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CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 3

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 3

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Sunday

Am I awake? Im not sure, it may be Sunday? Or maybe its second Saturday? Give me a moment I may make more sense after my meds. Yes, Surprise!! its Sunday and we are heading back to the curling rink, Glenn has at least one more train game and something else and I am back for the very exclusive side of the convention, Felting!!!

You are probably more interested in seeing if anything has gone wrong with the young mer I am working on.

I had a couple comments that; “we would find out soon who you are using as a model for your voodoo doll”.  I suspect I have to be more careful in where I rest my needles.

Mer peson has 2 felting needles into his heart 11.1) “Are you doing voodoo?”

back vew of Mer person11.2) posterior delts and lats building up.

I am starting to add muscles, I keep adding an extra muscle to help hold up his head so he can see where he will be swimming. If I dint he would swim into things while looking at the lake bottom.

I started herring cheering and odd grunting noises coming from the middle of the hall. Lets go investigate.

cave men stacking shapes game (no speeking)12.1) block stacking game without words?

This game seemed to be two groups of cave men, and women, one whom had to get there cave mates to stack shapes in a particular way without saying anything. They seemed to communicate yes and no by hitting the table with a blow up club once or twice. Each team seemed to be making a different combination so you could not just look at the other team. Each team seemed to have a judge or referee, keeping an eye on how they were (not) communicating. They seemed to be having a great time. Each time a block was confirmed, by their leader, to be in the right place, the whole team would grunt and cheers!

Monster mash game has lots of small rooms and monster will be fighting monsters12.2) Monster mash

I spotted this game starting and wondered over to check out the map board of rooms and lots of monsters waiting to start the game.  You play a monster and fight other monsters. The table was full of little rooms with lots of detail again they look like they were having lots of fun.

I had seen this from a distance and it looked like robots or meck fighting in a tropical location, but when I got closer I realized what I was looking at.

lego mec game!!12.3) a game with Lego mecks

Anything with Lego’s has to be fun!

Book binder bender booth13.1) One of the other vendors was a bindery which had handmade books and bound fanzines

I was drooling at his cutter and behind that is a small press!! He showed me the hand stitched spines on his note books. it was all very interesting (no don’t get into another craft!!)

Ok, this is a felting and gaming convention we should really get around to the felting part before we get distracted and get lost in a game!

Technically there were more votes for “Orca” as a boyfriend, but the concern from the “Sturgeon” voters, that she would likely lose her family to her possible in-laws, was a concern. So I have decided on the more difficult sturgeon.

starting to add wool to fishy parts of mer person 14.1) on to the fish-y parts!

added fin wiers 14.2) adding the Pelvic fins

fins added to fish parts14.3)Adding wool to the fish part and adding Fins at the hip(Pectoral fins), more lower fins(Pelvic and anal fins), Dorsal fins and a cool tail (Caudal fin).

I guessed at the length for the wire for the fins, but as I added wool I can already see I may be short. We will find out as I add more wool and firm up the under layer.

14.4) building up the fiber and consulting some of the reference photos

I know I was wanted to watch the live action kill doctor lucky game, but I am sore and very tired. Glenn is happy with all his gaming and is content to head home. So I am packing up and sending him out to the car with all my stuff.  At least felting, wet or dry, is lighter to carry around than his blacksmithing stuff!  I was a bit too quick with the packing up to get a photo of how far I got the under structure so I will have to get one after I get home.

So far no sign of the missing teen-Mer-dotter, but I am sure she will notice if I work on him here in the office.

If you lose one of your Mer’s and need to make another to lure the first back. I suggest re-watching the Mermaid felt along with Sara (Sarafina fiberarts)

notes from rewatching Sara's Mermaid felt along 14.5) This was my notes from reviewing Sara’s videos, I modified this a bit from her original. You can extend the body length with extra wire if your fish is longer than the average Mer-person.

Mer-Boyfriend has gotten hold of the needle that was in his back and is prepared to work on his fishy-bits if I don’t get back to work soon!

mer person holding feling needle in his hand 15.1) preparing to self-felt!

he is prepaing to poke his fin 15.2) considering where to poke first

I am trying to explain to him that I am a bit busy this week, but maybe he can come to a demo next week and I can continue working on him!

