Creating the Cult

To properly recruit new members of my world, you must start with the young. Teach the young and they will follow the way of the fiber.

In all seriousness, I learned how to sew and knit at a young age. Although I have not always used those skills, I find them easy to pick back up in later life, when I did need them. That is another story, for another day. To share the insanity, I teach. I love teaching the art of fiber. I have taught classes to adults and to children. Both are different. With adults, you can teach concepts and re-enforce with samples. For children, its opposite. They need to start with the samples and then teach the concepts. Adults ask questions to clarify before starting. Children do not…..they jump right in with both feet and then ask open ended questions to further their horizons. Overall, children are easier to teach. They listen and experiment and enjoy what they are doing. But adults are more fun to entertain. And adults need the entertainment aspect. I’ll go into great detail at another point…..

So 4-H camp! Everyday each child gets to sign up for a “class” and the sewing was just one of the vast choices. This year’s camp was a Jungle theme. So I wanted something that was “jungle-y”, easy to do, introduced a new skill or horizon and also something that could be done by a wide range of skill levels.

Did you figure out everything in the picture I posted earlier? There was a pair of scissors (duh!), a foam block, a felting needle and a candle. All were very important in my class.

We started out with felting. I got the largest, strongest felting needles at the yarn store. They needed to last for 4 days of punishment. I also got a matching number of bandaids. As the laws of my world state, if you have bandaids, you will not need them. And we didn’t (big cheer!). The foam blocks were so each child had something to felt on instead of themselves. If you try and felt while holding the fabric, it can get really messy. We were going to felt onto the cotton fabric, but the weave was too tight, so we got some small scraps of brown wool. We also used wool yarn instead of roving. Its easier for beginners. The bag above is one that I whipped up as a sample. Its a giraffe, in case you can’t tell. With trees. I should have stopped at the giraffe.

Having 20 kids all felting at once was interesting. They were all so intent. Kind of like giving a large room an unlimited supply of bubble wrap to pop. Everyone was so focused on blending colors, adding more yarn, punching, punching, punching.

And it gave me some time to have some more coffee before the chaos began. Yep, always start a class with a coffee break.

The bag itself was simple. I precut all the pieces. They had to stitch their felting on the side, do a couple of side seams, fold down a hem and stitch around the top and then put on their strap. Most seamstresses could do this in their sleep. Kids are completely different. They have no preconcieved notions about how things are done. That can be a good thing and a very, very bad thing.

For instance, when you ask, “Who here as used a sewing machine before?” The answers are completely irrelevant. All that tells me is who has SEEN a sewing machine before. I bet the same kids would raise their hands if I asked if they had driven a car. Sitting behind the wheel, making noises and turning on the wipers, signals and the radio while waiting for Mom to get in the car does not mean you have driven. There are usually 1-2 honest kids who have never seen a sewing machine. Those are the easy ones. They will think and ask before they jump. The rest of the herd? Oh thats where the broken needles, unthreaded machines, bags sewn shut at the top, jammed bobbins come from. Yep, beware the rest of the herd.

I, and my trusty assistant that I convinced to come along, quickly learned the sound of a seam being sewn with the presser foot up and learned to shout, “Oh darling, put the presser foot down, please” or something like that. If more than 5 stitches are sewn in that position, it will make a nest of thread. That nest of thread and untangling such a nest will haunt one’s dreams for at least a week.

And somedays, after they have left the building, I have to sit down, have more coffee and repeat, “They are only children and they all learned at least 1 thing today”.

Whew.

I’m too ethical to spike my coffee, its not right. But the fact that I am posting about it means that I had considered it. But here I am a week later, completely ready to do it all again. Not spike my coffee, teach of course.

Without anything added to my coffee beyond sugar and cream. Thats me, all sugar and cream.