More Than an Ability to Sew

"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow." -Anthony J. D'Angelo

As a teacher one of my goals is to develop a passion for learning within my students, however I think we so often view a passion for learning as limited to the capacity of schooling. This last week I started an after school club at the school where I teach so that I can share one of my passions with my kids. While talking with a coworker we began discussing how so many other life lessons can arise from this club. This new sewing club teaches basic sewing skills to our third, fourth, and fifth graders, but more than that, it teaches lessons of love, passion, learning, frustration, commitment, responsibility, acceptance, teamwork, sharing, community, pride, and humility.

A  love of a project containing our blood, sweat, and tears.
Passion for our craft, whatever it may be.
A love of learning how to develop our skills and further our abilities.
Skills to deal with frustration that occasionally accompanies a complex or difficult task.
A personal commitment to overcome frustrations and reach the finish line.
Responsibility necessary to accept one's own mistakes and shortcomings. 
Acceptance that we will always have shortcomings, but they need not inhibit our ambition.
Teamwork necessary to overcome hurdles together.
Sharing our knowledge with another to provide them with the support or knowledge they need to overcome their hurdles.
The love of the community that has donated materials or time to help us accomplish our goals.
Pride that comes only from sticking with and finishing a project or learning a new skill.
A certain amount of humility to keep our pride from overrunning us, often based in the knowledge that there is always something more we can learn, we will never have perfect knowledge. Instead, we will have something better, a drive to gain more knowledge.

I truly believe I am teaching so much more than an ability to sew. THAT is why I do what I do.

~Farm Girl Teacher

Handspun Yarn Projects

I have been very busy crocheting, knitting, and knooking over the last few days and I can't wait to show you what I've been creating!

First, I want to show you a cowl I crocheted from a Wool Ease Lion Brand Thick & Quick. I know that I said handspun yarn, but I was walking through Michael's and this Super Bulky yarn caught my eye!

 It is mostly cream with small amounts of brown and black fiber added in. The pattern is very simple, just chain the length you want (mine might be 35 sts?) and alternate rows of single/double crochet.

 The beautiful wooden button was also a Michael's purchase. It doesn't actually serve a purpose though, it's just for looks. :)

And now on to the actual handspun yarns! The following yarn was spun from this roving of alpaca fiber that was given to me. I spun it into singles but was limited to around 100 yards of yarn.

 I have been considering embracing knitting more as it tends to use less yardage than crocheting. This seemed like the perfect opportunity!


This knitted headband pattern came from Cedar Box Knits. She calls it a Wavy Moss headband. It took about two hours to complete and uses a provisional cast on to prevent large seam lines. The pattern includes instructions for a headband, a beanie, and a slouchy hat.


The photo taken by the designer showed the headband worn this way, I call it hippie-style. I like it a lot when those darn straight-haired people wear it, but I'm still not sure if I like it with my curly hair....


One of the main reasons I'm often attracted to knit patterns is because you can create cabled looks, which I love! While I do know how to knit I don't do it very often as I've always found crocheting simpler. This was my first experience knitting cables and because I only own one pair of knitting needles, I totally used a wooden skewer in place of the cable needle! lol


  Like I said, they jury is still out on whether or not I like the hippie-style look, so when I actually wore this headband, I wore it with a pony tail. I think it can also be used as an ear warmer when it's cold outside.

I had a small amount of yarn left over and I wanted to make one more small project for the very kind lady that gave me the fiber. She is an expert when it comes to fiber and the animals that grow fiber. She's been wanting a sheep, but doesn't want to mix them with their goats. So....

  I made this adorable sheep coaster for her! The pattern is designed by Monika Mrozkova. The white portions are some leftover acrylic yarn, the mouth is embroidery thread, and the eyes are two leftover gray beads I happened to have.

Since she can't have the sheep she's been wanting, I thought this coaster would be a cute alternative. :) I should have blocked the legs, but I think it's very cute!

The last is a two ply yarn I spun from wool I bought from The Woolery. I considered dying it but I kind of liked the natural cream color and left it.

