I love wool, I wish I had known about this great textile when I was a child. Wool roving dyed many different colors is so appealing to work with. Not only do my little ones love to wet felt with it, I love to needle felt it.

This afternoon I found myself feeling rather uninspired with what to do with the girls. It was a hot afternoon, and I found my brain dragging. So I set them outside to play and I soon joined them with my small basket of different colored wool roving, my felting needles and felting pad.

As I sat there in the shade wondering what I should make, my oldest (almost 4) comes over, asking what I was making. My honest answer was “I don’t know yet”. So I asked her what color should I start with. Wonderfully dyed blue wool was chosen from the basket. Okay, I thought. This could be sky. I loosely needle felted it in place. Then, chose some green for fields…soon, my youngest was also joining in, and we started to design a picture together, with the sun, a road, and a sheep. The questions started, “where does the sheep live?” “What does he eat?” “Who are his friends?” Soon I was telling a story, and we all enjoyed it! I realized that this was just another way to expand our imaginations as well as throwing in some factual learning as well.



My oldest is always asking me to draw her things, so this is just an extension of that concept. We also started making a tree today which we will finish in the coming days. I envision making the leaves really full and adding branches. Then we can add all the animals who live in the tree, and start telling stories to each other about how the animals live/interact with one another. In fact, my 2 year old and 3+ year old are exceptional story tellers. I dare say they are far better at it than I am! ;)

We are finally getting around to cleaning the garage, and while doing so I stumbled upon half a dozen bars of goat’s milk soap. My girls knew what that would mean right away – felted soap! :)



I love this project, particularly with my little ones. I have blogged about it before. It takes minimal time & set up (this was a wonderful mid-morning project for us today). Bonus the kids can make a soapy mess – where they are cleaner than they were when they started. :)

Materials are simple: wool roving in various colors, bars of soap, some bubble wrap, and some hot water (as hot as you can stand to touch). There are two ways to approach it. My 3.5 year old likes to soak the wool in the hot water and drape it over the soap. I find wetting the soap and getting the bubble wrap soapy wet works best. Then I drape the dry wool around the soap, and rub the bar all over with the soapy bubble wrap.

My 2 year old is happy to simply dip small pieces of roving in her own bowl of warm water. I am always amazed how she can be entertained for the morning just by doing this. I put a towel on the table and her lap to catch wet drips. Forming the wool into long “snakes” and “worms” as she calls it – or balling it up to make small balls or even her own rendition of food items…it truly is a wonderful display of imaginative play – and what toddler doesn’t like to play in water?? :)

My 3 year old chooses the colors and dips and drapes, while I then take over with forming the felt by agitating the wool all over the soap with the bubble wrap. She is much more into it now than she was when I first tried this technique earlier this year. Once we are done we put them out in the sun to dry.



They don’t have to look perfect, in fact they will keep felting every time you wash your hands! Just have fun with your pre-schooler, and let their imagination take over.

I normally make my own liquid hand soap using sls-free organic soap base, but I find my little ones can be wasteful pumping out too much. The felted bars have been a wonderful alternative. They still get to make something handmade for the home, and I find felted soap doesn’t get used up as quickly as a plain bar of soap that constantly gets pummeled with water. :)

All the above items, were picked on our morning nature walk. My children are 2 and 3. And where did we do this nature walk? On our property. We do not live in the woods, but in a typical suburban home. I find that in the summer heat none of us really want to be out or away from home for very long, and I am always amazed what the girls can find just on our lawn. I appreciate that they can examine the ground in places where we adults just walk over and find the tiniest delightful plant life and insects. It is also nice, when my husband gets behind cutting the back lawn! That is when most of the gems are found. ;)



For the month of August we are examining shapes and colors in nature. So the girls will spread their finds on the floor and start grouping them by color, then we switch and group by shape, and then look at patterns. My two year old is not so into this unlike my 3 years old (almost 4). So I just let her examine her nature finds as she feels fit. My oldest loves to group and inquire about the different shapes. Once we are done, it is time to light the candle on the nature table and allow them to place the objects as they like onto the table.





