My dad and I spent the day learning to weave baskets. The Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University here in town hosted the event, which was sold out quite a long time ago. Beth, from The Basket Makers Catalog taught the class, and she was a wonderful instructor. I bought tickets for Dad and me as a Christmas/Birthday present combo for him. He was the only male in the class, and I was the youngest. I have to say that it’s fun to be the youngest when you’re 32 and not-so-young-anymore.
Here’s is how we began:
The toughest part was the beginning, making the base and getting all the spacing right.
From there, it was pretty rhythmic. Getting a nice, tight weave was tricky to get the hang of, though.
The class was scheduled for 9 am until 4:30 pm. Before we went, I worried a little about how I would handle sitting in a chair weaving a single basket for 7.5 hours. And then, once we wove the base, I naively thought that it actually wouldn’t take that long. It did, plus more!
We left at about 4:45, and then I came home and finished up the lashing around the top. I had planned on doing a double lashing, where I would come back around and make an “X” in each spot. But my fingernails have pulled from the nail beds on three fingers, and I’m tired. So I’m calling it done!
I had a really fun day, despite the sore fingers. I’m so thrilled with the finished product, too. It’s going to be a really useful tote!
The Basket Maker’s Catalog is a local company, but they have a website and a catalog (as you might guess from their name) where you can order supplies and kits for making some other really beautiful baskets. Today, they were filming and photographing our work on this basket to use in an eBook and pattern they’ll be selling eventually.
