Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

I'm going to  have to skip one of the projects in this series and come back to it.  The tapestry or 'sewn' picture. My dose of the shingles followed by wisdom tooth removal disaster has put me behind with my course homework.  Having spoken to people who took this course last year, the tapestry is a challenge to finish even without setbacks!  Tapestry is a Class 4 project, so on to Class 5 - crochet!

In Australia crochet is introduded quite a bit later than in Europe (I'm not sure about the US?) And the main reason is because of the style of knitting that is taught.  In Europe, the continental style of knitting is introduced at Class 1.  It is actually very similar to crochet in regards to tension and how the wool is held, so by Class 2, these kids are ready for crochet.  Over here in Australia however, we learn the traditional technique of knitting and delay crochet until Class 5

In our class we were encouraged as the Class 5 kids are, to experiment with a flat piece of crochet, back and forth turning the work at each end.  Next we worked on a circle.  Instead of counting stitches in each round we were asked to feel whether the work needed more increases in stitches - ie. it was starting to curl up or needed fewer increases -  ie. it was starting to go curly. I have to admit that I counted my stitches and only increased as per a traditional circle pattern.  I can imagine this 'counting' being quite challenging for a 10/11 year old, so I completely agree with the method shown to us for teaching children. 

Once our circles were big enough we finished increasing and crochet until our piece was big enough to be a child's backpack.  This is exactly what the kids at our school make for their crochet project. It is so lovely to see them being used as their school bags.
 

There are a million crochet tutorials on the internet so I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty here.
And there is no real pattern for this backpack.  The flap is a made by working back and forth once the bag is deep enough and the strap, which is sewn on, is a simple rectangle.  My one went to the smallest of our family, Sadhbh, who will be starting kinder next year.  As you can imagine, I have orders for three more . . . !

See what other folk have been crafting at Nicole's place today.  

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

As the craft course progresses, the projects become bigger and more involved.  Class 4 fair isle knitting followed on from the cross stitch.   I guess this this is the culmination of the knitting projects as crochet is introduced in Class 5.  Crochet is introduced in class two in European schools as it is very similar to the continental style knitting taught there).



With 16 ply wool on 6mm needles ,we had some simple rules to follow. Only two colours per row and no more than 5 stitches in any one pattern repeat(to prevent long threads at the back) Other than that it was all about experimenting.  From the experimentation you begin to see patterns popping out and eventually, through the 'doing' you begin too find a rhythm to the patterns. I think the patterns at the back are quite beautiful too.  

 Usually I would work out a pattern on paper before I began anything like this, so it was refreshing to be allowed to simply experiment and see what happened.  I imagine it must be magical for the children to see for themselves. Following a brief steam with the iron,  I sewed mine into a tea cosy, but commonly vests, bags or hot water bottle covers can be made from the finished piece.  I also made a smaller sampler on 4mm needles with 8 ply (and bent the rules slightly using 3 colours on one row!).  I sewed this up into a wee doll.

 

See what other folk have been crafting at Nicole's place today.  

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

 

My craft course introduced weaving recently. I have to say, I'd never tried it before and I just loved it.  We started with the Class One project. A flat piece woven on a wooden weaving board using 16ply wool.  This is usually sewn into a purse, but can also be used as a little mat. 

But my favourite was the Class Two circular weaving on the toilet roll tube. This one used 8ply wool and its just so clever and accessible.   If you wanted to try it, the warp, which is the white cotton that goes up and down the tube is wound around little, 1cm, slits that are cut into the top and bottom of the tube. You need an odd number of these warp threads for the circular weaving to work and the warp is held in place with some sticky tape around the top and bottom.  Use a wool needle to feed the weft, which is the 8ply wool under and over each piece of cotton.  Leave a little tail at the start and end of each colour and overlap each new colour slightly.  Push the weaving down as much as you can so that you get a nice dense fabric.

This can also be sewn into a little purse or bag. On but on a bigger scale this could be made into a recorder case by using a larger cardboard tube.  I'm going to have to check if I can get one from the post office as I think the girls and I are hooked!

 

See what other folk have been crafting at Nicole's place today.

Rainbow Wool

Using the great tutorial over here, we got to work (it was quite easy actually) this weekend and dyed this lot up. I really can't believe the results. I think I may have to invest in a microwave just for this purpose. I've spent the whole day casually walking by and admiring it! The wee girls did the food colouring part and have decided they want rainbow scarfs. Highly recommend trying this.

Natual Plant Dye Tutorial

This is a great one to do with the kids. My two and four year old did most of the work. Waiting for the wool to 'cook' was the hardest part! And they were thrilled with the results.

Step 1.
wind the wool off the ball into a loose skein

Step 2.
peel the skins off some brown onions and place in an alluminium pot


I found that using an alluminium pot was a reasonable substitute for mordent, as I didn't want to use any chemicals with the kids.

Step 3.
wet the wool until it is soaking wet

Step 4.
put wool in pot with onion skins and fill with water until covered
The actual amount of water is not important.


Step 5.
simmer - but do not boil for up to three hours
Do not aggitate the wool or it may become matted.


Step 6.
wait!!!

Step 7.
pull wool out of pot and drain - then hang it up somewhere out of the sun to dry.


The ratio of skins to wool and the amount of time the brew is left to simmer will both impact on the depth of the final colour. We used 6 medium onions to 50g of white wool.
The fact that it changed colour at all was enough for my kids to be delighted!