Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sonja Gasper!!!
Sonja Gasper (#5671) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Crochet Merit Badge!
“My grandmother taught me how to chain and do the single and double crochet stitches when I was just old enough to manage a hook. We have a great yarn shop here in town called The Black Purl, and the owner helped me get started again with some beautiful yarn by Ella Rae. I used a 5.5 mm hook and retaught myself the single stitch, working especially on consistent tension, making an infinity scarf. It is 60″ around and 6″ wide and took me about 8 hours total to do. It curled, so I also had to learn how to block a project as well.
I wore it for an hour and then popped it in the mail to a friend who is in Texas (and is not used to the cold) as a surprise! I have already started a new one for myself, checking the Internet for more things to learn, and have added on double, basket, and grit stitches as more of a sampler scarf, but in the same color. It is going much faster this time!”
Would you sign up for a lesson in campanology?
My glamping friends are no doubt whooping “YES!” with cabin-fevered fervor.
We’re all chomping at the bit in anticipation of our first spring camping trip,
but campanology really has nothing at all to do with tents or teardrop trailers.
Speaking of which …
Photo by Don Stucke via Wikimedia Commons
Trailer envy!
Wait—what am I saying?
Ah, yeah, back to the point:
Does “campanology” ring a bell with anyone?
(Hint: that was an intentional pun.)
The term campanology refers to the study of REALLY BIG bells, like these:
Photo by Brian Webster via Wikimedia Commons
By study, I mean all facets of bell construction and tuning to the art of ringing these behemoths, an age-old practice that doesn’t command a lot of attention these days, especially here in the U.S.
Derived from the Latin word for bell, campana, campanology was coined in the Campania region of Italy, which is known for the mining of bronze that was used to cast bells.
These days, though, much of the talk of campanology resounds from the hallowed halls of English churches, and I was surprised at how many young people are chiming in.
Take, for instance, Becky Dunnet. She’s the teen star of this fun bit of campanology promotion:
I never would have guessed that campanology is considered cool.
Now, about that camping trip … have you made any plans yet?
From my isolated little farm at the end of a dirt road here in Idaho, it’s sometimes hard to remember that my arms can reach all the way across the U.S.! Today, we received an e-mail from Sandi, a former employee who moved to Virginia. 
Sandi said, “Most prominent rack by the check out at my local co-op here in Roanoke, Virginia!” 
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
