I think I got it

On Wednesday I drove to Mason, WI to visit my high school pal, Mary & her husband Rick.  Mary and I had plans to take a class on Thursday morning.  As it worked out, there was a presentation at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center on Wednesday night that we were interested in.  The topic was the Sak-Zim Bog located in Northern Minnesota.  The speaker's name was Sparky Stensaas, he is a ornithologist and outdoor enthusiast and he's part of the staff at Sak-Zim.  He was a delightfully entertaining speaker.  He had a amazing photos and video of the many owl species that live at Sak-Zim where the voles are plenty and the owls love them.  the NGLVC has a very nice theater and great sound & video system, I plan to go back for more of their programming.

On Thursday morning we went back to NGLVC for our class on Scandinavian Rug Weaving.  It was a fun class, the teacher was well prepared and very helpful as we struggled to get the idea. It is basically knot tying using strips of fabric.  I used flannel sheets, she recommended 100 cotton fabric, but I can see, it is more important to have a tight weave than to worry about the fabric content.

I took a number of photos during the class, but for some reason, they are now missing off my phone, so this is the only photo I have.  I'm bummed because I took photos of each step along the way so I could remember how to do the steps.

Turned my phone off and back on, presta magic, the step by step photos are back.

The very large loop as a reference was really helpful to me.

It all starts with a 'magic knot' and then adding knots to using the worker and the filler strips, working with the bitter end.

Casting on

Making the first turn.

Casting on completed, now time to tie knots and do increases.

I was starting to jam on the knots, but then the teacher stopped us and had us start a new rug,
repetition is good for learning and retaining.

The teacher, Emily Stone, is a the Naturalist/Education Director at the Cable Natural History Museum in Cable, Wisconsin, she also writes a weekly “Natural Connections” column published in more than a dozen local and regional newspapers and I read it regularly.  She was a good teacher, her method was well thought out.  She started us off with some sample small rugs that were started for us.  This gave us a chance to learn the basic knots and start to see that it was fun to do.  Then, she took us through the more difficult steps of starting our own run.  If you've ever done any knitting, you know that the casting on part is not the fun part, the same with rug making.  But then, she got us through the difficult starting steps for a rug on to the fun part again.  By this time, I was getting it. But then, Emily asked us to put that aside and start another new quilt.  The idea was to cement in those beginning, more difficult steps.  Clever teacher I thought.

I felt like I was getting it after that practice & 

I left there feeling like I can start a rug and then finish a rug.

An enjoyable morning for sure. 

Rick and Mary have deer in their yard every-night, and in the morning a flock of turkeys came in as well.  I don't often see either one up close, so that was fun.

Back home now and it is time to get serious about basketball.

I'm starting to edit the photos from the Spring Valley Tuesday night's game and I'm headed to a game tonight with the Luck boys.