Counting the Omer for Beginners

Inspired by new friends from the blog world, I decided to try my hand at counting the Omer this year, the 49 day count that began on the second night of Passover and goes through Shavuot.    I had heard about it before and this year was inspired by the Omer counters from the Midianite Mama and Amy Meltzer’s idea on Homeshuling.  And given that I have lots of my own sewing supplies, I decided to jump in and make my own Omer counter.

I decided against using candy in mine. We had too many sweets during Passover and I try to limit sugar to more occasional treats.   After reading a little bit about the tradition of counting the omer, I decided to make my own counter based on a tree theme.  The tree has seven branches for the seven weeks of counting, and each branch has 7 snaps, for the seven days.  Then I cut out lots of leaves and some birds and attached the other side of the snaps to those.  We snap a bird or leaf on the tree each day to keep count.   This is also designed for snap/fine motor practice and fun for the little ones.

As far as what to do, I turned to the traditionalists at Chabad and found this great resource at Aish.com which I printed out as a daily guide.  There is something different to reflect on every day and it is very usable and easy to understand.   I poked around a little further and learned they are actually counting the Omer with daily updates on the Huffington Post, how cool is that?

And here is our Omer counter, this was a fun project and I got to use lots of leftover snaps from my diaper making days. The little pocket on the bottom is full of enough leaves and things to get us through the 49 days, unless they vanish around the house.  I will post another picture of it full, it will look prettier.

Want to join me? No sewing is needed. You can just mark up any calender counting 49 days from the second night of Passover our use this calender and blessing (or buy one from the Midianite Mama) .  Let me know, we can swap ideas via the Facebook page for the blog.

Guest Post: More than Slippers

By Cheryl Corson, landscape architect, writer and knitter.

I’ve sewn, woven, and knitted gifts for loved ones for over thirty years. During that time I’ve also sewn backpacks in a factory, paid by the piece, made clothing for a New York City fashion designer, and run my own production weaving business. Beside technical skill, production work and gift making have little in common.

 Knitting and felting a pair of wool slippers for my husband is a much slower undertaking than production work. Because of this, it becomes a gift for me too – the gift of time. He gets slippers; I get hours of quiet time, during which I often reflect on him and our marriage.

 In fall, he thoughtfully selects 2 colors from dozens on the color chart. Once ordered, the wool soon appears in a box on our front porch. We open it, sharing happy anticipation, turning the soft balls of sage green and maroon yarn in our hands, neat paper bands still intact. Then I begin knitting.

 Christmas approaches and I keep knitting until one day, 2 clown-sized slippers slide over my dubious husband’s feet. Into a pillowcase and the washing machine they go for felting. We check them from time to time until they eventually emerge from the hot water exactly his size. I stuff them loosely with plastic bags to shape them as they slowly dry. On Christmas morning, my husband unwraps them and slips them on, playfully pretending to be surprised.

 I like that they keep his feet warm. I like seeing them side by side by his nightstand when he’s not wearing them. They’ve now molded to his feet and have distinct left and right sides. Their daily use and the understated love they embody, set them apart from store-bought slippers, even years later, as the heels have worn and need patching.

 All these knitted, woven, and crocheted objects go well beyond being merely clothes, garments, or apparel, and into the territory of raiments, vestments, and adornments. And in my dictionary, to adorn invokes the word grace, whose own definition is divine love.

 “Grace” gets to the heart of the matter. It explains the deep emotion and beauty binding yarn, maker, and receiver together into the timeless fabric of human history.

wool slippers, knitted & felted

Cheryl Corson is landscape architect, writer and knitter.  Her website is http://www.cherylcorson.com.  You can read other gardening posts by Cheryl on this blog under our guest posts tab here. 

Guest Post: Introducing the Amazing Omer NOMers

I am so happy to have an actual guest post today from the mama, artist and blogger behind those beautiful Omer counters! Thanks to Tzipporah from the Midianite Manna blog for writing this piece and sharing her creative work.

A creative way to Count the Omer

Much like Tanya, I’m a big fan of homegrown, homemade, and creativity. When I combine these with new twists on Jewish traditions and my own parenting style, the results are sometimes pretty tasty. This year, our family will begin a new mitzvah – counting the Omer, the 7 weeks between Passover and the lesser-known holiday of Shavuot. (If you’re Jewish, you might be thinking, “right, the blintz day.”) And we’ll be doing it with chocolate.

I didn’t grow up Jewish, and as a December birthday girl I loved the cheap chocolate Advent calendars my mother bought for counting down to my birthday every year. I sort of felt sorry for kids with birthdays at other times of the year. Now that I’m Jewish, I don’t really miss Christmas, but every once in a while I do miss my birthday counters. So I was really excited when I saw Amy Meltzer’s idea for an edible Omer counter – not only was it authentically Jewish, it had TWICE as many treats! Oh yeah, and I should probably put some in for my son, too.

