sheep to scarf, part 2

A month ago I blogged about the first half of the Sheep to Scarf class I taught during the winter semester for our Monday Homeschool Classes group. I included descriptions of how, during the first half of the semester, we took a fleece fresh off a sheep, skirted it, washed it, carded it, and dyed it. Now it's time for me to show how we took that fleece all the way through a finished, wearable garment!

The next step in the process was to spin the wool. Spinning is putting a twist into the wool fibers to hold them together and provide strength, making a thread of yarn. For our class's spinning, we used a drop spindle.


Each child got their own spindle -- an Ashford Student Drop Spindle, to be precise, which is a basic top-whorled spindle (meaning that the whorl -- the weighted part of the spindle that lets it spin0-- is at the top). The kids learned to push the whorl along their thigh to get the spindle spinning. They learned to draft the wool into the spinning action -- letting out just a little wool at a time to make an even yarn -- and they learned how to wind the spun yarn onto their spindle. They each went home with the wool roving they dyed and their spindle to spin it up before the following week. A couple of eager students asked me for more roving after class (which I was more than happy to provide, given that my real motivation in teaching this class is to produce another generation of fiber addicts!).

During the week, while the kids were spinning up their yarn, I too was spinning yarn in the same colors. At the next class, we plied (twisted) the yarn that they made with a strand of the same-colored yarn that I made to make a 2-ply yarn. Plying makes the yarn stronger so that it can be knitted or crocheted. The kids all constructed their own wooden niddy-noddy (seen in this photo) to finish their yarn on -- the plied yarn is wound onto the niddy-noddy, then rinsed under water and allowed to hang and dry for a week -- this sets the twist (so the yarn doesn't come unravelled when you work with it) and "finishes" the yarn. Once the twist is set, you slip the yarn off the niddy-noddy and either twist it into a skein for storage, or roll into a ball for use in a project.

I had designed the class to be an 8 week long course, with 1 1/2 hours of class time per week. But you know what they say about best-laid plans. The class time I was given was 1 hour long for 6 weeks instead. Simple math will show you that meant instead of 12 hours of class time, we only had 6 - half the time I'd planned on! So we weren't actually able to get to crocheting instruction, as I had originally planned. (To make up for that, I am teaching a Beginner's Crochet class in the Spring Semester!) So I had to improvise. I dyed yarn to match the 3 yarn colors the kids made -- red/pink, purple, and orange -- and also used a natural-colored yarn that matched the natural-colored fleece we skirted and washed (but didn't have time to do anything else with -- I had been hoping to play around with over-dying with them). Then I used that yarn to work up a simple scarf for each child. (The good news about that is that after crocheting 16 scarves, I am definitely practiced up and ready to teach that crochet class!!)

So during the last class, the kids used their hand-made yarn to fringe their scarves. This worked out better than I could have ever dreamed -- even though each child started off with an identical scarf, they all turned out completely different depending on what that child then did with the fringing. Some kids wanted only their own hand-spun on their scarf, so it was fringed with just one color. (J was one of those, although he chose to fringe it along just one part of a long side rather than on the ends, with a funky tooth-brush looking result!) Some kids traded with others so that they had matching colors fringing each row. Most of the kids went beyond traditional scarf fringing and added fringes along one or both long sides, and some even put some fringing in the middle rows! The creativity was awesome!

I had a blast with the class, and bringing it to our homeschooling community was a great way to get my feet wet in offering children's fiber programming, which is something I want to pursue in a more commercial way in the future. But for now it was just fun messing around with it with "our" kids!

there are no words....

Here's how I'm entertaining myself, sick in bed with the flu:

more sugar, and why I like expired Motrin

While we struggle with yet another mystery virus (Winter IS going to end at some point this year, right?!), I figured I'd post a link to a few more photos from our Maple Sugaring Program this past Friday. Go here to see some more pics of the fun, taken by my friend L.

Meanwhile, isn't Homeopathy the most amazing thing? The Map Man called me at work tonight to let me know that Zoo Boy's 4-day-long fever had spiked above 103, and told me that our Children's Motrin was expired (having never been opened, incidentally -- we try not to interfere with our kids' bodies dealing with these things on their own unless absolutely necessary, so we buy a bottle of Motrin about once every 4 years to have on hand just in case, and we've yet to have to open one). I suggested dosing him with the Homeopathic remedy I'd given him earlier in this illness (Belladonna, for those of you in the know that might be curious), even though I had another one in mind to try if this didn't work. Well, it didn't, and his temp climbed even higher. So I headed home early, stopping at the 24-hr pharmacy on the way to grab that bottle of Motrin, feeling a bit sick to my stomach at the thought of actually giving it to him, but not particularly willing to risk a febrile seizure either. I figured if his temp were to climb above 104 I'd be happy to have it on hand.

