persian prose to pixie hats

Last week I had my first full week of work as a casual Steiner teacher and it was big for me! I wasn't looking for work, it just came my way, and I gingerly accepted the challenge, knowing in my heart I could do it, but unable to ignore the voice inside reminding me I hadn't been in a classroom for quite some time.
So, I studied up recorder, times tables and decimal fractions,  immersed myself in Ancient Persian mythology and dived on in!
Here are some photos of the work we did!

not my blackboard drawing, this one.

 I used Charles Kovaks' book, Ancient Mythologies as inspiration for the Persian mythology, telling stories about the creation of the earth by Ahura Mazdao,  the domestication of animals and the first bonfire!

We also explored the land of contrasts which is Persia (Iran) and drew a map. What fun.

 We tried a form drawing of a Persian star, with the help of a bowl and a ruler.

It's always so wonderful seeing the differences coming out in the children's creative work.

As soon as the week was over, I dived for the knitting needles, and quickly cast on a pixie hat for Mr P: Triskele Threads' new free Ravelry pattern Pixie Tadhg

Reading: or should I say, re-reading, one of our all time favourites!
"Dominic" by the most exquisite William Steig.
Everyone needs to read this book!! I mean it!
It is sublime story about a philosophical dog who sets out to discover the world. At once calming, and lyrical, whimsical and contemplative, healing and utterly charming, Dominic is a special read for all ages!
I started to read it to my class last week, and it made lumps in my throat as always.

Joining in Nicole for "Keep Calm Craft On" and Ginny's Yarn Along

the blanket

We made a blanket for Roger. A knitted gift. From his devoted class of 16 children aged 11 and 12 years whom he had taught for 6 years.
In August a box arrived from Peace Fleece containing 22 balls of yarn. That's 4400 yards (4026 metres).

I knit up a sample piece to inspire the children.

The "knitting bees" began; mostly Saturday mornings and some after school. It was such a joy sitting knitting with these young people, who obviously loved and respected their teacher so much.

There was lots of chatting, including coming to the realisation that Roger wouldn't be their teacher for very much longer. The making of this blanket was a healing, a transition process,  an act of love and gratitude. Appoximately  242,000 stitches worth.

We ended up with 35 squares to somehow fit together, and after arranging the squares in strips of similar size,  ended up having to knit a few extra squares to make it all fit properly.

We also had to consider the squares which spelled out his name, Roger!

I then joined my circular needle cables together from my addi click set and cast on stitches along one edge at a time and knit a 14 row garter stitch edging, alternating grey and colour rows.
Finished 5pm on the night of the graduation party and presented to their beloved teacher, who was pretty overwhelmed.

 He said: "I will treasure it forever"

Needles and Hooks and the Launch of a Local

In Class 5 in Steiner/Waldorf schools in Australia, the children start crochet. (Rudolf Steiner actually indicated that it should begin in Class 2, but in Australia, we knit English style, with the yarn held in the right hand. If you knit European style, with the yarn held in the left, transitioning to crochet is much easier. Therefore, in Australia, we wait until Class 5) After years of knitting, they are ready for a new challenge, and in my experience they really love it!
They often make a bag, and in my daughter's case, a backpack for school. My daughter then decided to make a little one for her little brother! Sweet!
I've started another one in rainbow colours. Double crochet all the way with 16ply wool and a 7mm crochet hook.

 We have had busy hands around here, having launched a project involving sixteen 11/12 year olds and twenty-three skeins of Peace Fleece . we are making a blanket for a beloved teacher of six years, but sssshhhh, it's a secret.

 There's a bit of fair isle, intarsia and one colour patterns. Lovely!

And on my needles is a special cowl just for me me me!!!

The pattern is the Dovetail Cowl by Carina Spencer, and I'm knitting it with some divine yarn from Tanis Fibre Arts 

Orange Label Cashmere Silk and Merino

Worsted weight

Colour: Sand (It's very silver, with a tiny but very strong speck of yellow occasionally)

And finally, I am very, very  excited to have in my possession the newly released US edition of Melbourne writer Anna Branford's most splendid book, Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot!!!
What I like about the illustrator for this edition, Elanna Allen, is the fact that there are loads of knitted stitches in her drawings!

Here's Anna herself with the delightful little tome in hand!

