What is the Value of Handmade?

What is the value of handmade?

People often assume that it is cheaper. Sometimes it is, especially if you start from very basic elements. If you grow the vegetables yourself, the salad is pretty cheap. But most of the time, if you added up the cost of all of the materials (yarn or wool) and tools (needles, spindles), the handmade item is more expensive than a basic version you could buy in a store - even excluding the cost of your time.

So, what is the value?

Customizability is certainly one value. When all you start with is some wool and a dye pot, your imagination is the limit. And, when you are talking about clothing, being able to tailor the clothes to your own unique body shape means a lot - especially those of us that the fashion houses rarely cater to.

Limits can be good in art - some people have made amazing things when they limit themselves to just a pen and paper- but so can free expression. And the more basic a material you start with, the more free the expression. If I quilt with factory-made fabric, I am limited to the prints I can find in the store or in my closet. If I crochet an afghan with millspun yarn, I am limited to the colors that I find on the shelf.

Speaking of crocheting afghans:

My mother, repairing a multi-colored granny-square afghan

I always knew that my mother crocheted. But she had basically stopped by the time I was born. I remember once, I got a (non)Barbie doll, and I didn't have clothes for her. My mother quickly crocheted a little pair of pants. But that is the only time I ever remember my mother crafting.

But then I was visiting for Thanksgiving this year and she had pulled an enormous afghan out of the attic guest room. I had seen it growing up, but I don't think I had ever realized that it was made by her. She had pulled it down out of the guest room because it was disintegrating - wool moths and neglect. It was mostly acrylic, so much of it was intact, but apparently the yarn used to crochet the squares together was wool. So, although it needed a good amount of repair, the essence was still there.

So, for the first time ever, me and my mother sat and crafted side-by-side. I worked on my sweater, and she got out her crochet hook. She told me the story of the afghan. How they had moved into an apartment and found a bunch of granny squares in the closet. How she had started making more squares out of whatever yarn she could find in the bargain bins. How she realized that she had made far too many, but was determined to crochet them all together. How she liked how it had turned out, but it was enormous and heavy - almost a king-size bedspread. How disappointed she was that it had been neglected.

Which brings us back around to the value of handmade things. Handmade things have stories. Handmade things are connections to people. Even when they are not customized for you.

Baby sweater we received from the family for NEB.
The label inside has the name of my mother's youngest cousin - who got married when I was 10 or so.

With modern manufacturing, we certainly have more stuff than people did in the past. But we rarely treasure our stuff.  I like using our bread machine that we got as a wedding gift. But it is breaking, and, while I'm annoyed that we have a disposable society, where things are not usually made to be repaired, we are just replacing it. Now, obviously, we can afford that because we are fortunate to have good jobs. But I feel like even people who cannot afford to just replace things don't have a sentimental attachment to the items, just worry that they will have to do without.

But handmade items are different. Time went into them. Thought went into them. They are worth passing on as more than just stuff.

We are blessed to have many crafters on both sides of the family. And, as the oldest cousin on my mother's side (and the first to have a child) we got many heirloom sweaters. My husband is the second oldest cousin in his family, but, since his brother lives overseas, we got many sweaters from that side as well. We can't remember who made most of them (though a few have labels), but I wanted to post pictures of a just a few to honor them. There are many, many more.

Made by my MIL. Still too big for NEB, but he will grow into it.

The sweaters are in many styles and abilities. Some were made for my husband or his brother. Others were made for the previous generation. My last post was on gifts that were hand made just for NEB. These are the gifts that are being passed down.

Babies grow fast, so clothes are worn only a few times before they're outgrown. This is true whether or not the maker spent many hours on the gift.

Blue and white sweater of unknown provenance. There is a matching hat.

And, of course, sweaters can only really be worn at certain times of year, and in certain climates. My brother-in-law was born and spent the first few years of his life in Los Angeles. Not many cold days there. NEB didn't ever wear some of the ones we received, as he was the right size only in the heat of summer.

Very small, cute pullover. It has matching pants, but they are two or three sizes larger.

Still, it means something special to us that NEB can wear his family history. And we will be sure to take care of them so we can pass them on when it's time.

NEB wearing a brown sweater. It has a label with name of my mother's brother.

Gifts for Our Little Boy

We happily have an abundance of talented crafters in our family. Today, rather than talk about my current projects, I thought I would share some of the homemade gifts that were made just for NEB, our little boy.

Before I get into specifics, I'd like to wax a bit sentimental. There is just something so special about homemade gifts. With a store-bought gift, you have the gifter's thoughtfulness of their choice and the use of the item. If it is a really perfect fit to your personality or it is bought on vacation, you know that they were thinking of you in particular when they could have been thinking about something else.  I have nothing against store-bought gifts.

But a homemade gift is a different level. Someone has given you the gift of time. The gift of effort. They have spent hours and hours (and hours) thinking about you and putting their intention (dare I say love?) into the item.

NEB was loved by many even before he was NEB.

So, the gifts, starting with one from me and my husband. I have talked in detail about it before, but I haven't ever published pics of the finished piece, except on Ravelry. G picked out yarn and I made a blanket; NEB is sleeping under it right now. Not much else to say except that I mostly like how it came out. I think I cast on too many stitches though, so the shape is a bit weirdly wide.

