conkers

I haven't had time to take any pictures at the Hebden Group, but here are some pics taken at the Skipton music group, where we did corn dollies and conker webs.
A conker web, or spider, is made from a fresh conker with 8 coctail sticks pushed into it around in a circle. It is a good idea to cut off one end of the coctail stick and start the holes with a sharp object (done by adult!). Different coloured wool is wound around in a circle or spiral, widing around each stick as you go. Start with a knot or wind wool around one stick until it holds. Its similar to making 'god's eyes', which can be made using 2 or more crossed sticks and winding round in the same way. To hold the sticks together for this start with a cross, ie, wind several times diagonally across the centre and then the other way, until they are firmly in a cross (or star) shape. multicoloured or space-dyed wool is good for this as you get stripes without having to knot on more wool.
At the Hebden group some people got very creative and started going 3D, adding cocktail sticks at different angles and even more conkers! O, well, it's good to leave room for people to do their own thing!
It is a good idea to do conkers at this time of year, as they haven't become too dried out to make holes easily. Plus its a subtle nature lesson thrown in! We also used the stalks of chestnut leaves to make god's eyes. The other picture is us collecting conkers. They are looking up at the tree as we were being pelted with half-eaten conkers by a squirrel!