Waldorf-inspired art classes for kids: knitting

In today's art class for kids, our second in the series of ten, we introduced the concept of knitting.  We started our group out with a classic story about wool, Pelle's New Suit - where a boy goes step by step from sheep to shirt (shearing, carding, spinning, dying, weaving, and sewing the wool).  The kids got to feel natural wool roving noticing how soft it was and a bit sticky from the lanolin still left on the wool.  They saw how it looked when it was dyed, and tried carding with simple carding brushes (just like grandmother does in the story!).  The younger group just got a taste for working with wool by doing very simple finger knitting and creating a wool flower craft with their finger-knit chain.  The older group had the chance to work with knitting needles, learning how to properly roll their yarn skein into a ball (working in pairs to do this was a nice teamwork activity), casting on their stitches, and starting the first rows of a small project.  They will continue to work on this small project over the remainder of our weeks together as a way to continue to practice their knitting skills bit by bit.

Sometimes knitting can feel frustrating at first as you fumble with holding needles and making stitches (for any beginner, both young or old) so working in small doses, with large needles and soft beautiful bulky good quality wool, will hopefully make this more manageable for our learners.  Our theme in all our art classes is simply to each try our best and find the beauty in using different textures, colours and natural materials, not to strive for perfection!  Since these classes are just a short introduction to our different Waldorf-inspired art forms we also hope the parents will continue to explore these various art forms at home with their children.

Natural Plant Dyes - yellow onion skins & dahlia flowers create this gorgeous whirligig shrug

This weekend we have a workshop coming up on natural plant dyes!  More on this wonderful topic after Saturday, but related, here are some photos of a gorgeous hand-dyed "whirligig shrug" our friend Juanita recently created for our 2 year old.  Juanita is an amazing knitter who has been experimenting with all manner of natural dyes.  She dyed the yarn for this little shrug with yellow onion skins and dahlia flowers, left steeping in the dye bath to varying lengths of time to create darker and lighter shades of gold.  The shrug is SO sweet, and our little one loves wearing it - it's light enough for breezy summer days.

In case you want the pattern, it's from the magazine "Interweave Knits, Weekend 2009" and called "Whirligig Shrug" by Stefanie Japel. For Ravelry members, a direct link to the pattern is found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/whirligig-shrug and her completed project is found here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/baumzger/whirligig-shrug.
Here's a photo of Juanita's hand dyeing results, posted on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baumzger/4086033185/in/set-72157614020432972

Sock Knitting Workshop

For those who love knitting, this past Saturday would have been bliss. A cold blustery day outdoors, and eight of us gathered around the dining room table with skeins of gorgeous yarn and handmade bamboo needles, sipping herbal tea and learning to knit socks! We had Nicole (from the local K-W Spinners and Weavers Guild) back to lead this session. She is an avid spinner (led a spinning workshop here in the fall) and knitter, not to mention beekeeper, gardener, etc. Knitting socks have become somewhat of a passion for her, and she brought an assortment of wonderful socks she has created, from simple stockinette stitch knee-highs, to intricate patterns like "cascade". She walked us through all the tricky details, like knitting heel flaps and reducing gussets, and got us started on our own pairs of socks. The workshop group decided to meet again in a month, to see where we've all gotten to with our socks, with Nicole generously offering to come back to help with any questions.

Tips for sock knitting - use tiny (set of 2.24 mm double-pointed needles), and fingerling weight yarn that preferably is not 100% wool or socks will felt in the wash!

Keep a small crochet hook on hand for picking up dropped stitches, and a tapestry needle for grafting and weaving in the ends.

Recommended Reading:
Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting, by Laura Chau
Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush
New Pathways for Sock Knitters, by Cat Bordhi (more advanced)

Useful sites for knitters:

www.ravelry.com (a great place for pattern and yarn ideas, and connecting with a community of knitters)

www.knitty.com (a free publication of patterns and articles that is published quarterly)
Recommended local store to purchase yarn and supplies - Shall We Knit in New Hamburg

Winter Knitting - Wool Winter Wonder Cap

Finally finished this toasty wool cap, sized for a toddler. It's a lovely thick 100% natural earthy coloured (blue, raspberry and chocolate) Icelandic wool, but soft enough for a wee one's head - perfect for winter walks outdoors, romps in the snow, or snuggling up indoors! It's a size 6-12 months (maybe even upto 18 months). I love this hat, and unfortunately by the time I finished it Maya has already gotten to big to wear it! So, it's now posted on my etsy store.

Though my spare crafting time tends toward making soap, salves or sewing projects, I do really love knitting when I sit down to do it - and I have a variety of half-finished knitting projects that I hope to work away at over the next few months.

Fortunately there is a very cool knitting group that meets right here in this neighbourhood, and although, sadly, I am only able to be an occasional attendee (still having a wee one here at home that needs me at bedtime) I do love the times I get to go. The conversation with this wonderful group of women is lively, and it's great to have a weekly incentive to get uninterrupted knitting time! In March we are hosting an intermediate knitting workshop on socks with a friend who is part of our local Spinners & Weavers Guild. I'm excited to learn from her and have hopes of completing at least one pair of socks this season!

