{"id":33382,"date":"2013-03-19T00:07:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T07:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=33382"},"modified":"2013-03-19T00:07:47","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T07:07:47","slug":"basket-weaving-merit-badge-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/33382","title":{"rendered":"Basket Weaving Merit Badge, Part II"},"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 the continuation of this week\u2019s Stitching and Crafting\/Basketry Merit Badge<\/a>, I straightened my shoulders, cracked my knuckles, and dove right back in where I left off: weaving my own willow wicker basket. Just in time for Easter, my little peeps!<\/p>\n

To recap, I had begun with soft willow branches. I chose eight of the pluckiest looking branches and used a sharp knife to make a slit in the center of half of them. I then inserted the remaining four (and you thought I wasn\u2019t good at math\u2014HA!) through, centering them. Capisci? Sometimes I channel my inner Italian lady when crafting; don\u2019t mind me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After that part, which is called building the Slath (or as I like to call it, Narrowly Missing Shishkabobbing Myself), I found the wee-est branches to use for the Pairing. The Pairing is not what kind of cheese you consume with what kind of wine, but what it\u2019s called when you wind these puppies in and out and around our base. I got fairly far when I started this project, and I can even say, it almost, kinda, sorta, nearly looks like basket like now! Back to work we go:<\/p>\n

Now we start sharpening some new rods to begin building up our sides. This can be somewhat distracting if you\u2019re like me and simply cannot let a sharpened stick go to waste without first roasting a few homemade marshmallows. So when you are planning this project, plan on an extra hour for weenie roasting and S\u2019mores. I\u2019m just sayin.\u2019 Three hour minimum commitment for this badge? Pshaw! How about a whole glamping weekend?!<\/p>\n

\"MBAJane-8651\"<\/p>\n

Back to work! Wash the marshmallow goo off your hands and get serious now. Your new rods<\/span> slightly used rods will be inserted carefully into your lovely woven pattern, at even intervals, right next to your first spokes (those original eight). Now it\u2019s time to momentarily freak out a bit because your lovely basket will at this juncture look a lot like a gigantic tarantula.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Take those heebie-jeebie spider legs and bend them upward, gathering them, kind of like you would a ponytail. Whew. No more arachnophobia! Hopefully you don\u2019t suffer from chaetophobia, which I don\u2019t have to tell you if you have it, is a fear of ponytails.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m beginning to think this merit badge is difficult on the psyche.<\/p>\n

Next comes a part called French Randing (no more Italian from this point on: only French. Ooo-la-la!)<\/p>\n

This involves a bunch more weaving with a bunch more willow. Even for a tiny basket, you\u2019re going to need copious amounts of willow! You\u2019re putting them in, you\u2019re putting them out, you\u2019re putting them in, and you\u2019re shaking \u2019em all about! Well, something like that. More or less. Maybe less.\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-33382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33382","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=33382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}