Shopping and Felting, I promise (New picture started & Blue Whale)Part1
Today we will get to felting, but first…There is a new Fiber festival, Ontario East Fibre Fest, in October, south of Ottawa (Canada). Let’s get up early and drive south just past Smith Falls to check it out. I saw ads on Facebook; it looks like there will be a good selection of vendors. Some of whom you may recognise from past shopping opportunities. This looks like fun you might enjoy joining me! Don’t forget to pack your window shopping money and meet us in the driveway by 8 am. Afterwards we can visit the cottage and continue the felting.
Saturday Morning heading to Lombardy:
The drive is just over an hour; it’s one of those places you can’t quite get to in a straight line. If we had more time, we could stop while going through Carlton Place, at the wool growers co-op and look at fleeces, but there may be some at the sale, so let’s keep going. Smith Falls is part of the canal system that runs from Ottawa to Kingston. (The locks were built to help thwart American ideas of trying to liberate us from the British. The Americans were surprised we liked being British and not American.)
1.1) Map of eastern Ontario & map of the event.
Just south of Smithfalls is the town of Lombardy; we are stopping at the Lombardy Fair Grounds. There is a complex of agricultural buildings, lots of parking, and when we arrived, we could see food trucks. We had made good time on the drive, found the handicap parking, and went to start the line to go in. (We are early.)
1.2) The buildings
The event was spread over 3 of the buildings (there were a couple more they could expand into, if they had more vendors in the future). It’s a bit of a hike between the 3, but with the walker it was fine. The organisers had a good mix of vendors, with offerings from raw fleece to finished goods and tools. It was not as yarn-heavy as some large fibre festivals have been at lately, but still had a good variety of yarn. Keep an eye out for Toby’s fluorescent yarn; it glows in black light!!! Do you want to knit something for a rave? Let’s have a quick look at some of the things for sale. There is always room for more virtual fibre in your hoard! Luckily real fibre is quite squishy, so there is room for more of that too!!
2.1- 2.2 ) photos from booths
They had asked one of the local sheep shearers to demo on Saturday and a farmer to bring their alpaca on Sunday.
3.1- )sheep shearing (there were also 3 mohair goat volunteers for a haircut. The youngest was having his first haircut and was not impressed!)
They had arranged 2 food trucks, and one little building had Chapman’s ice cream on cones or cups. One of the food trucks was selling food featuring cheese (I found out later they had a fantastic variety of grilled cheese sandwiches, one with pineapple! The other was handmade tacos. I should have gone over to look more closely!!! Next year.
4.1) ice cream and food trucks
It’s now past 2 pm; if we are going to also get some raking and felting done at the cottage, we probably should head out soon. By the time we got there, Glenn was wiped, and I was busy trying to get a shot of all the cool things I found. So we put off the raking of the pine needles until Sunday morning.
5.1) Jan’s Loot from the Ontario East Fibre Fest
I wound up working on the blue whale after dinner. I can’t find more of the tongue colour I had used. It’s probably in the missing box with my photo reference pictures. So used what I had left and then started to join the top and bottom sections together.
Sunday:
Glenn inspected the progress Sunday morning
5.2- Whale on chair in 2 pieces, working on felting down mouth and colouring tongue, Glenn inspecting whale with 2 parts joined
It’s amazing how weather can change over a short space of time. I was inspired by the steam coming off the creek that looked like little figures dancing above the water (looked a bit dangerous dancing on water; you could fall in and get wet).
The water was flat and reflected the trees and fall colours at 7:30 am. After breakfast, it was still calm, and Glenn spent a couple of hours removing the pine needles over the septic field and up the driveway. He made 3 big piles by the edge of the driveway.
While he was busy with the pine needles, I started lunch, ginger orange chicken with peppers and onions over rice. During lunch, we noticed odd noises on the metal roof and finally figured out it was pine cones being pelted by the pine trees at the house! This shock was followed by an increasingly gusty wind and the Pine-Snow-Apocalyptics!!! The beautifully raked yard, the driveway and even the previously clean porch were covered in pine needles and stray leaves! As if Sunday morning raking had never happened.
https://youtube.com/shorts/h0QWWmRMf-U?feature=share
5.3) video of snowing pine needles
5.4) Photos of the area around the cottage of the pine needle apocalypses.
5.5)Where the car was parked during the event; you can see the per-raking level of needles under the car.
