The Main Library has a new growing display featured in our basement and we’re asking the community to help it grow. This display is an Amigurumi Aquarium filled with ocean life and items donated to us by our patrons. It all coincides with the new Amigurumi Ocean Build series at your library that debuted in August. This new series meets up at the Main Library on the first Wednesdays of each month from 10:00AM - 11:30AM where guests will learn to make different ocean creatures to be added to the display. Please join us on our next program on Wednesday, September 6 at 10:00AM in the basement of your Main Library. Bring your crochet hooks and yarn, and we’ll also have some yarn available for use.
But what is Amigurumi again? It’s the Japanese art of knitting and crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. A style of knitting that has been popular in Japan for decades, it only reached the West in the early 2000’s and library staff will be on hand to help show you how to create new ocean creatures at each session. For our first meetup in August, we learned to make starfish and turtles, and in September, our featured creatures will be seals and dolphins.
While learning to make our selected ocean items, the community is encouraged to use their skills to create other items that would serve well as part of an aquarium. Then, completely voluntary, you may donate them to the library to be part of our display to help our aquarium grow. Currently you’ll find starfish, turtles, crabs, and coral, but we hope that we’ll soon see even more creations finding their new home in the library’s ocean!
We invite you to participate in our monthly Amigurumi Ocean Build series, and then also periodically come by to see how our aquarium is growing. For more information about the craft series or display, contact librarian Heather Carter at 325-676-6025 or via email at heather.carter@abilenetx.gov.