I'm teaching the Textile Merit Badge to my Troop this month, so I'm trying to get a lot of items prepared as samples. I pulled out my potholder loom and made a few potholders
I picked out colors that would match my kitchen (you know... for after the class)
Then I followed the instructions in the Harrisville Designs booklet for a houndstooth pattern. It's just 2x2 alternating colors for the warp and the weft. Who knew it was so easy? I certainly didn't. And houndstooth is one of my favorite patterns. This is such a wonderful discovery for me.
So there you have it. The potholder is alive and well. You'll probably see me make more of these in the future. They're so quick and fun and bring back such wonderful childhood memories.
What a joy it is to have such an eager group of students who are excited to learn a new subject. Day Two of the Textile Merit Badge involved dyeing two pieces or swatches of fabric with homemade natural dyes.
We soaked the onion skins and the chopped spinach overnight (OK - technically two nights). I do not recommend this as the spinach was very stinky! Then we boiled the natural dye with two tablespoons of salt in pots specifically designated for dyeing. You don't want to cook with a pot once you've used it for dyeing. After our natural dye had cooked properly, we strained the foodstuff and returned our liquid dye to its pot.
Here's the video we watched and followed for dyeing our fabric.
Then each Scout or sister put their two pieces of fabric (one neckerchief and one small swatch) into the two different pots. Then we boiled our fabric for 45 minutes. During this time, we continued on with the class lecture, videos and homework.
We cooled the fabrics in the sink (oops! The sink got dyed, too). The yellow onion skins made a beautiful deep rust colored fabric. The spinach made a very pale green and was messy to work with. I'm not sure I'd repeat this experience with spinach.
My nephew Pierce showed off his four creations - a sample fabric board, two dyed fabrics and his weaving project.
My nephew Conor posed for a similar photo.
Grace got in on the action with her samples, too.
We had four very happy Scouts and three even happier sisters who now were experts in the basics of the Textile industry. I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for them.
So I packed my brand new Cricket Loom and went home to Iowa. The day I arrived I started by teaching some Scouts (and a few siblings, too) from my nephews' Troop the Textile Merit Badge. It was great fun.
The kids made some great weaving projects. My scarf and my class sample are in the upper left hand corner. The small orange sample was going to be an entire scarf, but my niece's cat decided to try her hand claws at weaving and sliced several of the warp strings. Oops! That's what I get for leaving my toys lying around!
Oops! Oh well. I needed a sample for the class anyway.
I purchased nine different types of fabric at my local fabric store - The Textile Store in Westport, CT and made a simple fabric sample board. I also cut out miniature 1.5x1.5 inch swatches out of the same material and passed them along to each student. In turn they stapled their swatches to a piece of paper and then had to do some investigative work to discover the fabric content for each fabric swatch. Hint: If they lifted the fabric on my big fabric sample board, they found the fabric content underneath the swatch.
We discussed the fabric content of each swatch and tried to master the touch and feel of each fabric and remember which fabric was which: silk, cotton, rayon, wool, polyester and more. We also watched some videos about spinning, knitting, and weaving. These kids were fascinated! We ended the first day of our class with the motto: Be Prepared to Dye! This slight variation on Baden-Powell's Boy Scout motto was in line for our second half of the class where we dyed fabric in natural dyes. We used yellow onion skins and spinach. But for the first class, all we did was prepare the dye and let it soak overnight. Stay tuned for part two of the Textile Merit Badge.
I haven't even finished the last new project and I'm already onto another new project. I'll be teaching the Textile Merit Badge next week and I want to get all my materials together. So I went to my LYS - Westport Yarns and Laura Eckels helped me set up my new loom and get started. (Yeah - and I'm TEACHING this class???). Anyway, I'm very excited. I'm going to be weaving a bit in preparation for the class. I can hardly wait.
I'm using two skeins of yarn that I bought at Westport Yarns sometime in the past 2-3 years.
Spud & Chloe - Fine Sock - Color 7802 Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn - Color S84
I spent the afternoon teaching part of the Boy Scout Textile Merit Badge to my niece and nephews. They learned the very basics of weaving (warp, weft, loom, heddle, and spindle). We made our very own simple looms out of shoebox lids and acrylic yarn. It was lots of fun.
Here are the boys with their woven wall hangings... which might end up being bookmarks.