I guess we can try again next week? Oh well, I did get to work on the blue whale; he now looks more whale-like, but his fin-wires are too high. I promise I will lower them.
Monday was the guild meeting, so I was in early to set up the library, do a check of the circulation file and add a few donated books and a new magazine. Then it was time for the meeting, which was on sock knitting machines and was very interesting. I had a selection of the guild’s books on socks from the post-spinning section. (Post-spinning is things you can do with thread or yarn after you have spun it). (I also have a post-weaving section of the guild library, formerly known as sewing.)
6.1- shots of the meeting/library set up
Tuesday, I have the new mini tower computer back and am trying to get it set up. I lost all my old beloved hardworking programs when the huge tower computer died. No more Windows 2010 and its fabulous artistic photo editing tools!!! No more Publisher supported by Microsoft, so I was going to dump all their products as soon as I lost my old owned copy. I had been pointed to OpenOffice, but the one I found was very clunky and took much longer to write a blog post on. I later found the newer version LeberOpenoffice, it has lots of features and is still getting updates. I wrote the last blog post in that. I didn’t have extra time to investigate it too far, but I did discover it can open Publisher files, so I’m very happy. I had to reinstall PhotoPad, which both Ann and I use, but the new version is more limited and keeps trying to get us to buy the suite. (annoying)
It took most of 2 days to edit the photos for the blog. It is still slower than windows/old photopad was, but I will create a workaround, and it will get faster, I hope.
Glenn was home earlier than he has been in over a month, so we packed up and went to Kanata for the evening. Glenn played another horrible train game for about 3 hours, and I lowered the whales fins/
As you may remember from the smaller humpback whale armature, they have upper and lower armature body parts. For the bigger blue whale, I had moved the fins to the upper armature since they seemed a tiny bit low on the Humpback whale. I realised I had added more to the underside of the upper body than I had anticipated, so as I joined the upper and lower body parts together, the fins seemed a bit high…. drat. Oh well, if I had left them on the lower armature, they would still be too low. I can relocate them down by adding an extra wire. I tried just bending them to a lower their position but that made the fin support too short. I will get that fixed before I make the wet felted skin.
I inserted a 6-gauge wire between the two armatures about where the fins should be. Then cut the trailing end of the fin wire I had mis-located and wound it around the new, much stiffer wire. Once the wire was positioned, it was time to spend a bit of time firming the area between the eye position and the far side of the fin.
7.1) Fin Fixing with augmented 6g wire inserted between armatures.
Oh dear, it’s already very long. I will stop here and share the rest next time.
1.1- 1.5)A few shots from Almonte fibrefest, to top up your virtual fibre horde
2.1-2.2)Felting Booths: two suppliers and 2 creators
3.1 ) Dampening and stamp-ening the unsuspecting leather
4.1- ) Dyeing the leather
5.1) hole punching for stitches
6.1- ) pony stand, stitching and sneaky thread trick
7.1-) finished cover
8.1) the samples of pictures and two of the moose bags
9.1- 9.5)various surfaces to felt into, students’ pictures in progress, trying some of them
10.1–10.5) students and finished or pictures in progress.
11.1-11.2) End of the workshop packing up
8.0-8.1) Setting up the Exhibition on Friday night, again a blur of activity
8.2) The new banner for the exhibition that can be reused for future years
8.3-8.5) Let’s join the people who are already looking at the exhibition
8.6) The crowd of people looking at the exhibition is getting bigger.
9.0) Left front grids.
9.1) Wild Weaving By Liane. “maple stems, thistles, anemone, False indigo, pearly everlasting and evening primrose are all native to Ontario. Only the dandelion and Curly Havel are not.”
9.2) Fall Foliage by Marie-France. “Rusted materials collected while hiking in Kanata. Rusted Techniques were learned from Maiwa in Vancouver.”
9.3) Woven Basket by Molly. 100% Canadian Dorset Wool, Embroidery Floss sourced locally, a weathered Branch from the woods.
9.4) Blue Handwoven tapestry (Sorry, cannot read tag)
9.6) Foraged Fairy Baskets, by Liane “All materials were grown and or Gathered locally “ There will be a workshop on making these through the guild.
9.7) From Above, by Nicole “A view from above looking down at the Canadian Landscape using materials sourced from multiple Canadian provinces flown over by the artist.”
