PART 2 Twist 2025 new booths of interests

Today Lets head back to Twist

9.1)  photo selfie setup just outside the arena with a sheep on a rocket and snowball bush.

This year there was more yarn for sale at boots, but I did find a few venders selling fiber, mostly combed top, and one selling felt (which you saw last time). There were a few more informational booths that I want to point out and we already saw some of the local guild /group demos.

9.2) a quick peek at the ongoing Ottawa guild demo in hall between the arena and the gym.

Lets take a quick look in the arena, there were booths around the outside and a row placed back to back down the center. The isle were wide and there were a few benches to stop and rest. (as demonstrated by Glenn last post, but most other bench users were not a somnolent as he was).

10.1 3 shots, one of the arena at opening, woman looking at weaving yarn, mohair top

10.2) buttons, knitting yarn and samples

10.3) Christine’s booth with bats of mixed fiber and art yarn. She is spinning on a Majacraft wheel.

This is a booth,  A Lair Artifacts, I kept going back to. I have shopped here over a number of years. The died top is available in a number of different fibers/breeds. There are some super wash merino, regular merino, and many other breeds with greater luster as well as a few fiber blends. (you can see a list of what fibers she is dyeing with here; https://www.alairartifacts.com/en/general-5 ).  I keep being drawn to Masham, it’s a long fiber but it has such a captivating luster and is much stronger than the soft limpy-ness of merino. I keep telling myself, I am going to felt with this so if the staple is too long for what I want to use it for I can use scissors to make it shorter (which will offend spinners!)

11.1) combed top of various breeds and needle felting with dried flowers.

I am sure you spotted examples of felting in this booth too. When you look closely at the ghosts, which are very small, you will notice they have fabulous drapieness to their sheets.

11.2) ghost with dry flowers in belljar.

11.3)  looking up breed information tag has breed and micron count and some times staple length.

one of the shoppers asked about one of the breeds she didn’t recognize  and the vendor was able to explain about the sheep and she showed her more information from the handy little book “The Field Guide to Fleece: 100 Sheep Breeds & How to Use Their Fibers” By Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. (sometimes all the time i have spent in the local guild library comes in handy!)

11.4) There was a pebble mat of felted round rocks as well as an very well done mushroom! (one in needle felt, one crochet and i think the last one is sewn)

11.5) I was impressed with the top but check out the frilly side, very nice line work and lovely subtle blending on the stem

I got distracted and had a chat about the shallow working depth of crown needles. I hope I didn’t overwhelm or bore her too much!  The pebble rug, which was quite large, and covered the table, looked like the mushroom  was growing from between the pebbles.

Since we have had a quick look around at the vendors in the arena let’s go over to the gym and see one of the booths I wanted to show you over there. On our way there lets first take a quick look at some of the other vendors.

12.1) Eco printing

12.2) Cheviot Top hand died

12.3) a booth with brooms

12.4) Linin tea towels in basket

12.5) samples of knitting with yarn from this booth

now lets stop and take a look at the first of the booths in this hall i thought might catch your interest.

La laine : matériau d’avenir | The Future is Wool (Concordia University)

the Future of Wool booth, this is a group we saw  was it last year in the outside tent? This year they have moved inside and are creating a collaborative embroidery project.  Twist posted that this is a “new 3-year community stitch project, exploring cross-cultural histories and planet-healing futures of our favourite fibre, local/regional/Canadian wool! Together, we’ll create a multi-panel ‘Bayeux’-style tapestry about our wool”.

Their own description about themselves is :

“The Future is Wool uses wool and craft to propose the questions: of Does the pleasure of handwork and the chance to work in community with other makers bring us comfort in this time of [post?] pandemic anxiety? Does wool’s biodegradability ease our ecological grief as our planet faces what seems like catastrophic climate change? This project is ongoing”. https://re-imagine.ca/the-future-is-wool/

13.1-13.4 “the Future of Wool” booth close up of image they are making, pictures of people embroidering,

They had a range of ages helping with their embroidered tapestry and all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

13.5) a large age range participated in the embroidery.

Each time a went past this booth, there were new people helping by work on part of it. the promotion of wool is always a good thing for felters and spinners!

Just around the corner was another booth that cot my attention (ok, so I may be easily distracted but did you see what was on the table?)

14.1) hat and mitts on table

Since we are now on page 11 as I am typing this up, I should probably stop and show you the rest of this and the neighbouring booth, and a few of the outdoor vendors and the guest sheep next post, part 3. In the mean time I will let you drool at those mitts as I did. Do you think that is seal and fox fur? I would never have cold fingers again!!!

i hope you are enjoying the vicarious shopping and have room for a bit more next post. until then have fun and keep felting, or maybe washing he last couple fleeces before the snow arrives again!