Merrickville Ont. Canada, New Fiber Festival -Fiber by the locks

On Sunday, October 19^th 2025, we had a new small fiber sale happening in Merrickville Ontario.  It was a lovely sunny day so perfect for a drive south of the city.

1.1)poster of new fiber festival

Merrickville is a small town along the Rideau cannel at one of the many locks.  The town has many beautiful stone houses and buildings.  We arrived early and found a good parking spot, so let’s walk over to the locks and take a look around.

1.2) map showing the Pew building and Merrickville locks.

The pews is the building we were going to on the maps it’s the little red dot. It is also beside the locks and across from the blockhouse (where the guns and soldiers were, in case we were invaded by Americans in 1812). It was a lovely warm not-fall day for October, the leaves were turning and the water was still, giving beautiful reflections of the fall colour. (I was not the only photographer out and we had lens envy chats!)

1.3) the Merrickville lockstation

1.4)the Canal locks at Merrickville

1.5)the Canal locks at Merrickville

1.6)the Canal blockhouse at Merrickville, the military would be stationed here to protect the cannel from American incursions.  I is now a museum.

1.7) the Arron Merrick Building (Side)

1.8) the Arron Merrick Building (front)

Its now time to head back to the Pews (formerly a United Church of Canada building, from the 1890’s)

1.9) former church now called the Pews.

The upper part where the church was is still filled with pews and is often used for concerts. The lower hall is accessible from the back of the building. That is where we are heading next, if I can pull you away from enjoying the fall colour.

It’s a small hall, full of 4 foot tables, so it’s a bit snug, but that is more for us to look at. The vendors are just doing the last of their set up (we will wait in the back corner, out of the way, till its time to shop).  One of the vendors just pointed out a doorway with a ramp to another lower section, we can look at that afterwards.

2.1) most of the vendor tables in the hall there are a couple more to the left out of frame and at least one more to the right.

Shall we have a quick look around?

2.2-2.9) booths in the main lower hall

The second part of the lower level was accessible through a doorway and a small ramp. This was less finished and more basement-like. It also had an exterior door for accessibility from the outside. The booth sizes were bigger in this back section. There were two felters, which you may be interested in.

3.1-3.6) photos second hall basement

We had a thorough look through the event then went up the street to Alpaca tracks in hope of a butterscotch colour of alpaca fiber for a friend’s project. What they had, was not really what I was hoping for, but the store was interesting. Unfortunately, the fiber for sale is upstairs, and I was not feeling up to stairs by that point. So, I will show you a couple quick shots of the ground floor.

4.1) the store Alpaca Tracks T(h)read Lightly

4.2-4.5) displays within the store that cot my eye

It was a store full of cool things to look at, much seemed to be made by local artists. Since I could not find the colour of fiber I was looking for I will have to look in Toronto later in the week.

 

I hope your virtual shopping money has not been badly depleted!! There is still the OVWSG guild sale to tell you about.  If you were in Ottawa the first weekend in November, I hope you dropped by (you might turn up in a blog post!) if you missed it, you can always plan ahead and be there next year!  But, if i am doing this in order, we need to have a quick chat about; reflections in glass, the ongoing Mer project, and a Visit to the Olive Sparrow (where there were lots of options of fiber!) before we can get to the guild sale.

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