Bluebirds and Bluefische

My search for the ideal woven wrap continued...


Didymos caribe (Linen/cotton)

Every time I asked for recommendations of a good wrap for a heavy baby, this would be raved about. Sadly, we just never got on in reality. The texture of the cotton/linen fabric feels dry and chalky to me, its too thick and too bright a turquoise. I love the fishes and the black weft, and maybe it was just a case of it being over hyoed for me, but its just not our wrap. I even tried again months later with a shorter version, but poor Caribe suffered the same fate again.

Natibaby swallows (Linen/Cotton)

 
At the time I bought these everyone seemed to be selling their swallows, slating them saying they were too thick, like wrapping with a curtain, etc. I almost dreaded them arriving. But it was love at first sight. Velvety, satiny, with a beautiful sheen and perfect pattern, and still the most comfy and supportive things I have ever carried A in. I owned them in both blue/black and olive/black, and then sold them in a moment of madness recently. I still miss them and consider buying them back. It's a sickness!

Dipping my toe into wrappy waters

Around 8 months A started to get really heavy and I found the Connecta a little diggy on my shoulders during longer walks. I'd been reading about woven wraps on forums and wanted to see what all the hype was about.

So I picked myself up a 2nd hand Storchenweige Inka off eBay. In all honesty, I was a little underwhelmed. The fabric felt thick and heavy. The colours looked dull in real life. Back carries reduced us to a sweaty, stroppy heap.

However, I persisted with a basic front carry (FWCC/Front Wrap Cross Carry) and pretty soon I started to notice how comfortable it was, and how even in the worst teething bouts, the feeling of being swaddled tightly to my chest while we paced the streets would calm her down. Slowly, slowly, I was converted.

Feeling that it was too weighty for summer temperatures, I then bought a bamboo/cotton blend wrap from polish brand Lenny Lamb. Much thinner, cooler and easier to wrap with, it really got us going but again, the colours just didn't live up to the photos.

It was around this time I discovered Facebook buy/sell/trade groups and watching them the realisation that I could try new things for little or no loss dawned. As a result the slings came thick and fast, my poor postie probably deserved a raise, so I'll keep my future descriptions brief!

Connecta Love

Right, so where were we?

Around 6 months A got too big for the snugbaby mei tai. I took the plunge and ordered my first 'proper' carrier, a brand new Connecta Integra buckle carrier, from www.babycalm.co.uk. Once I'd made the decision the wait for it to arrive was agonizing. And I wasn't disappointed!

Essentially a mei tai with buckle/clip fastenings instead of ties, these are still my favourite 'off the peg' buckle carriers. I could bang on all day about why I love them, but don't worry... I've tried to reduce it to a nifty list:

• Lightweight. I've tried heavily padded carriers, and for me, more padding does not equal more comfort. It chafes where it shouldn't, it restricts my movement, and it makes it bulky to transport. This is the opposite.
• Fast. I can still get her loaded and ready to go in a Connecta faster than probably any other sling
• Secure. My girl is and always has been a leaner. Ring slings could not contain her, and a lot of buckle carriers are too short in the body to hold her properly. She's going no-where in this.
• Convenient. Not only does it roll up to about the size of a bag of sugar but the buckles mean no long trailing straps on rainy days...essential when you live in a swamp like we do. Easy to chuck in the machine when dirty and quick to dry to boot.
• Sleep hood. Essential, in my opinion, especially if your baby likes to loll their head around while napping, as mine does.
• Pretty. They come in a range of delightful prints, I chose Birds of Norway which got many many compliments.You can see the full current range at Connecta's website.
• Affordable - can be found preloved for £40-60, definitely one of the more affordable buckle carriers out there.

We loved our baby size Connecta we now own a toddler size one. We use it every day. If the zombie apocalypse was upon us, its what I'd grab. And that's saying something :)

Baby Carrier Review 2: Snugbaby Mei Tai

On to the next review! When it got to the point that A felt like she constantly wanted to escape from the Close Carrier, I started looking for a mei tai. Fortunately a good friend was selling her one, so that decision was easy enough to make.