If you are in Ottawa next May long weekend, I hope you will consider visiting CanGames (their web site will give info on games being played and the cost of the convention).  I am sure you will enjoy trying some of the games and then drop by with your drop spindle or (dry) felting and join me for a bit!

have any of these games got you thinking of sheepish versions you could invent?

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 2

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 2

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Saturday

I hope you are well rested after your nap at the end of my last post. If we want to have accessible parking, we should get going early! Don’t forget to bring a bit of money, there are other vendors and the second-hand game sale is today. Now off to the car with an extra item (ok, Glenn was carrying the extra item). Wow, the highway in town is not busy this morning, oh yes, it’s Saturday, not Monday!

I am again set up by the open games area. I think they are used to me sneaking in beside them by now. Today I brought in my little Canadian wheel, the Lendrum Rook. Gord Lendrum, a Canadian spinning wheel maker, made about 40 of them in the mid-1980s. Mine needs a bit of repair, it was at least second-hand when I got it. The weaver spinner whom I was chatting with on Friday said she would be dropping by, I can show her how this one works and hope it’s similar to the wheel she has at home.

6.1) The Rook wheel and some pretty roving were added to yesterday’s felting stuff.

I worked for a bit while watching for the line to start, then it was time to line up for the sale. This year, I was second in line! Again, with the same person in front of me, last year I was third in line. This year, Glenn had me hunting for another train game. This one was called “British Rails”.  It still does not sound as fun as sheep.  While the organisers were setting up, they put a pile of train games close to the checkout. I was able to see them from the line! I know where to check first!

pile of games on the table more will be added. 6.2) A quick peek as the games are still coming in this morning to the sale and are being put out on the tables. By 10 am, the time the sale starts, games more than fill every table!

Last year, I had bought some of the games Glenn had brought in to sell, because they looked like ones he would enjoy.  This year, I know his badge number, so I will try not to do that again! Shortly before 10 am, I looked behind me to see how long the line had grown. It went all the way across the curling rink!…. turned and started up the far side of the rink, passing where my table was and extending past the open gaming section!!  Oh my! I am glad I am second. I put away boyfriend-mer, who I had been working on while sitting in my portable chair (ok it’s my studio on wheels… er.. alright it’s my walker) and got ready to shop.

looking back across curling rink to see the lenght of people lined up for the sale 6.3) The line goes across the curling rink and then proceeds along the far wall

10 am arrived, and they let the shopping horde surge forward. All of us are trying to fit into the confines of one little corner of the rink with tables stacked high with piles of games. Some were in rows on their side, but most were piled multiple games high. All the miniatures for war gaming were on the back table, I skipped that for now and headed to beside the cash where I had seen a pile of train games. (You may want to go the other way around the table and keep an eye out for the elusive sheep games! Even an alpaca game could be thematically fun?)

I picked up the train game he wanted, found a few more and spotted one of those unfun 18XX games Glenn likes, sold by badge number 118, oh Drat! He is badge 118, so I better not buy it for him!  There were lots of pretty boxes to look over. I was trying to shop for Glenn and find some games for my brother’s cottage, too. I even found another Sheep game to add to the collection. This one is for 2 players and has little wooden sheep tokens.  They are sooo cute!!!

I finally escaped the crushing throng of game seekers and made it back to my little table to resume work on the new mer-person. Building up his torso, now his head seems too small.. ok add more brains!  (think zombie voice “Brains”) Glenn returned from his morning train game, victorious (he came in first) and was checking over what I had found. I was successful in my game quest for him, and he was pleased with the others I picked up.

game with sheep on the cover6.4) “Agricola” is a 2 Person game about raising sheep. (We have not tried it yet, but the sheep are wooden and look very cute!)

pile of games on small table 6.5 Some of the Games I found, including what he had requested!

We took another peek at the games as the crowd thinned. Odd, I saw lots of things I had not noticed the first time. I added a couple more to the pile while Glenn got us lunch. The curling rink caterers are very good this year. I had asked for grilled cheese with bacon, but got a club sandwich, which was very tasty, but seemed short of the grilling and the cheese. Well, maybe we can have that for dinner?

