Wednesday weaving...

A few weeks ago my friend Jess (who has been weaving fabric for some cushions) brought Cassidy over to weave a little. It was a lovely evening. Cassidy did some interesting weaving in various weights and shades of yellow.

Jess finished up her fabric and we are going to use the Bias Box method to create her cushions.Here are a couple close ups of her fabric. I will share the construction of her cushions once we get to those.

SAORI demo

I am doing a SAORI weaving demo this weekend at The Fibre Nook. Come check it out if you are looking to try out SAORI.


DEMONSTRATION: SAORI WEAVING with Tanya


In 2009, Tanya Corbin wrote:

woven thoughts

The loom moves with a creak and a bump, almost unbidden, automatic.
Yarn becomes colour solidified in soft lines and flow.
Feelings of peace and the satisfaction of creativity fill my heart as this object becomes art.
This comes from me and yet, feels like it comes from somewhere else - through me.
Coming through my hands' work but inspired from elsewhere and simply brought forth.
Nothing has ever felt so natural.

Come watch and participate as Tanya demonstrates the Saori “freestyle weaving, weaving from the heart” process.
Dates: Sunday, Apr. 15 from 130-430 pm
Cost: $35 + GST
Maximum Registrants: 10
https://www.thefibrenook.com/

It's been awhile!

I have woven numerous projects since those first few blog posts.

I will be adding some as I go, and also talking about new weaving adventures now that Seaweaves SAORI is up and the studio open.


Check out the Seaweaves SAORI Facebook page for more.

"Chocolate Mint" mixed fibres. Is now a cocoon vest (you can see it on Tom in the post below about the Carrot banner)

Full length chocolate mint weave

Weaving Season - Carrot Community Banner

It's fall, and I often seem to settle in to weaving a bit more in the non-summer months. This year some exciting things are happening in my weaving world.

It started with this project:

A Community banner that was created as part of the Kaleido Festival, which will soon be displayed at the Carrot Coffeehouse, a volunteer run community coffee shop in my 'hood. 

Terri Bibby created this fabulous carrot coloured warp to use.

I threaded it onto the loom, with some help from Tom, and we set up for two days of weaving at the festival. The weather was perfect, except a little windy, and the loom proved to be a very popular stop for the folks enjoying the festivities.

Getting started.

 Adding in the Carrots from Terri. She wove a small piece with icicle carrots and green stalks hanging out. We worked the piece into the bigger banner by weaving in the fringes.

Our friend, the "other" Tom, taking his turn.

Tom, wearing a woven vest of mine, helping a young weaver pick out colours. We were great partners that day - I really enjoyed working together on this.

Another young weaver. We had over 150 people contribute a bit of weaving to the banner. Truly a community art piece. 

Here we are with the finished piece. We used the whole warp. These are some of the last folks to weave a bit. The girl in the blue skirt at the end helped out several times, she even learned to wind a ball of yarn using the swift. She was one of the first to weave, and came back to be one of the last as well.

Here we are, parading the banner from the tent down to the Carrot.

The banner will be hung for display in the Carrot very soon - I will add some pictures of the display once it is up.

This was a wonderful, joyous day for me. Thanks to all the participants!

Ebb and flow...

I have been weaving, but not posting... I need to get better at that.

Terri is doing a virtual  Saori Kai- which is a gathering to show and share what you've been weaving. Normally in person, but a change of plans allowed for those of us from farther away to participate as well.

I had made a warp around Christmas time to do two scarves for a friend in different blue colour schemes, and had a bit of the warp left that I wasn't sure what it would become. I had been working on loose weaving a couple of times and when I started it sort of came naturally to play with that a bit more. I started with the darker yarn at the very end and then switched to the lighter yarn for the loose bits and back and forth.

I wove without any plan, or looking at it along the way.  I found it interesting afterward that as I wove, each loose section was a bit longer... Terri and I had talked about loose weaving as a way of remembering to allow more space and time in your life and during the time I was weaving, my life was especially full of 'goings on" so perhaps the weaving was trying to tell me something. :-)

Working with just the two yarns, back and forth, started to feel like waves... 

To hang it, I mounted a piece of east coast driftwood at either end, brought in by the tides...

Stitched close up...

 Looking up....

 Looking down....

Up close...

I call it Ebb and Flow. It reminds me that things come and go, and that there is a cycle. And that I have to balance the busy and the calm.

Coming soon...

OK so to keep myself accountable and on top of things I've decided to post a list of projects that I will post something about in coming days - this may take a bit of time since I am catching up on two year's worth of weaving plus posting about current things.... so be patient with me.

