Get to Know the Space Geek Side of me

If you are following me on Twitter, you know that the only thing I tweet about as much as crafting is .... Space. That's right, I'm a complete and total Space Geek.

My fascination with Space and Space travel started when I was about 11 years old. I'd always been interested in Outer Space and astronauts, but it was specifically the Challenger tragedy that spurred me into declaring I wanted to be an astronaut myself. I still remember sitting in my 5th grade class and seeing the teacher from the next classroom over come in and start whispering grimly to our teacher. I heard things like "shuttle" and "explosion" and had an immediate lump in my stomach. As I continued to follow the story and learn more about the astronauts on the Challenger's crew, I developed a deep appreciation for the brave pioneers who were willing to risk their lives in the name of science.

That's me in the middle (with some totally bitchen pink frosted lipstick) and my friends who went to Space Camp as well.

A year later, I went to Space Camp. (I have to thank my parents profusely here for being willing and able to send me) It was an amazing experience, that differed just a smidge from the classic 1986 movie - which I have almost memorized and adore. I learned loads, made great friends and ate french fries shaped like Space Shuttles. I bounced around in a 1/6 chair and got to feel what it would be like to walk on the moon. It was amazing.

That's me as mission commander in our end-of-week mission simulation. Two words: Insanely Fun.

My love for Space has continued my entire life, and has recently been infiltrating my tweets, especially during the last Shuttle mission back in May. I was able to sit in my office and work while I streamed live video of the astronauts' space walks and their repairs of the Hubble telescope.

Surely this can't amaze anyone but me?

I mean ... HELLO! Live video streaming from hundreds of miles above us - astronauts chatting (and so politely!) - dear ole Hubble ... this is amazing stuff, folks!

I was watching the shuttle launch (actually, scrubbed due to weather issues, crossing fingers for tonight) last night, and couldn't believe that no one else in my family wanted to watch with me. I gasped as the astronauts disembarked the orbiter (some even giving a wave and a thumbs up to the little camera positioned in the white room just outside the orbiter's hatch) and said, "Look! It's the astronauts! They're getting off the orbiter! Check out their suits! Their helmets! Look at the guys helping them!" Apparently, it wasn't enough to pull the kids from watching iCarly.

My husband looked at me and said, "You are such a dork."

Commander Polansky gets strapped in to the Orbiter today. Amazing!

Now, I know he wasn't being mean and I've never been one to hide my nerd badge, but come on! We are blasting humans in to space. They are hooking up with the International Space Station. There will be Space walks ... in SPACE. All of it real and there for us to watch and admire. Teams of people, working hard, using their insanely smart brains and making all these amazing things happen ... up in SPACE!

How is this dorky? How is this not the most awesome thing we can experience? Why isn't everyone excited and interested and fired up about it?

I have a theory: we've (mostly) lost touch with the 11-year-old inside of us.

This was my set up in my office on my side desk to watch the spacewalks with Hubble back in May.

Nothing brings me back to that excited, full of wonder and awe self like Space. When I watched astronaut Mike Massimino take the coolest space tools ever to Hubble, I was instantly transported back to 1986. I was giddy and excited and interested and in complete awe. Being able to follow Massimino on Twitter (and the numerous other NASA twitter feeds) allowed me to feel like I was along for the ride and left me feeling completey inspired.

So here's where my love of Space and my love of crafting coincide: Inspiration, wonder, awe, excitement, and tapping back in to that carefree feeling I had when I was a kid. They actually both evoke very similar emotions for me.

This is me talking to a woman from NASA at Maker Faire. She's just told me some very exciting news about NASA (that I'll share when I get the green light) and I'm hitting the table saying (I'm not kidding) "SHUT UP! That is SO COOL!" I guess I am a dork ....

Aren't we all looking for inspiration? Don't we all want something that leaves us breathless and happy and excited to see what the future will be? Am I a dork for thinking that things like Space travel and crafting can bring that feeling to others? I'm ok with that.

Give yourself some time tonight to watch the launch. Follow NASA on Twitter, follow the astronauts on Twitter. If you have kids, get them to watch, too. Maybe you can make something while you watch. Open yourself up to the possibility of being completely inspired.

