Mujeres de Esperanza: Craft a Hanger

In the past, I have mentioned the ladies fellowship (called Mujeres de Esperanza, or Women of Hope) we hold at church. Every month we get together, no guys allowed, to have a little fellowship. The activities include: a small snack and drink, a short lesson, and a simple craft made of easy materials. Every so often, a member will volunteer to show how to make a simple craft. Today, Hermana María de los Angeles Hernández volunteered to show us how to make a pretty hanger for clothes, specifically pants.

Hermana María is the lady dressed all in pink. Click to enlarge.

So this blog post will be all about the craft that we started, but did not manage to finish, today. First, the essential materials are these:

Some wire hangers, 2 per craft, and a lot of yarn is all that is needed.
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Cookies are always essential. ;) These are Dulce de Leche.  Click to enlarge.

The snack today was Dulce de Leche cookies (caramel-coated cookies), and they are essential to keep the munchies away during the craft time. ;) So the first step was to make two baseball-sized yarn balls.

Click to enlarge.

I knew how to do none of the steps of this project, and thus Hermana María, who sat beside me, taught me everything. First you wrap the yarn around  three fingers about ten or twenty times. Then, turn it ninety degrees and start wrapping randomly. The only goal is to get a ball, it does not have to be pretty.

 My first yarn ball done. Click to enlarge.

Hermana Martha used the yellow and green yarn; I used both the multicolored yarns.
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Eventually, after a couple minutes of wrapping and turning, wrapping and turning, you will have a small ball of yarn. Once you have two balls of yarn, and have chosen two hangers of the same size and shape, you are ready to continue.

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Now, the first step is to tie a knot near the end of the hook of the hanger. just something simple but tight to keep the yarn on the hanger. Then, wrap the yarn in circles around the hook of the hanger, covering up any extra yarn left from the end of the knot. Once the extra yarn is covered, stop; this is where a pattern begins--just at the top of the hook. It is rather difficult to explain how to do this without you being here able to see the steps in motion. I know it took me at least ten minutes of Hermana María doing the same thing over and over for me to get it. However, I will do my best.

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Make sure when you pull the yarn tight, it does not overlap with previous knots.
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     You might have to read that multiple times to make sense of it, but you are basically making a knot around the hanger. It is incredibly confusing at first, moving left, right, left, right, left... Once you get in the mode, however, it becomes easier. Now here is a closer shot of the pattern the yarn makes.

Click to enlarge.

     I hope my explanation made some sense, and if it did not, I'm sorry. It is confusing to put into pictures. At the end of the fellowship, we had not finished our hangers. However, Hermana Maria and Hermana Martha both had brought examples, so you can see how it looks.

Click to enlarge.

A nice, "simple" project that was a lot of fun to learn, and will be great to finish at home! 

Hope you enjoyed learning how to make a decorative hanger, and if you have a comment, leave it below or on Facebook.