She'd bought a Snugbaby Mei Tai style baby carrier. It was black on one side, and a lovely burnt orange/red colour on the other. Quite a simple design, with no hood, and a base that was pitched as adjustable.

Mei Tais are asian style carriers which at their simplest are a panel of fabric with four straps coming off - two for tying round the waist, and two for going over your shoulders, round baby's back/bum, and back round again. They can be as simple as this or they can be as complex, luxurious and expensive as you like!

As you can see in the pic, one of the features of the Snugbaby Mei Tai is that only the centre section of the base is sewn to the waist strap. What I now know is that this means that this is only really suitable for small babies as it really reduces the amount of time that the baby can be carried with their legs in the comfy and supportive 'knee to knee' position.

However, that wasn't a problem until later. For many months in the spring of this year, this carrier served us splendidly. It was a spring full of random heatwaves, and the breathable cotton twill and slimline cut of the carrier meant that A was vastly happier in it. The straps were wide enough to be supportive, and I really liked how easy and quick it was to put on and off. I also liked how easy it was to wash and dry, and how small it folded up (with it's own little carry bag). Being a bit of a wallflower, I enjoyed the fact that it didn't shout "LOOK AT ME!" - I could wear it black-side out, and often people didn't even notice I was using a carrier.


Sadly by around 6 months old, my super-average 50th centile girl decided to start climbing the charts for both height and weight, and before I knew it her chunky legs were pushing the 'adjustable' sides of the base down and leading to some seriously leg-dangling situations. It was time to move on, but I certainly have a soft spot for this carrier. Knowing a little more now, maybe I would have invested in a Babyhawk or Hop-Tye, but we have many happy memories attached to our little Snugbaby.

FO: Super-cosy Handspun Earflap Hat

Of course, having finished some hanspun, I had to knit it up *immediately*.

I started with this pattern: Knitted Child's Hat as it seemed to have been designed for irregular, handspun type yarn.

However, on starting it, I realised I wasn't too keen on the style. Rather than individual ear flaps, it was actually one piece round the back, like a helmet. So I ripped back and started again, this time without the back section.



After knitting the main body of the hat and trying it on Miss A's noggin, I realised that it was on the small side. Clearly age 1-3 years isn't large enough (or perhaps my gauge was just completely off which, given the nature of my handspun, is entirely possible!). So I crocheted several rounds onto the brim to extend it, and then crocheted earflaps on, attaching braids at the end.



I don't know why I find it so much easier to improvise with crochet, it just feels like it grows more organically without needing to count rows, stitches etc.

It's seen a lot of use already, so I think I can count this one as a success! The addition of silk to the wool makes it incredibly warm yet soft.

New Handspun: Atlantic Pools

In the 10 months since my daughter was born, my craft time has peaked and troughed in extreme ways. Breastfeeding a 3 month old baby? More knitting time than I ever could have asked for...the cardigans were flying off the needles! Spinning...not so much. 6 months old and teething? No crafts. No hobbies. NOTHING. Crying, sleep deprivation, long, long walks in the woodlands carrying her on my back (note: start of chronic baby carrier obsession).

Well, it feels like I'm slowly clawing back a little hobby time now my evenings are a little calmer. However, not knowing if or when this time will end means that I have to work hard not to let my crafting time be tinged with a panicky desperation to Get Things Done before the next 'Wonder Week' arrives.

Anyway, I digress. I recently completed the first skein of handspun yarn since before A was born. My borrowed spinning wheel is stowed away under the stairs (and besides, I never really got the hang of it), so I dusted off my beautiful IST drop spindle (pictured below with some grey alpaca)...


...dug out some long-stashed World of Wool fibre in the Tranquil colourway (an incredible blend of merino and tussah silk)...

...and spun like a woman possessed for about a week's worth of evenings.

Pre-baby my spinning was all about producing beautiful, perfectly even and incredibly fine singles with a view to creating some kind of amazing laceweight yarn. Post-baby I want results fast and somehow the part of my brain that cares about getting things 100% pefect (or even halfway there) has been moderated, so I spun this thick and thin, enjoying every minute of it.

