A Special Craft Project

For those of you who are crafty, *and* fans of the Second Amendment, a gun cozy.

Needle News

The knitting project I have on hand at the moment is a scarf, in a colorful acrylic yarn. I made a mistake today knitting instead of purling a row, which led me to find another mistake, which was that I somehow added a stitch many rows back, so I had to unravel many rows back. That was frustrating, but I'm glad I found the mistake.

I may have to work on the scarf, but I already have a pair of mittens, thanks to a friend. Which is good, because I'm not sure I'm ready to use circular needles. This scarf is only my third project.

Speaking of projects, the Dancer is looking for activities to keep her busy, and she is trying to learn embroidery. Here she is with her practice stitches. She is really enjoying herself, and I hope she can go far with this interest.

Needle Arts

Last night found the Scientist, Wildchild and myself bent over embroidery hoops. Yep, the girls are trying to learn cross-stitch again. It didn't go so well last time, but I got them cute little Disney cross-stitch kits for Christmas, and they are willing to try again. I suggested they get them out yesterday for an art project, as the art curricula I'm using with them is not currently going very well. It's basically a lot of drawing, and the girls are not really interested in drawing, so much. It's far different in our home from when my sisters and I were growing up. We had a steady supply of crayons and paper, and were constantly drawing and coming up with crafts to do. My girls don't have that artistic bent, so I'm going to have to come up with something new for them to do for art classes. Sometimes we do projects that are related to history, like our Israelite house. Or when we were studying Egyptian history, the girls each made a cartouche with their name in hieroglyphics. But our history lesson does not lend itself easily to an art project every time, so I'll have to see what else I can find, that they will enjoy, but that goes beyond "hand turkey" level of projects. What do you all do for art?

Now, what got me thinking about the state of handcrafts in today's society is the closing of the fabric (and crafts) store where my friend Debbie works. Also, the small cross-stitch store near where I used to live has closed. And there seems to be a decrease in the number of quilting stores in the area too. I wonder if this is due to fewer people doing handcrafts, or the increase in Internet purchases of fabric and such. I'd guess that the stores are closing due to the former, although with local options disappearing, I'm glad to have the increased options that Internet shopping provides. I have a bias, doing so much sewing as well as some cross-stitch and embroidery, but I think that a trend away from creative pursuits and making things yourself is not a good one. In a time where manufacturing processes can be increasingly automated, the extra touch of something made by hand means that much more. And I think creativity is something special, something that helps us stand out as people, and that can help us stand out as a country. I suppose I'll simply have to foster my daughters' own creativity, and hope that someone who sees creativity in our family, might be inspired.

Zzzzzz

I have a post swirling in my head, but I'm too tired to type it out in a coherent form. So you'll have to wait until tomorrow to read the Latest Adventures of the Evil Genius. Nothing that exciting, just a lot of soul-searching about my job as teacher and the role of handcrafts in today's society -again.

A Fascinating Find

I found this book on ebay. It includes patterns and instructions for doing embroidery, crewel work, cross-stitch, needlepoint, patchwork, appliqué, quilting, rug hooking, crochet, knitting, weaving, candlewicking, and rug making. In addition to a pattern for each skill in the book, there is also a box of patterns that came with it that is 2 1/2" thick (or 6cm for you, Kate.) I can't wait to really delve into it and work on everything, but it will have to wait, as I've a bunch of other things to do right now.

The other exciting thing about this book, for me, is that the author, Rose Wilder Lane, is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder! I vaguely remembered reading that Rose had written such a book when I saw this on ebay, and it made me especially keen to get it. Rose writes, "The first needlepoint that I saw may have been an early example of it. My mother made it when she was a girl in Dakota Territory, during the Hard Winter of 1880-1881. It was a bookmark worked in silk on a strip of perforated paper. The design was free and lively, spaced on the paper and unframed. My mother said that she 'thought it up' herself and worked it in half-cross-stitch to make the thread go farther." This book goes into lots of detail about the history of each art, and how it developed in America. Rose's pride in America comes through on almost every page, and there are loads of color pictures of early American examples of each work.