This week’s Unplugged Challenge theme Fluffy inspired us to do two different crafts. Here is the first one… Wet Felted Wool Gingerbread Men Ornaments. I will be sharing the second activity later this week.
We started by digging through some of Gammy’s large bags of Wool Roving. We then tracked down some gingerbread men cookie cutters, flat bottom containers and a poky object (wooden kitchen skewers in our case… knitting needles, chop sticks, etc would work).
We placed the cookie cutter in the bottom of the container. Then we pulled off small bits of the wool roving and filled in the cookie cutter. Try not to let any of the wool escapse under the edge of the cutter. Be sure to get in all the corners.
Once the cookie cutter was full to the top edge with wool, we add very warm water to the container and dish soap.
Then we needed to agitate the wool for several minutes. This is where the poky object came in to play. Be sure to poke straight up and down.
The younger two seemed to want to STIR the wool rather than using a straight up and down motion. So I ended up just having them use their fingers to poke the wool. That seemed to work just fine.
It does take several minutes of constant agitation to set up. Once they were set, we rinse them, patted them dry on a towel and then I set them over a vent to dry. When they were dry I added a simple piece of embroidery floss for hanging.
You could definitely embellish these ornaments if you would like. Try blanket stitching the edge, adding buttons, embroidery, glitter, etc. You could add a wool design on the front before felting if you wanted. We decided to just keep ours simple this time around but I can imagine making a bunch of these next year and stringing them together to make a cute garland.
I am sharing some photos of a loom demonstration we saw with Grandma and Grandpa a few weeks ago. It was given at a Historic Village nearby. The kids were enthralled with all of the artisan crafts (pottery, glass blowing, weaving, etc). We got to see some very old and very large looms, as well as quite a few spinning wheels. Although this was a field trip we took several weeks ago the kids were able to make the connection this week when we started reading and talking about “Pelle’s New Suit.”
Bug asked lots of questions. He actually explained the spinning process to the guide, based on the farm visit we had in the Spring to watch sheep sheering (there were many women spinning there and selling the most beautiful yarn). He was very interested in some of the completed projects they had on display and figuring out which loom they were made on.
They really are soo cool. I can’t help but think that I need to make room for a loom… eventually. 😉
Thanks to Grandma for the great photos to share!
Week Seven (Oct 13-20)
Pelle’s New Suit
How We Use Wool
G is for Gorse
We will be coloring the Gorse page from our Flower Fairies Alphabet Coloring Book and reading the accompanying story in the Flower Fairies Alphabet Book.
I’m not totally sure what our project will end up being. We may use the wool roving on felt to make pictures. We may try to make Felted Wool Soap Bars or maybe some felted critters for the nature table. I’ll have to see what the kids are interested in trying.
Try to find a knitting shop, local farm, historic village, etc that has a spinning wheel, loom or in some way processes wool. If nothing else, visit your local yarn shop (not one of the box stores – they don’t have as many natural fibers) to compare the types of yarn available. How do the different fibers feel? What other animals do we get yarn from?
I don’t have something specific in mind so we will probably just go ahead with making some yummy, fresh bread.
Harvest
Now all the farmers from far and wide
Have gathered their bounty of countryside:
Corn and barley from field and wold,
Honey from beehive and wool from the fold,
Fruit from the orchard all ripe, red and gold,
Log for the fire to keep out the cold.
by Dorothy Hancock
Bug has started on a new project with a theme of “Inside the Body.” I am trying to let him lead the process on this one… so we will be working on this as well, but I have no predetermined plans for it. Last week he checked out a lot of books and a dvd from the library, put together a skeleton and colored a diagram of the heart chambers.
Kindergarten/Preschool Term One Overview: Harvest Time