childhood craftyness (god's eye)

[abricot]

It all started when a guy friend was over this evening and I decided, out of a lack of something better to do, to teach him how to knit. On one hand he was doing much better than the first time I picked up needles, but on the other hand we both were quickly losing interest due to the fact that it took him 15 min to do one stitch. It also did not help, for the sake of accomplishing something, that in between stitches he would entertain me by using the needles as chopsticks, drumsticks, probes, weapons, etc...

We gave up and for a plan B I quickly grabbed a few skewers, a couple skiens of cheap acrylic yarn, and asked him if he ever made a "God's Eye"... Of course he never heard of them/made them/had a childhood... but I insisted that it was a Camp/School craft that I did for many of my childhood years and if a 6 year old can do it, so can he....

Here is the one I made - I plan on making more, because it makes me feel all nostalgic and stuff....
http://www.undertheskysoblue.com/xx/godseye.jpg

So... Did anyone else make these as a kid? All you need to do is tie two sticks in a X shape and start wrapping yarn around the sticks, changing colors whenever you feel moved to....

I posted this to Craftster because I thought it'd be fun to revive childcraft memories or even to start a God's Eye revolution... Be a kid again, whip up one, and post your creation here!  

[firefly]

for some reason, these have been on my mind!  i may just have to relive my years of camp crafts and do just that

another favorite that i used to teach as craft counselor were those pencils with fake fur heads and googly eyes (i called them don kong pencils); you'd twirl them between your palms and the hair would frizz out.

[cloudbreakchick]

Oh my gosh, I am so excited about this...  although, I too apparently never had a childhood, but I randomly found a bunch of old yarn pieces (about a foot long each) at the Goodwill for a quarter, and had to have it!  Now I know what I can do with them!

Yay!

[elephantfanatic]

i remember these from like third grade! we called them something different though. we did it for a native american unit we did. they used them for good luck or something, idk, it was like 6 years ago! but i should make them too!  i use my old ones as christmas tree ornaments!!! they look pretty cool!  

[artsci]

Thanks for bringing this up, I remember making the God's eye craft in Brownies.  We used the multi-colored yarn, so it had automatic shade gradation.  I was actually trying to remember exactly how we made them last year because I thought that they would make a great cheap Christmas tree decoration.  
I had those pencils too - we called them "frustration pencils."  

[pseudola]

I made dozens of those in my years of summer camp... It's been a long time since I've thought about them though. Does anyone know how they got the name God's eye?

[Goddess]

a tribe used to make them as a sort of dream catcher, and "god's eye" was given as a name because it was supposed to be god watching you while you sleep so you are unharmed and rid of bad dreams

[cheesedip]

Wow! I have always wanted to make one... I suppose I didn't have/am not having a childhood either!

[synecdoche]

I remember making these way back when.  If I recall correctly, it was when we were doing Charlotte's Web in class-- they were multi-coloured spider webs for us.  I still think they look really cool to this day.  

[broadwaybabe_4]

we still make them for the kids in my mentor program at school. its fun. we all have contests to see how many sticks you can use!