Many months ago, we conceived the idea of combining our two favorite hobbies -- for me, something involving yarn and for SO something related to Native American artifacts. The resulting idea was to create a teepee covered in crochet to take with us to an arts festival (Playa Del Fuego) last weekend.
I'm very proud to say that we pulled it off and it was a success, but getting there was quite the journey.
At the outset, because of our yarnbombing experiences, we knew that buying pieces from yard sales would be much better than me trying to manufacture the knitted/crocheted outer layer. So, we went on a three plus month tear buying things at yard sales. We learned a lot along the way -- for starters, don't pay more than $3 for large afghans! They are to be had for $3 or less.
We had no idea how much would be needed so I kept buying and buying and buying and I think by the time we entered the construction phase, I had accumulated something like 70 pieces or so -- afghans, baby blankets, some hats and scarves and some other odds and ends. In the end, we needed about half of what we had. Yes, there is enough leftover to make another one.
Then, it was time to deal with the poles. SO figured out that bamboo would be a good material to use and we knew where some was, but that involved going up to some one's house and asking to cut it down and I couldn't imagine trying to explain this to a stranger. Luckily, the universe intervened and someone I was taking a class from back in September mentioned their backyard was overgrown with bamboo. I blogged about the adventure of getting the bamboo last month as you may recall.
With the bamboo under control, we were onto making the base skin. We had decided to sew together sheets and then attach the afghans. This was quite a bit of work also. Rather haphazardly we'd gathered sheets from yard sales too (they cost about $1 each). But, when we went to work with them, we discovered that there are good, sturdy old unfitted cotton sheets and then there are flimsy, stretchy polyester/cotton sheets. Luckily, the worst sheet ended up being only a small section of the skin.
From there, SO scaled up a small pattern from a book and built a paper model to test the design. After some modification, we marked up the sewn sheets, cut off the excess and then I hemmed the base skin for miles and miles.
Finally, it was time to attach the afghans! We started with the largest one and positioned it in the center of the back. This ended up being helpful later when we wanted to match the erecting pole to the center back. From there, we continued to apply and attach the afghans from largest to smallest. This was fairly time-consuming work and we worked on that step alone on and off for over three weeks. Poor SO had no dining room table during all that time! We attached the afghans like a tied quilt, using heavy, thick cotton thread which we tied in knots. Originally, we were taking the time to tuck the ends inside, but let that go in the interest of time.
We wanted the whole skin covered, but the bottom edge is round and the afghans are not -- what to do? Originally, I was going to piece in small things like hats, scarves, etc. However, one night, pretty late when we were toiling away, we discovered that the granny square style of afghan made in blocks could be taken apart and fitted pretty easily without compromising the integrity of the crochet.
Then, it was onto the raising of the teepee. The first time it went up so easily!!! But, the next day we had to rush and rip out down because of rain. A week before the event, we put it up again, but this time it took TWO HOURS and that discouraged us a little.
But, luckily, after getting to the festival, we had a relatively easy time of raising it and even slept inside of it two nights!
The teepee was a hit. We received many compliments with my favorite being, "there's just so much grandmotherly love in it!" How true!! We were so gratified that our project was well-received.
Besides the magnificent teepee experience, the highlight of the festival was Saturday night which included amazing fire performances including burning hula-hoops and bull-whips
and then, the burning of a wooden winged horse. The pictures cannot do this justice, but we offer up a few shots:
So, if you read this blog often, you know I have a bit of a crazy streak which leads me to think that we should now tackle a Circus Tent! We'll see.
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