It is fascinating to watch them work. My youngest takes mostly to arranging the animal figures on the table, and also scattering her leaves and flowers throughout the table. My oldest likes to group her leaves in a bowl, and her “apples” in another bowl (small crab apples from our flowering crab tree) – like with like. Then she takes to arranging the flowers most carefully in their small multi-vase.









Of course, once they are finished, blowing out the candle is enjoyed by both. :)

August is almost here, so this week I have been sorting through our pre-school curriculum after taking a month off of any sort of “structured” rhythm. This is our second year working with a Waldorf Inspired Pre-school curriculum (although it would be more appropriate to call it a rhythm). We use Earthschooling as our foundation & inspiration.

With my oldest turning 4 soon, I wanted to get more into the activities provided in the lessons. Last year is what I would call a learning curve year for me. It can be really overwhelming to sift through the materials for the first time, and grasping the philosophy…particularly when the educational background you are used to is the traditional regurgitation/dictation/memorization. Even though pre-school age is all about songs and stories and handiwork and free play…it is harder than it looks to integrate these activities into day to day life. The whole concept of song & storytelling means getting out of my comfort zone as well. I am not much of a singer & have always relied on books to tell the stories!

Last year we dabbled here and there mostly concentrating on circle time and crafts/baking. I worked from a spiral notebook, and when I went back this year to review my notes it was really hard to follow. I decided I had to get a setup that was easy to follow and inspiring. I also figured it would double as a keepsake for the girls someday.



I have a few of these really nice hard cover writing books mostly given as gifts. They are so pretty and well made that I put them aside & never had the heart to mark in them. Now I finally have a good reason to use them. The main book would be a reference of our verses, songs & nursery rhymes that we sing/recite at circle time. This is done by memory, but I always find it’s good to have a reference. I printed them on some pretty paper & arranged them according to month/season in the book.



I had two hardcover spiral notebooks that worked perfectly for a recipe book and lesson outlines.







So far I am organized up to December. Already I see the material “click” now that I have it laid out in not only an organized, but appealing manner. The books are simply irresistible to touch and I know I’ll enjoy referring to them each day. Now, if I can transform myself into a storyteller I’m in good shape…I’ll even accept my terrible renditions of children’s songs. :)

Above: wet felted soap, not quite dry! :)

This is an easy project for beginner wool felters. It works up quickly and the results are lovely. I admit this project is more of my guilty pleasure – the girls aren’t so interested with felting soap as they are for other objects like balls or play food. :)

I acquired some beautiful bars of handmade goat’s milk soap at the New Hampshire Wool Show, and couldn’t wait to felt them. All you need is a little wool roving, some warm water & bubble wrap.



Pull the wool roving apart & cover the soap as even as you can. Once it is completely covered, I find applying some warm water (as hot as you can get it from the tap) with a spray bottle works well. I don’t bother making the water soapy since the bar being felted produces enough suds to felt the wool. Then rub the bubble wrap gently all over the soap until the wool sticks together forming a felted layer. Rinse gently and squeeze the excess water out, and leave to dry. The soap in the top picture is still wet, it looks less mottled when dry.

Felted soap feels lovely on the hands, and also acts as a gentle exfoliant. The beauty is that with use the wool continues to felt so it continues to look better and better every time you wash your hands. :) A wonderful treat for your family or a great handmade gift that takes no time at all to make.

The girls received some plastic play food for a Christmas present, and we were inspired to felt them! Wool felt is a far more pleasurable tactile material than plastic, and we were thankful for this gift as it gave us a great base for the felted final product.

We started this project in the winter, but between travelling and my tiredness from the first trimester, we set it aside until recently.



above: felted orange, strawberry, lime, lemon & donut (behind).