I used about two of these balls to crochet a hat I hope to wear when we vacation in North Carolina this December. This is the beanie pattern that accompanied the Wavy Moss headband pattern from Cedar Box Knits.

It looks knitted, right? Actually, it's knooked! I bought a Knook Beginner Kit a while ago but never made anything from it. This pattern required a circular knitting needle but as I don't often knit, I didn't have one. The knook replaces that!

The cabled portion of the beanie was made first, and wasn't as difficult as I was expecting using the knook. Three rows on each side of the cabled section are done in seed stitch. The whole upper portion is supposed to be seed stitch, but I got very frustrated with it very quickly and made it in stockinette stitch instead.

The decreases aren't as gentle as I'd been hoping, possibly because I didn't use seed stitch like the pattern said to. I think I also started decreasing too early and it's a little more shallow than I wanted, but I think it will still be warm when we visit North Carolina.

I really do love the cables, and I like the small amounts of variation in the size of the yarn. It really adds to the character of the piece. :)





 I know it seems as though I'm preparing for cold weather and I don't want you to get the wrong impression, this is Florida and the high today is somewhere in the 90's! I threw on the long sleeve shirt so you guys could get an idea of how it would look but Mom thought the rest of the outfit was hilarious....shorts and flip flops!

P.S. Check out the gigantic honeysuckle vine behind me! It smells wonderful early in the morning! :)

~Farm Girl Teacher

The Woolery: A Review

 

So I've been meaning to post a review on The Woolery ever since purchasing my wheel. Unfortunately I purchase almost all of my spinning/fiber supplies online since there isn't a local spinning store in my area. I tend to go to Etsy first as I'm usually just purchasing fiber, however when it came to purchasing a spinning wheel, I knew it was time for me to find a shop I trusted. I'd heard of other people using The Woolery before, with excellent results. I'd like to share my experience with all of you, bearing in mind that they are not compensating me for this review, just one spinner helping another. :)

When I began shopping for my wheel I decided on the wheel I wanted prior to deciding where I would be purchasing it from. While shopping I found that The Woolery was a good resource for comparing the specs on different wheels as they have a rather extensive variety. They also have YouTube videos posted that I used just to get a better idea of what a few of the wheels looked like and their website is well organized and easy to navigate.

After deciding on my Kromski I went to the official Kromski website to find a dealer more local to me. (The Woolery is based in Kentucky) I did find a little shop in Georgia and mom and I considered taking a weekend road trip to go get the wheel, that way I'd be able to get some onsite advice and try several different wheels. (You know, just in case.) Sadly, all the dealers close enough for us to do that weren't open on the weekends and it became time for me to shop around internet dealers. Nearly all the wheels were priced the same, however The Woolery also offered free shipping, and a 50 dollar gift card, or a beginner's spinning kit valued around 50 dollars. This wound up being the deciding factor for me.

The ordering process was relatively quick and easy, however I managed to mix myself around some how and forgot to choose if I wanted to gift card or the kit. I contacted Customer Service and they were very helpful. They emailed me back promptly and had no problem fixing my mistake. I chose the kit as it came with a Niddy Noddy, and two pounds of wool roving and I would have spent the gift card on a Niddy Noddy and fiber anyway.

My order arrived relatively quickly afterwards. My one complaint is that the assembly instructions weren't my favorite. (I like lots of diagrams, slot A into slot B, etc.) I've never assembled a wheel before and felt a little overwhelmed. That said, The Woolery did have an assembly video posted on their YouTube channel. Using both, I was able to successfully assemble my wheel. Well, sort of, my dad (who is never interested in my 'crafty' endeavors) came in when I was about halfway through and was determined to 'help' me assemble the wheel. He loves all things mechanical and is now attempting to figure out a way to attach a lawn mower motor to my wheel...you know...because that's helpful! lol

Anyway, getting back to my topic, the kit arrived a few days later with a beautiful Kromski Niddy Noddy, the wool roving I thought was very pretty, and a beginner DVD on spinning. I'm not going to lie, the DVD was a bit out of date, but the information was excellent and gave me a much better technical knowledge.

