2008 Kilt Kamp in Franklin, NC

[wsk]

1 and 2) I actually don't recommend reading the book ahead of time, although browsing certainly doesn't hurt. The instructions are meant to be used with tartan and needle in hand, one instruction at a time. Most people have a really hard time getting anything out of sequential instructions unless they are actually doing the task. Doesn't mean that the instructions are inadequate; it just means that they weren't written for that purpose, and it can be very frustrating if you think you can get prepared by reading the instructions.

I hardly claim to be unique. I find that reading the instructions beforehand gives me a better sense of where I'm going - much like spending time with a map before hitting the road. I suspect that there are others out there with similar inclinations.

3) If you want to practice, use tartan rather than a stiff non-wool cloth. Working on wool tartan is very different from hand stitching on, say, duck or canvas or denim. Heavy weight tartan is thick, but it isn't stiff and hard to push a needle through the way duck, canvas, and denim are.

Most of my classmates had many years of hand stitching under their belts before they took Elsie's class. None had any experience with tartan. But, having already mastered the stitching techniques, the tartan itself didn't present any problems to them.

5) A thimble is absolutely crucial and also on the list. I recommend making your own comfortable one:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/c...607/index.html

Particularly for guys, this is a much better alternative than a metal tailor's thimble.

I made myself one of those thimbles. Ended up not using it; it just seemed to be too much in-the-way. I didn't push the needle through the tartan from the eye-end but simply found that gripping the shaft of the needle and pushing it worked best for me - especially with the tiny little needle I used for blind stitching.

And last, everyone at a kilt kamp works at a different rate. I'm there to teach the same step 12 times, if I have to, whenever someone needs to learn it. Conceptually, the earlier steps are the hardest and the last the easiest to get on your own out of the book. Even if you don't finish your kilt at the Kamp, it's not a tough thing to do to finish it after you get home using the instructions in the book. Elsie taught kiltmaking for years without any instruction handouts whatsoever (that's how I learned), and then it was crucial to finish before you left. Now, with the book, it's not that big a deal if you don't finish.

I read the book to know generally where I was going. I handed over a pocketful of cash to learn those things that I wasn't going to get from the book. It's sort of like what you find if you read a Shakespeare play without having seen it on the stage and then read it again after you've seen the performance on stage. The second reading is more fully realized and with the reading comes a better understanding of the performance and hence the play. It feeds upon itself.

So, for me, I wanted to fully participate in the class from start to finish with Elsie periodically looking over my shoulder to guide my hand all the way through. For me, that was the best thing because when I make my next kilt, she'll still be there and the step-by-step of the book will have more meaning - else there would be no reason to hand over that pocketful of cash. Right?

I thought the things that I suggested in my first post to this thread might help those who are like me. I still think that. Not like me? Feel free to do something else.