{"id":33276,"date":"2013-03-14T00:06:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T07:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=33276"},"modified":"2013-03-14T00:06:58","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T07:06:58","slug":"basket-weaving-merit-badge-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/33276","title":{"rendered":"Basket Weaving Merit Badge, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 4,882 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20146,641 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ<\/span><\/p>\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

For this week\u2019s Stitching and Crafting\/Basketry Merit Badge<\/a>, I actually followed through on the course I like to tell people I majored it in college: Underwater Basket Weaving. Minus the underwater part. I mean, maybe when I get a little more experience under my belt and dry-land basket weaving just isn\u2019t challenging enough, then perhaps I\u2019ll channel my inner mermaid and attempt to kick it up a notch.<\/p>\n

I was actually pretty thrilled to learn this ancient art. I love baskets. And what holiday are we coming up on, my little chickadees? That\u2019s right: Easter. Easter baskets! And Easter bonnets, too, don\u2019t forget the bonnets. Is there a bonnet-making badge? I need to look into that. I\u2019ve always had a secret yearning to be a milliner. I think it\u2019s because of\u00a0Jane Austen. Who doesn’t love Jane Austen? But, anyway, back to the basketry.<\/p>\n

Now there are a few different types of basket weaving, and I decided to go with the one that seemed most familiar: wicker.\u00a0(I do get weepy over willow.) I\u2019ve been collecting my willow for a few weeks now, so if this is a badge you want to try your hand at (or to be more specific, both your hands), then decide when and how you are going to find your stack of appropriate materials.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now willow can be temperamental stuff: too dry or brittle and it will snap on you, so you might have to soak it for a few days. That\u2019s okay: you need time to sign up for a class or peruse your local library for some know-how, anyway. Once your branches are ready to go, you will be too.<\/p>\n

\"MBA_Jane-8258\"<\/p>\n

Now first, we are going to make a base: I\u2019m making a small basket, so I used eight pieces of willow, about 30 cm each. Make a slit in the middle of half of these, and then insert the non-split ones into the split ones! Savvy? This is called our Slath. Which to me, sounds like something you\u2019d spray for in the tomato garden, but whatevah! Then you\u2019re going to take wee little skinny pieces of willow and use them for the Pairing, which is just a fancy term for basically tying it into place (think twist-tying your bread closed, in a way \u2026 sorta. Or French braiding \u2026 again, sorta). This is where I needed to take a tea break. What can I say, I work in short spurts.<\/p>\n

When I returned from my pot of Lady Grey (there may or may not have been shortbread cookies involved as well), I was ready to keep on with my Pairing. Round and round we go, where we stop nobody knows.<\/p>\n

No, seriously.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know when to stop.<\/p>\n

I was going to keep Pairing for all eternity if no one intervened. I had my handy dandy library book open beside me, but who was going to turn the pages if I was weaving my fingers into my basket? They neglected to mention that part in my tutorial.<\/p>\n

I knew the next part involved something with Rods, but my only experience with rods was my short lived career as a Baton Twirler, or possibly that time in high school when I learned to perm my own hair, and neither one seemed applicable here.<\/p>\n

Please join me next time when I get my hands free and learn how to start constructing the sides! Ta-ta for now.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 4,882 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20146,641 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ Wondering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}