Roving!!

Ah, there is something about the beginning of the school year and amassing all the supplies...nothing like digging your hands into a bag of wool roving!

I am so happy I bought this roving from a local business, literally a bike ride away for me!  A yarn and everything fiber arts shop called Rumplestiltskin . Their web site is :   http://yarnyarnyarn.com  and I recommend them highly, PLUS their huge assortment of roving is $2.25 per oz., which is a great bargain, and even better for me with no shipping charges, plus bonus points for supporting fiber arts in my own community! (one day I will figure out how to use links within my blog...why doesn't that happen automatically? I'm swamped, will have to figure that out later...otherwise you will have to do the old fashioned way of cutting and pasting in you browser...support them, they are awsome)

This gorgeousness will be used in the wet felted slippers I will be doing with 27 seventh graders!!!  (did someone say "SOAP FIGHT" !!!  Cleanest they will be all year...lol...)

6 count aida cloth

Well, this stuff is the gold standard of cross stitch cloth for Waldorf 4th graders (the 6 count aida cloth, that is), and it is incredibly difficult to find.  I had ordered a whole bunch 4 years ago, and we thought there was enough for this year, but we were oh so very wrong, and a week out from school starting!!!  Originally I special ordered it from Charles Craft after speaking with sales dept. there, and it took eons to arrive as I recall, and I didn't have that kind of time (if you go to their web site, it is not something they carry regularly, I am sure I paid an arm and a leg for it!)

Sooooo, I finally find it on this site called everythingcrossstich.com and they can get it too me within a week...whew...I have no idea if it is the real stiff stuff that I like to use, but I hope so.  It is originally from Wichelt, but their site is all in Euros, so I went with the company in the US.  The cost was about 15 bucks per foot (67 inch width) and I got 3 feet of it to make our pin cushions.  I have 2 fourth grades this year, each with 30 kiddos!!!  Our school is now double tracked up to Fourth!  We are bursting at the seams!

Does anyone out there have a better source for this stuff??  It seems so pricey, doesn't it?

Cloth Marionettes

I will use a lot of information from this book:

by Lucy and Grace Morton

This is one of the best step by step marionette making books I have ever seen!  I can't believe I hadn't seen it until now.   Got it for next to nothing used on Amazon.  

 I will use many of the patterns, and there are a few "check-list" type pages that really is a step by step guide, so great for kids !  So much of the work I would have done is already done for me.  I still haven't decided whether to do needle felted heads or not, the heads on these are sewn/stuffed heads.  The stringing is more complicated than I will do too, but it is nice info to have anyway.   I would also do these with hand sewing, not machines (because it would be for 7th grade).

Nice felted head tutorial, if I choose to felt the heads...(they would be much bigger, but shows the basics)
http://www.owning-alpaca.com/needle-felting-tutorial.html

Off to make a prototype!  School meetings start tomorrow...what was I doing with all my free time this summer???

Ummm....oh, now I remember what I was doing with all that free time... :)

Self Doubt

Well, it's about that time of year when self doubts comes creeping it....this happens every year.
I question whether I am cut out to teach children, whether I can do as good a job as I would like to...
Who am I anyway to teach these children?  Surely someone else is more qualified...blah blah blah...

Oh I hate this when this happens!  I am a wreck the first day of school...so nervous like it was my first day ever...gah!

Am I the only one that goes through this?  I would think after 9 years of doing this I would be more confident...or something.....

7th grade handwork 2012-13

7th grade handwork is complicated this year...space limitations due to the "no handwork room" issue...sooo, we shall start with finishing up last year's project, the raffia hats.  It'll be tricky, there will probably be some new students, and a couple have left, so the dynamic of the class could change drastically.  I will feel it out for the first couple of weeks, but this is what I would like to accomplish with this class.

Finish raffia hats.

Boiled wool slippers (which we make from cutting up old felted sweaters)  I would love to make our own felt for these, but it is cost prohibitive...

Needle felting...start with needle felting something on the slippers maybe.  I really want to make soft marionettes with them, and needle felt the heads, hands and feet.  That is a ways down the road, so I will feel that project out.

