A Week of Weaving
Caiden’s completed weaving for Dad for Father’s Day
Erin is busy with her Farming Block for grade three and part of the practical work is weaving. Caiden and Jenna have been inspired to weave as well. Jenna has woven a little carpet for our gnome home and Caiden is weaving a rainbow for Dad for father’s day on cardboard.
How to make a simple loom from cardboard:
Materials:
1 piece of thick cardboard 20cm by 30cm
wool to weave around the cardboard
different colour wool to weave with
1 blunt wool needle with a large eye
pencil to move your wool down after each row
scissors
Take your cardboard and cut little 1cm slits along both edges of the short sides of your board, make sure that they are cut opposite each other so that when you wind your wool around to make the strings, they line up. Tie your wool/string on to the card and wind around and around until you have gone around your whole board. Then you can thread your needle and start weaving in and out the strands. Just remember when you come to the edge of a row to go around your last string and then look at your lines before and go the opposite way. If you went over before now you go under. Just keep alternating your rows and you’ll end up with a lovely pattern. When you want to change colours, just weave to the end of the row leaving some wool, cut the old colour and tie on the new one and off you go. Also remember to move your work down at the end of each row or two or you will get gaps. You can use a pencil for this. When you are finished weaving you can cut your strings. Cut them quite far away from the weaving and then take two strings and tie a knot. Keep moving along tying two strings all along until you are finished. Enjoy!
Jenna’s Birth Orchid
This week was Jenna’s 11th birthday. We had such a special day! This Orchid was given to Jenna on the day she was born and it flowers every year at the same time, on her birthday!
For Jenna’s birthday we decorated a table with a lovely cloth, placed flowers on the table and a crown I made for her. We made a path of rose petals from her bedroom to her birthday table and a string of ballons. We also lit a candle at her table. We all gave her 11 kisses when she woke up and the night before we read a poem together about turning 11 years old. It was all very special and she loved it. All her presents were on the table as well.
Dad took the morning off and we went out for a lovely breakfast. What a fantastic day, Jen said it was the best birthday she has ever had. Since transitioning to Waldorf, it has added so much more meaning to our lives, it has made it rich and wholesome!
Winter Snowflakes
Snowflakes:
We have just started having really cold weather and surprisingly, rain as well! Here in South Africa where we live we have a dry winter and a rainy summer. So last night when we were awakened by thunder and lightning, it was a pleasant surprise. Today our children decided to decorate our window panes with cut out snowflakes. They are really simple to make. Simply trace around a side plate, cut out your circle and fold it in half and fold it another three times, then simply cut out shapes along the edges and make sure there is always paper between your shapes or you could end up with a large open space. When you have finished cutting all the shapes you can think of, unfold your circle and a wonderful snowflake awaits you. Then stick them on your windows and you will have a beautiful display, not one will be alike, just like real snowflakes!
Winter Nature Table:
We also decided it was time to change our nature table from Autumn to a Winter display. It is still a work in progress, but so far we have added our Winter gnomes that Jenna knitted and a few small snowflakes adorn the bare leafless winter tree. We also added our Winter theme story books called ‘The Story of the Snow Children’ and ‘Winter Awake’. The children will add to their table as the weeks flow through Winter.
