A few of the ladies

Sisters Suzie and Mable

Alice

Mary

Mable and Alice

Elsie and Suzie

 
Today was day three of beginner hand knitting and most of the ladies have already done stockinette, moss stitch and basket weave.  I've been adapting my lesson plan based on the fact that they are such fast learners, and knitters.  Many of them are already able to catch mistakes and fix them without my help.  Amazing!

I've loved every minute, these ladies are a blast;  we laugh a lot!  I expected that I'd learn a lot from them too, but I had no clue, they are so generous! They have already begun introducing me to their language and are constantly telling stories.  Today I heard about the first time the older ladies saw a muskox.  Apparently muskox left the area for a couple decades and returned in the 70's, so they were literally in disbelief when people claimed to have seen them.  

All the ladies have amazing skills in various media like printing, embroidery, beading and sewing, and they all make their own winter parkas.  Mary's fur collar is made with wolverine fur and includes the claws!  It is amazing.  I'll post a picture of it at some point.

Mid day we all gathered at the window to watch the local rangers and junior rangers prepare for a 200 km trek.  They meet rangers from Kuglutuk who also travel 200km to meet them half way.  This journey is meant to prepare the junior rangers with outside survival skills.  They are gone until the end of the week.  Below are some pictures of them leaving, the group pic only shows about 1/3 of the rangers who left.  Some of the people in the pic are family members saying goodbye.