Second Grade Fiber

   Last week my son's second grade was doing a unit "from sheep to cloak."  They carded raw wool, made books about the entire process.  Wove a bit, and I brought in my spinning wheel so they could spin some.  They were very cute and enthusiastic, but the yard they spun was a variety of thick, thin, tight and non-existant twist.  Still I told them I would finish spinning it and knit it up as a gift from them for their teacher.  Trying to spin with the same inconsistencies they had in their yarn was, um, a challenge.  However, I finished it and knit this very irregular yarn on size 15 needles into a quick stockinette stitch scarf.   The lumps and smooth areas, while difficult to knit cleanly, made for some really interesting texture.  My son told me we needed to dye it because plain cream colored yarn was boring.  So last night we threw together a quick alum mordant/onion skin dye (he was really adamant it be onion skins - maybe the teacher had spoken of natural dyes?) and we came up with a very pretty golden yellow scarf.  Of course, I failed to photograph it, but it was pretty.
    I decided the scarf  was really a metaphor for the second grade: smooth patches,  rough patches, hard spots, soft spots, but golden over all.