Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Working On It Wednesday #woiw #2

 We will be posting the woiw with as much information as we can here, then we hope you will pop on over to our facebook group and share your photos there!
Each week we will choose one carry to play with, practice and perfect!! What better way to experience and expand our babywearing bag of tricks!!
Practice the carry, play with it, enjoy!! Post pics!!!
#woiw #BWIGateway

This week we are going to play with a hip carry! Coolest Hip Cross Carry (CHCC)! Often just referred to as Coolest this carry is great in a mid length wrap. It is a carry that can be pre-tied or use a sling ring to finish. It is a great carry for seat poppers as it has two cross passes. The Coolest version is a modification of hip cross carry which is often done with a longer wrap. 

Coolest hip carry is easy to learn, really quick, and easy to do! Hip carries allow baby to easily view behind and in front while giving the wearer more mobility than a front carry offers. Coolest can be done with a small baby all the way up to a toddler! 

Here is a video of Babywearing Faith

Here is a slip knot video 

And an inside-out variation by Wrapping Rachel 


Have fun and show us your pictures! 
Jamie - BWI Librarian 


Thursday, November 6, 2014

Our first IL Meeting and we filled the box!


Thanks to everyone who attended our first Official BWI Meeting today in Edwardsville, Illinios.
We had a great turnout, signed up some new members, and saw lots of adorable babies! Most important we filled a box for a local food pantry! 

Hope checking on the crackers!

Our attending group of 16 moms and caregivers filled this box with food that will go to the Glen Ed Food Pantry. They are governed in part by the church who has donated the space for us to hold meetings in! The food pantry serves those living in the Edwardsville school district. 


A huge thank you to Center Grove Presbyterian Church and all our members and friends who helped with this donation! 


Other meeting highlights include a new wrap conversion ring sling that was added to the library this morning.
Resse and Jamie checking it out the night before!
The new kinderpacks are all checked out and being used in the wild, getting some serious love! 


Thank you again to all our attendees! 
-Jamie, VBE Librarian


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Working On It Wednesday #woiw

Welcome to the blog edition of WOIW! 
We will be posting the woiw with as much information as we can here, then we hope you will pop on over to our facebook group and share your photos there!
Each week we will choose one carry to play with, practice and perfect!! What better way to experience and expand our babywearing bag of tricks!!
Practice the carry, play with it enjoy!! Post pics!!!
#woiw #BWIGateway

This week is Jordan’s Back Carry (JBC). JBC is a high back carry using a medium-long to long wrap, depending on wrapper size and wrapping options. This carry has MANY variations and is great for babies who like to straighten their legs and/or babies who tend to try to lean out of the wrap.
Jordans is a multi-layer carry that starts with the wrap over one shoulder, then followed by 3 passes consisting of a hammock pass, a cross pass, and a horizontal pass. Here is where it gets fun, there are soo many options with this carry no shoulder flip, ring finish, chest pass, Tibetan ties, half-JBC and more! 
Video instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_6cO_gQctY (Faith)
Half Jordans with a short wrap:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcshSFS7HhI
Half Jordan's Tied at Shoulder



Monday, November 3, 2014

Inside Kindercarry

BWI of STL Gateway leadership had the opportunity to tour Kindercarry Headquarters, home of the popular Kinderpack. Melissa (also known as Mel) was an amazing host. We had the opportunity to see quality control in action! Each Kinderpack is inspected before being packaged, fine tweezers and a lint roller are some of the tools we spied in the QC area.

Quality Control - Each carrier is inspected before being hand packaged
Kindercarry has 3 full time seamstresses and a fourth person who cuts out the foam pieces that are in each KP. Did you know that each piece of fabric is cut by Melissa herself!?!  Can you guess how many pieces go into a Kinderpack!?!?  From pieces of foam, buckles, webbing, snaps, fabric… it all adds up to a mind-boggling seventy-nine components that are hand assembled.


Mel tells the VBEs about the table on which every Kinderpack has had pieces cut!
On the lower level we entered the heart of the operation --- the fabric room!! It was a fabric paradise :-)  Bolts and bolts, boxes, cut out pieces neatly stacked and waiting for their future as a baby carrier.

VBE Beth checks out rolls of Koolnit in the hallway
Kindercarry has recently streamlined the variety of materials used in the Kinderpack as a result of the new testing regulations. The very popular Koolnit could be seen in rolls all around. Previously only available in Red, Navy, Royal, White, and Black, we got an EXCLUSIVE on a brand NEW custom color of Koolnit!!  Coming soon to a Kinderpack near you, Aqua Koolnit! It matches the Aqua canvas that has been used on previous Kinderpacks (like Night Owls and Flags Duo). Keep an eye on future stockings for a glimpse at this exclusive color!!! Can you spy it in the picture below?!


Fabric! Fabric! Fabric!
Our trip was planned on a Thursday so we could see where the real excitement happens. Across the country, Moms were F5'ing their computers while we watched a stocking of limited edition Knitting Stripes 2 and Full Panel Rockets. The atmosphere at Kindercarry headquarters was pretty chill as we watched them fly off the computer.

Stocking Time! Knitting Stripes 2
Mel makes the stocking "Go Live"
Mel shared some sound business advice with us as we grow the BWI of St. Louis Gateway chapter, and we are thrilled to be able to add four Kinderpacks to our growing lending library. The growth of Kindercarry into their new facility and the opportunity to see the Kinderpack creation process was very exciting! We hope to offer tours of Mel's facility to members in the future! She has made extra efforts to keep her products made locally, by hand, all while supporting other small family businesses and local to St. Louis as often as possible!


VBE Nicole receives custom fitting from Mel
VBE Beth receives custom fitting from Mel

We went in wearing wraps and came out in buckles! Thank you Mel!

VBEs Cecelia, Nicole, and Rachael
VBE Beth, VBE-iT Carrie, VBE Cecelia, VBE-iT Leigha

BWI of STL Gateway with Melissa of Kindercarry
L to R: VBEs Cecelia std/std, Beth std/plus, Rachael tod/std, Calista tod/std, Nicole std/std, Kindercarry Melissa, and VBE Jamie tod/std
First Row: VBE-iT Carrie std/std and Leigha Preschool/Std

New Library Carriers!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Join us on Facebook!

We would love to have you join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/BWIofSTLGateway/

Blog posts coming soon :-)