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Summer Crafts: Stick Weaving

This year, in an effort to connect mama’s and their children to Germany’s beautiful summers I held craft gatherings each Wednesday in July. Since returning to Germany two years ago it has been the warm summers, growing wildflowers, herbs, and green landscapes that inspired me to create with nature even more. After living on Oahu, Winters in Germany are still hard with little sunshine, gray landscapes and a lot of rain.

Summer Sale! — our flyer/poster for summer gatherings in the Kaiserslautern Area

The series was called “Summer Crafts in Nature” and was a wonderful way for likeminded mama’s in our community to meet and get to know one another. We held the gathering at a park in Weilerbach near Kaiserslautern and Ramstein, which was perfect for small and older children. It had a basketball court, a small stream, pond, and even a well that came in handy when my son needed to clean up after a dip in the stream when playing Tarzan on one of the pine tree branches. Needless to say the park was a fit for everyone at any age.

We met every morning at 9:30 but people could join in as they pleased. For this event everyone brought yarn and sticks and we shared our materials. Many parents and children took a walk around the park’s pond to find sticks for our stick weaving excursion

We had mama’s and older children taking a morning walk to gather sticks and then sat at one of the park’s many benches with tables to start creating. For the babies in our group the sticks became a great opportunity to play with while mama chatted. We took our turns holding small babies so mothers could create or assisted children in their creative work.

Stick weaving can be a very meditative practice for both you and your children. Don’t just think abut sticks and yarn. You can weave flowers, herbs, or feathers – anything you can find in nature, into your creation.

If you would like to to try stick weaving alone or with your children, here are a few tips.

Find sticks that aren’t too large so your project won’t take too long. this is especially helpful if you have small children and not much time or if your child’s attention span is still a bit short.
Start with a durable but thin thread and create the lengthwise warp. Draw through either flowers, feathers, herbs, or yarn over and under the warp to create the weft. As well as traditional weaving on a loom, stick weaving can become very creative according to your taste. You can include the stick in your weaving or create a warp alongside different parts of a long and curved stick.
Work with different colors of yarn to create effects. I have been meaning to weft handspan yarn or silk into a wave onto a driftwood frame I still have from Hawaii. The opportunities are endless.

Enjoy!

If you are interested in summer family craft events, sewing or one-on-one workshops please visit my page for Aloha Workshop updates and like my Facebook page where I announce and share my creative creations for our family and community.

Want to be creative at home? I have Creative Sewing Tutorials for download as a PDF-file in my easy shop.

xoxo,

Sabine.

About the Author: Sabine Bryant is the designer and creator of Kinderbonnets. She currently resides in Germany with her family of soon to be 5. Aloha Werkstatt Blog shares her inspiration for Kinderbonnets, eco-conscious lifestyle, simplicity, and creative craft projects inspired by the simplicity of nature, and love for gathering amongst women and families of young children – to inspire a sense of self-sufficiency, creativity, and less materialism.