I did promise I would get back to work on felt-related matters (this is a gaming and felting convention!).  I continued slowly building up the muscles on my new Mer-Boyfriend.

upper torso from the back of Mer person, felting needle sticking out of his back 7.1) stabbed in the back by a felting needle, but he has a bit more latts!

mer person lounging on bag of white core wool7.2) Lounging on the bag of world of wool core carded roving

mer person from the back starting to work on glutes 7.3) Ooh, I have reached the glutes and the first fins!! Oh, the possibilities, they have to be good glutes, to attract Miss Teen Mer back to the office when I get home!

Then I realised the weaver spinner I was speaking with yesterday should be arriving soon, back from her shopping trip to Wabi Sabi (that’s one of the local yarn and fibre shops in Ottawa). I had better get ready for her arrival and switched to my wheel. I have a bit of yarn on the bobbin and some of the same fibre left to spin.  Let’s finish spinning that and then wind it off into a double-ended ball. That means it’s wound so you can pull from the inside of the ball and the outside end of the ball at the same time. The advantage to this, over plying with two bobbins, is you always get to the middle at the same time from the outside and the inside piece! With 2 bobbins, often you have one bobbin still having yarn on it when you have emptied the other. The drawback of a double-ended ball is that it can all go horribly wrong and get tangled if you are not careful (and sometimes even when you are careful), but if you’re frugal or only have one bobbin, this is a handy way to ply yarn.  Oh yes, not all of you spin, plying is taking the single yarn you just spun and spinning it back in 2 layers or plys in the opposite direction you spun the single ply. See clear as mud! But it keeps your yarn balance if you do it just rite. If you knit with energised yarn, you can make diamonds instead of squares, which can be interesting but probably not what you wanted.

You can weave with energised singles yarn (there is still a good amount of twist energy present in the singles). There are some medieval fabric finds that are woven in plain weave (under over under over under over……). Because they are warped in little groups of yarn spun with the twist going one direction (Z) beside little groups with the twist going the other (S), when you take the fabric off the loom, the twist fights with its neighbour, producing what looks like some complicated twill all in plain weave. I will try to show you that someday.

Lendrum Rook spinning wheel with tiny scain of blue/green yarn7.4) cleaned off the little bit of yarn on the bobbin, ready for spinning.

I got back to felting. I continued to asked anyone who stopped to chat the questions; if they thot an Orca or Sturgeon boyfriend would be better….I continue to get the orca would look better, but the sturgeon voters kept reminding me about the horrible, possible slaughter of her family if she dated an Orca!

8.1 The open gaming section filled up after the game sale had slowed down and remained full all day.

mer person on table with foam nealing pad as work serface game going on in background 8.2) I added sewing pins to give me eye locations while I work. It’s getting very busy with games now.

Since there is no sign of the spinner/weaver, let’s take a quick look at what gaming is happening today.

There were games I had no idea what was happening, and battles setting up for carnage and slaughter

game with small shapes making a pathway with little meeples on the path 9.1) Not a clue what is happening, but they seemed very focused and having fun.

car racing game very pritty bord and extras 9.2) This is a racing game that was being played on the table beside me. Like many of the games I was seeing, it has lovely graphics.  Even if watching cars drive in a mostly circular track isn’t really your thing, it’s still really pretty to look at.

part of an army about to go to battle stored in top of box 9.3) Definitely impending carnage!

small painted buildings as part of playing area for combat game 9.4) Some of the war games with figures had very interesting architecture or terrains

town with trees set up as playing aria of this war game.9.5) This one had a part of a town, I don’t remember what kind of army was fighting through it. It was possibly more normal than guys in space suits from the other table.

Being set up at the other end of the hall from me was a large metal cube that rotated on a frame. That looks intriguing, shall we go have a look?

table in front has cards and robots for the game cube on the next table10.1) This game is for 12 little magnetic robots. You can see the little robots on the nearby table, all sides of the cube is where they will be racing.

close ups of game being played10.2) A robot racing game on a cube

This metal cube has magnetic-backed maps showing pathways on each side. The robots are also magnetic and will drive around the various sides of the cube. Each robot has a hand of cards; they have to select five instructions for their robot to follow like a program, and lay the cards face down in the order they want the robot to move. Everyone reveals one card at a time, and the movement occurs. Unfortunately, things can go horribly wrong when robots try to land on the same square or miss count and bump into a wall or other obstacles.

takgin a photo of one side of cube to figure out the next 5 instructions to give the robot10.3) A good strategy seemed to be to take a picture of the part of the board your robot was on, then select your cards from your photo(then hope for the best).

cube showing robots are now on 2 differnt sides of the cube  10.4) As you can see, the robots are dispersing on two sides now

5 cards layed out the first 2 are now turned up 10.5) They are working through the second card of this round.  They are having lots of fun, and it’s been fun to watch.

