One for the little boy who lives down the lane...

 In our colonial studies at school, I have been trying to stress to the kids how difficult daily life was for the people in the 1600-1700s.  Lucky for me, my cousin Peg came a few weeks ago to share her knowledge of wool and spinning with the children!

Peggy is a retired schoolteacher herself, and she did an excellent job of engaging the kids.  She set up stations for the kids to participate in, after demonstrating how to spin yarn on her spinning wheel.  It looks like a relaxing activity, but I'm sure it wasn't easy to do for hours on end!

The first station she had set up for the kids was a table full of different kinds of sheep wool, goat hair, angora fur...even the hair combed off of an Alaskan musk ox!  Peg buys most of her wool from local sheep farmers.  She also had some wonderful hats and scarves that she had knit.

The second station was wool washing!

The third station was carding the wool, not an easy task.

The last station was spinning, using a drop spindle.  This was the hardest task of all.

Hopefully the students will remember that there once was a day where you couldn't go to a store and buy your clothes off the rack!

  Thanks for the lesson, Peggy!

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.--John 10:3-4