Wool Roving

Just put up a bunch of new rovings and yarn on my etsy site. Its never too early to knit for the holidays :)

and more to come...(click here)

Spinning A Tale

The Magic Onions asked me to write a bit about something I enjoy and the first thing I thought of was spinning :) Thank you for featuring me in your blog's Discovering Waldorf Series.

Cheers.

Spinning a Tale

When you think of spinning what do you think of? An activity done long ago? Your Grandmother? That beautiful friend that lives down the road? Children?

You should think children, the benefits of spinning with children are very rewarding. When I teach handwork I try to bring the children something artistic but also that which serves a purpose, not something that is pretty for pretty sake. Spinning is one of those activities that brings them a step closer to examining cloth and how clothing can be made. The age of 8 is a great time to introduce one to spinning with a tool ( yarn twisties are a wonderful thing to start them off with in the preschool and earlier year). I like to work with teachers/parents and correspond a house building block with spinning. Working with wool can enhance the practical and functional art form as well as appreciation for colors and beauty.

Win - Win!

Letting the children take loose wool and twist it in their fingers, seeing how thread can form, is a real eye opener for some. Spinning wool with a rock is one of the oldest tool used by nomadic tribes thousands of years ago and can be practiced today by you.

Spinning, (yes the act of swinging and spinning as not to be too dizzy to be dangerous) in general is wonderful for children. The action of spinning, calms the nerves, quiets the mind, settles the child, so that they are able to concentrate better. We are made of spirals (DNA) you can witness the golden spiral in math (the Fibonacci spiral) in nature (sunflowers to nautilus shells) to the cosmos, we experience spiral/spinning all the time. Its natural, its beautiful, its healing. You can check out more by clicking here.

Try spinning with your children - it's a great outdoor activity as well as indoors and it doesn't require batteries.

Choose a palm sized rock with nice weight. Purchase some wool roving.

Using your fingers, pull the roving till its thin (don't hold your fingers too close together - let the wool slide between your fingers ) and then twist it in your fingers till you produce a yarn. Make enough yarn to wrap around your rock twice both ways. Knot it. Slip in a smooth stick a inch larger than the rock on both sides. Twist a bit more in your fingers to wrap a bit under the stick but above the rock.

Create a half hitch loop and slide it over the stick. You now can start holding the roving an inch or two above the stick and spin the rock clockwise. Pull the roving a bit at a time making sure to not let the twist of the yarn extend beyond your right hand fingers.

The weight of your rock will determine the thickness of yarn you can spin. A heavy rock will produce thick yarn and a lighter rock will gift you with thinner yarn. With everything, practice makes perfect. Choose a roving that is not "merino wool top" to begin with - this particular roving is very smooth and might prove too slippery for the beginner. Cooperworth or Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) roving is delightful to start with. Check out etsy.com for wonderful selections.

Final projects for Handwork

This is the view that greats you when you walk into the main handwork building...sigh

Finishing up the Fiber Crafts Handwork Program this year was a bitter sweet week. I have had so many encouraging and nurturing experiences while attending throughout the 4 years. The strengthening of my confidence to lead a classroom is such a wonderful gift that these teachers have passed on. They taught me so much, Thank you.

My final project was to be "hats" but it turned into so much more. I knew that I wanted to spin all my yarns and dye them, so, that is how I started the project 3 years ago. Spinning lots of yarn and dyeing it a rainbow of colors. I kept careful notes and also colorful informative cards of my dyeing process. Once I decided upon hats I also wanted to bring more so I came up with the idea of doing a hat in every form of handwork that we were taught - Knitting, Textured/patterned knitting, Crochet, Wet felting, Hand Sewing, Machine sewing. I brought an example of all the yarns I spun and also got into all the different types of fiber that was spun, different sheep wools, alpaca, yak, angora, silk, bamboo. I discovered that I enjoy spinning much more than knitting (but I like both).

Bookbinding

We finished up the book binder (with interchangeable pads of paper) with the papers that we marbled.

We had a talented visiting artist show us her puppets, these needle felted heads are just unbelievable.

We each made a puppet from the Indian Cinderella story. Using all gloriously plant dyed silks.

Deb's final project work. Knit backpack, knit white boots, beautiful wet felted boots with flipflop souls, mittens and such. Stunning projects, just wish she was able to come herself.

