Last week was Frontier and Early Pioneer and Native American Life week at camp. We had a visit from guests from Traveller’s Rest who taught the campers about the Mound Builders – an ancient Native American people that lived in the Mississippi Valley region (before it was Mississippi) around 3000 BC to about the 16th century AD. They also showed the kids artifacts, and taught them games and crafts from the Early American times.
Later in the week our friend Steve Shafer of Three Creeks Farm paid a visit and brought his very sweet bottle-fed lamb Bop Bop to camp. She lost her mama shortly after birth, so Steve had to bottle feed her. Whenever she wants to be fed she “bops” him on the leg, which is how she got her name! Steve told the kids about raising sheep, shearing sheep, and then how to process the wool. He showed them raw and clean fiber, as well as fiber that had been carded (thoroughly combed to align the fibers in preparation for spinning). He even showed them how to spin the fiber on a drop spindle.
I just love fiber and fiber arts! If you ever get an inkling to learn more about fiber – from the animals that provide it (such as sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas) to the process of turning it into yarn – you should check out the Tennessee Fiber Festival, held each May at the Dickson County Fairgrounds. This festival is coordinated by Steve and his wife Beth, of Three Creeks Farm (www.3creeksfarm.com). This past may when I went to the festival I took a class on spinning wool from Beth Shafer who is an avid spinner. I have since learned to crochet and what fun that is! We have also had Kay Grott visiting camp teaching kids to crochet, which they love! There are several photos of Kay and the children on our Flickr photostream.
Leave a comment
Comments feed for this article