Body:  Cast on 20 stitches.  Work in Stockinette stitch for 2 1/2 inches.  Then begin decrease rows:

Row 1:  Knit 1, knit 2 together.  Repeat till the end of the row. 

Row 2:  Purl

Row 3:  Knit 2 together. Repeat till the end of the row

Row 4:  Purl

Row 5:  Knit 2 together.  Repeat till the end of the row.

Row 6:  Purl

You should only have about 6 or 7 stiches left.  Cut the yarn, leaving a 10 inch tail.  Thread through a yarn needle and pull through all the stitches.  pull tight and secure.  You can, at this point, go ahead and sew the back seam.  Do not sew the bottom.

Ears (make two)

Cast on 6 stitches.

Rows 1-4:  Stockinette Stich

Row 5:  Knit two together, knit two, knit two together

Row 6:  Purl

Row 7:  Knit two together, Knit two together

Row 8:  Purl

Row 9:  Knitting, increase one in the first and last stitches

Row 10:  Purl

Row 11:  knitting, increase one in the first and last stitches

Row 12:  Purl

Row 13 - 16:  Stockinette Stitch

Bind off

Feet (make two)

Cast on 5 stitches

Work in Stockinette stitch for 2 inches.

Bind off.

***

Finishing:

Lightly stuff the body of the bat and sew across the bottom.  Put the two sides of the ear together and sew.  Sew ears to body (see photo).  Sew the feet to the bottom of the bat as loops so it can hang from a branch.  Cut wings out of black felt.  You might want to try cutting some out of paper first so you can get the size and shape that you want.  Sew on button eyes.  Attach a hook and eye fastener to the wings so that your bat can hang upside down and sleep!

#3 or #4 needles

Body:

Cast on 14 stitches. Knit in Stockinette Stitch until the rectangle measures approximately 7 – 8 inches. Fold it over lengthwise and see if it looks proportionately like a little owl should. Don’t use a ruler unless you just can’t resist. Bind off.

Wings: (make two)

Cast on 6 stitches. Work in Garter stitch.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Knit 1, increase 1 in next stitch, knit till the end

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Knit 1, increase 1 in next stitch, knit till the end

Rows 5 – 7: Knit

Row 8: Knit 1, knit 2 together, knit till end

Row 9: Knit

Repeat these two rows until there is only one stitch left. Cut yarn, leaving a 3” tail, pull yarn through last stitch.

Feet: (make two)

With contrasting color, cast on 5 stitches. Work in stockinette stitch for approximately 10 rows. End with a purl row.

(As with the measurement for the body, use your own judgment here. Some yarns knit up larger than others. Those owls might need longer feet.)

Picot row: Knit 1, yarn over, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together

Next row: Purl, making sure you purl the yarn over stitches, too. You still have 5 stitches on the needle.

Continue with stockinette stitch until you can fold it over lengthwise (see the lovely TOES that the picot stitch makes?) and it is meets the other edge. Bind off.

Beak:

Cast on 4 stitches. Work in Stockinette stitch for 4 rows.

Next row: Knit 2 together, knit 2 together.

Next row: Purl

Cut yarn, leaving a 3” tail, pull yarn through the two remaining stitches.

Fold body lengthwise in half and sew together, stuffing with wool. Pull out the top corners just a bit with your fingers to make the ears show. Sew wings on either side. Fold over feet and sew each one together and then sew them onto the bottom of the owl. I sewed the top of the beak onto the face of the owl then sewed the “point” down as well, making it stick out just a little. I used two buttons for eyes, but if this is for a younger child (younger than age 3), you should embroider the eyes on with black yarn.

www.knitpicks.com  - lots of good wools, sock yarns, and a good assortment of colors.  They also offer free shipping on orders of $50.00 and over.

http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/ - this site has Brown Sheep yarn and mill ends of wool roving from Brown Sheep, among other things.  I am impressed with their prices!  For those of you who know Brown Sheep yarn, their "Lamb's Pride" yarn, both worsted weight and bulky weight, are only $3.00/skein. 

http://www.paradisefibers.net/Discount-Yarn-mill-ends-s/125.htm - I'm just beginning to look through this one, but it does look promising!

When I find more, I'll keep you posted!!

But here are a few to enjoy:

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/08/how_to_knit_a_dissected_rat.html

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/01/dissected_fiber_frog.html

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/10/strange-knits-and-yarn-monsters.html

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTveganfox.html

http://www.craftycrafty.tv/2007/05/scary_knitted_animals.html

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=91821907@N00&format=rss_200

I just showed these pictures to a couple of eighth grade boys and received their approval.  Unfortunately, with just a few exceptions, the patterns are not online, but have to be purchased.  I suspect, however, that with just a little trial and error, most of these could be figured out by other knitters.  The Vegan Fox pattern is online and I am hoping to make one of these soon. 