Halfway home, I remembered the other remedy I was meaning to try (Pulsatilla), and called The Man to have him look it up in one of my Homeopathic Handbooks and read me what it said about that remedy in regards to fever. It was a perfect match, and I already knew his temperament and the way this illness was presenting was a good fit as well, so I had him dose him with that. By the time I got home (about 10 minutes later), the fever had fallen back to 102, and sure enough, over the next hour it continued to drop, and now he's back down to a warm but reasonable 100.4.

According to a couple of his cousins who also are dealing with the same bug, the fever breaks around day 5, so hopefully we're at the end of it. If not, I've got an appointment with the Pediatrician tomorrow. (Who is going to pass out if we actually walk through her doors twice within a week's time -- we were there just last week for J's eye -- she doesn't see much of us! Thanks, of course, to Homeopathy.) But I honestly can't think of WHY I would bring him in -- his nasal discharge, while profuse, is clear, so no infection there, and it's draining out of his head via his nose, not down his throat, so I'm not worried about pneumonia. He's not got any kind of significant cough, so it's not bronchitis. His throat's not sore, and the one time he complained of an earache was days ago (which disappeared after the use of that first Homeopathic remedy I mentioned). So I have a very strong suspicion that I'd make that trip for the diagnosis that I already know "He's got a virus. It's going around. Bed rest and plenty of fluids."

Hopefully he'll wake up feeling much more himself and we can avoid the Pediatrician altogether. And hopefully our new bottle of Motrin will remain unopened until it, too, expires.

Maple Festival

The Map Man took J to the Hebron Maple Festival this afternoon. We had planned on going as a family, but Zoo Boy wasn't feeling up to snuff today, so he and I wound up missing the fun.

Fun festival from the looks of things -- many of the town businesses had booths set up to sample various maple products and/or with activities for the kids. And the Sugar Houses in town were open for tours and activities as well.

The Man did good with the camera, and captured much of the fun to share. In this first photo, J poses in front of the Hebron, CT, town sign with his Maple cotton candy. Yum!


Sugar-on-snow, a New England tradition -- you drizzle hot maple syrup over snow (or in this case, shaved ice), where it makes a stretchy, sticky candy treat. This was what J was most looking forward to trying at the festival -- he was pretty disappointed that our last snowfall disappeared before we had a chance to make this at home. He keeps hoping we'll get just one more snowstorm before winter ends so we can try it. (Can't say I'm hoping the same thing....not that I object to sugar-on-snow!)

J pounds a square peg through a peg mill, which rounds off the edges, at a woodworking shop which had the kids making peg coat racks and wooden tool boxes. J's pretty happy to have his own tool box for his woodworking tools now.

J pets a Holstein calf at one of the farms in town that produces milk for The Farmer's Cow (a New England-based dairy company) in addition to operating a sugar shack.

J poses with the big purchase of the day -- a quart of maple syrup and a package of maple sugar candy -- in front of a display of chain-saw art outside one of the sugar shacks in town.

J by the boiling vat inside one of the sugar shacks.

Looks like they had fun -- hopefully we'll all be able to go next year. In the meantime, they did bring home the maple sugar candy and half of their maple cake to share with those of us stuck at home.

from trees to syrup

I just love how this painting (artist unknown) depicts Maple Sugaring back in the Colonial days. It's not too much different from how we New Englanders make syrup now.

The kids and I attended a program on Maple Sugaring at our favorite park today -- I'd arranged for them to put on the program and rounded up some of our fellow homeschooling buddies to join us. It worked out great -- we wound up with 22 kids who got a wonderfully educational presentation for just a few dollars each.

We started outdoors, identifying Sugar Maples, sizing up trees to see if they were too big, too small, or just right for tapping, determining by the size and health of the tree how many taps they could take without harming it, learning about using a yolk to carry buckets of sap from trees in the woods to the sugar house, and tasting sap.

Then it was into the sugar house to discuss boiling down the sap into syrup. We measured the sap we collected with a hygrometer, and discovered that we would need 43 gallons of sap in order to make one gallon of syrup. (I guess today's sap wasn't as sweet as it should be -- generally you need about 40 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup.) We learned that the sap becomes syrup when it reaches 219 degrees Fahrenheit. We compared the various grades of Maple Syrup. and discussed other types of trees that syrup can be made from. (For instance, you can make syrup from birch trees, but it requires 80 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup.) A new piece of information for me -- I found out that Vermont has a different standard for their syrup, preferring a thicker syrup than Maple Syrup produced elsewhere. Learn something new every day....(I used to work on a Vermont Maple Sugaring operation, and never new that!)