Or ... just go ahead thinking I'm a dork

Some resources:
10 Ways to get involved with NASA
Space Flight Now - up-to-date information on launch and video
SpaceVidCast - another place to watch - it's in HD and has a couple who do commentary during the launch prep. There's also a chat room. You might see me in there under avgjanecrafter
NASA TV - you can watch online, but there's a bit of a delay behind the first two sites listed here. If you have staellite tv, you can catch it there.
NASA on Twitter
Astronaut Mike Massimino on Twitter
Astronaut and Commander of the current mission, Mike Pollansky

Special Guest Review: Vintage Baby Knits

Anyone who has read this blog for more than a few posts knows that I'm not a knitter. I'm just too hot-natured to spend much time handling a bunch of yarn or wearing sweaters. I have to admit, though, that when a copy of Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren showed up on my doorstep, I almost decided to change my views on knitting.

Aaaaaaaand then I thought again. Being realistic, I knew I wasn't about to pick up knitting, and knew I'd need some help giving my readers an educated review of the book. I asked my friend, Melissa Henderson, to do the honors instead, and I'm thrilled that she's giving the first guest review here on Average Jane Crafter.

I know Melissa through a vibrant online mom community here in Austin. We've connected over all things crafty, and I was lucky enough to have her in one of my embroidery classes. I've always admired Melissa's writing and her knitting, so I think she's the perfect person to share her thoughts on Vintage Baby Knits with you. Here's a little bio on Melissa to get you acquainted. I'm really hoping she'll have more to share here for all the knitting faithful AJC readers.

Melissa Henderson is a knitter, writer, editor, wife, and mother, though not necessarily in that order. She learned to crochet at the age of five. Her grandmother unraveled the orange scarf she was making over and over until Melissa's stitches were even enough to warrant the use of the yarn. At seventeen, she taught herself to knit and has been stitching away ever since. She has recently taken up sewing and embroidery as well, causing even more confusion over how to best use her limited time.

And without further ado - here's Melissa's review of Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren.

This book marries three of my favorite things: knitting, vintage clothing, and babies. When the book arrived, I tried to temper my initial excitement before diving in to avoid disappointment. I’ve seen many knitting pattern books that look equally promising at first glance. Somehow, after flipping through the pages, I realize thee books held little in the way of items I’d actually want to knit. How many sparkly shrugs and wool bikinis can a girl use, after all?

I took a deep breath, opened the book with a stack of stickie notes on hand, and began marking each pattern I’d actually want to knit. It was soon clear that this book passed my initial test: The patterns are simply lovely. I marked nearly a dozen on my first flip-through.

I began knitting the Stella Pixie Hat since I had some leftover sock yarn in my stash. The mitered construction intrigued me. And I’ll confess my great knitting weakness: I am lazy about seaming. This little hat has only two simple seams. I knit most of it while watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. There’s something about the process of crafting a cute vintage bonnet that calls for the company of a black-and-white movie.

Since the newest member of our family is in his or her thirty-eighth week of gestation as I write, I enlisted Curious George to model my Stella Pixie Hat, knit out of less than one skein of Knit Picks Essential Sock Yarn in Kettle-Dyed Spruce. The pattern was simple and easy to follow. This little hat is also a perfect on-the-go summer knitting project. You can easily stash it in your purse, and you don’t have to endure the unpleasant sensation of thick wool heating up your lap as the sun shines down on you.

This brings me to another thing I love about Vintage Baby Knits: the wide variety of yarn weights used in the patterns. There are some patterns that call for worsted weight yarn, but most call for double knitting, sport, or fingering weight yarns. Using lighter weight yarns creates gorgeous detail in these wee vintage knits. As wise knitters knew years ago, lightweight yarn paired with small needles means you use less yardage per garment, a great way to save yarn while turning out heirloom-quality items.


The projects in Rengren’s book are so lovely that I’ve already started the Rufus Textured Cardigan in a shameless shade of red wool. Yes, it requires seaming. But these patterns are just so lovely, so simple and stylish, that I will venture back into the land of seams for them. Next on the knitting list is the Betty Lou Lace Cardigan. I’d be knitting it now if I had the right yarn. This beautiful little swing-style jacket is, in fact, a seamless pattern. I have a feeling it will become one of those stand-by knits I make again and again for baby gifts. After that, I have my eye on the Daisy Soaker, or maybe Rupert the Lion and his pal Elmer the Elephant.

