St. Brigid's Cross

Welcome to Marker Monday!

Are you familiar with St. Brigid's Cross? It is the cross woven out of straw that you see to the left. My mom, who loves all things Irish, introduced me to them years ago. I thought they were beautiful and always wanted to learn to make one. Luckily, my mom had a book with a diagram. (of course she does...she has every Irish book under the sun!) It was much simpler than I first thought. Since it is March and St. Patrick's day is near I thought it would be fun to teach the boys a bit about St. Brigid and her cross. There is a lot of conflicting information as to whether St. Brigid ever existed but here are a couple websites if you are interested in learning more about the other patron saint of Ireland. Here and here

We used pipe cleaners to make the cross. I cut them all in half, about 6 inches long. The wire inside did a great job staying in place after they were crimped over the previous pipe cleaner. I really expected Yip and Yap to have problems holding all the pieces together but they surprised me by finishing this crosses in only about five minutes. It is helpful for an adult to tighten up the cross before the ends are twisted though.
Here are the steps in making a St. Brigid's cross.
1. Lay a pipe cleaner vertically. Take a second pipe cleaner bent in half and place around the first pipe cleaner. The second should be pointing to the right.
2. Bend another pipe cleaner in half and place around the previous pipe cleaner, the one pointing to the left. The new pipe cleaner should be pointing down.
3. Bend yet another pipe cleaner and place around the previous, the one pointing down. The new pipe cleaner will be pointing to the left.
4. Bend another pipe cleaner and place around the previous, the one pointing to the left. The new pipe cleaner will be pointing up.
5. Repeat these steps until your cross is as big as you like. As you work, it is helpful to tighten the pipe cleaners toward the middle. To finish, twist the ends of each cross arm.






If this diagram and directions don't make sense, please let me know and I'll try to clarify them.