We started by covering the plastic food with a bit of duct tape. The tape added some roughness to the surface in order for the wool roving to stick. Then we began winding the roving around the food, adding warm water & soap. We found that bubble wrap was the best tool to rub the wool back & forth causing the friction needed to make felt.

When completed, I rinsed the felted food in hot water and squeezed out the excess water gently. Then I stuck them in the dryer on low spin, adding a blanket so that they didn’t bounce around too much.

Unfortunately I do not have step by step pictures of the process, but it is fairly easy to do. Simply play around to get the feel for wet felting the wool. You really can’t go wrong. And small children (mine are 2 and 3) love to help & watch the project develop…as well as playing with the final product!



“Take a picture of me, Mom!” :)

We finally played around with our Farina Grain Mill today. I did a lot of research on manual grain mills & was stoked to find this variety at one of my all time fave stores. This one is commonly used in Waldorf Kindergartens.



Today we merely conditioned it, grinding a small amount of grain on both the coarse & fine settings to get the stones moving.





Tomorrow hopefully…we will make some flour & bake some bread. :)

I especially love spring crafts…so many ideas & potential – it’s like your mind wakes up from a winter’s hibernation. Sophie & I finished our Mother Earth today and placed her on our nature table. It is inspired by a project in the book “The Easter Craft Book” by Thomas & Petra Berger.



She is made of wool and mostly wrapped into place around natural pipe cleaners – although I did give her a few stabs with the felting needles just to give her a bit of strength in case little hands get a hold of her. :)

This past summer we did a project where we wet felted wool to make a sheet of felt. After it was completed it took us a couple of months to do something with it. Something about the colors (purple/blue on one side, yellow/blue on the other) reminded me of a star lit sky. So we decided to cut stars out of it to hang inside & outside.



Star shaped cookie cutters made a great template. I am always picking up metal cookie cutters of various shapes. Not only for making cookies, but they have such a practical use in many craft projects.





After I got the star patterns drawn out in various sizes I got to cutting.



The remnant felt I will keep for other projects, even if it just ends up as stuffing. :)



I attached string with a darning needle. I the attached the top of the string to a paper clip which we will use to help hold the star in place.



We hung a few of them outside…



But then we decided they would be most enjoyed inside hung up in the play area.




See my post on needle-felting/pre-needle felting with cookie cutters for another idea on how to make shapes for a decorative mobile.

Back in October Sophie & I could not wait to get our hands on the wonderful orange colored wool we got from the Vermont wool festival. A few months back, I watched a great video on pre-needle felting from Kristie Burns’ Waldorf Inspired Earthschooling curriculum. I decided to needle felt along side Sophie so to compare the difference.


I collect cookie cutters in various shapes just for these projects.











Mine is coming along via felting needles…



Sophie’s progress via water & friction…



My pumpkin



Sophie’s completed pumpkin



A side by side comparison (Sophie is age 3).

This particular felting project is not limited to just pre-schoolers. In fact, I enjoy the pre-needle felting process as well; I wanted to needle felt along side simply for comparison.

To find out more about Earthschooling, visit Kristie’s website, The BEarth Institute (pronounced Be-earth). :) You can also purchase the video for this & other wonderful projects on the video download page

I couldn’t wait to get home & unpack the bounty from the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival. I’m posting this mainly for my friends who have an appreciation for wool…and anyone who is curious as to what you can purchase at a Sheep & Wool festival (Sorry, we passed on actually buying the sheep, as tempting as it was! ;)).





My wool bin is is now full & my working baskets are filled with autumn themed colors. :)





I was able to obtain many different types of wool. My favorite is definitely the curly stuff…it will make great hair for dolls!



Wool au naturelle. Okay it’s washed I didn’t go quite that natural. ;) Look forward to experimenting with carding & dying this. :)



Speaking of dye I found a starter kit that is gentler than using conventional dyes. I think I will experiment with food based dyes as well.







