I spent a nice couple days with two of my grandchildren. Emily and David came over the other night and we worked on some projects, and of course, had to have a tea party or two.
I promised Emily that I would show her how to make a cloth wallet. We went through my cotton calicos and she picked her colors she wanted to work with. She is only 11, and I think just a little young to use the rotary cutter yet, so I did the cutting for her. I suppose I could have traced the pieces and she could have used scissors. Oh well, I never think of cutting patterns out that way any more.
Here is Emily, showing the inside of the almost completed wallet.
And the outside.
She did a fine job with the sewing and pressing. I did let her use the iron. My old Pfaff 1229 is a great machine for children to learn on. I've taught a lot of kids to sew on it. I can reduce the speed quite a bit, and the one stitch at a time feature is great when sewing corners or anywhere a lot of control is needed. I think Emily is going to take after her mother, Becky, since it seems to come very easy to her.
Emily did a bit of weaving on an ongoing project I have set up on my countermarche floor loom for the older grandkids. It's just a striped twill, but they are learning how to walk the treadles and how to tell where they are in the pattern. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of Emily weaving.
A friend of mine that used to teach Montosori years ago, gave me a real nice rigid heddle loom so I could use it to teach. I try to keep a warp on it for the younger kids that can't quite reach the treadles on the floor loom yet. David took to it like a duck to water.
David is really concentrating on getting his angle and edges just right.
Emily recently made a sock monkey, and wanted to make a scarf for him, so we took a look at my yarn choices and she got started on that project after finishing her wallet. She decided about how many stitches wide she wanted to make it, sampled a little bit and decided it was too wide. It didn't bother her at all to rip it out and start over. I think she understands that sampling can be an important part of the process.
Here's Emily, showing "Joe" how to knit.
It was a good couple days. I love teaching anyone that loves learning.
This rug was woven with five fabrics, with strips approximately 13-14" long and 3" wide. I seamed them together in a set order, although I think I reversed it a couple times. My loom was warped at 12 epi, in a 12 dent reed. That allows me to weave a hem on harnesses 1-3 vs 2-4. I weave the rags with harnesses 1-2 vs 3-4, which gives me doubled warp at 6 epi. I had a friend teach me this technique, and I think it makes a good sturdy rug, with hems that don't pull in too much. 
Oh, and another technique I use with the hems is to arch the weft, instead of just angling it. I play around with the amount of arch until I get it where it isn't pulling in. If I owned a temple, I probably wouldn't have to worry about it so much. I made the mistake of weaving one hem on this rug the way like I wove the rags with the doubled warp. The doubled warp hem pulled in a bit.
