DID THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS KNIT?

Did they  know what snow was? So sad, to not know the wonders of fondling  a squishy skein or of opening the curtains to freshly fallen snow. I am pleased that my pleasures in life are simple and can be easily found. As you can see, we DID awake to snow this morning, a goodly four inches or so. The falling snow had sadly stopped though. I had made sure that the bird feeders were topped up yesterday when we heard the forecast, although I don't think it will be hanging around for long. I do so love to see it. My delight has not lessened one tincy wincy bit since I was a small child. I just LOVE the stuff!

I have to say, young Oscar does too and after an hour and a half at the water park this morning, he still refused to come in from this winter wonderland.

It's been a very, very quiet knitting week I'm afraid. School has been busy, busy, busy and wedding plnning has been go, go, go. So I haven't been able to quite finish Sophie's little bolero. It's getting there though, so I thought I'd show you anyway.

I've mattress-stitched the seams and made the sleeve edgings , which have been slip-stitched into place. I'm now on the mammoth task of completing the edging, making it long enough to go all the way around. It's a rather pretty and very simple four-row pattern, so easy enough. I'm glad it can be slip-stitched on though as I'm never very good at picking up large numbers of stitches evenly. The borders never seem to lay completely flat, except by sheer chance.

It's coming along though and will definitely be finished in time to take with me next Friday when I go to visit. The elder Miss Snoops is celebrating her 'hen' weekend and I am joining them all for a meal on Saturday evening. I will be staying with my son and daughter-in-law and little Sophie. So excited! It's half-term too, so a nice leisurely drive home on Sunday, knowing that I don't have to go to school on Monday. Hooray!

On Wednesday we took both Year 3 classes to the Norwich Castle Museum for an Ancient Egyptian day. It was brilliant! The children were beautifully behaved and joined in all the activities with gusto. We teach much of the curriculum through projects, often with a drama perspective. We began this one several weeks ago with an Ancient Egyptian artefact, a cat and a story by Julia Jarman called 'The Time-Travelling Cat'. The children have been working as Egyptologists and hoping to become experts in their field! The activity day consolidated their learning and took them so much further in their learning as they had to decide on whether Howard Carter was right to open Tutankhamun's tomb, or whether the Egyptian's side of the argument, that the tombs should remain untouced, was correct. By the end of the day, many of the children could, quite rightly, see both sides of the argument.

Above are some of the beautiful exhibits, some of which the children could handle inside their protective cases. What a great stimulus for learning! Clues were laid and then guesses were made as to what many of the artefacts were. They managed to use the clues and their own knowledge to work out the answers. They had become experts!

The Ancient Egyptians were a very clever people but did they knit! YES they did! Knitted socks were discovered in  Egyptian tombs from the 3rd to 6th centuries A.D. This is the earliest archaeological evidence of knitted garments.

 

This one is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It dates from around A.D. 300 to 400. How amazing is that!

Have a great week!