If you need a daily distraction from all the chaos, please leave a comment and I'll add you to my daily lunchtime virtual knitting group: Major Knitter's Stitch N' Bitch on Facebook
We'll have a Zoom video conference call and talk about knitting, crocheting, show & tell, recipes, and more.
It's not quite the same as meeting in person, but it's the next best thing.
You can find me on Facebook here.
I'll be teaching my first class at Westport Yarns this Saturday, March 14th from 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Grandma Grace taught me how to knit. I think it's only fitting that my niece Grace has taken up an avid interest in knitting. I taught her (and her brothers) several years ago, but we haven't had time to take it up again during our many visits. I suggested Gracie go on YouTube and watch some tutorials. She did and she's been having so much fun. My sister mentioned that she wanted to start buying basic knitting supplies.
"Stop the presses! Please don't buy her any knitting supplies!"
I quickly put together a package with a range of knitting needles from US Sizes 5-15; worsted weight and bulky yarn, a knitting bag, measuring tape, and other necessities. I shipped it off faster than you can say Knit One Purl Two.
And I got the cutest thank you via text.
I am so excited...there is so much stuff to knit!!! Thank you so much Aunt Jennifer!!!🤗🤗🤗😃😃😃😄😄😄
I can hardly wait to see the creations she makes.
I taught my friend Michelle to knit a year or so ago. After a few hats and other simple projects she was ready to branch out. One of my favorite projects is the Sampler Blanket from Knitting Central. There are 30 different swatches in the blanket so by the time you complete the blanket, you are suddenly an intermediate knitter.
She did a great job and she came to my house to soak it and block it. I have the perfect spot - on top of the pool table. I think the pool table gets more use as my blocking surface than as a billiards table.
Michelle is making a second sampler blanket for her other daughter. I was very inspired, so I pulled out the sampler blanket I was knitting last summer. See how friends help each other!
Today was one of those special days when I got to combine my passions - textiles and Scouts. I taught Scouts from my friend's troop in Newtown, Connecticut the Textile Merit Badge. It's a four-hour class and the boys generally come to the class thinking it's going to be a little wimpy - and leave - totally surprised at how much fun they had and how boy-centric textile can be.
I added a new fabric to my board - the aramid from a friend's old sail boat racing days. Very cool!
These Scouts were naturals! I honestly couldn't believe they were just learning how to make a primary loom.
Seriously, after this video and a little bit of hands-on instruction, they all made amazing samples of handwoven projects.
Amazing, right?
And we make it fun by learning how a sheep gets sheared. "It's just like getting a haircut. It only hurts if the barber nicks you." I have a bag of dirty, unwashed fleece straight off the sheep that I share with the boys. While I have them looking at it - I basically talk about the dirty fleece and what might be in it. I ask them if they see anything in particular. The answers I get are: dirt, twigs, grass, until one Scout sheepishly answers "Poop." Bingo!
Did you find the poop?
Needless to say, we don't use this sheep's fleece except for a demo. I have a bag of cleaned, processed fleece. We do talk about how the fleece is cleaned, processed, carded, spun and made into skeins of wool for sale in a store. I even give them a quick demo on my craft mini carders. And since hand carders look like instruments of torture - the boys love them and can hardly wait to get their hands on them. Here's a real demo with full sized hand carders
After they've all taken a turn or two using the mini hand carders, I show them my drop spindle. I'll admit. I absolutely stink at spinning. I need some help in this department. But I enjoy showing the boys how poorly I spin before I show them this drop spindle video
BTW, I let the boys continue working on their weaving projects all the while I'm showing these videos. It's great because they're dual-tasking and paying attention to either one or both of the activities. Most boys seem engaged in both.
After the drop spindle, which was around since time began, I show them the spinning wheel. I have no experience whatsoever with a spinning wheel so I show this Scottish video.
We then begin a discussion of whether to clean or not to clean the fleece. There are many theories - and both sides of the argument are quite vehement in their point of view. Here's a great article from Spinning Forth about the different practices. Of course, I have to share the Scottish method with the Scouts - because what's not to like about using aged urine (aka ammonia) as a scouring agent. Once again, bodily functions come into play. The Scouts love it!
Next up, I show a video of a woman on a Union 36 loom. There are many weaving videos out there, but I like this one because it's brief, interesting, and exposes the Scouts to another use of weaving - making rag rugs.
I show them how weaving has evolved since prehistoric times. From sheep farming, shearing, spinning, weaving, sewing - to more modern methods - spinning wheels, looms and even the industrial revolution. We watch an excerpt of a mill in BBC’s production of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (first episode – 10:54 time mark). This is an example of the weaving machines in the Industrial Revolution in Northern England circa 1885.
Finally, I bring the Scouts to today by showing them this modern clip of computerized looms today. After they've spent the last hour and a half weaving their little sample - I mention that this modern loom could do the same amount of weaving in a matter of seconds.
So the Scouts have now learned the background of the various methods of turning fiber into fabric. I show them a quick video of the basics of knitting, all the while knitting on my sock du jour while chatting and walking around. They love to see that!
After all this talk of making fiber into yarn into fabric, I tell the Scouts that after lunch, they need to BE PREPARED TO DYE! (That's d-y-e not d-i-e.).
We quickly watch this Etsy Lab video about how to dye with natural dyes.
This is a great video and the boys quickly get it. I tell them we're going to dye our fabric swatches in onion skins and cochineals. Then I pass around my ziplog bag of cochineal and ask them if they can guess what it is and what color the dye is.
Sometimes some will guess it - beetles!
Before we dye, we watch one last video about the cochineal beetle. They eat it up - literally!
OK - no actual beetles are eaten in the course of my merit badge class, but the boys will never hear the term 'bug juice' in quite the same way.
If you want to dye with natural dyes - save yellow onion skins in an open container (so they dry out). Use about 2-4 handfuls in 3 cups of water. You can buy the Procion MX red dye on Amazon. Two teaspoons will make a brilliant red dye. It's harder to find the actual beetles - but a quick internet search will provide some vendors.
After today's class, the parents arrived promptly to pick up their Scouts. As we were wrapping up, filling out the blue cards, and cleaning up, one Scout was overheard saying "I can't believe it's already been four hours. It seems like it's only been an hour and a half."
PRICELESS!
I wonder if any of them will pursue a career in textiles after today's class. I will likely never, ever know. But I'll continue to wonder just the same.
P.S. My personal goal is to move the Textile Merit Badge up in the popularity rankings. It ended up in the bottom quartile last year at slot #92. I hope to push it into the 80s this year, or maybe next year.
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 watched a short video about industrial looms today - and compared them to our elementary cardboard looms from Day One - and my hobby Cricket Loom - while the fabrics were cooking.
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
Wish me luck. I'm pretty excited.
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!
Change is Good