Two-ply yarn that came from the wool roving

 Overall I was very pleased with The Woolery and I encourage you to visit their site. Hands off that beautiful bamboo fiber though, it's already on my wishlist! :) Happy Shopping!

~Farm Girl Teacher

It has arrived!

Mom captured this on her phone. :)

My brand-spanking new spinning wheel finally arrived! Well actually it arrived over a week ago but I've had so much fun playing with it that I haven't had much time to blog. :)

I've spun so much I think I've now discovered calf muscles I wasn't previously aware of!

I know spinning isn't exactly a common hobby, (I can't tell you how many times I've started gabbing with a fellow 'spinner' only to realize they meant the exercise bike!) but you'd be surprised by the amount of fiber spinners in my area! I feel like I'm part of some secret, underground group of spinners! :D

I actually discovered spinning after visiting a guild meeting nearby with my crochet work. I was entranced as I watched the men and women around me turn bags of animal hair into beautiful handmade yarns. I had to learn to do it myself!

If you're not interested in spinning jargon/details on the wheel, scroll down to the photos of the yarn. :)

I began spinning using an Ashford drop spindle for a couple of reasons: to make sure I really enjoyed spinning, and because I worked at Taco Bell and a spinning wheel was way out of my budget.

But...now that I have a real honest-to-goodness job, I finally decided to purchase a real, honest-to-goodness spinning wheel! :D Oh yeah!

I did tons of research prior to making my purchase and I took every opportunity possible to use other people's wheels in order to decide what my 'must haves' were. Here is the list I used when shopping. The list actually started much shorter however I kept adding things in order to help narrow down my options.
- reasonably priced, but not a beginner's wheel, I wanted it to grow with me

Photo courtesy of The Woolery

- reputable brand
- portable, or a small footprint
- castle-type wheel
- double treadle
- center orifice
- double band drive w/ optional Scotch tension
- built-in Lazy Kate 
- finished wood

It wasn't easy but I finally narrowed it down to a Kromski Minstrel. This wheel met all my 'must haves' PLUS it was gorgeous AND it wasn't over-the-moon expensive.

The wheel came in a number of color options, but I really liked the lighter option; I think it's traditional-looking yet fresh.  The Kromski brand is also known for having exceptional quality wheels. All wheels are designed and produced by a small family business in Poland.

So far I have REALLY enjoyed using it, but I'm not going to lie, the first few days were not fun! Like I said, I didn't technically purchase a 'beginner wheel' although it is advertised as being 'beginner friendly.' There was certainly a bit of a learning curve involved. Nearly all of my initial trouble was because of tension issues. In the past, every time I sat down at a wheel, the person who actually owned it had already set the tension and was sitting right there assisting me. After watching numerous YouTube videos (specifically, Expertly Dyed, she has the same wheel as me), I realized that it was important that I adjust the tension SLIGHTLY each time. I was also making it placing WAY to much tension on the drive band and actually wound up snapping it before it was all said and done. {Legit spinners should look away now, you're about to cringe!} I didn't want to put a brand new drive-band on the wheel seeing as how I was still having major issues, so I grabbed a bit of cotton yarn, measured it out, threw it on, and haven't looked back! :D

Besides tension issues, I couldn't for the life of me get the wheel to take-up properly, resulting in severely over spun yarn. I wound up having to adjust about half-a-dozen things in order to fix it.  First, I was SUPER excited to get my wheel and didn't realize that I was treadling about a hundred miles an hour. (Seriously, I was out of breath after about ten minutes!) My focus for the next few days was seeing how slow I could go and still keep the wheel moving. After slowing my treadling I also readjusted my whorls. Because it's a double-band drive, the bobbin whorl almost always has to be smaller than the flyer whorl. I made sure that the flyer whorl was as large as possible, and the bobbin whorl was as small as possible. So far this has worked fine since then, although I have stepped the flyer whorl down a size as I've improved. Besides this, I realized after a while that I was so nervous I wasn't actually releasing the spun fiber so it could move onto the bobbin. Hehe, whoops!

Well, let's get down to business! Check out the yarn I've spun so far...

