4-H Project Spotlight: Woolcraft
Did you know that 4-H project types are endless? From beekeeping to equine to mastering leadership to cooking, 4-H members are learning new skills and experimenting with new interests and passions. How? By doing of course!
With over 100 different projects to choose from across Canada, how is a member to choose? In this new blog post series, meet 4-H’ers and learn about their favourite 4-H projects.
NAME: Emily Beattie
CLUB: Langley Lamb & Woolcraft 4-H Club, BC
PROJECT: Woolcraft
Q: What are meetings like for Woolcraft projects?
A. Woolcraft meetings typically involve members learning a new craft, often with guidance from a local artisan from our community’s Weavers & Spinners Guild. So far this year, members have learned how to spin, knit, crochet, dye, card and wash wool, in addition to touring a wool mill. As a junior leader, I strive to make every meeting fun, engaging and reflective – we focus on wool and its farm-to-fibre production as much as we focus on the fine art side of our craft. At our next meeting, we will be touring the Langley Weavers & Spinners Guild gallery show, The ABC’s of Fibre Arts!
Q. What’s your favourite thing you learned through your 4-H project?
A. Spinning is my favourite fibre art that I learned with my club. It’s very meditative, and is a skill I never would’ve learned if not for my involvement in 4-H. Through my other 4-H project, lamb, I quite enjoyed washing, carding and trimming my show animals, Buttercup and Lolly. Raising a fleece ewe lamb in 2015 was a great combination of these two projects, and introduced me to fleece flock management. I currently keep 5 Delaine Merino/Romney sheep, and took on two 4-H swine projects this year, thanks in part to the confidence I gained through working with my fleece ewe.
What makes the 4-H program unique is that it’s all about what areas you are interested to experiment in. If you have an idea you’d like to learn more about and it’s not on your province’s project list – most provinces offer a design-your-own-project option, often referred to as a self-determined project.
What are you making, building or doing with your 4-H projects? Share photos of your 4-H project with us and tag @4HCanada in our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts using the hashtag #4HProject!