In which I do misguided crafts so that you don't have to

In our trip around the world, we are currently in Peru. What would be more kid-craft friendly than to do something with llamas? My children rebel strongly against anything cut-and-paste, so much of what I found on the internet as far as ideas go, were out. I did come across a photo of a little needle felted llama, who was pretty darn cute.

It got me to thinking... A. and P. did needle felting for a while, so I already had most of the supplies. It would be a craft we hadn't done before, and the whole wool and llama-thing seemed perfect. We could listen to the Incan music CD I have and make llamas. Yesterday I went out and picked up a few more needles and some brown wool to be all ready. I also decided that I had better try making one myself, since I had never actually done needle felting before. Nothing like learning a craft at the last minute to then teach to five children.

I do have five (six if you include mine from yesterday) little needle felted "llamas" sitting on my dining room table now. I'll show you a picture, and you will see why I felt the need to use quotation marks.

It was interesting watching the various personalities work on making their ~~little blobs of wool~~ llamas. I warned everyone ahead of time, that this is not a quick process, and it might stretch their patience. I feel the need to warn my more impatient children of this, so we all get off on the right foot. Well, boy was I surprised. L., my most impatient child with a very low frustration threshold, fell in love with the craft and whipped her "llama" out in no time at all. She really, really, really loved shoving that needle into the wool and making felt. The challenge for her was to stop her in time so she had close to the correct shape, and didn't continue to use her needle to make little wool BB's.

That's L.'s "llama" next to my trial llama from yesterday.

G.'s reaction to the craft, however didn't surprise me at all. G. is not shy about sharing how much she loathes and fears needles. I was actually surprised when she gave it a two minute chance. She was off and away pretty quickly, though. I make her a llama, so she would have one, too.

The other three fell somewhere in between.

K. started out strong, but because he refuses to sit in a chair normally, missed the block on which he was working and stabbed his knee instead. Casualty #1. He had made good progress up to that time, and I finished his off for him.

Y. was pretty interested in it, and was doing well, until she wasn't. We butt heads every so often about who knows the best way to do things. (I'll give you a hint, and in her opinion, it is not me much of the time.) In this case, I was showing her how to keep her fingers tucked back a bit so as to avoid putting the needle through them. This did not please her because it was not her idea. I let it go. Then, yes, you guessed it, casualty #2 and #3. A band-aid was applied, and she gamely continued on... because she is also not a child to give up.

Y.'s

H. neither injured herself, nor gave up. It was not exactly an easy craft for her, but I was proud of her willingness to keep at it. With just the tiniest bit of help from me, she ended up with a "llama".

H.'s

My tips if you feel the need to try this yourself: 1. Magic erasers covered in paper towels make great stand-in felting blocks. The needle can go into them easily, and doesn't hurt the eraser. That black one up above, though, certainly worked the best. 2. Start by making something with less body parts, such as a ball or snake. 3. Do not try it with five children all new to the craft at the same time. 4. Have band-aids on hand in advance. 5. It is probably not a good choice for needle-phobic children.

I'm realizing that in that last picture of there, it looks for all the world as though I handed R. a sharp needle and she is participating, too. I did not do this. If I had, we would be sitting in the ER right now, instead of me writing this blog post. The disconnect between her eyes and her hands is still so great, that I don't even want to contemplate the number of ways this would have gone wrong. She worked on a puzzle instead, and was quite content with that. R. also enjoyed seeing the final products, and has deemed the "llama" herd, "So cute!"

Finally some pictures of the process. These were the only two left at the table by the time I thought to take any.