It is winter in Canada and that means frigid temperatures, dark days and snow. Lots of snow. As I sit here writing, another 30 cm is adding itself to the already high snow banks outside my window. Along with snow, we also get ice. Now this is not a good thing when you live at the top of a very steep, very twisty hill, but it is great fun when you strap a pair of skates on and hit the local outdoor rink! The other morning, before we were kicked off by some guys playing hockey, we had an absolutely glorious time at the rink. It was cold, -18C, but sunny. Oh so sunny! The littles and I decided to head out anyway. I am so glad we did.

Unofficial rules dictate that first people on the ice shovel it off from the previous night’s snowfall. There wasn’t much, but because of the cold temperatures, our blades actually stuck to it and we couldn’t skate. So, we grabbed our shovels and set off to clear the rink.
 

*{These are taken a few days before. Sorry, the moment was too perfect to disrupt it with a camera}

Back and forth we went, the only sound was the sound of scrapping ice and skates clacking along. Occasionally Noah would call out that his “Zamboni” was coming through, or Julien would call for break time, but that was it. It was almost meditative. After almost an hour and a half of this, we put our shovels down and skated. We were soon kicked off by some over aggressive hockey players (grrrr!) but what a peaceful morning it was. I love when that happens. You set out not really wanting to do something only to have it be the best part of your whole day. A good lesson in just getting out, despite temperatures or weather, there is often a really great time to be had!

Well after I broke down and joined on the blogging ban wagon, I thought I might as well go all the way and open an etsy shop as well! The idea has been in my head for quite a while but something finally gave me the push to go ahead and do it. What was the push? Well, the decision to home school is largely mine. It is something I strongly believe in with my whole heart, but it means a loss of income, in a big way. So in order to continue with it, I needed to find a way to generate some income while being able to be home with the kiddos all day. Thus, the etsy store.

I make needle felted dolls that can be used for Nature Tables, seasonal displays, and story telling. A lot of Waldorf education is done through story telling and the use of dolls and puppets help bring the story to life. The store is small right now, but I am working hard to fill it up with things made with lots of love.

I promise that I will not make this blog an advertisement for the store. I will periodically show a new item here and there and I have placed a link on this blog to get there as well as a few pictures of what it is that I make, but this blog will remain a journal of sorts of this amazing journey that I am on with my family, not a sales pitch.

I realize that it takes a while to establish yourself, and I am not really expecting much, but at least I am trying and I think that counts for something. I figure if I put the energy out there, perhaps something good might come back. Do stop by if you have a minute, just so I know at least someone is looking, lol!
 

Upon one of my late night ventures on Pinterest, I came across a woman who dyed wool with Kool Aid ice cubes. Interesting I thought. We have dyed wool in the past using food colouring and loved it. It was pre-blog days so here are a few photos of that fun filled day...
 

The end result was beautiful and I knitted it up into this sweater...
 

Sadly, this sweater sits in the big one’s drawer because apparently silk/cashmere wool hurts your neck.... grrrr.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  I thought this would be a fun experiment and relatively quick. So we picked up some Kool Aid and cleaned out the ice cube trays and set to work. We mixed up the packets using maybe about ¾ cup of warm water. It was enough to fill 8 cubes of each colour. She uses a bit more concentrated, but ours worked well, we just used more cubes. The only hard part of the whole project was waiting for the ice cubes to be ready. We did it while making supper so they were ready the next morning. Just an aside here, but look at that blue colour!! Is that even normal?? How in the world could you drink that?! ( I really am sorry if you do drink that, I didn’t mean any offense, it is just that colour scares me a bit).

After that it is easy. Soak the wool in a vinegar/water solution for at least half an hour. Then gently squeeze it out. Next, place it in a dish, ( I used a square glass baking dish), place the cubes on top and set it out to melt/dye.

Now, this is the part that was tricky. In the post, she “bakes” hers in the sun. You need to heat the wool and dyes to at least 180 degrees in order to set the dye. This would be a fantastic Summer Solstice project, but alas, the current temperature outside is -26C and even if there was a bit of sun, it would just freeze the thing solid. So we improvised.... several ways.

First, we put plastic on it and set it on the wood stove’s warming racks.

I thought it would be good use of heat already being produced. Two problems here. I didn’t want to scorch the wool on the bottom and the kids wouldn’t stay away from the stove which made me really nervous especially after a very close call. So I decided to try the oven. I set it at about 275 degrees and put a thermometer in it so I could make sure it was getting to proper temperature as well as making sure it wouldn’t burn. I covered it with aluminum foil and cooked it for about an hour, maybe a bit more and then checked it. The water was clear and all was good! Success!!

I removed it when it had cooled a bit, squeezed it out and hung it to dry. The result?
 

Gorgeous! I love the way the top, where we put the frozen cubes is a bit lighter in colour and the underside, where it sat in the melted dye is much more intense. We will be doing another skein this week as Noah wants to do his own, which will be interesting to see the colour pattern of a 2 year old. Now I just have to find some thing to knit it into! Oh, another aside here, the wool does smell strongly of Kool Aid, which combined with wet wool really isn’t that great of a smell so probably not the best project if you or your child has smell issues.