This was the first yarn I spun. It began as a beautiful hand painted wool fiber purchased from a local spinner and alpaca breeder. Check out her shop, Woodland Hills Alpacas on Etsy.

The beautiful shades of reds, oranges, and a hint of brown initially attracted me to the fiber, and I loved how it turned out! With one exception...it truly is horribly overspun! Its hard to tell on the paper towel tube I transferred it onto, however after I set the twist and released the tension it curled up left and right! lol

Btw, the paper towel tube is because I was waiting on my Niddy Noddy but need to free up a bobbin. :)

The next photo is of some beautiful Alpaca fiber given to me from a fellow spinner. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to fiber! I typically stay out of the cleaning/prep process when it comes to fiber and purchase mine ready-to-go, but she is awesome at cleaning an carding out batts! I also go to her for all my goat/sheep related questions. (Our sheep are hair sheep so their fiber is unsuitable for spinning.)

I have already spun this into singles and am working on a small knitting project with it. Hopefully, photos will follow soon.

 This is another batt of alpaca fiber, cleaned and gifted to me from the same wonderful lady. :) This is my current project. It's a kind of deep auburn color (sorry, I don't know the actual color names when it comes to alpacas) but it's spinning out a bit darker and is really beautiful color! One of the things I like about the batts she's given me is that there's little tufts of white fiber in there here and there. It's really beautiful and makes me think of the animal that so kindly donated their hair to us. Unfortunately, the fiber isn't coming out as smooth as possible, I would welcome any tips!

And finally, this is a two-ply I spun from some wool roving. I considered dying it but I kind of like the natural cream color...

Thanks for sticking with me til the end of this post!

~Farm Girl Teacher

Bated Breath

Have you ever felt as though you're in a creative slump and then all of a sudden you get a thousand different ideas for a thousand different projects all at the same time?? That's me right now. After feeling like all my creative juices had run dry I was feeling very slumpy.

The solution? Retail Therapy! (crafter style!) Somewhere in the middle of my online window shopping I realized all of a sudden that I have a job! (Yes, I know I've had a job for years, but fast food doesn't count!) For the first time I could actually afford to finally purchase a spinning wheel!

I've always loved crocheting but didn't fall in love with spinning until visiting a fiber guild meeting near my house. I've been using a drop spindle to spin all my fiber and I have to say I think I'm doing a pretty good job at it! BUT, naturally I've been drooling over everyone else's wheels... Anyway, long story short, I finally forked over the money for one Saturday and I am SO excited for it to get here!

I'm going to wait to spill all the details on it until it gets here but I did want to share the news! :D

In the meantime, the wheel shopping kicked those slumpy creative juices into overdrive! I began by finishing up all the half spun bits of fibers lying next to/on my spindles. After setting the twist in everything and actually emptying all my spindles, I suddenly realized I'd found the perfect project for at least one of the yarns...socks! (To wear when I spin, of course!) While waiting on the yarn to dry after setting the twist, I super groomed my angora bunnies to make sure I had plenty of fiber once my wheel got here! :) Naturally, I needed to make room to store the yarn I finished so I crocheted a quick cowl out of some Super Bulky yarn I had laying around. Unfortunately this is Florida and actually wearing the cowl would be very uncomfortable, however the weather this week happens to be very rainy so....I finished up a raincoat tonight! :) I also practiced Navajo Plying on my spindle with some Angora yarn, and now I'm looking for the perfect low yardage project. I'm thinking an ear warmer would look pretty, especially after the yarn halos. I'm hoping that I can finish up the socks tomorrow, and crossing my fingers that the wheel arrives on Wednesday! I've got a whole host of yarn projects planned for it including spinning a handpainted Shetland Top roving, raw Angora fiber harvested from my bunnies (possibly dyed first?), and tackling my first art yarn!

I'll try and get pictures up as soon as possible. Particularly of the rain coat, but it really depends on the coming weather. Here's hoping the anticipation doesn't kill me!

