Yarn dye 5th grade

First week of school has been a whirlwind!!

Between school starting and a huge wedding in Lake Tahoe, with out of state family visitors and weeks of fun activities, it has been pretty crazy staying on top of things!  Last relatives left yesterday, and now I can concentrate on school...that said, I am pretty impressed by what we got done.  At times it felt like I was running a marathon!

So, here is the batch of dyed yarn from the new 5th graders!  I didn't get a shot of it drying on the fence darn it, but here it is hanging in the window of the classroom (this is about a third of it).  The colors are vibrant!

We used only Kool-aide this year!

We soaked the hanks of wool (untreated hanks from Brown Sheep) in a water and vinegar bath for a couple of days first.

Then, the wool is pulled out, coiled on a plastic wrapped table, and the Kool-aide is sprinkled on top.

Coils are put in gallon plastic bags with the child's name on it and set in the sun on the black top play ground.

Bags were brought in at the end of the day and stored for a few days until next class time-rinsing.

I fill three large pails with cool water, the kids pull the yarn out, gently dunk, dunk, dunk...squeeze like milking a cow (don't want to felt it!) then hang it up to dry.  I was amazed that not a DROP of colour came out of the yarn!  It is really really really colour fast, and it soaked up every bit of it!
These will make a hat and two wrist warmers for each child in 4 needle knitting.

WHAT I LEARNED...

The colour of the Kool-aide dye is the colour of the ice cubes on the packet, NOT the colour of the packet itself (thank you Victoria...)

Next year we may mix the Kool-aide with a bit of water to be spooned on the yarn, OR the yarn has to still be pretty wet to soak up the crystals...

It easily takes 2 hours to dye with 30 children.

From the wedding...and baby makes three!
Love my boys...

Verses (first day of school 2012)

Oh my, first day of school and opening ceremonies are tomorrow!  (we have a rose ceremony where the 8th graders give a rose to the first graders, so sweet...)  Seems like yesterday my son was doing this!  Now he is off living his adventure in the big city !

Fourth grade opening verse: 

From as far as the stars,

To here where where I stand,

I come to use my right and left hand.

The things I create

Are done with great care.

My fingers to help me,

and friendship to share!

(with hand movements...)

Closing verse:

Work together,

Hands and heart.

Truth and beauty,

are never apart.

Then I say,

"Follow your heart,

in all that you think,

in all that you say,

and all that you do."

My verses for other grades include:

May our hands complete our work with patience,

May our work be done with care,

May our fingers work as friends together,

And may we our friendship share.

I have fourth through eighth grade this year...wish me luck!

Oh, and I would love love love to hear your verses you may use!!!  I am always looking for new inspiration, especially for upper grades verses!

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...