For each awl, you will need:  one cork - champaigne corks and corks from cream sherry work especially well, one needle - size 2 crewel needles, one pair of pliers, and tacky glue.

Using the pliers, make the hole in the cork for the needle by pushing the needle in point first.  Then take the needle out of the cork, put a bit of glue at the "eye" end of the needle and push that end in the cork, using the pliers.

What was so lovely is that I found these awls to be much, much better than the professional book binder's awl that I purchased! 

One more note:  I use the size 2 crewel needles to sew the books together, too.  By the time I've sewn two or three books, the needle is slightly curved.  This is what I want! 

Body:

Cast on 18 sts, size 2 or 3 needles.

Work in garter st (knit every row) for approximately 20 rows.

Bind off

Sew each corner together for legs. Stuff with wool fleece and sew up tummy.

Head:

Cast on 12 sts

Work in garter st for approximately 6 rows.

Bind off

Sew two sides shut, leaving one open for stuffing. When it is stuffed, thread yarn on needle, gather the bottom opening, and sew to head with one of the seam sides to the front.

Ears:

Leaving a 3-4” tail, finger knit for 1 ¼”. Pull through head so that about ½” of knitting is showing on either side of head. Now pull the ends of the yarn through, close to where the finger knitted ear comes out of the head and, leaving the finger knitting to be a tiny loop, loose the end of the yarn in the body of the knitting and trim the end. Repeat the last step for the other ear.

Tail:

I use a large stitch holder to make the tail.

Wrap yarn around the stitch holder thickly, to the desired length.

Stitch with yarn tightly down the center of the wrapping.

End with a strong knot. Cut the loops and fluff up. Sew to tail end of squirrel.

Slug:

On size 0 or 1 needles, cast on 4 sts.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit, inc 1 in 1^st and 3^rd stitches (6 stitches)

Row 4: Purl

Row 5: Knit, inc 1 in 1^st and 4^th stitches (8 stitches)

Continue knitting and purling till slug measures approximately 1 ½ inches long.

Pull yarn through needle and stitch opening, stuffing a tiny ball of wool in the end to create a head.

Finger knit for about 1 ¼” for horns. Pull through head and weave ends back through horns, losing the yarn in the body. Trim end of yarn.

Snail Shell (to go on slug):

On size 0 or 1 needles, cast on 12 sts.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit, inc 1 in 1^st and last stitches (14 stitches)

Row 4: Purl

Row 5: Knit, inc 1 in 1^st and last stitches (16 stitches)

Row 6: Purl

Continue knitting and purling rows without increasing for four more rows.

Row 11: Knit 2 together, knit 2 together, knit till last four stitches, knit two together, knit two together

Continue knitting and purling rows till the entire shell measures approximately 3 inches. Pull yarn through stitches and sew opening, stuffing lightly as you go. Twist into tight spiral and sew together. Sew to slug body.

Father Sun came out on a winter’s day

And melted all the snow away

And called to the flowers, asleep in their beds,

“Wake up! Wake up, you sleepyheads!”

But the flowers stayed snug in their earthy beds

And gently shook their sleepy heads

And said, “Father Sun, don’t tease us so,

We know it’s still winter, and soon again will snow.”

And fast asleep they did go.

And sure enough, the very next day

The Snow King chased

Father Sun away!

In Colorado, the winter temperatures can vary from below zero to the 60’s. As I write this in mid-March, we are having a snow day because of a blizzard that is expected to dump two feet of snow. Five days ago, the temperature hit 78 degrees! It is so difficult it is to know how to dress our children properly! And it is so frustrating to send heavy winter coats only to have the temperature rise to 60 degrees by outside time making it challenging to keep coats on the children when it is too warm for heavy coats and too cold to go without coats! We can also have bitter cold winter days and then we need extra warmth in the classroom as well as outside. Many children do not dress warmly enough.

With these challenges in mind, we embarked on a major project this year: making boiled wool (felted) vests for each of the children in the kindergarten! And the project has had some wonderful “fringe benefits” that we didn’t expect! We started making the vests in November and just now, in March, are we finishing the last two sweaters. It is so wonderful for the children to see this type of purposeful work done day after day (week after week, month after month)! The older children in our class (all boys in our case) were very interested in their vests and did most of the sewing themselves. The younger children played endlessly with our large tin of buttons at my feet. The children have chosen the buttons and pockets for their vests and helped to decorate them. They are so involved in the process, regardless of whether they are actually sewing, looking through buttons, or just seeing us sew day after day, that they really, truly want to wear their vests as often as possible.

