A Crafty Education.

We visited an Australian Steiner/Waldorf School Fair this morning and I busied myself gasping with amazement and snapping photos of all the incredible craft work!

It must feel like such an achievement for the children, to look upon their craft work over the years. They must feel so capable, so self sufficient , to be able to make such useful and beautiful things!

First was the Pre-school/ Kindergarten work! Plant dyed wool (except for the blue which was food dye) pom poms, oodles of finger knitting, stitching on loose hessian and Knitting Nancies.

Class 1 : more pom poms, first attempts at knitting, stitched recorder bags, knitted lambs(from squares).

 Class 2: Knitted animals, "starburst sticth" pillows, needles holder case, simple weavings.

 Class 3: cross stitch (see my post), bags with stitching and weaving, knitted beanies and toys...

 

 Class 4: the magnificent fair isle knitting! Bags, toys..., picture tapestries based on Norse mythology...

 

Class 5: the introduction of crochet, ponchos, hats, bags, toys and picture weavings

 Class 6: Dolls!!!!

yarn along...

Joining in the yarn along over at small things and also over at frontier dreams:
My Lyttleton shrug by the amazing and admirable Kate Davies is coming along slowly, but I love love it! Cables and lace!!
And the colour of the Quince and Co Tern (silk and wool) is delicious!

Ravelled here

 I also decided very whimsically and perhaps illogically (considering all the knitting projects I have lined up already!!) to partake in a "Mystery KAL (knitalong) with the Woolly Wormheads Ravelry Group. I've never done that before.
It's a hat. That's all I know...knit in sport weight yarn (5 ply). The pattern gets released in trickles, with no-one knowing what the thing will eventually look like! A bit of geeky knitter fun...and why not!
Here's the yarn I chose: Madelinetosh Sport in Well Water , a gorgeous warm blue, divinely soft, I only just started the gauge swatch and I'm in love...

And, reading! I'm afraid I'm still on a diet of picture books, though the recent Booker Prize finalists sparked a yearning for some big people reading soon...soon...soon....come on brain, get it together!
So, here's the bedtime favourite at the moment: "The Happy Lion" by Louise Fatio and illustrated most deliciously by Roger Duvoisin, first published in 1955. My small boy requires it read at least twice per night and I'm not complaining, I love the Parisian drawings so much! We found this beauty at the school fair last weekend for a buck! That's one Australian dollar for those wondering if I exchanged it for a male deer...

as my acupuncturist says, enjoy the needles!

house

inspired by kirti from la vida rustica, i have decided to do a few posts featuring our little inner northern family shack! (note: no weeds were harmed in the creation of this post!)

knit me a pachyderm!!

We visited the zoo this sunny Thursday morning and discovered the  Mali in the City exhibit! Wow!
But even more wow was one special elephant all knitted over by artist Mini Goss! According to her site, she knit it with 130 balls of Patons Inca 12 ply wool on Size 5 needles!
So special:

There's a kinda pachydermy feel around here too, as I work on the Class 5 Steiner/Waldorf craft project, a felt elephant.

Glove Stitch for super strong seams...

finished, again: a knitting post

Last year I knitted a "Boneyard Shawl" by designer Stephen West (a free Ravelry pattern) for my mum's 80th birthday.
I chose the most delicious colourway, "glazed pecan" (mm, yum, a shiny bronzy yellow-brown) in the sublime Madelinetosh Pashmina yarn. I just love this yarn so much, and many of the colours shine like jewels.
I went to Sydney with the shawl unfinished, but forgot to take the second skein of yarn! So it ended up a sweet little neck shawl. A couple of weeks ago my 81 year old mum brought the shawl back, asking if I could add the second skein and make it bigger! and here it is, delicious!

 and ravelled here

yarn along

here's my first yarn along post.
I'm back to knitting this boneyard shawl, which I actually knit for my mum last year for her 80th birthday out of the sublime Madelinetosh Pashmina in the Glazed Pecan colourway. She recently visited and gave me the shawl back to add a bit of length!
As for reading, I have to admit, knitting kinda replace reading when I took up knitting in a big way after my 2year old son was born! But said boy sure is a bookworm , and we are both loving Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow !! A delightful book about the journey from wool off a sheep's back to a new blue suit! Sweet.

the woolly state

There is something going on...life seems to exist in two parallel streams: one involves the rich and often tangled tapestry of life in a family of five growing, thriving, learning and energetic humans...

the other, my world of wool and knitting and making, occasionally also tangled, but also calm, a refuge,   distracting, deeply creative and oh so satisfying.

so: 

I have just finished a delicious cowl (for me!):

I used a deliciously soft yarn hand-dyed in Canada by Tanis Fibre Arts in Orange Label Cashmere/silk Worsted ("Sand" colourway). 

The pattern in the "Dovetail Cowl" by Carina Spencer

Ravelled here

And...I FINALLY finished my dear husband's "smoking jacket" at the end of Winter! I started it in April, and it took so long because I kept putting it down to knit other things! But it's done and he loves it and it looks totally handsome! 

The wool is the now discontinued Rowan Scottish Tweed  Chunky

in Lobster colour!

The pattern is "Smokin" from the book "Son of a Stitch and Bitch" by Jared Flood

The "blanket project" I blogged about in the last post is coming along swimmingly! Take a look at the pile of squares accumulating!

I also have a tapestry picture to finish off for my wonderful Steiner/Waldorf craft curriculum course. The children do this project in Class 4!

The picture is based on the Norse Myth "Iduna and the golden apples"

and here is the tapestry picture I finished last year. It's Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse Mythology.

And finally, what next for the needles? I have this luscious yarn from Quince and Co. waiting to be wound and turned into a light weight Spring cardi!

so that's the woolly state of things around here!!