, as someone who grew up in Yarmouth I used to visit the Historical Society as a kid when it was on the upper level of the town library.  The history of your own town is so great because you are living on its top layer.  Yarmouth is a small, coastal Maine town with a population under 10,000 people, so it won’t surprise me if I see someone I know while I’m manning the table.  The Historical Society is now located in what used to be the Water District building, on East Elm St. right by a trestle that spans the Royal River.  It’s going to be a homecoming, for sure, may even make some Clipper-themed ornaments for the occasion!

Love (and Panic) in Every Stitch

hypnotic stitches

I love it when I have a secret, a good kind of secret, a happiness secret.  It’s the hush hush of the planning behind the scenes and then the joy and celebration of when the cat is finally out.  Earlier this year I cast on a rather end-of-winter project, massive amounts of stitches intended for a blanket, but really no purpose or vision for it past the fact that I wanted to use up the remainder of my  stash before it got too warm to knit every night.

About ten rows in my friend declared that she would like the blanket as a gift for her cousin’s baby shower, and how much would that be?, and can it have stripes?  Yes, yes and more yes.  So we set about a plan of what she wanted it to look like and I happily stitched away.

The thing about seed stitch?  It is my favorite stitch.  I like the little bumps repeating and repeating.  The other thing about seed stitch?  It is annoying, perhaps even more annoying than ribbing, because you are always stitching the opposite stitch on top of the one below.  Sometimes you mess up and have to go back.  But an entire blanket in this stitch (with garter borders) is like woven rhapsody, its enlightenment for knitting addicts: you just have to keep touching it.

It came down to the wire, I was sitting up with my knitting five hours a night leading up to the shower.  But in the end all that panic (and love) came to a close on that last teal green stripe.  When it was cast off and the loose ends woven in, I kept holding it between my thumb and forefinger, rubbing the seeds like I can imagine the little guy will do as he gazes up at his momma while he nurses or drinks a bottle, a comforting routine that they will do until he grows and grows and grows, the blanket getting smaller and smaller compared to him as the years press on.

These are my favorite kind of things to do, garments and blankets that care for their final home.  I’ve put the blanket up in my shop if you would like to share some of this love, and have the pattern available, too, for all you DIY knitters.  Don’t forget to stretch your fingers!

Glitter, Sparkles

head boop en mode with yuna

 

A little thought tonight, lately I’ve just been drawn to glitter and all these pink and frilly things.  Purchased a set of five tubes of glitter yesterday under the guise of a gift wrapping idea for a little girl turning 5.  Spring gets in to us New Englanders in all the silliest of ways.  It’s all just so warm and welcome.

birthday glitter

 

Circle Game: K Turns 6

I’m a doting aunt.  She’s the only little one around on the big side of my family, this generation is mostly just in betweenies for starting their own families.  Last weekend was sunny and her birthday.  Love how that landmark means Spring every year.  We spent the day giggling in the dark tunnels at the fort at Fort Williams, flying kites, eating and learning how to juggle.  She’s our little string bean.  Happy Birthday, K.

first birthday party with a little friend, they are so sweet together

completely and totally attached

fresh strawberries and cream cheese frosting, her daddy’s got mechanic’s hands

waiting for the cake, i can tell she’s peeking

Freshly Foraged: 4-5-15

Handmade edition.  We’ve been posting vintage costume jewelry in the shop from an estate of a dear friend’s aunt-in-law, but this week I thought I’d highlight a little bit from the hands of the Maine Forager team.  Hand knits for cool Spring weather and upcoming beach trips, greeting cards and onesies are the name of the game.  If you’d like to stretch your dollars a little enter coupon code “MAINEMADE” at checkout for a whopping 20% off your order.

harbor seal onesie, sizes newborn through 18 months

airstream trailer greeting card, single $3 or set of 5 for $12

seed stitch headband in mustard yellow

harbor seal greeting cards – set of 5 $12 or a single card for $3

100% cotton headband – beach turban for soaking up that saltwater in a couple of months 🙂