::Play:: Lucetting a Snail

Making a cord with a lucet is a wonderful handwork project for children ages six and older. The lucet was used by the Vikings and during the Medieval era for rope, decoration, lacing, drawstrings, clothing and more. Lucetting is similar to two-prong spoolknitting.

Besides making yards and yards of lovely cords, a child’s lucetted cord can easily be transformed into a little snail!

Materials

Wood lucet

1-2 colors of yarn, crochet cotton, twine or strong thread

Scissors

Sewing needle and thread

Make the Shell

Lucet a cord about 4 inches in length. Knot off and trim the ends.

Make the Body

Lucet another piece (same or different color) about 2.5 inches ini length. Knot off and trim the ends.

Finish the Snail

Coil the shell cord and sew through it with a matching color of thread to hold the shell in place. Sew the body onto the shell.

Your snail is ready for play! We made up a little story about the snail that played on the crystals, traveled to eat a leaf, visited its friend ladybug, and then went to sleep in a cave.

First the children drew the story.

Then, using a felted playscape, a crystal, and a needlefelted leaf and ladybug, we acted the story out with the snail.  As a foreign language extension, we used German words while telling the story.

Resources

Wonderful step-by-step instructions.

Lucet video, Lucet book.

To purchase lucets or our eBook on incorporating foreign language in the home please visit our etsy store.

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Jennifer Tan lives in Davis, California with her husband and three children. She blogs about homeschooling and Waldorf schooling at Syrendell.  Jennifer and her husband enjoy leading handwork and curriculum workshops, teleseminars and consulting with homeschooling families through Syrendell Academy.