Refurbished Rocking Chair

Growing up I was convinced that every teacher needs a rocking chair! I vividly remember Ms. Sample's wooden rocking chair, there were certainly many wonderful memories there including read-alouds of my favorite stories, calender math every morning, and show-and-tell. (She didn't call it that, but I can't remember what it was called. It was pretty cool though, each week a different student got to do the calender in the morning and share things about themselves.) It was awesome getting to stand in front of class that day in my red tights and get the morning started! :)

Unfortunately a rocking chair is one of the pieces of furniture I was missing. Luckily a teacher at my mom's school was changing careers and asked Momma if she knew anyone looking for a rocking chair! It was well loved, to the point where the seat had busted through but I knew with a little handiwork it would look good as new for the next generation to love. :)

As you can see the paint is chipped a bit and a few screws were coming loose (haha, clearly a sign it was meant for me!) The overall structure of the rocking chair was actually really pretty, I particularly liked the runners. Over the course of about a week I fixed it up and I'm proud to say it has gotten plenty of use already in my class....

I started by ripping out the old seat and reinstalling a plywood one I'd cut based on a template I made from a piece of cardboard. (Let's face it, my dad cut the corners because my saw work was a little wonky...but I did everything else, I promise!)

Afterwards I tightened some of the screws that had worked their way out from normal use and sanded the old paint in the areas where it was chipping. Then I primed the rocking chair once, and gave it two coats of paint. This color is actually called, "Biltmore" one of our family's favorite vacation destinations! :)

Unfortunately the seat was still a little rough so I added a cushion and, viola, my very own rocking chair! :) So far I've mostly used it when reading "A Land Remembered" to the class. The students also take turns sitting in it during silent reading. I was worried they'd fight over it but they've been particularly considerate with each other about taking turns! They make me so proud sometimes. :)

Enjoy your Wednesday!

~Farm Girl Teacher

Class Jobs

Class Jobs

 Shortly after graduating I was able to spend some time substitute teaching. I actually learned quite a bit through this and I loved to be able to see how different teachers do things. I saw all kinds of neat ideas and saw what worked and what could use improvement. I also feel much more comfortable writing sub plans now as I know what's helpful to share with my sub.

One of the things I liked when coming into a class was finding that the students had very clear jobs they were aware of. This really makes the day go by smoother when they know what their responsibilities are. Additionally, I feel that class jobs encourage students to work together to accomplish a task as some of my jobs are actually team jobs. I also liked that many teachers used picture frames and ribbon to display various things. Combine these ideas...and an awesome job chart is born! (It's hard to see but each section has a simple but related picture)

My jobs are:

Line Leader: Self explanatory. :)

Door Holders: I have two, necessary for the layout of our school.

Pencil Sharpener: This person takes the basket of dull pencils and sharpens first thing in the morning.
This person is the only one who sharpens pencils and it only happens in the morning to avoid unnecessary disruptions during instruction.

Postmaster: Helps me collect/pass out papers and take notes, papers, etc. to other teacher or rooms.

Maintenance Crew: This crew consists of four students. They must work TOGETHER to keep our room clean. Two handle dustpans, one cleans desks and makes sure all chairs are stacked, and the fourth cleans the whiteboards. I don't assign these specific jobs, they must work out the disputes among themselves and take turns when delegating tasks.

Snack Team: At our school classes receive snacks certain days of the week that come in a rolling laundry baskets. Two students take care of the basket, one takes it to the room, one drops it back off in the cafeteria in the afternoon. Again, students must work together when delegating tasks.

Class Assistants: Two students who help with miscellaneous things. These tasks can range based on what we're doing during the day and where I actually need assistance.

Technology Manager: This person turns the lights on/off, turns the projector/document camera on, makes sure the student laptops are plugged in to charge, and helps other students use the laptop if they need it.

In Training: This section is where the 'extra' students hang out. They aren't specifically assigned to a job, but they fill in for absent students. I actually have a small enough class that none of my students are in training, they all have jobs.


Please feel free to email me at thatfarmgirlteacher@gmail.com if you'd like me to send you the jobs I created. If you'd like the colors to match your ribbon, let me know and I can change it before I send it.

~Farm Girl Teacher