So I bought some yarn. AND some knitting needles, singles & circular. “But you don’t knit!” you say. The show definitely inspired me to give it a try. I got some great advice in finding a starter needle size. I haven’t tried to knit since I was like, 10 years old! Now to find the time… :)

“Buy lots of fuzz!” the women at the gate says to us. We chuckle and answer with an enthusiastic “We will!” This was our first time attending the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival in Tunbridge, Vermont…and our first Wool Festival, ever.



Other than thinking sheep & their fuzzy companions were cute barnyard animals, I cared not about wool until I discovered Waldorf. I am not a knitter although I admit after watching spinning in person I would love to own a wheel; and I find carding a calming, satisfying process. Maybe I will take up knitting after all! :)

It was finding craft ideas for children via the Waldorf Inspired community online that I was introduced to wool as a wonderful textile that could be felted either via water or needle, or transformed into yarns…it has such a versatile purpose and felt so good to work with. I was hooked immediately & enjoy sharing the art form with my daughters as I learn. By the time the wool festival rolled around, I was definitely in the mood to “buy lots of fuzz” as my purchases in the past were either online or in small shops with a small selection.



We entered the fair grounds under a beautiful, blue sky. If this small picture is any indication to you of the scenery in this state, you may understand why we love it there so much!









The Icelandic & Shetland sheep were by far our favourites. The Shetlands being the tiniest of breeds, and the Icelandics for their wonderfully crinkly coat.



This is a real alpaca, even though he looks like part of the banner. :)



Cashmere anyone? There was a whole barn of these wonderful goats!



Sheep shearing demonstration. I couldn’t get over how calm & patient the sheep was as there was lots of pauses to explain what was happening. He just…sat there between dude’s legs just chilling out. LOL!



Of course if there’s sheep, there’s got to be the sheep dogs. :) We missed the herding demonstration…



Back to the van for a little lunch. There was some fabulous food being served at the show. Home cooked bean burritos, organic pizza…the lamb burgers kind of creeped me out, though…



Up next…a tour of the bounty. :)

We headed to the park today to find items to add to our nature table.

But first, a swing… :)







We live in a suburban area so there is no forest within walking distance for nature walks. We are very lucky to live by a park which has many trees, so there is a still potential to find natural objects in this highly populated area.





Colorful leaves, acorns & flowers were ready for the taking. Once we had enough items we headed home to add them to the nature table.



I light the candles on the table & Sophie & I get to work, quietly arranging the items to our liking. Ava (almost 18 months) tends to not be interested in the nature table as far as set up is concerned, but she does like to visit it throughout the day.

Today we started getting the house ready for fall, inside & out since the equinox starts officially this evening after 11pm. The yard needs a lot of work in general but we at least made the front step look festive. :) The nature table was prepped so that it would be ready for any new treasures we find on tomorrow’s nature walk.



We have a new nature table! The set up we had before was not ideal, and this table is the perfect size for items & the best use of space.

Here is my interpretation of wet-on-wet watercolor, which I introduced earlier this month to my almost three year old. The color is able to move more freely on the damp paper than it would on dry paper, so the child is able to experience the color with purity of movement. The goal is not artistic technique but to experience & get to know color. Therefore, in very young children you introduce only one color at a time, starting with the primary colors.



The painting is done on painting boards. You can buy actual painting boards or simply find supplies at the hardware store or art/craft store that would work in the same manner.



We soaked a high quality water paper in water for several minutes. Then, after being placed on the boards, sponged off any excess water.



Then we added paint to water in small jars. Baby food jars work well, or you can buy actual painting jars. We are working with yellow.



I explained to Sophie that Peter Paintbrush needed to get his hair wet before he gets to work. The Peter Paintbrush analogy is taken from Rahima Baldwin Dancy’s “You Are Your Child’s First Teacher” – an excellent book I cannot say enough about.

