Heritage Learning Project in Branch ongoing

Keeping traditional knowledge and skills alive in Branch is exactly the point of a Heritage Learning Series ongoing in the community.

Arlene Morrissey of Cuslett has been hired as the instructor and has been teaching students the traditional skills of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, mat hooking, sewing and others.

The project began March 16 and drew approximately 15 participants for the first classes, which occur on Monday and Tuesday evenings each week until the end of April.

"Basically, they wanted to pass on their own traditional ways of doing this to the younger generation," explained Ms. Morrissey. "They called me and asked if I would be interested because I had a craft business at one time and I have been doing all these crafts for so many years and I had all these courses in sewing and embroidery and rug hooking and whatever, so they asked me if I would go over a couple of nights a week and give them some demonstrations and teach them some basics so that's what I've been doing."

Ms. Morrissey said every participant seems to be enjoying it. They have more people enrolled than she was expecting, she said, but is happy to accommodate whoever shows up.

So far, the group has done knitting, crocheting and rug hooking. Most participants have little or no experience but those who do have been helping other students in their class as well.

"There are two or three there that have done some knitting in the past and they are there mostly for the social aspect of it. One lady there knows how to knit and crochet and she said she wanted to help me out so she'd get over in the chair and would show them things when I was busy with others," said the class instructor.

Ms. Morrissey said she started out the program with a Power Point presentation to provide an overview of what the group would be doing over the coming weeks and did some demonstrations to see what people were interested in learning. Then she set up dates for each section of the project and they all jumped right in.

"Everybody is working on the same thing," said Ms. Morrissey. "They were working on a dish cloth but some of them wanted to do a scarf, so once they got the basic stitches, they could do basic knitting.

"They all loved that when we did it," Ms. Morrissey said. "I brought over my mat frame because it is really old. It was made for me and I showed them the way it was done in the olden days when it was done with brin bags and used material from clothes and they would draw their patterns with coal, because we used to burn coal back in them days. I explained to them how the hooks were made and then I let them have a go at that. Then I showed them the more recent method of using the wool and the hoop and I got them set up with their hoops and I drew designs on the brin for them. Well, they call it burlap now. So they all got their own little project they are working on now."

Ms. Morrissey said is was great to see how interested her students were in the projects, from the younger ones around age 8 and 9 to the older ladies in their 70s.

"They really enjoy it. What I find really interesting for me is to see how excited the children are in learning it because in this day of computers and X-boxes and all the computer games and videos, to see them actually being really interested in doing something like this," she said. "One of the little girls there, after I showed them the old way of rug hooking and the new way, when she came back, she got her father to cut out a whole lot of strips of material because she wanted to do it the old fashioned way. Then I realized she found that more interesting to learn that the old way than the new way. I'm the same way. I'd rather do it the old way too."

Ms. Morrissey explained rug hooking wasn't done for luxury back in those days but out of necessity.

"It was done to keep their feet warm. They didn't do it for the glamour but they made it interesting. I was really excited about that. Another little girl is really interested in the knitting. They can come and do what they want but I am teaching each different one so they can get more exposure to it."

All the supplies for the projects have been provided for the students.

Ms. Morrissey also has some local quilters working on a traditional heritage quilt that will have a variety of landmarks on it from all over Branch. She also has the rug hookers working on the letters to spell out the name "Branch" so they can both be put on display at the end of the project.

"It is really nice to see these skills being revived," she said.

The Town of Branch received funding for this project through a New Horizons project and has partnered with a number of groups in the community including the Branch Cultural Historical Association. Lorna English was hired as the community facilitator for the project, which, she said, was open to Branch and surrounding communities, and to the young and young at heart.

editor@thecharter.ca