December 31, 2010

KTMade Christmas: Part II

December 31, 2010/ Katie Taylor

So, when I mentioned previously about the project that I was finishing on Christmas Eve, this was it. Once I allowed myself to relax about all of the yarn ends that needed to be tucked in enough to actually look at the afghan, I was so ridiculously excited about how it turned out. Look how gorgeous it is!

I wanted to make my mom and her husband an afghan that would look at home in their house, which is decorated in a fairly contemporary fashion with some deliciously rich-colored walls. Bold colors and a modern look were an absolutely necessity - not always an easy feat with a crochet project. When I found this pattern from Ravelry, I knew I had hit gold.

Sometimes I am so delightfully surprised about how all of these projects come together. You start with a few balls of yarn and a crochet hook, and then you end up with something truly magnificent.

Most of my projects started out with big plans and then had to be downsized once I got closer and closer to the holidays. This afghan was the exception. I made the hexagons with five rounds instead of the seven in the pattern because I was using a big crochet hook (size I) and fairly thick yarn - the luscious Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton - so I thought that it would still be big enough to act as a blanket. Boy was I wrong. I finished my 39 hexagons, laid them all out, and it was barely big enough to act as a baby blanket. After allowing myself a few minutes of total panic and some tears, I regrouped and started making more hexagons. Even after several more hours of crocheting it seemed like no matter how many I made, there weren't enough to make it into a usable afghan - until Navah got home. She had been away for the weekend, but her fresh eyes upon coming home made all the difference. I had been attempting to keep the hexagons in the same shape distribution as the pattern, but Navah moved them all around to make the blanket into a rectangular shape instead of a square shape. Tada! An afghan!

I think my mom and her husband loved it.

Katie

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Learning.
#Repost @ijeomaoluo with @make_repost
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I spoke with @voxdotcom about the racial justice moment we're in right now. “Be wary of anything that allows you to do something that isn’t actually felt by people of color,” Oluo

Learning. #Repost @ijeomaoluo with @make_repost ・・・ I spoke with @voxdotcom about the racial justice moment we're in right now. “Be wary of anything that allows you to do something that isn’t actually felt by people of color,” Oluo said. “I always ask myself when I’m trying to do solidarity work, can the people I’m in solidarity with actually feel this? Can they spend this? Can they eat this? Does this actually help them in any way? And if it doesn’t, let it go.” https://www.vox.com/2020/6/9/21285062/ijeoma-oluo-interview-talk-race-book-george-floyd-protests

Beautiful image and important reminder #Repost @mamaglow with @make_repost
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Mama Glow - Black breastfeeding is a revolutionary act. There are so many barriers to breastfeeding success including: lack of peer support, lack of familial encouragement

Beautiful image and important reminder #Repost @mamaglow with @make_repost ・・・ Mama Glow - Black breastfeeding is a revolutionary act. There are so many barriers to breastfeeding success including: lack of peer support, lack of familial encouragement, lack of education and instruction, aggressive marketing from formula companies and health care providers, less accessibility to lactation consultants, lack of intra-community support, policy gaps like lack of federal paid family leave, etc. Systemic racism plays a huge role in breastfeeding and the trauma endured by enslaved black women who were forced to nurse the children of their masters is directly correlated with black breastfeeding rates today. _ The CDC found that of infants born in 2012, 66% of Black women chose to breastfeed. While 75% of White women and 80% of Latinex women choose to breastfeed. Who really has a choice is the question. _ Not all black mothers are set up to be home with their infants for a great length of time them and able to nurse their babies on-demand. 1 in 4 women in the US head back to work 10 days after giving birth. This includes people like our essential workers. All mothers should have access to quality and culturally competent care regardless of ethnicity, skin tone, partner status, income, location or insurance. They should have access to education and support groups during the perinatal period to help encourage breastfeeding success. Modeling breastfeeding in the community is an act of community care. It preserves a natural biological process that is no longer instinctive. If we don’t see breastfeeding in our community then our chances for breastfeeding success decline. _ Salute to orgs like The Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association @bmbfa, who have a national impact on the reduction of racial disparities in breastfeeding success for black families. They provide education, valuable resources and ongoing support to black families and public/private agencies that service these families. _ Who are some of your favorite care providers and organizations serving the community and preserving breastfeeding? _ 📷 @rebornfromwi