Then we get to work. I paint along side Sophie. I made a story up as we painted about a little girl who loved the color yellow so she wanted to paint the whole world that color. I still am learning the art of story telling so I thought I did horribly – but she seemed happy with the story.





I used back & forth motion as I filled the page with yellow while telling the story to encourage Sophie to not be shy & experience the color on her own.



When we finished we washed Peter Paintbrush’s hair until it was all clean.



Our painting project left out to dry.

Another outdoors project we did this summer was making our own felt. Colored wool and water meant a nice tactile project for my two year old that we enjoyed together.



On a baking/cookie sheet we started to lay our first color of wool.



Once we loosely covered the bottom of the cookie sheet we added the next colour, gently patting it down as we went.



Two more colors, and we had the thickness we desired.



I poured boiling soapy water onto the wool. The hotter the water the faster/easier it is for it to felt.



Until the water was cool enough to touch, we used potato mashers to give the wool friction & start the felting process.



Once the wool was cool enough to touch – the fun really begins. We started pressing down the wool using our fingers.



Quickly we start to see a sheet of felt emerge.



I gently place the wool onto a bamboo matt. Then we roll it up, and roll it back & forth both slowly & vigorously to add more friction & complete the felting process.



A quick rinse…



Then laid out in the sun to dry.

The project with the completed felt coming soon. :)

This summer we added to our outdoor play space mobile by making a sun out of a styrofoam ball, pipe cleaners, and then needle felting two shades of yellow wool over top.



Sophie (age 2.5) helped hold the pipe cleaners as I placed them around the ball.



Once we got them where we wanted, I started needle felting the pipe cleaners.



This is a project I was making up as I went along, so after I had one pipe cleaner felted I tested to make sure it would indeed poke into the Styrofoam.



Success!



It was a bit of a tedious process, but Sophie had her own project on the go. :)





The finished project…




At home with the cloud & the butterfly. :)

I would recommend that a layer of wool be needle felted over the entire body to make sure the pipe cleaner rays are in there good and snug.

Summer is quickly coming to a close & fall activities are just around the corner despite what the thermometer says! :)

Here is a quick felting project we embarked upon on a cloudy Tuesday Morning. I was yet again strapped for time and wanted to do something quick to add to our outdoor play area. We had previously made a felted butterfly for the space.



First I took two pipe cleaners & twisted them together to make a cloud shape.



I began to needle felt white wool around the frame.





Hello Kitty band aid to cover where I stabbed myself. Occupational hazard of needle felting. No matter how careful you are, you are bound to stab yourself now & again. :)



That’s it. It’s amateur-ish – but as I say time & time again, your kids won’t care. They are simply happy to have you make something for them/with them. Imaginations do the rest. :)

I recommend telling a story as you make the cloud to keep the event exciting for your child. I suck at story telling. But, the more I do it, the better I get. Making stories up on the fly is getting easier, as well.



Out comes the string so that we can put up our cloud.



We have been enjoying watching it float around just like the real clouds in the sky. :)

One thing I always enjoyed as a child, was baking with my dad. My great-grandmother taught him to bake, and he passed the enjoyment down to me. As I got older my parents allowed me to bake on my own despite the mess – and enjoyed the finished project no matter how lopsided or odd looking. :)

So a couple of weeks ago on a rainy Thursday – I thought this would be a good day to introduce baking to Sophie.



The recipe we used was for simple, easy whole wheat bread found in the book “Heaven on Earth” by Sharifa Oppenheimer (on a side note: I cannot say enough about this book. It resonated with me on so many levels, and gave me many tools as to how to parent creatively in every situation, good or bad!)



