On Monday I was back to school to do a spinning
demonstration organized by Herself who is a story teller to the Grade I
children. She (shock horror) tells
modified versions of the Grimms Brothers’ stories so they get Sleeping Beauty,
Rumplestiltskin etc which involve spinning straw into gold (don’t bother to
try -
it doesn’t work) and pricking fingers on a spindle which would be hard
to do, at least on modern spindles. She
feels that the stories will have more meaning if the children have actually
seen spinning being done - and I agree with her.
I did two demos last year and this year
there are three as the class is bigger.
I am more organized this time around as I now know what to expect and that
I only have about 30 minutes to show combing locks from a greasy fleece (“sniff
this -
it smells like a sheep”), making rolags on my blending board, spinning
them and then plying with some pre-spun singles on another bobbin.
The kids were far less restrained and more
interactive than last year’s intake and I really enjoyed myself. One little boy sidled up to me when I was
putting the bobbins onto the Lazy Kate ready to ply and told me that he had something
to give me afterwards. I assumed that it
would be the almost obligatory very small box of chocolates but after I had
finished and was packing up he came back and presented me with 10c which I
accepted with due ceremony. From a six
year-old that was a worthwhile contribution which, after the class had gone, I
gave to the librarian to put into the charity tin.
The next two will be back to back
demonstrations on, at this stage, June 9th.
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