Well, today we started with talking about laying out a pattern for their bookmarks - using a real, from the library, paper bookmark. Most were "freaked" by the idea of a stitch area of 15 stitches x 45 stitches. Until some one cut out ( I didn't tell them to, but...) a piece of plastic canvas to 15 by 45 holes and realized how tiny it was...
I showed them all a running stitch, a backstitch, and a stem stitch - all basically the same stitch, but with very different looks.
The most fun was getting them to separate the 6 strands into 1, 2 and 3 strands. They stitched a few stitches with each "weight" to see the effect. You could almost see the light bulbs going off.
They all took their charts, canvas and floss home. I can hardly wait to see what they come back with next week.
Oh and my "problem student" is great at the running stitch and did the outline of a hippo which looks pretty good. Must be the straight lines. Giggle.
Next week, it is work on bookmark and I'm going to show them some of my other projects - mostly crewel work, though I might bring my hardanger too. I will also bring a chart, a kit, some other than Aida fabrics, something with beads if I can and several of my stitch dictionaries. Dianne L. was right, a little extra exposure never hurt any one.
The biggest hit of the class is the "ort jar". They just love putting their orts in and seeing it grow; some of them are quite long. I have a bunch of baby food jars; I am going to divide the orts into a jar for each of us to remember the class by.
Cheryl