I wandered back to my felting but again got distracted by all the cool details in the  3-D printed dungeon architecture.

3-D printed rubble and castle doors10.6) You can see the layers, so those must be a sedimentary plastic rock, maybe sandstone? Such fine detail in the 3-D plastic!

skelitons in coffins and skelitons climeing out of graves10.7) These little skeletons were so cool, but where would I put them? I did enjoy looking at them over the weekend, and they were quite photogenic for skeletons.

Glenn has returned victorious in another train game, and I was wiped. Even though I had not seen the weaver spinner yet, it was definitely time to go home to sleep. You can stay on if you like, and I will meet you back here for day 3 tomorrow. I hope to get started on the fishy parts then!

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 1

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 1

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The long weekend in May is finally here.

I had a plan, and my reference photos. I packed a cool commercial felt box from Dallerama with a bag of tools and extra needles, a wire armature,  one  (about 1kg)  of the 2 bags of core wool from the last World of Wool order and a couple drop spindles.  Glenn loaded the felt box, a few bottles of pop, my meds and my audio books and all the board games he would be selling into the back of my car.

Off we went to the Rideau Curling Club. We got there in time to get one of the last three parking spots on site! There was more parking arranged for down the street but carrying boxes of games and a box of felting supplies was much easier close to the building.

You may remember from previous photos that the curling club is an old building, long before accessibility was a thing architects worried about. So, it’s not the most accessible building. They have tried to retrofit as best they can. There is a removable ramp to get up to the main area, which overlooks the curling hall. There is another ramp that allows access to the curling hall floor, but the door dose not open wide enough to get my walker through (it is one of the bigger walkers available). There is now a handicapped washroom added to the main level, which is grate since the others are upstairs! (I miss upstairs).  All the extra effort to get into the curling hall is worth it, so let’s go have a look.

 

curling club and Can games info booklet1.1) CanGames (and Felting) Convention at the Ridea Curling club, CanGames info booklet, strangely the felting component was not mention again this year.

4 full boxes of games to sell saterday 1.2)  overlooking 4 boxes of games for the second hand game sale and looking into the curling rink full of tables ready for gaming.

We were early so Glenn filled out the list of games he was putting into the sale, I pulled out my reference photos and started wrapping the human parts of my next mer-person, The “Boyfriend”.  I had one of the volunteers and another attendee wonder over and check out what I was doing. They were both felters! I later met a weaver who was learning to spin, she would drop by and see what I was doing tomorrow after her shopping trip to Wabi Sabi. As gamers dropped by to see what I was doing, I asked if they thought an orca or a sturgeon would be a better boyfriend? There were slightly more Orca suggestions but the sturgeon votes were very persuasive, that it would not be good to have a boyfriend that is likely to eat Miss Mer’s family! i will keep asking anyone who expresses interest.

the armature and the start of wool on torso head and arm/hand2.1) The armature and core wool from world of wool and Adding the under layer to the armature. Used Tacky fabric glue for tips of fingers

By the time we could enter the floor of the curling rink, I had the Right hand well in hand, but the arm still looks way to skinny.  We got my little table set up and I decided to start the left hand.

right hand wraped with wool  2.2) I am happy how the right hand is coming along.

misscounted the fingers somehow? 2.3) this is not the usual anatomically expected number of fingers!!

fixing extra finger problem 2.4) Ok I think I need to recount those fingers.

I seem to still be having a tiny problem with post anesthetic brain….it seems I can’t count yet.  It usually takes a while for my brain to clear, but i guess not yet.  Oh well I can fix that.

mer-person checks hands for correct number of fingers 2.5) all better now! 2 hands, the same number of fingers. I think he is checking I got it right this time.

work aria at convention2.6) Ok now I have that fixed let’s take a quick look around. I am in the back corner between the open gaming tables and one of the venders.

articulated purple dragon and dice towers, skull and raven and plege doctore with lantern 3.1)  the booth behind where I was working “3dbatch”, had 3-D printed items.