I used to be an avid fabric artist, but really hadn’t done anything of note for five years – having a kid can do that to your hobbies. Luckily my grandmother’s sewing machine was still working and after a few experiments, I was able to create a re-usable version of Amy’s Omer counters. The only problem was, I really liked it. So I made another one. And then another. Fabric designers are sneaky that way, making all those different colors and patterns so you just can’t stop at one.

So, in about a week and half, on the second night of Passover, we will begin counting the Omer together as a family for the first time – and I’m pretty sure it’s a tradition my son will insist on again next year.

I’ve put the extra Omer NOMers, as I call them, up for sale in my shop. As a thank you to Tanya for inviting me to post here, anyone who mentions when ordering that they found me through this blog will get a free bag of Kosher for Passover candy to fill in the first week! Now I’ve just got to find a hiding place for all the candy that my extremely resourceful five year old can’t find…

Finding my Sewing Voice (with some help)

Ever since I started sewing, it has felt like something more powerful is going on than a new “hobby”. That might be because I feel like the word hobby itself is so condescending and pathetic sounding –as in “is it a hobby farm?”  Anyway, I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I know that when I sew it feels a lot more creative and fulfilling than I ever would have guessed.  And I spend a fair amount of time thinking about my sewing great grandparents who never sewed as a hobby but as a fierce and concerted effort to feed their families and create useful things.

For me,  it all started by sewing cloth diapers and wool covers.  Then baby pants cut large enough to go over cloth diapers.   And now that we are *almost* done with diapers around here, I am on to sewing for myself.

my sewing corner ready to go

In the past couple of months I have made about a dozen new skirts, mostly wrap style from one simple pattern ( a 2 piece pattern!) and a line skirts from a pattern that I made tracing.  I spent one frustrated weekend trying to graduate to a much higher level dress with all kinds of fussy details like darts and interfacing and wound up with something I didn’t want to wear, so I cut it in half because the skirt part worked.

After the dress fiasco,  I picked up the Sewing Green book by Betz White at my library and I feel like it helped me I find my sewing voice.  She shows you how to make easy and fun clothes out of fabric you can find in your own closet like pillow cases and table cloths.  And if you hit the thrift store, the options become dizzying.  I also love my Sew Liberated book by Meg McElwee and the related blog which has the added bonus of Montessori style parenting hints.

I am so inspired by this blogger at Handmademess who has set out to make her own entire wardrobe and takes the time to take great photos and explain her progress.   And in the Jewish sewing realm, I recently came across these beautiful pieces that are used for counting the omer, the days between Passover and Shavuot.  I have already pulled out fabrics to copy her and you can still buy them on her site as well.

Finally,  I am finding a little too much inspiration on Pinterest, where you can follow me if you like here: https://pinterest.com/thelettuceedge/. Or send me an email or leave a comment here if you want me to send you an invitation to join.

 

More Kale, Less Vinyl — A Birthday Success

So my baby boy, my first-born — turned 5!  I am pretty blown away by this birthday and I am completely overwhelmed with pride at what an amazing person he is already.

A few months ago, he asked for his birthday to be at one of those indoor bouncy centers where you can’t hear anyone talk over the sounds of the fans and machines running.  And all the blow up vinyl toys smell like a plastic factory.  And they serve unhealthy lunches in a little glass room on the side.  And the kids have the TIME OF THEIR LIVES, and the parents just have to show up and pay.

I thought about it, but there was no way I could celebrate my son’s 5th birthday,which happens to fall right after the spring equinox, inside a loud room, that smells like a plastic factory when we live on a farm! But I had to think fast and get into my best sales-mom mode.  I didn’t want him to be disappointed.

It’s almost Shabbat, so there is no time to write the whole story but in short,  we turned it around and wound up with a wonderful outdoor party where all but one of the children ate and enjoyed kale chips (recipe will follow) along with more  standard party fare like fruit salad and of course cake.   They rode on a neighbors horse, went on a farm scavenger hunt, sniffed fresh sprouted peppermint, sat on a tractor and had a wonderful time — maybe even as much fun as they would in a bouncy center!  I could see my son bursting with pride when he yelled “follow the birthday boy,” and lead a small pack of children to the rosemary bush where he had hidden the small bottles of bubbles.

Here are a few photos.  Introducing my little handmade felt bags which were filled with surprises from the scavenger hunt.  I even had some help cutting them out.

Here is the 5 fruit salad for my five-year old!

And the scavenger hunt in progress.

We ate outside in one of the fields in our Sukkah (which is still up) this time decorated with balloons and crêpe paper, you can see it in the distance.  It was perfect!

Now, to adjust to being the mother of a 5-year-old.