activities for children Archives

Sewing with Next Step Needlecraft from Tinking Turtle Designs

It’s that time of year again: the weather is warming (despite all the rain we’ve had this week), and on my walk this morning, I found the first delicious blackberries. It’s summertime – and it won’t be long now until school wraps up and those hot days will be around the corner. It won’t be long until Tinking Turtle’s Craft Summer Camps start!

For me, this means a shift in Tinking Turtle’s focus: I’m beginning to get ready for the summer camps that I’ll be running. They’re one of my favorite parts of the year.

You see, way back before Tinking Turtle was a name written on a piece of paper, before I’d even dreamed up my first pair of socks, I was a camp counselor at Chimney Corners Camp. I’ve talked about CCC (as it’s known to campers and alumni alike) before: it’s the place where I met my longtime friend Becca, and where Mr. Turtle proposed to me. CCC’s been a huge part of my development as a person – not only personally, but professionally as well. CCC was the place I taught my first students: figuring out how to break down knitting, crochet, embroidery and cross stitch to campers aged eight to fourteen. I was only about seventeen myself, and I had very little clue what I was doing, but I figured out.

Since then, I’ve continued to love working and crafting with children. I worked as a nanny for many, many years, and last year I ran the camp String Theory through Montgomery College. It was a hit and a blast, and this year I’m adding to the lineup with two new classes: Next Step Needlecraft and Knockout Punch Rug Needlework. Let me tell you a bit about the classes:

String Theory is my flagship class, now in it’s second year. It’s a variety introduction to needlework

young girls showing off their finished knit mitts

Finished knitted mitts from String Theory!

and crafting for both boys and girls ages 8-12. Campers learn how to knit a fingerless mitts (or two!), sew and decorate a project bag, learn to process, card and spin fiber, and the basics of how to dye wool. This year we’re offering three sessions: 7/20 – 7/24 from 1-4 pm, 7/27 – 7/31 from 1-4 pm, and 8/3 – 8/7 from 9 – 12 pm. You can click on the links to find out more and signup!

Because we received such a great response to String Theory, we’ve added Next Step Needlecraft. Intended for campers who loved String Theory and want to learn more, or for older students looking to learn some more interesting crafts, it’s a great next step. Students learn how to crochet, how to spin yarn, the basics of needle felting, and how to create stunning punch rug pieces. This class is meant to sink students’ teeth into needlecrafts you don’t get exposed to nearly anywhere else. This year I’m offering two sessions: 7/20 – 7/24 from 9-12 pm, and 8/3 – 8/7 from 1-4 pm.

My last class: Knockout Punch Rug Needlework is a very focused class. Unlike the other two camps which focus on variety, this one dials down into the art of rug making. In this class students will have a lot more independence to learn, plan and execute one, if not two projects. This class focuses on giving students the independence to decide and plan their own projects, and my help to make them a reality. We’ve got just one session of this camp, so if it sounds like something your child would enjoy, make sure to sign up as soon as possible. Knockout Punch Rugs will run 7/27 – 7/31 from 9 – 12 pm.

Child learning to knit with multicolored yarn

Learning to Knit in String Theory

If you’re looking for a great crafting camp for the summer, these camps are for you. Don’t have children of your own? Tell your friends about these camps. Teaching kids crafts improves dexterity, problem solving and creativity – and preserves these traditions for the next generation.

Let me know what you think about the camps – and what other crafts I should look at adding to the repertoire!

I’ve had a couple of people ask how I did the food coloring dyeing with the children in my camp. This post is how I went about it, which is by no means an exact recipe.

First, I filled buckets with tap water and vinegar. As a note, vinegar worked but many of the campers complained of the smell. Next year I plan to try citric acid. I used, per quarter gallon, about one or two slugs. The roving (you could also use yarn, as long as it’s 100% wool) was then soaked in the solution for about 15 minutes.

The roving was then removed and squeezed dry.

I used paper and then saran wrap over it to cover the tables, which prevented dye from getting everywhere.

Using the leftover vinegar water, I poured small amounts into plastic cups, and then added the food coloring. I used super-concentrated gel food coloring, which worked really well. The children used sponges to apply the food coloring – one sponge to a color.

Results came out best when the children didn’t get their roving overly wet – just damp enough that the color adhered to the places they were applying. They used the sponges like stamps, soaking up color and then “stamping” it onto the roving.
When the children were done applying color, we wrapped the roving in a long piece of saran wrap, which then went into a freezer-safe bag. Freezer safe bags are much sturdier, so they held up better to the next step.

When I got home, I took the roving, still in the plastic bag, and microwaved the roving for 2 minutes, allowed it to cool, then microwaved it for another 2 minutes.

After the roving had cooled, the piece was removed from the plastic bag and the seran wrap. The roving was gently rinsed in cool water, gently squeezed dry (to prevent felting) and then was hung to dry.

There was no running of dye, and the colors were very bright.

Takeaway: Sometimes colors do not show true until after microwaving. This was a source of concern for campers; try to explain that the colors will “settle” once they are fixed to the fibers.

Some people recommend using sugarless cool-aide (as it already has the dye AND the citric acid in the powder). I preferred doing it this way: the food coloring provided a larger range of colors and the ability to control more variables.

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