The day camp of my dreams

by

Kids' Fiber Camp

Sorry for the unexcused absence on Friday. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that my sister and niece (age 8) and nephew (10) were visiting all last week. Well, Thursday night I chose family time — a somewhat comical group attempt at sewing four double-sided napkins for them — over blogging. They were in town so Miss Nina could attend Fiber Camp at Craft South, taught by my friend Rebekka Seale, while my nephew attended robotics camp at Vanderbilt. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is terribly jealous that Nina got to spend a week of her summer doing this, so I asked her if she would like to write a guest blog post about it. She declined, saying writing isn’t her best thing. So we decided on a brief interview instead—

When your mom first told you about Fiber Camp, did you think you’d died and gone to heaven? Did you know what to expect?

Um, no. I had no idea what to expect, but it sounded fun.

Kids' Fiber Camp

Walk me through your week — what all did you do at camp?

The first day, we watched Rebekka spin and we dyed yarn with Kool-Aid. And then we went to the park to collect branches. At the end of the day, I got to spin on the spinning wheel.

Was it hard?

It was pretty easy. The next day I used the yarn that I spun for my branch weaving — you find sticks and you take your yarn and you weave on the stick.

But you did more than just weave on yours, correct?

I embroidered a tree and clouds onto it. And birds. The tree trunk is bark from a tree — I kind of weaved it in there with some of the yarn. And then we knitted with our yarn that we dyed. On the fourth day, we felted. We took a scrub brush and some felt pieces and used this little needle tool and we poked the felt into the sheet of felt and made pictures. And we made pompoms to hang off it — that yarn is so soft!

How much of that was new to you? Do you have an amazing aunt somewhere who had already introduced you to some of these pursuits?

[Giggling.] I have an aunt. [More giggling.] Felting and spinning were new — I had never heard of felting before. I’d seen spinning before but I never got to do it.

You also did a little bit of sewing with me, made a miniature black jacket with a colorful tulle brooch after seeing the Italian Style exhibit at the Frist Center, and visited the studios of several Nashville makers, including my friend Allison the amazing weaver. And then saw Caleb Groh’s incredible felted animals at the festival. It was a pretty crafty week — what did you like best of it all?

Felting. And Allison’s giant looms — that was pretty cool. I want to do it again.

Kids' Fiber Camp

Top photo courtesy of Rebekka Seale

19 thoughts on “The day camp of my dreams”

  5. I just got through teaching a week of craft camp. We had the best time this year! Some photos on my blog BookCraft. (shelleybb.wordpress.com)

  9. That’s a most inventive weaving, a tree within a tree. What wonderful memories you are building for your niece, and maybe a future crafter. I also like your very non-biased questions. ;-)

  10. Oh. my. goodness. Amazing camp!!!!! Amazing interview!!! :) That yarn is so pretty, Nina! Love this! :)

  11. I woke up this morning thinking, “ok, what do I need to make today for the gallery.” Kind of a feeling of “have to.” Then I opened this up and found myself grinning and feeling totally inspired! Thank you!

  12. That woven piece is beautiful! And the colors in the Kool Aid dyed yarn are so pretty. Nice work!

  14. Her weaving is gorgeous, and her interview is so darn cute! You are a lucky aunt, and she is a lucky niece! How fun!

  15. Her color choices on her tree weaving are distinctive and beautiful, and the composition is offbeat and balanced. Lovely work and interview!

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