For 19 years, Melissa Batusic taught home economics and interior design at Shawnee Mission North Schools in Kansas City. She went beyond the usual home economics sewing project, buying raw wool and teaching students how to clean, card, dye and spin the wool into yarn, and then weave, knit or crochet or otherwise incorporate the yarn into a finished project.
“If I can teach 6th graders to crochet, I can teach anybody,” she said.
Melissa is now the director of the Clinton Technical School (CTS), but keeps her hand in as a fiber artist at home, where her loom is. She’s now organizing a Fiber Artist group in Clinton for people who share her passion for fiber arts, and is holding the first meeting on Nov. 9 at CTS, 602 S. 5th St., Clinton, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
“I’m looking for people who have similar interests and want to get together to share their time,” she said. “It will be an informal open house.”
Melissa has also started a Facebook group, Clinton, MO, Fiber Artists. She visualizes group meetings as gatherings to get together, craft and socialize. Anything to do with fiber is welcome, she said, and if people want to learn how to do some aspect of fiber arts, they are welcome to come and learn.
“It’s my passion, other than working,” she said.
Fiber arts run the gamut from spinning, dying, bobbin lace, tatting, cross-stitch to weaving, knitting and crocheting.
Melissa is bringing her hand-cranked, circular knitting machine to the open house she said, a reproduction of an 1800s machine that knits socks, gloves, hats, and anything that would be a tube. When she taught home economics in Kansas City, she bought wire dog brushes to card wool, she said, which were cheaper and worked just as well as wooden paddle carders to line the fiber up in parallel strands preparatory to spinning.
For home economic classes, she also bought a blending board, which is used to create layers of fiber and color before spinning. If people have spinning wheels, they are welcome to bring them to the Nov. 9 open house, she said. Fall is the perfect season to learn to knit a scarf or pair of socks, get those UFOs (unfinished objects) out of the closet, or learn a new fiber arts skill.
Melissa said she has the permission of Brian Wishard, the Clinton School District superintendent, to hold the open house and meetings in a CTS classroom.
“It’a an opportunity for the community to share their hobbies, and learn something new,” she said. “It’s what I like to do.”
She doesn’t know how many people will show up to the Nov. 9 open house. It doesn’t matter if one person shows up or 30, she said. But she hopes people will come and bring their project and share what they are doing.
There will be signs at Clinton Technical School indicating in which room the Fiber Artist Open House will be held. For more information, go to the Clinton, MO Fiber Artists Facebook.
