It’s end-of-school season. The year is coming to an end, and it’s time to celebrate!
As a homeschooling mom, I still have more work to do once the classes wind down. I have to put together portfolios and prove to my state that my children did school adequately.
It’s also the time of year for teacher gifts–in my case gifts from the teacher to the students.
One of the co-op classes I taught this year was Biology. I had two somewhat-squeamish girls and we had not one, but four dissections!
The worm dissection went ok. Really, we couldn’t see too many of the internal organs as they were all the same color. Not super impressed, but we did it, even if one student’s organs ended up nicely lined up outside the worm.
Next we moved to a crayfish (sorry, Southerners, it’s crawfish for you, but you can’t eat the ones we dissected because they’re preserved). We were somewhat familiar with crayfish because in their elementary years the students observed and identified the outside parts of one. Again, we gave it our best shot. One crayfish had a claw that had fallen off. It led to humerous antics.
The fish dissection was a little stinky. We at least were familiar with fish. What they don’t mention though is that fish scales will go everywhere. Not a big deal…unless your dissection location is the dining room table!
We finished off with the frog. The frog was the most impressive. I’d post pictures here, but you’d probably never read my blog again. The frog’s organs were the most like ours of the dissections we did. Yes, we did have to pull one frog’s front legs off so that we could pin it down properly. The legs might have danced a little. We are super professional.
So, why am I mentioning all of this on a crochet blog?
I decided I needed to give my students a gift commemorating the year.
Enter Etsy.
Would they have an embroidery pattern that I could make?
Yes. They would.
In fact, the seller OddAnaStitch had five different dissection patterns: a unicorn, a shark, a cat, a rat, and a squid. I went with the rat. The pattern was excellently written and totally inovative. It used two pieces of fabric allowing the “skin” to be peeled back.
Isn’t she gorgeous?!
I made two in two days. When I took the photo, the disappearing ink had not quite disappeared.
The end result? My two squeamish students LOVED them and intend to hang them on their wall.
We might not have been looking forward to dissection, but we did it. We persevered. And I think that needs to be celebrated!
As far as embroidery goes, OddAnaStitch takes a craft and turns it into artwork. Her various patterns are creative and innovative and artistic! If you take a gander please know that not all patterns are appropriate for little eyes. If you’ve been considering embroidery though, check out one of her patterns. She really did think of everything.
Keep stitching, Heidi