December chickens

The hens are settling into the colder weather. We've set up their winter heat lamp, which has served them well the past two winters. It's on a timer, so comes on from early evening until sunrise, generally the coldest part of the day. We also stacked strawbales around the coop and boarded up the mesh windows.

Although, sadly, all egg laying seems to have completely ended for this season, the hens still love to wander around the yard during the daytime, looking for any leftover greens in the garden (we still have kale, chard, brussel sprouts, mizuna), nibbling stray bugs, and keeping themselves occupied with their antics. They often head over to the sheltered side of the house to be out of the wind, or scratch around near our basement windows where warmer air must be escaping. They tend to stick together now that the yard is more barren and there are fewer hiding places from predators, and like to mingle as a group on our back porch (waiting for treats like sunflower seeds). They hover by the back door, often sitting for hours preening and fluffing their feathers, peeking in the big glass window to see if we are coming out. Like faithful pets they also wait for us outside our bedroom door first thing in the morning (our door opens onto the back yard, and is located in a sheltered nook of the new addition).

Important with winter chicken care is to make sure fresh water is always available to them, and to thaw any frozen drinking water which tends to freeze during the night. As well, the combs and waddles of chickens are susceptible to frostbite, so they need to stay indoors on the very cold days - we've heard of using vaseline on their combs to protect from the cold, and even seen some photos of innovative cozy chicken sweaters, hats and boots for the adventurous knitters out there! Maybe I'll ask our neighbourhood knitting group about that. It's nice to see that all the winter feathers have now completely come in, as during the molting season (all of October) we were a little worried on the cooler nights about whether they were able to stay warm enough.

Spinning, carding & natural fibres

A beautiful fall day..while Greg was out raking leaves, spreading compost, and preparing garden beds for planting garlic, I was inside learning about the wonders of natural fibres during the latest homesteading workshop here at Little City Farm.

Nicole from the KW Spinners & Weavers Guild is a natural teacher, and led our small group through the process of cleaning, carding, and spinning a variety of natural fibres (mohair, alpaca, angora, wool, llama, yak, cotton, silk, and even cornsilk!) in both the "short draw" (used for long fibres) and "long draw" (generally used for short fibres). We also learned the "anatomy" of a spinning wheel, and had opportunity to practice on both the single and double-treadled wheels. I think several participants will be hooked for sure, as this spinning seems to be addictive once you get the hang of it. I did get the chance to run outside to harvest some fresh milkweed pods from our yard, which I managed to card into two small "rolags" (ie. rolls) and Nicole spun into a lustrous silky thread - wow! Apparently parachutes were made of milkweed fluff during the WWII, but probably due to impracticality of harvesting them, not to mention the cheap cost of cotton, milkweed has been forgotten as a fibre material. Of course, now we are seeing bamboo in everything, and hemp is becoming more available in all manner of fibres and textiles. The next steps after spinning would be dying the fibres and then all manner of knitting projects (many in the room were already avid knitters, though these lovely skeins would tempting to just leave around the house as decoration after all the hard work of spinning them!).

Wellington Fibres, on a farm near Elora, was recommended as a great local source for fibres, fibre processing, spinning wheels, workshops and advice. They raise 30 angora goats, and run their operation as "green" as possible, using solar panels and other sustainable technologies to operate their business. www.wellingtonfibres.on.ca

Crafting projects

As our baby is growing and becoming a little more independent, I'm finding more time for crafting projects while I have her playing beside me. Having a child also brings out the desire to create beautiful things for her - sew clothing, make natural toys, bake healthy teething snacks, knit hats, quilt blankets - hopefully some items that will become special heirlooms to be passed on. I'm also doing a lot more reading these days, and have come across a variety of great books on handmade life, including crafting that revives these kinds of traditional skills. Making these items is satisfying in so many ways - saving money, creating beautiful long-lasting artful objects to be used around the house, spending relaxing time working with your hands on a concrete task, and it can be done with kids helping or creating beside you. At this stage, Maya "plays" along beside me, unwinding balls of yarn, playing peekaboo with fabric scraps, inspecting pinecones, testing out the feel of a pencil in hand, and teething on soft wool pieces.

Two books I've found inspiration in are:

The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule (she also writes a wonderful richly inspiring blog with gorgeous photography, about her handmade home and creative life with her 4 homeschooled/unschooled kids - www.soulemama.com). Amanda Blake Soule has also written another book, The Handmade Home, due out in August this year.

Bend the Rules Sewing, by Amy Karol is another book that has simple, funky patterns for small projects like baby blankets, child's clothing, bags, and more. I'm currently working on a small quilt using one of her patterns - the secret to making quilts look "antique" is to wash the fabric after it's sewn together, creating a wrinkled look that is quite attractive to the vintage-lovers eye.

So, I've dusted off my sewing machine and the first project was to create a small quilt piece for my cousins who are expecting their first child in May. They have requested all interested family members to send in a quilt square, to be incorporated into a family quilt. Nice idea! Here's a photo of mine. Next, my own quilt and a few baby summer clothes and knitted cap for Maya, and then the crafting will have to take a break as garden season arrives in full force.