She's Crafty | He's Crafty

We're all crafty!

So, funny story:

At work one day I was straightening the NEW book shelf when I came across, Made by Dad: 67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff by Scott Bedford. I thought, "Duct tape on the spine, it's gotta be cool. Annnd, it'll make a nice blog!" But I left it for another time. Later that very day my mother excitedly presented me with Made by Dad and said, "We gotta blog about this one!"

It was meant to be.

We know plenty of crafty dudes and I'm sure some of you out there know a few too. They're everywhere!

Check out, Men Who Knit. A website devoted to promoting and supporting men who knit. And Mark Montano's Make Your Mark! videos on YouTube are my absolute favorites to watch. We also carry some of his books at our library. He has one of the most fun and fertile imaginations out there.

Of course I know a few male crafters personally too. My dad taught me everything I know and love about knots, which has helped me in many crafting areas. Dad also taught me the craft of splicing wires and got me hooked on the art of collage.

When I first spied Made by Dad I thought of a friend of mine. Dustin's one of the craftiest people I know. He's a blacksmith, does some great embroidery and he sews out of necessity and fun - in fact he's the one who taught me how to turn a pair of normal pants into bell bottoms! And he loves to get crafty with his daughters. He is definitely the perfect target audience for this book.

But so am I. And anyone else who loves to build fun, sometimes gross, but always kooky stuff.

Like this...pair?...of Rock, Paper, Scissors dice I made to quickly end disputes of where to eat out or who gets the last cookie. Users just choose a color and the dice do all the work.

Scissors cut paper. That cookie is MINE!

The projects in the book are leveled from Easy to Tricky. Zen Napkins is probably the easiest. Create simple circles and lines around coffee-shop treat crumbs much like a Zen garden and you're done.

Kaye is getting fancy with her garden in the background.

The Tricky projects are definitely harder but between the detailed blueprints with awesome illustrations and the step-by-step instructions even the Tricky projects seem extremely do-able.

With your brain box and these blueprints, nothing
will stand in your way.

Overall, I love this book. It is crammed full of practical jokes, games, and handmade gifts. I found the instructions easy to follow and the blueprints to be the most helpful guides in a crafting book I've ever come across. So, Dads (or uncles, grandpas, cousins, big brothers, mothers, aunts...), grab your rulers and glue and your nearest kid (or fly solo) and get crafting.

Before I go, I wanted to mention that we will be taking a little trip to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire later this month. On October 20th, Park Day School in Oakland will be hosting a celebration of creativity and learning with hands-on and hand-made fun. I'm sure it will be a blast and can't wait to share our first Mini Maker adventure with you.

Until then, stay crafty!
~Malia

Short Attention Span Challenge | Knotty Knotty!

Why Knot?  As I looked at the library book, Why Knot?, which inspired this week's blog post, I thought the same thing.  Why should I learn how to knot?  I remember briefly learning knots when I was at camp and trying to earn some sort of generic badge, although I couldn't recall how to tie any of the knots now.  I am not a fisherman or a sailor.  I am fairly sure I invented a new knot when I used two hairbands and a ribbon to straighten up my Christmas tree last year. However, according to Philippe Petit (You might have heard of him, the tightrope walker who illegally walked between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in 1974.), there are many practical uses for knowing specific knots.  Such as, securing items in travel.  So wait, me just tying random twists and pulling the rope into strange convolutions is not the best way to tie that IKEA stuff onto the top of my car?  Who knew?  Another use, he says: rescuing people!  Yeah, I guess that's pretty important.  But the best use (although I'm not sure why this is more important than saving lives), says Petit, is making connections!  Linking pieces of land, creating bridges, and connecting people.  Okay, so knots are pretty important.  In fact, upon reading that, I remembered a  documentary I saw a few years ago about a region in China where people cross a river everyday by sliding across a rope.  So, they probably think effective knots are pretty nice too.

The Challenge:

Learn some useful knots.  I used the book referenced above, which includes a little rope to use while practicing your knots. You can check out the book and the rope at the library, but remember to bring BOTH back!

The Process:

Petit says a good knot has 4 virtues:

1.  It is easy to tie.

2.  It is stable under a load.

3.  It does not reduce the ultimate breaking strength of the rope.

4.  It is easy to untie.

Also it keeps it's shape.  Wait that is five things!  I'm still not sure why there weren't 5 virtues...

And he isn't the only one who thinks knots are important.  In 1933, Clifford Ashley wrote a book with over 7000 drawings and featured 3,854 knots!  I wonder if my double hairband ribbon knot is somewhere in there.  I bet knot! yucka yucka...

The same year, the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT) was established. "Tyer" is intentional; the use of "tier" is ambiguous, they say. 

The IGKT has something called the Six Knot Challenge, where participants must tie six knots as quickly as possible.    The world record is 8.1 seconds.  I will not beat this record, I assure you, but as I am typing this it is 12:58 p.m. on Friday.  My blog is set to run at 2 p.m., so I am giving myself an entire hour.  I know, it is astonishingly fast. To make this more impressive, I will attempt this feat while working on the reference desk (which means I will be happily interrupted several times, for sure).

Sheet Bend Knot

The Result:

The Sheet Bend Knot (Common Bend, Ordinary Bend, Single Bend, Flag Bend, Swab Hitch, and the Barbers' Knot)

Use: This knot has many uses, such as fishing nets.  It can also be doubled and used to tie sheets together and escape out of a window!  Good to know in case I am kidnapped and placed somewhere with excess bedding.

It is now 1:12 p.m....

The Square Knot (Reef Knot, True Knot, Hard Knot, String Tie Knot, Common Knot, Regular Knot, Ordinary Knot, Flat Knot, Hercules Knot)

Use: Close a sack, tie a package, secure a roll, tie scarves, reef or furl sails on a boat.  Petit mentions that there is a Reef Knot in Arizona 9000 years old!  Also, in Ancient Greece brides tied these knots on their belts, and it was supposed to make them fertile.

1:22 p.m....

Square Knot

Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

The Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

Use: to tie something to another object like a pole or mast.  It will not slip up and down on the object it is tied to.

1:36 p.m.

The Bowline (pronounced Bo-lynn or boo-lynn. Like Anne?)

You can tie this knot around yourself if you are about to fall down a cliff.  I'm not sure I ever quite got it right, so I think I'm doomed.

1:53 p.m....

My unsuccessful Bowline

Sheepshank (Dogshank, Catshank)

Use: To repair a damaged rope or shorten a rope.  Petit suggests using the loops to hang stuff when camping.

Sheepshank

1:59 p.m...

Clove Hitch

(Builder's Hitch, Boatman's Hitch, Peg Knot, Double Half Hitch, Steamboat Hitch)

Use: Attach a rope to a post (or water bottle) super fast.

2:03 p.m.!  On no!!!!  In my defense, in this last hour I signed about 20 people up for our summer reading program, Reading is so Delicious! It has my stomach tied up in knots!  Have you signed up yet???

Clove Hitch