I thought Leonor may enjoy the raven dice tower with skull. There were two little dragons I had been admiring, in this booth as well as little articulated drawing figures. There were also dioramas for gaming that were quite impressive, well if you are a gamer. Actually,  even if you are not it’s still pretty cool.

more areticulated dragons in verious verions of the base design 3.2) the 2 little blue dragons cot my eye. Someone was looking at one when I left for a moment but both were gone when I came back. Glenn was there and I told him of my disappointment, luckily they seem to have found a new home in my bag of maple candies and one seems to like the taste of hand spun yarn. There were bigger ones on display at the booth too. (They might have wanted to eat the whole wheel!)

dungen archatecture with amazing details 3.3) The detail in these dungeon areas fascinated me.

The detail was amazing, one had a chapel building that lifted off and revealed a crypt, if you lift the lid there is a stairway to a lower floor. The floor tiles lift away so you can play in the lower area too. I remember little mettle figures and graph paper was what we played with in late 1970/80’s.

Now that you have seen what is behind me, let’s take a quick peek at the other part of this felting …er  gaming convention.

the lower curling rink hall looking back at the loby and the upper gallery4.1)  Lets take a quick look around the curling rink, there is more gaming happening in the basement, the loby  and upstairs. (I did not make it upstairs or to the basement)

Do you remember watching the Chariot Race last year? I wasn’t feeling up to playing this year but did enjoy wandering over to check out the fun and carnage.

chariot race game Cangames 20254.1) And they are off!! Look out for the first corner!!!!

The chariots are racing on a track that starts out wide12 squares and shrinks to much narrower4 squares. Each chariot has a number and that is dawn randomly to get the order of movement. The charioteers have to write down what speed they are going to go then roll a dice to see how far they are traveling. If you pass another chariot you can try to whip them or they can try to whip you. If  two wind up in the same square, well, you can see what happens!

Back to work for a bit,  I will go back to check on the chariots a bit later. I suspect there may be a bit of carnage, its is usually a very fun game.

work area at convention games happeing in background4.3) there were still tables open but there had been a few cancellations of games and it was early on Friday night (the convention had started at 2pm). Saturday will be the busiest day.

If you were curious, Here is my work set up. we brought the folding table the box of fiber and tools, a bag of drinks and munches and  I have way more core fiber than I will need. I kept working on firming and building up the human body, until my curiosity at how the race was progressing overcame me.

Lets check in with the Chariots. The carnage at the first corner was the worst I have yet seen! Never gallop your horses in the corners! If you were betting on the youngest charioteer to win you were right!

the Chariot race from CanGames 2025  4.4) the Chariot races

Now back to work!

contiuing work on the mer person much more to do5.) at the end of Friday I had had the beginning of an under-structure but lots more to do. (his head is too thin, have to add more biceps…..)

Its time to go home get some sleep and get back in the morning. I am sure you are as tiered as I was so lets have a little nap before heading back for Saturday. It will be a busy day with the second hand game sale, possibly some spinning and of course more felting! But for now its time for a nap. Thanks for coming with me so far and i hope to see you there when i go back next post! Maybe we can find a sheep game to play?

Preparing for Cangames (and felting) Convention, one more Mer?

Preparing for Cangames (and felting) Convention, one more Mer?

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Today is Friday May 16th, and this year it is the long weekend in May. It’s time to start planting your gardens with the hope of no frost. here in Ottawa the Friday to Sunday is also CanGames (and felting) Convention I have shown you that before. Glenn will be playing board games, praubly those 18XX train games (older trains can rust, becoming useless and there is lots of math, how can that be fun?) there will be interesting games there such as the live action Kill Doctor Lucky or the chariot races! It also will be a good spot to work on felting or spinning. I may convert some gamers to fiber arts yet!! (i have tought a few to use a drop spindle in previous years.)  I am not sure I will be there the whole time, since I am still finding Mondays at the guild really tiring and am sore a few days afterwards. So now is the time I must decide on what I will work on this weekend.