Starting off with the wet ingredients. Sophie is only two, and you can expect a two-year old to make a mess! But with the proper guidance the mess can be kept to a minimum. This was a good time for me to practice using positive words rather than focus on the negative – instead of saying “don’t spill it” I would say – “stir slowly, keep it in the bowl” – this takes patience and thought before words, which is particularly hard for me when it is second nature to focus on the negative. Mindful parenting means just that – taking the time to stop and think of our words and actions. How will my words impact my child? I can remember how those words affected me – as harmless as they were meant when I was little (this by no means is a perfect practice for me – there are always bad days. You simply have to reflect, forgive yourself and strive to do better the next day. It is a journey that I will take with my children – together there will be ups and downs!). .





Slowly adding the dry ingredients – the dough is starting to thicken now…



Ava was happy to explore and play on her own – and would come over to the table to see what we were doing every so often…





Our dough is now the consistency of pizza dough and is ready to be formed. You could do a lot of things with this – cut with cookie cutters of different animal shapes, braid the dough, form it into a loaf of bread…I decided it would be the easiest for Sophie to simply form them into balls and make rolls out of them.





The finished product…





A tasty bedtime snack. The honey in this recipe makes them irresistible. :)

I would really like to try weaving a story into our cooking…I think it would add an element of fantasy/creativity as well as help explain the elements involved (such as mixing, and keeping it in the bowl or forming the dough into balls). Story telling is one aspect of my parenting that I really want to work on. It doesn’t come natural to me – yet anyway. ;)

I am behind on updates. Earlier I posted about making felted shaker balls. We ended up wet felting 3 more balls in plain core wool. Once they were dry I spent the next few weeks working on needle felting them when I had a spare moment. The girls loved to watch the balls come alive slowly with color, with Sophie asking several times, “Is it done? I can have now?” before one ball was even finished. :)

Before…



….and after….





The gray and blue ball on the far left, got wet felted, then needle felted – then wet felted AGAIN – on account that it got caught out in the rain. I had loosely felted this one, so I decided to throw it into the dryer with our clothes to see just how the felt would contract. And the results were quite nice – a very durable felted ball.





All 4 finished balls, they get a lot of play in our home. In fact at the moment, I am not sure where they are! :)

I needed a quick project to do with my 2 year old as our morning was cut short due to chore load. It’s summer so I thought it would be nice to break out the felt (Tuesday is felting day – in our weekly rhythm) and make a butterfly for the play house.

This project could easily be adapted to wet felting as young children love – however due to our shortened morning I decided to needle felt it and have my daughter participate by adding friction or simply touching the piece when she desired.

I also wanted to add that you don’t hvae to be particularly artistic or crafty to do these kinds of projects. Believe me I churned this out fast this morning and the butterfly is lopsided – the children don’t care! They simply cherish what you make with them.

All you need is dyed wool, pipe cleaners and your needle and mat for felting.



I took one pipe cleaner and folded it in half and twisted it together.



Then twisted the endos of the other two together, forming a circle



Twist your circle into a figure 8, and shape the wings as you wish.




I covered the body part with wool and had Sophie roll it back & forth in her hands. The friction starts the felting process. Then I ran my felting needle over it a few times.



Sophie is too young to use the sharp needle, but that doesn’t mean she can’t mimic the movement. I catch her “needle felting” in the play house with her bubble wand. Here she gives it a go on the body of our butterfly.



The body is now done.



Then I attached the body to the wing armature I formed, criss-crossing the wool around the center of the wings and body. I lightly felted this into place with the needle. I wanted to be able to loop string through here later.



I started to lay the wool on the wings to felt – weaving over and under the pipe cleaner armature – then felted it into place.





So as you can see, our butterfly looks more like a dragonfly than a butterfly! This is great too – but I told Sophie we were making a butterfly. :) I could have made a second set of wings, but again due to our short morning I simply snipped the body with scissors and felted over the bottom. We will keep the other half of the body to make another later.



Sophie of course requested blue for the body, and then I jazzed it up a little bit…



…adding fuschia & purple felt to the body.



Just one last apple green element added to the top – and our butterfly is ready to take flight.







Our butterfly now lives at the front door of our play house. Where he will stay all summer long. :)