
Put on your work clothes and become a farmer in Central Illinois. You'll have to learn the dialect too. Instead of saying "Hi" you say, "How do, ma'am?" or "How do, sir?" And Mom and Dad become Mammy and Pappy. And if you want to say something is far away, you'd say, "That's a fer piece from here."




This place, called Lincoln Log Cabin is a State Historical Site and has a museum and historical interpreters. It's usually open to the public but was closed last fall by Governor Blagojevich due to budget cuts. We are hoping our new governor will reopen it soon.


Throughout the year, Lincoln Log Cabin hosts special events. The following is a post I wrote about our visit to the site during their Sheep-to-Clothing demonstration:
This past weekend my daughter Meg and I went to Lincoln Log Cabin to see their "Sheep to Clothing" event. We live only a few miles from this place, and we've volunteered, but we've never come to the wool event. It was sparsely attended, but I thought it was great. My favorite part was seeing all this wool hanging in these glorious colors. I liked it so much, I turned it into my blog banner.
This man raises sheep, spins the wool and dyes it using pioneer methods.
With onion skins clinging to the yarn, here is a pot of simmering yellow. The other pot has yarn turning red because he added a particular insect. He recommended The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use
as the best book on this topic.
Before he can dye the yarn, he has to have clean wool to work with. I don't think the girl is enjoying her job very much.
This lady was knitting and demonstrating spinning with a drop spindle. I definitely want to give this a try. Here's a link to making a drop spindle with a CD.
Inside the Lincoln cabin, an interpreter was knitting. Learn more about dyeing and spinning wool.
More resources and things to do:
an online game: help Lincoln build a log cabin
10 Abraham Lincoln printable activity sheets for various ages
a short bio and favorite children's books about Lincoln
Coloring Page below that illustrates Abraham Lincoln's Administration (click "more" to print and set your printer to "landscape"):
2 comments:
How fun that your family got to 'be' apart of history. :) I loved learning more about dying wool. I have an acquaintance that pulls, dyes & spins wool for different cultural type things like this. I have always found it very interesting. Thanks for all the extra printables too. :)
Luke and I LOVED this post so much! He just played the Log Cabin Building game, and we loved finding out where your blog banner came from. Off to Kansas next!
K
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