Some simple woodworking, thinking about something like this:

...although I think this would be better for 6th grade....

Somewhere in there I would like to do a giving project for each grade, but have not come up with what yet!  Suggestions?

**Oh, I have to add to this...with much thought I have come to the conclusion that I will try to do wet felted slippers with this class, the kind like this:

LOL, that's me with my slippers!  I think it will work, I will take small groups of no more than 10, while my assistant Robin leads them in the raffia hats.  They may want to needle felt a bit on them too.  Wish me luck, the last time I attempted this the class ended up having a soap suds throwing battle which made me never want to do it again!  (it was just soap suds for goodness sakes,  but I remember feeling very disappointed and a little angry...hopefully if that happens this year I can laugh it off?)  I think it will be a great experience with this class!

After all that is done, we have options.  Marionettes? Renaissance shirts?  I will be meeting with the class teacher to see if there is anything he would like to see happen...

8th grade 2012-2013

Let's start with 8th grade curriculum this year....
I have the challenge of working without a Handwork room, our school is bursting at the seams and they needed my room for a classroom.  We are double tracked all the way to 4th grade now!  Great for our school, not so great for classroomless me :(
Oh, but it is just a challenge, and with some clever maneuvering , we will make it work!  Woodwork may be put on the chopping block (sorry, couldn't resist) for now, as that is a space hog.  Perhaps some simple whittling (I digress, let's stick to 8th grade, right?)

So, since we will be working in one room, my assistant and I have decided to split the class, one half working on sewing and the other working on inkle looms.

We will begin the year together going over the sewing machine, it's role in the industrial revolution (did you know that in Sacramento, where I live, one of the major streets, Howe Ave, is named after Elias Howe of sewing machine fame?  He is also buried here)  We will put the "human sewing machine" together, and take one of my vintage sewing machines apart, oil it, and put it back together.
It is nice for them to see the mechanics that really have not essentially changed since the invention (with the newer machines one can't see inside.)
After this, we will split the class of about 30 (I don't have the class list yet, could  be more or fewer, but I order and plan for 30 to be safe).  I am storing 5 sewing machines for 15 students to share in their classroom, each student making pajama pants.   I use a simple pj pant patern with elastic for the waist.   The other 15 will be working on inkle looms.  After a few months we will switch.
I have to leave a few months at the end of the year to work on a gift from them for the school, TBA.  (last year was a quilt wall hanging)

My source for the inkle loom is

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Inkle-Loom-Mini-Maple-Right-Hand-with-Shuttle-5-foot-warp-PBT-/390436470281?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae7d3be09#ht_1533wt_1189

Pine box traders mini inkle loom.  Great price, and they deliver so fast!  I ordered 12...might have to order more!  They are just the right size, and will make a strap 5 ft long.  Love it!
I haven't decided whether to use yarn or embroidery floss...maybe both!

Year 1012-13 planning

Raffia Hat Making

Here we go again!  Planning the next school year is a little daunting sometimes....especially because I like to mix it up a little, while some things never change, I have pretty much carte blanche to add any projects that strikes my fancy, and fits a particular class.  For example, at the end of the last school year I stopped everything we were doing with the 6th grade and started raffia hat making....I saw it as a homeopathic remedy for a bit wild and out of control class (well, more than a bit actually....).  I saw all that wild rafia having to be formed into some semblance of organization, and I thought that was exactly what I would like to see happen with this class...to pull themselves together into something harmonious, useful and beautiful.  Did it work?  Well, actually it did.  Pretty cool.

Sources:  http://www.franksupply.com/raffia/supplies.html#naturalraffia
I ordered the 35 lb. hat grade raffia, which will last me for years!  I also ordered the book Raffia Hat Making by Ann Fennell from the same source.  Pretty basic stuff.

Skills needed:  Braiding skills, for more advanced students, a 4 strand braid was used.  I like that better as it lays flatter.
We just braided and braided and added more raffia and braided and braided and then starting with a spiral sewed it all up (like a rag rug) and formed it the way they wanted.  It is surprising how each hat turns out differently, and not always the way we want!  We will still be doing this at the beginning of this year, no-one finished (some took the project home over the summer)

Now, go out and make a hat!