9.8) Reflections: Morning sky on water by Moira. “This piece stems from my love of dying and weaving with silk and the beautiful colours reflected in Lac Tenpenny in Val-des-Monts, Quebec. This Calm little lake reflects the sky, Sun and Surrounding Forest as the day progresses: it is ever changing”.
9.9) Scarf in Fall Colours, by Bernadette. “Canadian breed Fleece”.
9.10) Summer at King Mountain, by Barbara (description out of focus). This tapestry will be taught as a workshop.
9.11) Maureen’s Vacation 2024, by Jan “guild Member spinning on Canadian guild wheel at Gros Morne Historic Park”
9.12) Crab, By Nicole. This piece is intended to convey the beauty and decay of our Oceans. Using all Canadian-sourced fibres combined with two mass-produced Dollerama Halloween decorations, the crab shows the interplay between our supply lines and sea life.”
9.13) Jellyfish, by Nicole. “Jellyfish Found off the coasts of Canada created with Canadian sourced fibres”.
9.14) Mr. Mer by Jan. “Mr. Mer is a Mer-man or Fish-Person. I started with a YouTube Felt-along (Saraphina Fibrr Arts) for inspiration, but went way off in another direction. I have made a family of Mer-People with family pets. Each is a unique fish. Mr. Mer is based on a Northern Pike, which I saw frequently at my parents’ cottage just outside of Perth, Ontario.” (Mrs. Mer was canoodling with her husband in the project bag, and seems to have snuck into the exhibition. She has Canadian wool and hair from Olive Sparrow and other Canadian suppliers, like her husband. You can see her in the photo at the top of this section.)
10.0) The back of the left grid panels:
10.1) Triangular Shawl, by Francesca and Jean, owned by Ann S. “Front panel woven separately, and the back was created by weaving the warp of one panel as the weft of the second strand by strand. The piece was designed by Francesca Overend, and woven by Jean Down, both of Ottawa. The materials were provided by an Ottawa shop, and is owned by a Canadian.”
10.2) Garden and Field Shawl, by Amanda. “Shawl made with yarn spun from fleeces of various sheep belonging to people I know, and dyed with a variety of plants from the garden or gathered locally. Crochet pattern from a 1970s McCall’s Magazine.”
10.3) Snowflake Scarf, by Kanika. “Quebec Yarn, woven on a Quebec 8 Shaft loom, Canadian Weaver, Glass beads from Canada Bead Supply. The scarf is meant to represent snowflakes, which is very Canadian”
10.4) (upper Right) Shawl, by Ann S. “One of two shawls woven for the wedding of a Canadian by her Canadian Aunt. She had a choice of blue or burgundy and chose the blue. Hence, I kept the burgundy.”
10.5) (On Left) 75th Anniversary Moose Bag (Glenn’s), by Jan. “This is a Canadian Moose, it was made with fibre from a Canadian Supplier.”
10.6) Quilted Jacket, by Maureen. “ Quilted Jacket with Homespun Canadian wool arms and edging.”
10.7) 75th Anniversary Moose Bag Landscape, by Jan. “The theme (of the bag) is a Canadian skein winder (Moose), fibre purchased from a Canadian vendor.”
11.0) Centre Display
11.1) Fireside Blanket, by Karin. “Blanket was woven Double Width, from Canadian wool from a Company, Briggs and Little, 2ply 100% wool. The Red and Orange wool for the warp were hand dyed by Karin Hendriksen. The black for the warp and weft were factory dyed. The colours remind me of sitting wrapped in the blanket by the fireside, reading a book and sipping hot chocolate.”
11.2) Poppies Remember, by Barbara. “Made at one of the guild’s Workshops with Wendo van Esen”
11.3) Lighthouse with Flowers, by Ann. “A lighthouse is iconic from coast to coast, appearing not only on both coasts but on so many lakes between them.”
11.4) Northern Lights, by Ann M. “Northern Lights are an iconic symbol of Canada.”
11.5) Heavy Heart, by Nicole. “Combining fibres from artisans across Canada. The Sculpture brings together the people and places of Canada. And when displayed on a scale as intended, suggests the surprising weight of our collective awareness—the lightest fibres gaining weight and strength when combined.”
11.6) The guild group project, the Parliament Buildings, in various fibre arts techniques. 
11.7) Polar Pixies, by Paula. “This piece was made in Canada from Canadian wool processed to roving at a Canadian mill. The yarn was handspun and knitted by a Canadian, too!”