As we explained to the families what we were going to do and why we had chosen this project, we realized that it made for very effective parent education. Not only were we talking about it, we were doing something as well. After speaking to the parents about the project, suddenly more children came in wearing undershirts and leggings under dresses!

The first step was to ask each family to send in an old wool sweater. Thrift shops were a good source for these. Specifically, they were asked to send:

A 100% wool sweater, NOT marked washable (not cashmere, either)

Merino wool works very well as does Lamb’s wool and Shetland wool

Ladies medium (this seemed to be the most reliable size)

Pullover, not button-down

Preferably with long sleeves

Fairly tight weave

NOT loose weave, bulky knits

There can be an “all over” color pattern but not a patterned yoke (the pattern will shrink differently)

We did not specifically ask for extra sweaters, they came in anyway —which was good, as shrinking sweaters is not an exact art and it was helpful to have the extras around when one shrunk too small.

I took the sweaters home and washed them in HOT water with a COLD rinse. Then put them in the dryer. If a sweater didn't seem to shrink too much, I put it through again. When all the sweaters had been washed and felted (shrunk), I cut off the sleeves and cut through the middle of the sweater from the collar to the waist. I did NOT do this step in front of the children! With the sleeve material, I cut pockets of all colors. There is also enough material left over to cut into smaller pieces for the children to use for their own sewing projects. No need to worry about the edges. They are felted and won’t fray. The sweaters that shrunk down too small were made up and given to younger siblings. The extra sweaters were all made up and are often used by first graders who need an extra layer. When a sweater just wouldn’t shrink down enough, it was time for some creative alterations. Fortunately this only happened with a couple of sweaters!

In the classroom, we took the vests, one by one, and did a blanket stitch with wool yarn, around all the cut edges. The older children learned to do the blanket stitch themselves, helped by this simple verse:

The silver fish swims through the sea

Catch him in your net, as quick as can be!

But this little fish swims so well,

All we catch is the tip of his tail!

Then came the pockets, chosen by the children, and the buttons, also chosen by the children. The button loops were finger knit and sewn on. And, of course, many embellished their sweaters with extra buttons! When each vest is finished, the child is excited to wear it. One child wore his home under his coat, as he just had to show his father.

Next year we must make hats!

Terri Reinhart

Woodrose Kindergarten

Denver Waldorf School

P.S. The winter storm officially dumped a total of 31 inches of snow in three days! One friend of mine who lives in the mountains got 7 feet of additional snow with this storm! All in time for the first day of spring.

West Earl Woolen Mill

110 Cocalico Creek Rd
Ephrata, PA 17522
717-859-2241

West Earl Woolen Mill has Peruvian wool batting and wool roving. This is white, not dyed wool. They don’t have a website so you will have to call. Be sure to pay attention to the time zone! I think this is also their home phone. Their prices are the best I’ve ever seen for wool batts.

**********************

Brown Sheep Company, Inc.
100662 County Road 16
Mitchell, Nebraska 69357
1.800.826.9136 - FAX 1.308.635.2143

Wool Roving: $9.80/lb or $7.20/lb for a whole bump (25 lbs or more)

***************************

Dyed Wool

The Recycled Lamb

2010 Youngfield St.

Lakewood, COLORADO 80215

(303) 234-9337

www.recycledlamb.com

Earthsong Fibers

www.earthsongfibers.com

Both of these have dyed wool roving and batting starting at about $2.00/ounce.

******************************

Resources for felting needles:

http://www.feltcrafts.com/needle-felting-supplies.html - this company was started by a Waldorf parent.

http://www.woolery.com/Pages/felting.html#needlefelting - I always like to get a paper copy of this catalog. It's my favorite catalog to just look at. I am dreaming of getting a spinning wheel someday! Both of these companies offer the best prices I've found for felting needles.

http://www.weirdollsandcrafts.com/needle-felting-roving/felting-needle-supply.html - I had almost forgotten this company.  They have good prices on their felting needles!  And lots of other fun stuff.

www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/sources.asp

This page lists many, many different sources for Waldorf teachers.

Some other pages to look at:

www.friendswoodbrooms.com (the most incredible handmade brooms I’ve ever seen)

www.recaddy.com (source for broom corn and broom making supplies)

www.woolpictures.com (Judit Gilbert’s wool pictures – very inspiring!) Hancock’s Fabrics in the Denver area often carries wool/rayon felt.

Also: www.ericas.com/fabric/woolfeltyardage.htm has wool and wool/rayon felt

www.thefeltpeople.com has wool and wool/rayon felt – minimum $100.00 order

www.achildsdream.com has wool and wool/rayon felt pieces