Directions Project - 4 weavings

Beach bag and bamboo scarf

Mermaid Tails - scarf and blanket

Fall runner and scarf

Oilers mobius scarves

My first weaving...

Pink scarves

Peacock warp (current) - weaving fabric to become article of clothing.

Landscape

Saori design workshop (coming up in March)

Northumberland Shore Yarn Odyssey – Fibrepalooza, Lismore Sheep Farm, Earth Art Cashmere and Sun Mercantile

This past September I was in Nova Scotia with my fella for a bit of a vacation and we stayed at a cottage near Pictou. I knew there were a few different farms and yarn shops nearby so we decided to do a bit of a tour. Sadly I forgot the camera so I have no pictures of my own to show you, only my memories and descriptions… (I have included logos and pictures from their websites with links to the sites for you to check out).

Travelling towards Tatamagouche from Pictou along the Sunrise Trail, … we saw the sign for Fibrepalooza and turned onto Toney River Road. It’s a kind of dirt road that takes you alongside the Toney River – quite picturesque in places. Eventually we came to another sign and turned onto a LONG driveway, passed some barns with all kinds of sheep and some chickens running around. Up in the trees we came to a house and were met by a couple enthusiastic dogs. There was no signage near the house so I wasn’t 100% sure we were in the right place but we got out and asked and sure enough we were!

Mary led us out back to the door to the shop, apologizing for the “mess” as she was rearranging some things. The mess - to me – looked like a wonderous, creative space full of colour, and I told her so. She was very gracious and let me look around for quite some time, even though we hadn’t called ahead like it says on the website to do. When I go again I will because I’d love to meet all the critters that they have and to talk to her a bit more. The philosophy of Fibrepalooza resonates strongly with me, as they are committed to globally fair traded as well as locally produced products and are ethically, sustainably and environmentally conscious.

I had looked at the website before and was eager to see the Be Sweet and Frog Tree yarns as well as all the yarn that is spun and dyed in house… I filled a basket and bought some lovely yarns.

Next stop: Lismore Sheep Farm

Walking into the shop at Lismore was like walking into a kaleidoscope of colour and texture. My head was on the swivel as I caught sight of an endless array of yarns that beckoned to be touched. There are also some woven and knitted products there including beautiful blankets and some products from a fellow who makes wooden knitting needles and shawl pins. (I bought some knitting needles to use for hangers for my woven wall hangings. The folk there were lovely and friendly to us as well as to the other "fibre tour" group that we kept crossing paths with. It was a busy shop!

We were pushing the 5:00 closing time but they did not rush us in any way. Their website says you can go look at the sheep but since we were so close to closing we decided (after some shopping of course) to move along to the next stop.

Then on to Earth Art Cashmere – which may be one of my favourite places I have ever been.

We pulled in and were met by a couple friendly, fuzzy white dogs. The yard was full of chickens, ducks, some geese and some cats. Chris came out to meet us and we popped into the shop. The cashmere is so soft and beautiful that I felt oddly like I was in a museum or someplace that I needed to whisper. There was yarn plus various knitted and crocheted garments, all done in the softest cashmere I have ever felt.

She asked if we wanted to meet the goats and of course we said yes so out to the barn we went – being introduced to chickens and ducks and geese along the way. We also met Millie the blind pot bellied pig and gave her a bit of a scratch. Out in the field were the 65 goats that make up her flock… (herd?). She told us that 65 goats make hers one of the larger cashmere farms in North America. Chris explained that they comb rather than shear the goats, which eliminates any blunt edges on the hair and is what makes it so soft.

Along with the goats was a large brown and white steer named Arlo plus a llama, mini horse and a donkey. These last three kept their distance but Arlo definitely wanted some attention. Chris allowed us quite a bit of time out in the field and introduced us by name to as many of the goats as possible. Some came over for a scratch and a pet and they are as soft as you’d expect.

Honestly I could have stayed forever at Earth Art Cashmere – it was a wonderful experience and really made our day! But we did have to leave eventually so I bought two small skeins of cashmere mixes – one a sort of rusty orange and one in navy.

We went on to Tatamagouche for a bite to eat and a look around at the Sun Mercantile. I restrained myself from the yarn supply (they carry a fair selection including some local alpaca yarns) and instead bought a recipe book for making dishes with molasses. Yum!

This drive along the sunrise trails made for a fabulous day! It was incredibly scenic, with a stop along the way to gaze at River John and about 100 or more blue herons (!) lounging at the mouth of the river at low tide. I would recommend this tour to anyone who likes yarns, or animals, or interesting and pleasant people... It was a wonderful day.