It's kind of amazing to me how things progress and creative interests are discovered. Really, I suppose this all started nearly 8 years ago.... with a sweet little boy born on March 23rd, 2003 that refused to be set down. Out of necessity, I began wearing my sweet boy, R. It was sweet and magical -- and beyond the pleasure it brought me, it allowed me more freedom and the ability to use both hands while staying close to my little babe.
Fast forward through my second babe, D, also worn. The range of carriers was wide -- started with a Snuggli (aka crotch dangler), moved into pouches (both homemade and manufactured), ringslings, and soft structured carriers. I loved every minute of wearing my first two babes...
And then came our sweet third babe, B. Though she was by far the most sweet natured little one out of our three, babywearing was still needed to walk R to school and run errands and nap time and.... You get the point -- babywearing was still much needed and much loved.
On a random day, after a typical weekend run to my favorite donut shop, we stopped in a cute, natural parenting boutique. I was browsing all of their cool and fun wares and I came across a Moby baby wrap. I had no idea how to use it, but I grabbed that ridiculously long piece of cloth and wrapped it around me like I was a mummy. Then I grabbed little B, only a few months old, and slipped her in it. It.was.love. The idea of a simple cloth molding us together as one -- like we had been just a few short months earlier was hypnotic. I looked at my sweet husband and said "I have to get this! She's our last babe and I have to try it out.... I swear, this will be the last baby carrier I need!" Little did I know.... ;)
After a little while of wearing B in our Moby, I happened upon a fabulous baby wearing resource: The Babywearer. Oh wow. The options were amazing. After reading, I realized that I could have more support and longer wearing by switching from the stretchy Moby wrap to a woven wrap. I found a great deal and decided to dive in.
One of the great parts of TBW (The Babywearer) is that they have a forum for buying, selling and trading baby carriers. Through that, I was able to try a number of carriers and started acquiring a nice little collection. Along the way, I noticed some wraps were the normal stripes or solids, but instead had a liquid flow of color splashed across them. I was so intrigued. I searched and researched and I asked a bunch of questions and realized that other mamas were dyeing wraps. Making custom OOAK wraps to snuggle their babes in. I attempted to find someone to dye a wrap for me, to no avail.... Desperate times call for desperate measures ;) I had to figure out how to do this myself!! And so I did. :)
My very first gradated wrap was a light blue cotton fish wrap from Didymos. My husband was out doing a night dive and inspired a dark blue grad over this fun little blue fish wrap.... and a new passion was born.
I've been dyeing wraps for myself and for friends and thanks to a lot of encouragment from mamas on TBW, have decided to open my services up for others. My hope is to help other mamas create their dream dye jobs on these lovely simple pieces of cloth we love to snuggle our babes in.
Join me in this journey....
No comments:
Post a Comment