It is nothing short of an honor to reveal the first of two sacred and secret projects I've been working on over the past moon: a quilt, created by my New Moon sisters and me, for our dear friend (and
my midwife for Big
B) who is 35 weeks pregnant with her second child. About two weeks ago, she decided to return to the States from her new home in Sweden to honor a ritual we in our circle hold very dear: the
Mother Blessing.
A
Mother Blessing is an alternative to today's traditional Baby Shower. Rather than focusing on tangible gifts for the baby, a
Mother Blessing allows the new mother to receive blessings from the women in her innermost circle. These blessings are to support her journey through labor, birth, and mothering the child to come. There are a series of ceremonies, my favorite of which comes just before the closing of the circle. We weave ourselves together using a ball of red yarn. This represents the blood lines that tie us together through generations of birthing women. Each of us is left with a bracelet or anklet to tie us to the birthing mother until her baby is born, when we 'cut the cord.' This ritual inspired the communal design of the quilt.
Rose called me one night shortly after we learned of
our midwife's upcoming trip. She had this great idea to make a community quilt, something she's always wanted to do. Including
the midwife, there are eight of us New Moon sisters.
Rose and I discussed a simple nine block patchwork. This idea morphed with the involvement of
the visionary, whose concept was to have our hands painted on the quilt, so that
our midwife could feel our touch so far away.
After collecting all of the handprints in alternating colors,
the visionary passed the squares back to
Rose, who pieced the quilt top and border (her craftsmanship is
stunning, I might add). She then returned the top to
the visionary for her beautiful artistic embellishment, which really tied the pieces together cohesively. Each of our hands was identified by a unique symbol and painted with the print from the center square. Then it was my turn; I received the top and quilted it with a flannel backing.
I delivered the quilt sandwich back to
Rose, along with a label with all of our names and a special dedication.
Rose stitched the binding and the label onto the quilt, washed it (which softened it and gave it a great antiqued look), and wrapped it in brown paper tied with the red yarn. After presenting it to
our midwife this afternoon, it was time for her handprint to join the circle.
From first stitch to last, this quilt was created in less than one week. And I am
so proud to say that I had a hand in it. Literally.
The birth of a baby is a universal call to knitters. This is something I have only very recently understood. So when I saw this post on the holy mecca of blogs, just a week after my midwife had her first baby, I decided to challenge myself and do my first knitting-in-the-round project: The Gnomey Hat. I went to our finest local yarn shop for the occasion and picked out this gorgeous self-striping yarn.
Apparently I am not the only one who is enamored with the little gnomey! At a Florida Friends of Midwives event over the weekend, two other mamas were caught knitting the same hat. See, Soule Mama? You are spreading joy, one set of needles at a time. 
I finished the hat last night and decided not to add the pom-poms (you're welcome, Rio). I like it just the way it is, and I'm sure the sweet little man will look adorable in it. I thought he might be asleep when I gave it to his mama (and he was), so little b's Ernie ball had to pose for me. 
...and here is the actual little head that the hat will keep warm. Sweet dreams, darling one!