NEB under blanket last spring. ETA: hat made by grandma.

I hope that he appreciates the love I put into it when he is older. The nice thing about baby blankets is, unlike baby sweaters, they you can't really completely outgrow them. I had a baby blanket on my bed to keep my feet warm until college.

Speaking of baby blankets, we got a lot of them as gifts. Most were store-bought or hand-me-downs, but two others were made just for NEB. The first, from my aunt, was a large sewn quilt. NEB spent a lot of time on it doing pushups before he could crawl. It had a lot of interesting fabrics for him to stare at.

NEB on quilt from Aunt R in February

The second blanket was from the grandmother who taught me how to knit. It is a turquoise cotton lace blanket. I didn't use it much, because we were using the one that I made, but it should make a great lap blanket in years to come. It has a nice, heavy drape, and a lovely feather-and-fan pattern.

Lace blanket from grandma, draped over the babygate

Speaking of gifts from grandma, she also made a sweater and matching hat. I already posted a picture of NEB wearing those, though.

Another of my aunts made NEB a whole set of hats, in different sizes.

Some, not all, of the hats from Aunt C.

He has worn many of them, some he is still too small for, and a few he never wore, since they only fit him during the summer months. It is a great pattern though, and the hats are adorable. The next child to use them might be a summer baby, and will use the ones that NEB didn't.

And the last homemade gift (that I can think of at the moment) was a bunting from my mother-in-law.

Warm outfit for NEB from my mother-in-law

It's gorgeous (like all of her work), and warm. It has a hood and even a pocket to fit a car seat buckle through. And... it confused us, so NEB hardly wore it. G, who usually does the dressing, didn't even realize that the bottom was closed up. So he thought it was designed for a much larger child. My mother-in-law says that she dressed him in it a few times to take him out on walks while she was watching him, but that's really it.

Well, that is the downside of making gifts for infants. They grow so fast that sometimes they only can wear it a few times - or never. But there are always more infants, and the items get passed on to be worn by someone new. As the first great-grandchild on one side, and the first one in awhile on another, NEB probably got more than his fair share of new items.

He also got a bunch of homemade hand-me-downs. But I'll save them for another day.

Baby Blanket for January

Happy September everyone!

With the upcoming move to a larger place, and an exhausting trip to see the U.S. eclipse, I haven't had much time for knitting or spinning recently. And I'm not looking forward to packing up all of my stash either (and, you know, other things too), so this might be the last post for this month. But I did want to share my newest knitting project with you all.

I'm making a baby blanket for the little one we are expecting in January.

New baby will probably look something like this.

It's been awhile since I made a blanket, since they are so large. I'm generally a fan of working with smaller needles, and a blanket takes forever with small stitches. So I'm pretty sure that the last time I made a blanket was in high school.

My version of the Sunny Days Throw in blue and purple from Knitting Digest Magazine

I'm actually using the blanket to warm my toes at this very moment, so I've gotten my time out of it. I vaguely remember that I wanted to use the blue yarn from my stash (Wendy X-treme, a gift from someone else's destash) so I bought the lavender yarn to match it. I'm pretty sure the purple is wool, and it has shed like no tomorrow (it's a bulky single ply), but the label for it has been lost to the mists of time.

So, onto my current project. My husband picked out the yarn so that he could participate. I told him that he should get:
1) acrylic yarn, so that it is washable,
2) bulky yarn, so it won't take too long to make, and
3) one or two different colors, since most patterns are written for that.

Unfortunately, while his color sense is ok, he knows absolutely nothing about fiber arts. The yarns were both acrylic and bulky, but one was super-bulky, and one was just regular bulky/chunky. He got me Lion Brand's Hometown USA in silver and Big Twist brand's Chunky Yarn in blue-green. Beautiful together, both soft, both large and easy to knit up, but very different weights.

Well, crafting is nothing without a little challenge, so I went looking for a pattern that would combine the two in a nice way. I figured that a mosaic pattern would be great for two colors, not too difficult to remember (I'm still coming off of my lace shawl and wanted something a bit simple for now), and might even be better with two different weights. If I used the bulkier one as a highlight on the other, it might "pop" out of the fabric and give it a nice texture.

For my pattern, I decided on the Two Colour Slip Stitch Throw by Sandra Oakeshott. I kind of wanted to give a little love to a pattern that hasn't been done too often (according to Ravelry) - maybe someone will decide to try the pattern that I wrote as a cosmic payback. I hate the colors that she used for her example blanket, but I will be using turquoise and silver, so that part doesn't matter.

Anyhow, how does it look so far?

About 6" done on the blanket - a little more than one repeat

I think it is coming together nicely. The silver certainly pops out of the fabric, and the pattern is very easy to remember. I am out of practice with knitting using large needles (size 11, in this case) so it is a tad bit awkward, especially to purl. But it is going very fast with the easy pattern and the bulky yarn, so I am pretty sure that I will be able to finish in time.

One more look at the pattern close up and stretched out a bit:

Close up of the pattern