I am now working on the Nalbinding workshop. It will be four hours long, on Sunday morning. As one who spent most of my working years on second and third shifts, may I politely say, "Ugh." (I will need to be there even earlier than for Just For Fun, at the Fiber Fest. The workshop starts at 9AM, and I usually get there by 9:30 on Sunday.) I have a feeling I need to be there close to 8.

Enough advance moaning! 

I have been doing a lot of planning and working on this thing. I have taught this before, but this time I have SO MUCH I want to cover! I plan a teensy tiny intro, a thimble-full of history, leading into the 1960 categorizations. From there an equally brief encapsualation of two systems of notation, then I want to start introducing stitches. That's right: stitches.

I have made little discs of Danish stitch, and all they will need to do is work the stitch. Then maybe (not set in stone) we will do round starts, with the option of Tarim stitch, to show how a simple change, changes the stitch. From there, we might look at connection stitches, or we might look at other types of starts (for on the thumb stitches) I haven't decided. I have made 1+2 chains upon which to practice various connection stitches. The other thing we will cover is starts, as I mentioned. Somewhere, of course, we will break. Finally, by this time we will be ready to discuss stitch families, choose a stitch, and settle in to a starter project, because by this time, everyone should feel brave enough to make some decisions of their own. Whew! There will be a little segment, at the end of Just For Fun for drop in nalbinding, like last year, in case they feel the need for help afterwards. (Or , possibly, they could come to the Ancient Needlework group.)