Then we moved to the classroom to hear some stories about how making sugar from maple sap first was discovered (those Native Americans, they were clever folks!) and how they learned to boil the sap down all the way to produce sugar rather than syrup, so that it would keep longer. The kids also had a chance to drill a hole in a tree trunk and place a tap. And then our instructor discussed other types of sugars with us -- sugar beets, sugar cane, corn syrup, and honey.


A display in the nature center gave us a close-up look at the tapping and collection methods used by local Native Americans, European Colonists, and more modern methods as well.

Great program, and coming at a great time in our block -- we've had time to process and work artistically with the "Sugaring Time" Enki Nature story, we've been enjoying our Maple Sugaring Adventure Circle, and at story time all week we've been reading Sugarbush Spring by Marsha Wilson Chall, illustrated by Jim Daly, so it was a great time to get a closer look at the actual process.

benizara and kakezara

A silk kimono!

Kimono to please the King,

Kind box of magic,

You are the key, make it so,

A silk and brocade kimono.

-from "Benizara and Kakezara", a Japanese Fairy Tale adapted by Enki Education

This week's curriculum story was the Japanese fairy tale "Benizara and Kakezara", which is a Cinderella type story. In the story, Benizara, the stepdaughter, wins the heart of the King with her superior poetry writing skills, and the help of a magic box. Here's J's story drawing, showing his own inventive spelling of Kakezara's name, and indicating with a heart after Benizara's name that she was the one who found her love, and a broken heart after Kakezara's to show that she didn't. I'm sure everyone can see the "K" in the drawing, which was the consonant we were introducing.

Zoo Boy's drawing. This story actually had an extremely violent ending, but I just cut out most of the last paragraph to make it a bit tamer. I'm honestly not sure how my boys would respond to the original ending (Kakezara gets tied behind Benizara's wedding palanquin and is dragged to her death), but there's no way I could bring an image like that to them with any kind of honesty or truth. I've had to adapt a few of the Fairy Tales in that manner, but I don't see a problem with doing that so long as it doesn't change the overall heart of the story. I do tend to keep mild violence that is an integral part of a story in the story. (Or I just don't use the story at all if I think it is too violent -- for instance, there is another story where a mother abandons her blind son to die, under pressure from her village. I don't really want to plant any sort of seed in my kids' heads that a mother would do that to her child!) The idea is that kids at this stage of development listen to Fairy Tales with symbolic ears, rather than literal, and hence don't process the violence as that. But I'm not confident enough that my kids do not take it a bit more literally than intended, so I don't feel comfortable with sharing images that are too violent or disturbing with them. It's probably a matter of knowing your own kids, and understanding your own response to things like that.

The boys' big letters K and k.














J's written verse. He missed the space between the first two words, so I tossed some stars in after his next several. Then he showed me that he could write with the space included, so I left it out of most of the rest of the verse, although I watched closely and inserted it if it seemed like he was going to just run into the next word. He's still using "&" instead of "and", so I'm keeping an eye on that, too. And he's still writing some of his letters from the bottom up rather than the other way around. Again, just something I'm keeping an eye on from now. We're using handwriting letter sheets at practice time with arrow directions on how to form the letters on it, I'm hoping that alone will help with this.

Zoo Boy's verse, and another first for him -- he actually wants the entire verse in his good book so he can read it himself. So while he agreed to write the first letter of each line (and even wrote the first two letters of the first line, with a blue dot as a "space keeper" like J's gold stars), he asked me to write the rest of the line for him. He was very pleased when the verse was completed and he read it out loud, yet another first for him during our actual story work time (he does not join J and I when we recite the verses, although I do catch him occasionally reading the verse outside of story time -- I keep it posted all week so they can read it when they feel like it).

I only post my drawings as a reference point for what the kids are using to create their drawings. The three of us draw the various key components of the drawings together, then I indicate that they can get more creative by saying "I think I'll add a..." type of line. You'll see in Zoo Boy's drawing that he chose not to draw Benizara. But that's his prerogative, he had already drawn the "K" (King) which was the primary focus of the drawing. He also added a scepter to the King's hand, his own personalization of his drawing.

You'll also note that I misspelled Kakezara. J certainly noted that. Again, all good stuff, I think it's important for the kids to see me mess up and not get upset about it. In fact, modeling how to handle mistakes is probably one of the most important things we do as parents!

jumping into spring

Zoo Boy had a museum class about Frogs yesterday with . (J would have had the same class, but we decided to keep him out so as not to infect anyone else with the evil virus which has attacked his eyes, but is apparently not pink-eye per se, according to our Pediatrician. They are looking MUCH better, by the way, I should feel safe taking him out in public again by tomorrow.)

Here, the class checks out an African frog.

Among other things, the kids assembled a puzzle of frog life stages (pictured above), listened to various frog calls, and made and raced origami frogs (pictured to the left).

Zoo Boy declared the class to be "very fun".