You get the picture: This is one knitting book you’ll use again and again. What a delight to find so many gorgeous photos and timeless patterns in one lovely book. I highly recommend taking an afternoon off to close the shades, crank up the AC, and knit one of these ridiculously cute gems while taking in a black-and-white double-feature. That’s what I’ll be doing as I wait for my water to break.

Embroidered Pieces From my Mom

I think I've mentioned before that my mom went through quite the crafty phase herself when she was in her mid twenties to early thirties. She and I seem to share the same interests and habits in crafting. Neither of us really craft(ed) with our kids, and we both have a passion for embroidery. I don't mind that my mom didn't craft with us much as kids, because I can see why it was her thing. It's the same reason I don't do much crafting with my kids, especially when it comes to embroidery. That is my sacred, post-kid-bedtime activity. My mom revealed to me that it was a hobby she picked up with she was a young mom (like me) with a long-working-hours husband (like me) and she was trying to keep her hands busy at night when she watched tv so she wouldn't overeat (like ... me!) I love that even though we never really *talked* about craft before, I still managed to evolve into the same craft habits that she had.


A few weeks ago, I was at my sister's house for a playdate with the kids. I walked down her hallway to fetch one of the kiddos, and stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes fell on this old piece of embroidery. I'd completely forgotten it, but as soon as I saw it, memories and feelings from childhood came rushing back. My mom made this for me and it hung in my room for years when I was a little kid. I remember looking at it so much, for so long, studying every stitch.


This was another piece she stitched. I can't remember if this was in my sister's room or my room, but again - it brought back floods of memories. I remember looking at these pieces with such focused attention, taking in every color and shape and stitch. They were so familiar to me once I saw them again that I can't believe they had ever slipped to the far reaches of my mind where I forgot them for a while.


I love these pieces, not because they are "kitchsy" or "vintage" looking. That's fun and all, but I love the memories of knowing them so well. And now that I know more about why and when my mom made them, I love having that new connection to them. It makes me want to make more things like this for my kids, and to not worry so much if they seem excited about them now. I have a feeling that if they land in their houses decades from now, my kids will have the same loving connection as I have with these.

Secret Ingredients for Creative Fun

I just wrapped up a most pleasant afternoon with the delightful Patricia Zapata of A Little Hut. Patricia and I first met at Maker Faire Austin back in October, and instantly bonded (talk of balancing kids/crafting/work/laundry will do that for ya) I love following Patricia on Twitter, and was giddy to see the following tweet from her yesterday:

Getting everything ready for overnight trip to Austin.

After suggesting we try to hook up for a "paper playdate" and realizing our kids (who are almost the exact same ages) could play together, we arranged an afternoon meetup to play with the Cricut paper cutting machine.

Patricia recently wrote a two-part review of the Cricut that included some beautiful projects. I got a Cricut from the Provo Craft folks during Maker Faire Bay Area a few weeks ago, and had been dying to try it out. We introduced the kids, tossed 'em out in the back yard and dug in to the Cricut box. With Patricia's skillful guidance, it wasn't long before we were cutting out all kinds of fun shapes and designs.

There was so much laughter - even when the kids started running around inside the house, screaming at the tops of their lungs - and we had fun trying out all kinds of different things on the Cricut. After Patricia left, I headed back to the table to pick up a little bit, and was struck by the remnants of our crafternoon.


The kitchen table was a "mess" but it was a beautiful example of the most important ingredients to creative fun: collaboration, experimentation, and a big huge .... MESS.

Because we didn't have anything specific we were trying to make, we were completely open to just trying anything and everything. We both had some similar ideas we were wanting to try, and somehow, working together made it much easier for us to just throw caution to the wind and try every crazy idea we had.

I'll be posting pictures of some of the things we made in the next day or two, but I think what's more important than *what* we made was our *process*. I love to be on my own and work alone, but sometimes the creative spark you need can only be lit when you are with someone else. And having a special "playdate" or occasion also seems to free up some of the inhibition to making a mess. When you have collaboration, laughter, lack of fear and lots of mess, you are pretty much gauranteed to get something really beautiful in return.

The afternoon was also a great lesson in spontinaety. Patricia and I laughed at the thought that this fantastic afternoon was in thanks to Twitter. But it was also being sponatneous enough to say, "Hey ... why don't we..." and "Yeah, that sounds like fun" I had to not worry that my house wasn't clean (it's summer, folks, things are in a constant state of chaos over here) and Patricia was really great to be so flexible and willing to just come over to the house of someone she'd only met once before. Those little risks added up to big time fun. So what little risks are you taking today?

