Crocheting Pride for my Future Child

This month's Asexual Blog Carnival topic is Pride. For me, one of the major expressions of ace pride I've been doing is this:

I've mentioned before that I want to be a mother. As I'm trying to get ready, I've taken to crocheting baby clothes. And my most recent project is a onesie with ace pride colors. It's almost completely finished now, though I still need to add snaps in the crotch area.

I used 5mm thread, picking soft textures (to the point of getting my Dad to buy me purple on a trip because our local Wal-Mart didn't have a suitable purple). I used a 3-6 month onesie I bought as a size model, although this thing somehow ended up a bit smaller, so it's probably more 0-3 months in size. It's all double crochet, switching colors every second row. The most difficult part was the crotch area, since none of my previous projects had anything like that. I don't have a pattern, because I just design as I go.

I'm currently working on a rainbow pride toddler shirt (the model for this one is a 2T minions shirt), and I'm hoping to make something with the aromantic flag colors too.

I've previously made two baby shirts playing with gendered colors.

The first one is white and pink stripes, deliberately very feminine looking, but I plan to let my kid wear it regardless of sex. The second is pink and blue stripes, with a black border around the sleeves, neck and zipper. Both are double crocheted based on model clothes, though I can't remember which ones I based them on. The zipper for the pink and blue one was added by using a darning needle to stitch yarn all along an appropriate length zipper, and then crocheting into the stitches on both sides.

Currently, I'm also working on a pussyhat, a type of pink hat with cat ears that feminists have been making to protest Trump.

I've had an interest in crafting cloth since I was young, using knitting, crocheting and some sort of technique I've forgotten the name of, which involved making a can with nails attached, and looping thread around the nails to make circular projects. But apart from a single unpaired sock, I never had the motivation to stick with a project until I was finished. Making baby clothes is the first time I've managed to consistently finish multiple projects. I don't know if it's because I'm older and more mature, because it feeds my need to feel like I'm making tangible progress towards being ready to be a parent, or because baby clothes are smaller and finished sooner, but I've been really making a steady little pile here.

In any case, someday my baby will wear my pride on their body. They'll grow up with these colors and this symbolism, just as other babies grow up with pink princess or rough-and-tough blue. I hope this will help my child grow up free of gender stereotyping and internalized heteronormativity.