Congratulations Anna!!

May many many American children enjoy discovering your delicious little free thinker, Violet!

Signs...

It is about mid August in Melbourne, when the wattle is turning mustard and the giant magnolia trees suddenly blossom, that I start feeling hopeful for the return of warmth. Sure, it's a little out of touch with reality. We will get plenty more freezing night and icy winds, but the blossoms signal hope, change and moving on!

As for the knitting, nothing will stop me!

I finished another hot water bottle cover with Fair isle patterns on both side, made in 16ply pure wool from Uralla Wool Room. This is what my daughters did in Class 4 as part of the Steiner/Waldorf craft curriculum. Ravelled here.

How to make your own Fair Isle Knitted Hottie Cover 

Cast on 35 stitches with 6mm needles (16ply wool). 
Start with garter stitch (plain knitting) and knit about 4 rows. 
Then increase on every 5th stitch to give you 42 stitches. 
Introduce your second colour and just play around with patterns and colours.Once your piece is as long as the hottie, do a couple of plain rows, then knit 12,  then cast off 18 stitches (which means you have to knit up to stitch 14 and then pop stitch 13 over stitch 14 and so on until 18 stitches are cast off, and you should then have 12 stitch left to knit.)
On next row, knit 12, cast on 18 stitches using backwards loop method, and then knit remaining 12 stitches to end.
You can now knit some plain rows before starting your second fair isle panel, and end with the size garter stitch panel to finish.
Fold right sides together and sew up bottom and sides, then turn out through the neck opening.
Now for the "neck", cast on with double pointed needles or circular (for magic loop) around the opening. Preferably you will have an even number of stitches (36 works well).
Knit a double rib neck and  cast off !

a little bit of sunshine...

In Class 2,  the children are venturing out into the world a little more adventurously: climbing trees becomes an obsession, feeling the wind in their hair, the elements are experienced intensely. In the Steiner school s here in Australia, the fairy tales of Class 1 become longer, episodic journeys , often from the Celtic tradition, and these stories seem to expand like the rays of the sun.
In craft, the children pick up their sewing needles again, and stitch the sunburst stitch on colourful muslin. The stitches ray out, stitched from the middle out in a circle,  multi coloured and arranged so that each expanding circle of stitches sits just inside the previous row's stitches.
I really needed to concentrate making this article, yet felt so expanded by the colours starting to ray out in front of me. There are two sides, with a piece of muslin inside to thicken, in case you want to use it like an oven mitt or pot rest.
It opened my heart and delighted me, and now hangs in my kitchen waiting for it's first pot to sit under!
yippee!

in and out and in and out...

 "There are big waves and little waves,

green waves and blue,

Waves you can jump over,

Waves you dive through,

Waves that rise up like a great water wall,

Waves that swell softly and don't break at all,

Waves that can whisper,

Waves that can roar,

And tiny waves that run at you running on the shore"

Eleanor Farjeon

In my most splendid craft course we have been weaving!!
In Class One in Steiner schools here in Australia, the children start their first weaving on a flat loom, using an assortment of colours of the rainbow (but no greens or neutrals).
It is a task in finger dexterity, rhythmical (nurturing the child's physicality and life force), requires a degree of concentration and focus, and produces such a simple yet ever so useful and delicious little bag/purse! The children have already been running and playing these in and out movements in their circle work in the morning, and now in this little woven article, they bring these big wave movements into their fingers.
There is something so reassuring in doing a simple weaving. The rhythm holds you, the colours tantalise, the progress is steady and meditative.

In Class 2 the children move onto circular/cylindrical weaving, using a tube. This could become a recorder bag or a water bottle holder, or any other useful bag. Later in the years this cylindrical weaving can be scaled down to make tiny bags woven with a needle around a toilet roll!

A tiny little bag ready for a secret treasure!

more more more

another fair...
more more more craft...

 

 

 

Class 5 Indian Elephants

 

 

 

 

 

Fair Isle Knitting Class 4

and inspirational teaching...

Class 5 Chariot Races coming!!

Class 3 Buildings and Dwellings

Class 6 "etchings"

and last week visited this school's Arts Festival and saw these!! Delicious!

Sadly, a Steiner  Stream in the Western Suburbs of  Melbourne is under threat: check out the action to save the stream here.