You may have noticed last fall when the OVWSG had their 75th anniversary retrospective Exhibition at the Mississippi Valley textile museum that one of my Mer’s was missing!!!

from left to Right: Sharkett, Sharkboy, Mr. Mer, Mrs. Mer. from Left to Right: Mrs. Mer, Mr. Mer, Miss Manta, Sharkboy Miss Manta and Sharkette the Mer family pets1.1-1.3) the Mer Family and Pets having fun while out at the Museum, Mr. Mer trying to get someone to play Tennis with him, Mrs. Mer is admiring her new hair, Shark boy playing with the pets Miss Manta and Sharkette.

Yes the teen Miss Mer has wondered off! I was sure she was in the project bag just behind me but no! She had cleverly replaced her project bag with another when I was not paying attention! Teenagers!!! So she had wondered off and did not get herself finished to go out and have fun with the family and their pets. I think she may be wondering the house, looking for a boyfriend,…..she is a teenager.  Since I have looked in all the obvious places I think she might try hiding, without success,  I have decided to move to plan 2, Make her a boyfriend. That should tempt her back to the office! That could be a good project to start at the convention.

If I were an arctic char based teen Mer-person, what sort of boyfriend would I like? well, personally if I was a Mer, I think I would look for a very dry fish,  maybe one of the really early land walking varieties? Luckily, I am not making this fishy-boyfriend for me. I did see a cool looking fish as I was researching the other Mer’s fishy bits. it was very big, sort of an extra-large more feisty version of a pike. What were they called? Stergons? Oh its spelt Sturgeons? I was close. Hum that has potential. The transition would be fun to consider, but Lots of fiddly details on a sturgeon, so may not be the best option for a busy convention.

labled parts of a sturgeon2) Sturgeon, there are lots of types, and I would need to do more research to figure out which is which. The pattering is intriguing but very specific.

Since she is an arctic variety of fish-person, I should look at arctic options too. There are Inuit myths about sea people, there is the Qalupalik, who usually hunt children who stray too close to the water, catches and eat them. I am not sure that would work out well in the family dynamics of the Mers.

Inut sea person that steels children who play too close to the water.3.1) Qalupauk, who steel children who play too close to the water.

There is also Sedna the Sea Goddess, who has the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish. She created all the sea creatures the Inuit hunt.  I have only seen pictures of Qalupalik as women and a Goddess is also a woman so that would not be a boyfriend. Keep looking.

the Inuit Sea Goddess 3.2) Sedna the Sea Goddess

Let’s keep thinking, Narwhals are interesting but the fish parts would not have the fabulous horn. There are Orca (Killer whales), they have very interesting colour patterning, that might work. Why is my brain yelling at me to look at the walrus? That’s not a fish! But that would make an interesting Mer.

diagram of Narwal side and belly vew
File source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Narwhalsk.jpg

4.1) Narwhal, it would be hard to tell from just the fishy parts that he is a narwhal without the horn.

diagram of Orca from the side.4.2) orca, strong graphic patterning and it would be fun to integrate fish and body parts together.

graphic image of walrus4.3) walrus, ooh this might be fun, integrating shapes, but I am pretty sure that this is not a fish.

I think my best options to consider are Sturgeon and Orca. Both will need ether 12 or 14 gauge wire for most of the armature with finer for the hands, maybe an 18 or 20 steel floral wire. I have a bag of “Carded Core Wool Sliver” from World of Wool, now where did I put it. I will also need photo diagrams to work from.  I hope the printer likes my computer today. (nope, i will see if Glenn’s computer is deemed worthy of printing)

For creating the armature I will have to pack pliers & wire cutter, wire, a ruler, a finger length guide or Sara’s Digitwidget, the proportions for the armature (I have that written out somewhere….)maybe I should go back and look at Sara’s Felt-along It starts here: https://www.youtube.com/live/hljS4YRmz9w

I will modify the original armature to suet whichever fish body I go with. Glenn likes the killer whale, since its simple, elegant, and very classy.

Ok I have a plan, consulted Sara’s mermaid armature and just need to collect the tools and supplies to be ready for CanGames!  Once I have the armature made I will need to bring; a work surface, the extra tacky fabric glue (the type that dry’s clear for fingers), a selection of needles and the fake clover tools(helpful to make fins), then top colours for whichever fish shape I go with.

