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Book review: Weaving Unloomed

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weaveIn case you’re new to this needlework/ Internet thing, let me tell you: Diane Gilleland is brilliant. I got so excited when I heard about her ebook, Weaving Un-Loomed: Simple Ways to Weave Cool Things, that I posted the news right away, sight unseen. Now that I’ve had a chance to spend some quality time with this publication, I can give you an unequivocal recommendation: You have to have this book.

In her usual warm, chatty style that we’ve come to love on CraftyPod blog, Diane walks us simply and clearly through the basics of weaving, giving us the vocabulary we need to understand the intructions that follow for five must-try techniques and projects. She keeps her promise that we’ll “maximize the meditative part, keep the measuring and figuring as simple as possible, and generally have a great time.”

And she delivers projects that will satisfy your thrifty and green urges while exciting your imagination. I mean, look at the project featured here: beautiful jewelry woven from old magazine pages. (Guess what all the women and girls in my family are getting for Christmas!)

For just US $10.50, you get an instant-gratification download of 60 pages of crafty delight. Go get the book now!

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Moss and Lichen Unit Study

I guess moss and lichen are more things that you see in the spring than in the summer, but there are some deep shady parts of our yard that stay mossy all year, and summer is a fine time to look for plants that like to live in shady, wet areas.

Raising Up Wild Things has a really pretty set of printables to use for a moss and lichen unit study.

And just in case you’re like me and don’t really know the difference, moss is a plant that grows in damp wooded areas, while lichen is a combination of fungus and algae that live together. Lichen can live in different environments but are often found in places where you would find moss, too.

The printable includes drawings of some common moss such as sphagnum moss and wood moss, as well as common lichen shapes (crusty, leafy and shrubby). There are good sized images you can print out and laminate to use to compare to specimens you find when you are exploring nature.

There’s also a forest floor coloring page and a printable journaling page where kids can write or draw their observations and there are a few questions older kids can answer.

You can use these when you go on a walk in the woods (or the back yard) to talk about what you are seeing, or combine them with other resources to talk about things that live in the forest. Check them out at Raising Up Wild Things.

This PDF from the Morton Arboretum has a bunch of pictures of different kinds of moss and where to find them, which could also be helpful in your studies. Learn more about lichen, including what they are and what they are not, in this article from the US Forest Service.

[Photo: Raising Up Wild Things]