Get a Sneak Peek at My New Embroidery Class Schedule

In case you missed it in my previous post, the new Stitch Lab Sewing Studio schedule is going out, via email, to more than 1,000 folks tomorrow (Wednesday) For my oh-so-special blog readers, though, I'll give you a sneak peek and priority enrollment in my embroidery classes! Just shoot me an email today (Tuesday) at averagejanecrafter [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll send you the list of new class dates through September. These classes always fill up, so this is your chance to nab a spot early! I want to see you in class!

Here's a little sweet feedback from recent students:

"I can't believe we learned so many stitches and I feel competent to do them all! It was super fun! You are an amazing teacher; patient, smart, funny and encouraging." - Wendy Morgan, took the Mother/Child embroidery class with her daughter, Ruby.

"Thanks so much for the class last week. I have been embroidering the heck out of anything I can get my hands on now!" -Jessica Gass

Communicrafting Wrap-Up!

Me gettin' chatty with awesome embroidery visitors! Picture from Jenny Hart.

Thanks to all the Austin folks who came out to the Communicrafting event at AMOA last week. We had an incredible turnout (200-300 people!) I had such a blast doing quickie embroidery demos and seeing loads of people get that little twinkle in their eyes when they saw that embroidery was something fun and simple and totally within their reach.

These two kiddos didn't want to stop stitching! They closed the place down!

There was an adorable mother/daughter pair who picked up hoops and sat down and started stitching together, and left with extra floss and their designs so they could continue stitching at home. There were also two adorable kiddos who came up close to the end of the evening and took to stitching like nobody's business. They closed the event down and didn't want to give up their needles! They went home with enough floss to finish their projects, and an excitement for embroidery that made me positively giddy.

It was her first time to pick up a needle and stitch, and she did a fantastic job! She made the most perfect tiny lazy daisies on the flower!

I also got to see some of my awesome embroidery students from my classes at the Stitch Lab sewing studio. I was tickled to hear that they were all stitching or dreaming up new projects to stitch. One student has already emailed pictures of projects she completed within a week of taking the class, and another - who was in the mother/child class on Mother's Day weekend - told me that her daughter has been stitching bookmarks as gifts for her friends. How fun is that!?

If you've been itchin' to get in to one of my embroidery classes, now is your chance. The new Stitch Lab schedule will go out tomorrow to the Stitch Lab email list (more than 1,000 people). For my oh-so-special blog readers, I'll give you a sneak peek at the dates and will get priority enrollment for you so you can be sure to grab a spot. Just email me at averagejanecrafter at gmail dot com with "I wanna stitch!" in the subject line, and I'll get you all fixed up.

This is Jordan from Sublime Stitching. When you order from the Sublime Stitching Web site, Jordan's the pro who packs up your order and ships it out & handles all the order info. Plus, he's super nice! (picture from Jenny Hart)

Teaching embroidery is truly one of my all-time favorite things to do. I love sharing all the tips and tricks on everything from various ways to transfer images to fabric to where to find the best linens on which to stitch. The classes aren't just about learning stitches, but give you all the fundamental information and confidence you need to leave and keep stitching right after class is over. I get such joy hearing from so many students who reveal that they've been bitten by the embroidery bug in my classes and can't stop stitching. That's the kind of habit I love spreading! Join in on the fun!

Community and Crafting - My two favorite things!

Austin folks - come see me and a great group of very cool Austin crafty folks this Thursday at the Austin Museum of Art for the first-ever Communicrafting event. The event is hosted by Jenny Hart and the Sublime Stitching crew to celebrate the two new Sublime Stitching releases from Chronicle Books (The Bib Kit and the Stitchable Stationery Kit)

Along with Jenny and the Sublime crew, I'll be there doing small embroidery demos. Also doing her craft thing will be Kathie Sever of Future Craft Collective with cool projects for kids. Leslie Bonnell from the Stitch Lab will also be on hand, sharing her infinite wisdom. And more!

I love events like this because it's a great chance to get out and mingle, meet knew folks, learn new things and celebrate the thriving craft community here in Austin. You need to be there! Please come by and say hi, take a few stitches and learn great stuff from some really special folks.

Check out the Facebook event page for more information to and RSVP to show that you'll be there with all the cool, fun kids. See you there!