Keep Calm . . . Craft On

Joining Nicole over at Frontier Dreams today

I am so happy with how this came out!  This is the wall hanging I created with the children in my daughter's kindergarten class for the school's annual auction.  The auction was a little over a week ago and I am happy to report that the item sold.  One parent was parked at the hanging all evening because her son had asked her to "Bring home the rainbow".  How sweet is that?

My daughter's class assistant added all of the flowers, butterflies and the two children to the bottom.  I am so grateful to her for having done so.  On Friday morning (the day before the auction), the class teacher asked if I would mind if they added children to the bottom.  Of course not!  It was originally my idea to have children walking down the rainbow bridge, but, since the rainbow itself required so much re-working, I ended up running out of time.

This is how it looked when I finished it:

Makes me want to create another one for my own children.

In other crafting news, I finished these for a swap partner . . . Now, if I would only get the darn package in the mail!  The post office and I seem to have a love-hate relationship.  I love receiving packages from it; I hate having to go and mail anything.

Sunday, one of my daughter's classmates celebrated her 6th birthday.  She will be moving and not going on to Waldorf first grade.  I wanted to give her a special gift to remember her time and friends from our school.  I made this for her from more of my plant-dyed stash from Mama Jude's Plant Dyed Stuff:

And modeled by my son . . . well, at least I got a picture, right?  Always on the move, hence the blur . . . that boy!  The pattern is Rosa's Carponcho.  It's a free Ravelry download.  I wish I had made it in something with some alpaca or silk, rather than this bulky wool (which is very nice, just not ideal for this project, in my opinion).  But, I made the decision to knit it the week of the party, so, I had to go with what was quick.  I was afraid it was not going to be giftable.

Lastly, I'm working on a little Floppy Cat using a book I have had for years and some Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton I had left over from a project I made when Coco was 2!  Very proud to report that all of the projects in this post used my crafting stash.  Yes, even the felted piece.  I did not have to buy a single item.  My crafting hoarding finally paid off!

What are you working on?

Keep Calm . . . Craft On

Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams today.


There is always a good bit of crafting going on around here.  Mostly knitting, though.  Recently, however, I was asked to coordinate the children's creation for our Waldorf preschool school auction.  (Our preschool is just that, a preschool and kindergarten.  This school does not offer a grades program.)  A painting.  Huh?  Me?  I don't paint.  And I had no idea how to help the children accomplish this even though I would have the resources of our teachers.  Then I came across this post from Passengers on a Little Spaceship and an idea was born . . .  perhaps stolen is more accurate of a description!


But then, what scene to create?  I decided on a rainbow bridge as an illustration of the birthday story told in Waldorf kindergartens the world round.  So, I came up with this little prototype:



And added an angel in the upper left hand side.  Of course, she is leading a child to the rainbow bridge!


So, how to turn that idea into something our 19 kindergarteners could create?  (Because I had decided I wasn't up for creating 3 projects with 60 or so children ages 2.5-6.  Plus, I thought the finished piece would have more appeal as a keepsake if created by the members of the kindergarten class.)


Last Wednesday morning, I carted my supplies to school.  My years of crafty hoarding were finally paying off.  I didn't buy a single thing for this project!  I'd had this Peace Fleece roving in my stash since Coco was 2 or 3!  This is how it went . . . .

And this is how the craptastic thing ended up . . .

I tried rotating this before uploading, but, apparently it didn't take. . . much like the felting!

Yes, indeed, folks, I learned something with this project.  The roving needs to be laid much more sparingly if it is to felt properly.  But, no worries!  Also among my stash of crafting goodies are felting needles.  I've already broken one finishing this up.  Next week I'll share a picture of the item post op.  I am happy to report that the prognosis is good!


On a happier note, here is the Rainbow Sweater I created for the auction.  Our auction is called the Rainbow Bridge Auction.  Can you see, now, from whence my inspiration came?

This is my own pattern.  I also made one last year.  But it came out slightly different.  Still trying to perfect the fit.  The yarn comes form a former Waldorf handwork teacher and can be found in her Etsy shop, Mama Jude's Plant Dyed Stuff.  And, of course, this project had it roots in my enormous stash.  I'd had visions of some rainbowy project several years ago and bought these lovelies from Judy. Two years later, I finally made something out of it.  Here is the first one: 

What are  you working on?