Caron from the Waikato has responded to our recent column about low-cost school holiday activities with some great ideas of her own. “I was in charge of my grandkids recently and was determined that they would not be glued to their devices the whole time. I went to my local Spotlight store and bought some natural Hessian which I cut into squares and zigzagged to prevent it fraying too much. I cut an ice cream container lid up to make ‘bobbins’ and wound on a dozen colours of remnant wool. I found some large blunt ended needles for stitching and taught running stitch and chain stitch to make a wall hanging. Then I hammered 4 small nails into the top of a cotton reel for French knitting – complete with a fine crochet hook to knit up the loops. Finally, I found some spare knitting needles and cast on enough stitches for a ‘Peggy square’. The boys really took to the French knitting, and tried regular knitting once I told them sailors learned to knit – and Colin Meads! One child used a piece of the Hessian to draw on with felt pens and made a ‘canvas’ wall hanging for her mother. These handcraft activities were very successful!”
04
Oct