I am looking forward to the long weekend, but may have to enjoy it in pieces.  i hope you will join me for the parts i get to attend, maybe you will find a sheep related board game we can play? Have fun and keep felting!

felting tools on wool pad with chickadee
2024 CanGames (and Felting) Convention

2024 CanGames (and Felting) Convention

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sign and arrow indicating CanGames1) Sign outside of CanGames with a gnome smoking a pipe and carrying a big axe and short sword

May 18-20th was the Victoria Day long weekend. It is a federal holiday, on the last Monday preceding May 25, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Birthday, which was on May 25th.  It is also the long weekend that CanGames happens!  The first CanGames was in 1977. I am told, it is the longest-running gaming convention in Canada. The website says, that this year there will be over 300 different games spread over the convention’s 8 time slots (https://cangames.ca/events/ ). As well as an open gaming area, and shopping options (although there was a horrible lack of fibre sellers present!) there was also a second-hand game sale to check out Saturday morning. (Don’t worry there will be felting in this post too.)

I have attended quite a few CanGames and expanded the scope of their convention a bit, into a Gaming and Spinning or Gaming and Felting convention! One year I even ran pick-up games of “spin the golden fleece”. They had to make a Turkish spindle, were given some nice golden combed top, and then had to spin a length of yarn with it.

The convention was at the Rideau Curling Club, in downtown Ottawa. It ran Friday: Noon – 11 pm, Saturday: 8 am – 11 pm, and Sunday: 8 am – 11 pm. Knowing that parking is very limited at the curling club and the city lots are a good hike away, we arrived early to make sure we could find parking.  Good thing we came early, the reserved handicapped parking was no longer there, but we found a spot that would work.

The Rideau Curling Club was started in 1888, they moved a few times and in 1949 they built the present location, replacing a coal yard and blacksmith shop on the block (Glenn will not be pleased to learn that!). In 1965, a second storey was added, including a kitchen, dining room, and meeting room. To reach the second story is a wide, turning staircase, with a Scottish tartan display (sorry I was sure I had a shot of that! I will get it next year). Unfortunately, in 1964, although it is a lovely addition, the thought of adding an elevator was not a consideration. So unless I could get someone to carry the walker up the long stairway I was staying on the ground floor and iceless rink. (There were ramps to get to both of those!)

Now that you know where I have wandered off to, let’s get back to the felting!

I had brought two of the chickadee bodies that I had made for the workshop. I still needed to take photos to add to my notes. I also brought 12g aluminium and 26g steel wire to start the next moose bag. I was being optimistic I would have the chickadee photo shoot done reasonably quickly.

By a little after 12 noon, Glenn had me set up by the “games library” run by the Kanata Games Club.

chickadee armature with fiber ready to wrap down the legs2) Chickadee armature with extra crimpy Shetland locks drafted to about half an inch wide. The background is a wooden table that the games are about to need.

Some years there is an extra table and I can work there, this year it was busy, luckily we had not taken the small folding table out of the car. Glenn went to the car to get it and I switched to that.  I found a nicespot  at the edge of the curling rink and set up there.

folding metterl table, 2 moose bagsd, a baket of felting suplys sitting at the edge of the iceless curling rink3) Setup for a weekend of felting, note 2 bottles of Mountain Dew (sugar and caffeine pop) not in the picture is my walker which I will be using as my chair.

I got myself sorted out for felting, with a small table, basket and moose bags, Glenn wondered upstairs where the games he was interested in were going to play.

the end of the curling rink showing the lower area with tables and the upper areas with more gameing too4) upstairs in the curling Club

The curling rink (without ice for the summer season) is a large two-story space with lots of echo-y sounds of happy gaming. I started the afternoon with headphones and a good audiobook, while I wrapped legs and tiny toes with crimpy Shetland locks. I moved on to adding strips of the core carded roving from World of Wool to the body. By about 5 pm the crowd had grown and it was getting hard to hear the audiobook!

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Time for a quick break to look aground, I am starting to get hungry and I should stretch my legs a moment.

Games library 6.1) this is the games library that I am sitting beside.  The shelves were labelled with how many players were needed for the game. The tables in this section were all in use most of the convention.  

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6.2) This is the second-hand games section that will be open for shopping at 10 am Saturday. There are already large piles of games coming in and there will be more dropped off tonight.   6.3) another angle of the second-hand games area

All afternoon and into the evening more boxes of games arrived for the sale starting at 10 am Saturday. While Glenn dropped off games he was going to try to sell, he said he spotted a Napoleonic board game for 10.00 that he would like, but he has a game he is signed up for on Saturday morning. He said he would go look after his game was done and see if it was still there.