I even managed to get on and ply it - my least favourite part of the spinning process and the reason the bottom of my wardrobe is covered with bobbins filled with endless yards of sad, lonely single ply yarn, waiting to one day be plyed into something useable. I called it Atlantic Pools for want of something better. It's SO squishy, incredibly warm, surprisingly light, and above all, soft.

I'm pretty pleased with the result <3

Here it is being knitted into a new hat for A. I'd forgotten how ridiculously exciting it is knitting with your own handspun yarn. And...::dusts off own trumpet::... I think it's knitting up pretty nicely!

Baby Carrier Review 1: Close Carrier

To start with, I'm going to write some reviews on carriers I used over the last 10 months. Partly because I just enjoy the geekery, partly because I want to have something to look back on should I have another baby and need the info! When researching what to buy myself, I found the reviews of others so helpful that I've long intended to write some of my own.

Our first sling was a Close Carrier*. I dithered constantly in the last few months of pregnancy...there were such lovely options out there, but they all seemed so expensive and frankly, the 'sling lingo' was confusing for a total newbie. DH was keen on a mainstream carrier, and the general advice from friends had been 'don't spend too much as babies get too heavy to carry after a few months'. However, I asked for advice from my ever-trusted friends in my Ravelry due date group, many of whom are experienced and enthusiastic babywearers, and was given a few very helpful suggestions, one of which was a Close Carrier. As luck would have it, a friend of mine was happy to lend me hers, so the deal was done for our first baby carrier.

The Close is a carrier constructed from a similar soft, stretchy, cotton jersey type fabric to the very popular Moby wraps. However, rather than having to learn the wrap carries, it is constructed in a way like two ring slings which cross over (with the rings at each hip), sewn at the point where the two slings cross over at the back. Once baby is seated in the front 'X', there is an additional straight wrap section which you can tie around the baby and you for extra support. It's hard to explain without showing you a flat photo and unfortunately I don't have any of my own! However, here is a link to a video which shows pretty clearly how it works: Kiddicare Close Caboo Carrier video.

A great aspect of this construction, particularly with an autumn/winter baby, is that it could be put on without long tails dangling into puddles or mud at your feet, something much appreciated with our love of taking countryside walks. The extra wrap section can be turned into a bag for carrying the whole sling in, which is also extremely useful. They cost around £50 new but can be picked up preloved for around £30.

Initially I found it slightly tricky to get in to - I would end up tangled in the wrong parts of the sling, or get the fabric twisted and then find it hard to adjust. However after a few weeks it because easier and most importantly, A seemed to really enjoy travelling in it. After one disastrous outing in the early weeks with our enormous pram (which was like steering a battleship round the local corner shop), I could tell I was going to carry A one way or another much more than I had previously anticipated. It enabled me to go back to working part time in our shop with her nestled in the sling, to go on woodland walks and trips to the shops, all with her poking her tiny little newborn head out and taking in the world around her (she didn't do much sleeping when carried in those days...).

I don't have many photos of us using it, because...well, we were at that new parent stage where every waking moment of your newborn is captured on camera, but you avoid having pictures taken of you yourself at all costs because the sleepless nights have somewhat taken a toll on your appearance! But here is A tucked up asleep in it on a walk in the woods.

As the months went on, my little (well, not so little at 8lbs 12oz) newborn got bigger, heavier and feistier and at around 3 months it became apparent that the Close Carrier was not going to last us much longer - she would start sagging down after I wore her for a little while, she would get frustrated with the volume of warm cotton jersey around her and start screeching and arching out. Despite it being February it was one of the warmest winters on record and combined with the fact that both her and my natural body thermostats are set to 'furnace' it simply felt too hot for her to be swaddled up in there.

After a particularly frustrating walk on Dartmoor where I ended up carrying her in arms most of the way our time with a stretchy carrier came to an end and the sling was packed away ready to make it's way to a mutual friend. At the time I felt a little disappointed that it had lasted us so little time. However, in retrospect I now know that, particularly with bigger (and warmer) babies, stretchy carriers don't have the longest life span, and I think it really did do the job very well. I guess this was our 'gateway carrier' - and a pretty great one at that.

*I believe these have since been rebranded as Close Caboo