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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Creativity

Where Does It Start


Creativity was always encouraged when
I was growing up.  There were always bits
of fabric, felt squares, embroidery floss, glue,
construction paper and pipe cleaners.  Being
creative was always a way of life for me.

My friend Claudia from Germany posted a
photo of a little knitting loom on her blog
yesterday.  I dug around in my old craft stuff
and found the one shown above from when I
was a little girl.  I would spend hours making
yarn tubes, then I would sew them together to
make little rugs for my dolls.  Of course, I never
played much with dolls because I was off being
creative.  For my kids, there was always the Busy
Box.  We had a craft table in our family room where
the kids could create and the Busy Box was stored
beneath it.  My brother, in typical my brother fashion,
would send out bags of buttons and boxes of craft
sticks and chenille stems and industrial size jars of
glitter.  I may never forgive the glitter...  And my
kids and their friends would spend hours creating.


While I was going through my craft
stuff I came upon this potholder loom.
In the suburban town I grew up in, every
neighborhood had a park and in the summer
the town hired people to teach arts & crafts
and have games and contests.  I probably
 made hundreds of potholders in my childhood. 
(What did my Mom do with them all?)
Back then, there was no hanging around
 all day in front of the tv. 
We were all out playing ... and creating.

Encourage creativity in the kids you know.

Hey, I just heard from Claudia in Germany.
In her country the little loom is called a
Strickliesel.  We don't know what it is called
in English though, anyone know?


3 comments:

  1. I used to have one of those little tube knitting thingys when I was a child, but not as fancy as yours! Mine was made out of an old wooden cotton reel with small headed nails in the top, used to knit yards of it LOL! Nice that you still have yours!!!!

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  2. I was taught "corking" when I was around five years old. Mine was toadstool shape with a central hole. I was in Germany at the time but don't recall that German word. I also created yards from my mother's yarn scraps. Mostly the results became little rugs for small dolls.

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  3. I too had one of them in my younger years and we called them a "Knitting Nancy"...cheers Vickie

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