From Mary Fettig, Class 2/3 Mentor. Mary is a long-time Waldorf teacher working with new grades teacher Laurie Kozar this year, and shares wonderful pieces about the Waldorf curriculum in practice at OVWS in the Apple Core. This piece originally appeared in the January 2018 Apple Core.
In a traditional Waldorf school education, students in Grade Five learn to knit a pair of socks on four double-pointed needles. This is a continuation of their Handwork curriculum where they had originally learned how to knit in Grade One. As we have combined classes at OVWS, the curriculum now spirals through the grades, allowing students in any one class to first learn a skill and then have the opportunity to perfect it.
In preparation for knitting socks, class 4/5 spent time dyeing skeins of yarn with plant dyes. Here in Vermont, we are blessed to have many local plants that graciously give up their colors for us to use, and the class took advantage of these! Dye pots contained tansy, goldenrod, yellow cosmos, and onion skins for yellow; black-eyed Susan for green; shallot skins for orange; and indigo for blue and teal. This week's pots will yield madder for orange, calendula for a different yellow, more indigo, and some red onion skins. Each pot not only offers up a different color, but much like how each student is unique, so too are the different skeins that visit the same pot. As Ms. Camilletti says, "Each one is different and each one is beautiful."
First, the plants are shredded and then simmered to extract the pigment. The yarn to be dyed needs to be prepared with a mordant of alum or sumac which allows the dye to penetrate the fibers, giving a rich color that will not "bleed" out. It is said that anyone who can make a cup of tea can dye a skein of wool or a yard of plain linen, but it can be more complex than that! Students immersed their white skeins into the dye pots and, after a few moments, such a variety of shades and hues came out. After the skeins are dried, the yarn will be rolled into balls and the knitting will begin. Keep your eyes open when near the Handwork display case in the Grades building this spring to see the results of our students' hard work!