Gracie did a great job with her weaving, too.
Basically, we did this. Watch this video for a tutorial of how to do your own primary weaving.
I highly recommend doing with with your Scouts or kids. We spent about one-and-a-half to two hours from start to finish - making the loom, setting things up, weaving, finishing, and tying the fringe.
C shows off his weaving with his knitting (from my last visit).
P shows off his weaving and knitting.
Gracie shows off her weaving and knitting.
It was a wonderful fiber-filled afternoon! There will be even more fun to report tomorrow!
Just as I was finishing winding some wool, things went a little crazy.
My swift broke. Literally, one of the cogs in the wheel cracked under pressure. Not sure what to do or how to fix it, I did what I normally do in these situations. I called Primogeniture. He's my fix-it man. He clearly sees the simple solutions and can fix most everything.
Sure enough, he came over, said we should try glueing it first. We went to the hardware store and bought some wood glue. He glued it. It's nearly as good as new. Primogeniture even informs me that the new bond made will be stronger than the actual wood itself.
I haven't tried it again since The Incident, but I've definitely got my fingers crossed.
Earlier this month, BF and I went to visit friends in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. It was an idyllic getaway and we had a wonderful time relaxing and hanging out with friends. Every day we took walks and enjoyed the area.
We strolled past the Ocean House and enjoyed the lovely refurbished Victorian Inn's grand vista as a pivotal part of Watch Hill's attraction. This picture was taken early in the day before the morning haze had burned off to a bright blue sky.
A stroll through the hotel's gardens revealed a very busy apiary.
The beehives were busy with activity.
Not wanting to get too close, I can say I was truly grateful for the zoom feature on my camera. I really find bees fascinating.
Later in the morning, with the morning mist completely cleared, we enjoyed the summer heat and sunshine.
Having exposed myself to a little too much sun the day before, I set up for knitting lessons on the screened in porch.
My friend Julie was a natural. In no time at all, she learned the basic knit stitch and was already catching mistakes and fixing them intuitively. I can't wait to help her get her first finished item knit up. Won't that be great?
Last week our knitting group had a great time kettle dyeing our own yarn at Michelle's house.
I brought along some sock yarn and decided to make it a dark green (I was shooting for forest green). Mmmm - looks good!
There were two gorgeous skeins of blue. I think this was the peacock blue.
Beautiful blue!
We cooked our yarn outside on camp stoves in pots that were picked up for a pittance at the local Goodwill. These pots cannot be used for food again, once they're used for dyeing! That's my green yarn in the orange pot.
Betsy's yarn (the pot on the left above) turned out a lovely orange-chestnut color.
I'm very pleased with the deep rich hue of green I obtained under Michelle's guidance. I already have a person in mind to receive handknit socks with my very own hand-dyed yarn. I don't know if this person will appreciate the extra step that goes into this gift, but I know and it feels like it's being given with even more love! How fun.
On this day in 2004, Major Knitter was born. I didn't quite know where I was going with my blogging then - I thought I might publish patterns, write books, etc. but somewhere along the way, I just enjoyed blogging and sharing the passion of knitting (and family, scouting, travels, food, and other adventures) with all my readers. Even as blogging has waned, and fewer of my original blogging buddies are still around, I enjoy blogging. Even though I've changed the way I blog over the years (BF and the boys prefer NOT to appear on the blog), I still like sharing bits and pieces of my life with you.
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I've been blessed by blogging - and I've said it before - so let me tell you how many wonderful things have happened in my life because of blogging. I've made some great friends. Some of them have become real friends that I've had the opportunity to meet in person for knitting or when traveling and get to them them in real life via yarn crawls or lunch or just plain fun.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Some friends from the early days no longer blog. Others - many of whom are blogless - I've met at the LYS and have become my closest knitting friends. I've been in Westport for 9 years and most of my friends come through knitting or Scouting. I'm not sure what I'd do without either group.
So, in honor of my blogiversary, I'll be giving away two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport yarn in Purple Club + some other surprise goodies. Leave a comment to THIS post and I'll pick the winner next week. Tell your friends. Tell your readers. Only one entry per person. The contest will close at midnight EST on April 15th, so after you mail your taxes, be sure to comment and try your luck for a lovely prize.
Here's to many more years of blogging and friendship. I hope you'll stay along for the ride.