Madeline's project was deeply involved. She bought a few sheep fleeces - washed then carded them did plant dye research and dyed lots of fleece and the spun the wool and knit two sweaters. Spectacular project to see and it took her several years - start to finish. Lots of commitment.

Rachel's project was ambitious - she had never knit a full sweater. It was from this luscious alpaca yarn. She had visited the farm and picked it out and even knew which animal the wool came from.

Narsingh's project was delightful. A story telling apron of Jack and the Beanstalk. She had also gone through many changes of what she wanted to present and had many projects that she did but did not like.

Hurrah girls - we did it!

Happy Spring

Boys are hiding Easter eggs in the living room - just like Cynthia and I use to do when we were young.

Beautiful color to bring us out of the cold into the warmth of the sun.

Trees are turning out loads of sap this year. We have tapped our third tree and we might still only get a large mason jar out of it. Its amazing how much you have to boil down to get syrup. We should be able to get sap for the next few days, but it's getting late already.

I wish you could taste it.

I spent my winter spinning quite a bit of yarn - mostly from a mix of wool and yak. Wonderful blend of fibers and wicked soft. It's expensive but really worth the price. This is my first sweater and it's turning out nice. I have to look up how to do the sleeves & neck as I fear I can not wing that part. I have been intrigued by this magazine Wild Fibers since I have become a spinner and I highly recommend it if you are too. Exotic fibers don't have to be a stranger to your basket of fibers. Camel is next on my list to spin.

I usually go bonkers over dyed fibers - usually from plant material but this time I decided to stick with the wonderful gray color. The Ithaca Farmers Market opened up for the first weekend this year and I bought some dried calendual flowers so I might start off my dye pots this spring with that - should make a wonderful warm yellow?

Germany & Hats

Well, I actually did go to Germany - how weird is that...however not there (below post)

It happened fast and it was all because of free airline tickets. :)

It was beautiful.

I am excited to be working with one of my classmates on a plant dyeing workshop/course/study over the next few months.

I am currently working on my final project for handwork. I am making hats from yarn I have dyed and spun. I am in need of research to go along with my paper. Anybody have a good article on design or color theory or hats in particular from Steiner that you want to share?

Here are some of my yarns I have spun up. Some have been dyed with plant material and some are natural. I have a bunch more and I am incorporating different materials and "how they spin" as well. There are many more colors and cant wait to spin more. This late autumn weather today bodes well with a cup of coffee and knitting on the front porch...so off I go.

Box - o - Wool

I have taken a leap of faith in myself and purchased a BOX load of white wool/alpaca roving.

It was a mess in the box and took days to straighten it all into balls.  They called it mill ends - I call it heaven, my husband calls it fuzzy.  There was wool floating around the house for days - but then again when isn't there!  I hope to spin it, dye it with plant dyes, & then sell it.   

Where you ask?  

Me too.  I think I'll put some of it up on my etsy page, there are so many good spinners there so... I also hope to do some craft shows this fall.  It will take this long to spin it all.  

What color do you  like to knit in??

I have done this much so far...  Not much of a dent but I'm truck'n along.

I also had all wool roving in the box.  You end up with an unrequested, all white, types of roving.  I was really pleased with what I got.

I have soaked these rovings in alum (there is more in the pot) and are now drying in the sun/wind. I hope to collect dandlions and willow leafs for a nice yellow to start off my greens for this year.  I'll try to put up a play by play as I go along.

Done being sick

I am able to take a deep breath today - my boys are healthy and so am I.

It was a long two weeks of sickness but now we are done and are able to move on into Spring!

The weather lately has been in the low 50's, nice and sunny (January and Feb only had a handful of sunny days).  I hope to have my boys down in the stream collecting crayfish for the turtle.

I had not taught this week so the kids are a bit behind with their projects and hopefully we can all buckle down and really crank out some good classroom time this coming week.

Here are some random shots from this winter.

This is the Black Sheep Spinners Guild I belong to, once a month we gather and spin, knit, chat, show&tell, and in the summer we gather at people's houses and do random projects.  I joined as a needle felter but now I have my wheel!

Here are my 4th grade handwork bags.  They loved working on them (some had a hard time finishing the french seams) but were happy when they were finished.

3rd grade plant dyed wool yarn hat.

1st grade knit mouse (from a square).

This was the window right before winter break for the 2/3rd graders.  They made those window stars.  Below is their watercolors of Moses in the water as a baby.