“If you want to make dreamcatchers,” Julie, the activities director at The Mansion said, ” I’ll get the grapevines and bend them into circles.”
So this morning I was on Youtube, watching videos on how to make a dreamcatcher. I had to watch it three or four times before my hands just seemed to figure it out on their own. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to teach the people who live at The Mansion Assisted Living Facility, but we would at least try.
I scoured the barn and yard for chicken feathers (our brown hen recently moulted so there were some nice ones) got jute at the hardware store and visited Heather at the bead shop in town on my way to The Mansion.
I needed beads with big enough holes in them for the jute to fit through. As if she knew, Heather had a big bowl of beads with wide holes in them on sale. I bought some and when Heather heard I was using them for The Mansion she donated a bunch more.
It was Madeline who inspired me to give up trying to teach the dreamcatcher pattern I leaned to tie from the YouTube videos.
“Be creative, weave your jute in your own way,” I finally said after trying to demonstrate and explain what to do for way too long.
That’s when the fun began.
Madeline was into stringing the beads offering her help to anyone who wanted it. And Becky held up the dreamcatchers as I tied the feathers on them.
By the end of the hour, we had more dreamcatchers than people. So we gave a couple away and Julie hung one on the Activities room door.
It was not one of the better projects I’ve done at The Mansion. I think it may have made some people feel inadequate because it was so hard to do. But at least everyone got to take a Dream Catcher back to their room.
Next month I’m going to get some “Off The Hook” yarn. This isa yarn that is all big loops and you “knit” with it using your fingers, simply by pulling one loop through another. It seems easy to do and only takes about an hour to make a scarf.
But I’ll try it out first just to be sure.