11.8) Summer Table Runner, by Karin. “The summer colours of this table runner, woven with Canadian made Orlec from Leclerc, was influenced by the colours of my perennial garden.”
12.0) The Right Front grids, 
12.1) Remembrance, by Carlene. “The red and black design reminds me of both poppies (remembrance Day) and the Red Dress Project, which seeks to remember the Indigenous Women who have gone missing.”
12.2) (On Right) Canadian Muskox, by Jan. “The Canadian Muskox is a source of one of the most expensive fibres on the planet. We have Canadian Muskox in both the eastern and western Arctic. I made this for the Canadian 150th anniversary art show. Using Canadian alpaca for the top coat.”
12.3) OVWSG Sheep to Shawl 2025, by the sheep to shawl team 2025. “Vibrant, glow-in-the-dark shawl produced for the Almonte Fibre Fest Sheep to Shawl Competition by October (Toby) Anderson, Jay Perry, Heather Farrar, and Olivia” (I think this was the first sheep to shawl for all participants; this shawl won Second place!)
12.4) Diamond Jubilee by Ann S. “This piece is a diamond made of 22 columns and 22 rows of twill weaves, creating 284 diamonds to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the OVWSG.”
12.5) Aurora Borealis Skeins, by Bernadette. “Fibre sourced from a Canadian hand dyer.”
12.6) (Left) Zita’s Yarn, by Wendy. Made from a blend of our dog’s fur, locally raised border lester sheep’s wool and Cotswold hand-dyed by Bernadette Quaide, this skein of yarn was inspired by the Guild’s Summer Fibre Poker Challenge.
12.7) Scarf by Marianne Heggtveit, owned by Ann.S. “The Weaver, Marianne Heggtveit, is a proud Canadian of Austrian ancestry. She is also proud that Tencel-which is derived from wood pulp, was developed in Austria.”
12.8) Aubergine, by Carlene. “I wove this piece between June 30 and July 7th 2024, and it was part of my Celebration of Canada Day Holiday time. This piece is a study of the colour purple with many shades and textures incorporated into the work.”
12.9) (Framed on Right) On the Prowl, by Marie-France. “I live in the Countryside, and foxes are regular daily visitors all year round. This artwork is based on a photograph I took on my property in Val-due-Monte, QC. I love the 4 seasons in Canada, but Autumn is the one that inspires me the most.”
12.10) Magical Moose Mittens, by Judy. “These Mittens are made from local Shetland wool that I bought raw and then washed and carded. The white is from a sheep called Amber from Karberry Farm. The brown started out as off white fleece from Steve Welch. I dyed it with black walnut hulls that I collected in my neighbourhood. Then spun the wool into yarn and knit the mittens using my own pattern.”
13.0) Back of Right Grids.
13.1) We Stand on Guard for Thee, by Carlene. “This piece celebrates the Ceremonial Guard and their bear Skin hats. I created this Piece in 2017 for our Guild art show.”
13.2) Reflections: Evening sky on water by Moira. “This piece stems from my love of dying and weaving with silk and the beautiful colours reflected in Lac Tenpenny in Val-des-Monts, Quebec. This Calm little lake reflects the colours of the sky, Sun and Surrounding Forest in an ever changing tableau. This scarf highlights the colours as the water ripples in the lake and the sun begins to sink below the horizon“
13.3) Walnut Smudge Sweater, by Carlene. “Handspun and naturally dyed”
13.4) Tied On, by Joan. “Made from Silk ribbon bought at a (quintessentially) Canadian yard sale”
13.5) Basket of tea towels
13.6) Scarf with beads, by Kanika. (I did not see a description.)
13.7) Socks, by Maureen. “ Hand-Spun and knitted from Canadian sourced wool.”
13.8) 2 vests and shirts, and a tapestry of foxes with fluffy tails.
13.9) Summer and Winter, by Deborah. “Designed and woven by the submitter, handspun yarn spun by my daughter. Inspired by the guild’s Summer Fibre Poker Challenge.”
14.0) Wendy was the head of the Exhibition team and did a fabulous job.
1.1)poster of new fiber festival
1.2) map showing the Pew building and Merrickville locks.
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)
1.9) former church now called the Pews.
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.
2.2-2.9) booths in the main lower hall
3.1-3.6) photos second hall basement
4.1) the store Alpaca Tracks T(h)read Lightly
4.2-4.5) displays within the store that cot my eye