Ok back to work time to add colour!! (I keep getting distracted and should show you more of the felting component of the convention). I pulled out the reference photos to check the colours and placements.

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 7.1) consult the reference photos  7.2) Consider the colours to make the colour I want  7.3) Use the tiny pet brushes to blend the fibres 7.4) Check with the photo to see if I have the colour close  7.5) Add the colour to the body and then blend and add the next colour.

On Friday night, there is traditionally a game of Chariot racing (7-11 pm). There are a large number of chariots (24), at the start line 2 deep, across 12 lanes. The lanes quickly narrow down to four, before you reach the first corner. Each player writes down how fast and the number of squares they will go that turn (the faster you go the more damage you can take). The players are selected randomly for the order they start each round.  This means a chariot from the back row may start before the ones in the front row, squeezing through and causing and taking damage (they keep track of that on their page for speeds). I watched through the first turn.

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 8.1 set up and the first 2 chariots art out on the track!  8.2 deciding which chariots to try to slip between (hoping not to take too much damage)  8.3) 2 chariots trying to occupy the same square,  they will roll for damage in a moment.

Starting the chariot race!

I will come back and see how they are doing later.  Now back to work on the chickadee. It’s now time to add the tail colour! Blending a charcoal grey, to match the photos, then adding it to the very thin tail. This is where the angle of needle use is important if you want the underside to stay white!

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9.1) blending colours for the tail   9.2 carefully adding the tail colour to only the top. (This would have been easier with a crown needle)   9.3) adding feather details over the black

Oh, the charioteers are getting low better take a look! The leaders are now past the second corner but the carnage left behind is already heavy!

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10.1 heavy carnage before the first turn!  10.2 Close-up of chariot wreckage!! Note the headless charioteer is still driving!!

Ok, I better get back to work, the tail is looking good, now, on to the wings. I have made chickadee wings in multiple ways.  This time, I want to do the wings as a single shape and then add the details before adding them to the little bird.  I could do this faster if I started with a piece of felt or pre-felt of a medium charcoal colour. Unfortunately, I did not have premade felt but I did have wool and can make my own! I started to create felt with the wing tip end, which are darker than the shoulder end of the wing. I used the Clover multi-needle tool to felt faster. I also started to add a suggestion of the details of the felted edges.

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11.1 wing tip end starting to form, using both the single needle and the clover multi tool   11.2 adding feather edge detail, the lines are still a bit too bright for what I wanted.  11.3) note the areas that will be covered by the wings do not need to be covered in colour but it’s better to allow a bit of overlap in case you need to move, or adjust, the wing placement slightly.

Check the shape by using pins and look from various angles. Humm, getting closer but not quite right yet.

using sewing pins to position the wings12) Checking the wing position, consult the photo reference.

Ah, Glenn’s game has ended, time to pack up and we will be back tomorrow morning, Early!

Saturday, 8 am to 11 pm. We again found parking, Glenn got me set up with the little table in the same spot as yesterday and headed off upstairs to his game.   My goal today was to finish the wings and attach them. I was also going to try to find the mysterious “Napoleonic war game for $10.00” and kept an eye out for a lineup to start to go in and buy the second-hand games. But first, back to the chickadee!

I used the sewing pins to try the wings out to see how the wings fit. I like the shape but the shoulder colour needs work. The first thing to do is add whisps of the grey/green from the colour I used on the back to the top and front edge of the wings.

side vew of wing placement13)  I add the wisps of green/grey at the wing shoulder. I also toned down the whiteness of the feather edges, by used the clover tool, which worked very well.

using clover tool on wing14) using the clover tool to soften and lighten the shoulder edges of the wings

Yes much better, now before I add the wings to the body, I can trim any stray fibres from the back with the curved embroidery scissors.

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 15.1 Using curved blade scissors on chickadee’s back (the spot that will be between the wings and hard to trim later.  15.2 Close up of the curved blade on the embroidery scissors (got them off aliexpress)  15.3) The flat and curved embroidery scissors and other felting tools on the wool felting mat (bat on a stick is also here)

Next, the wings need to be attached. Make sure you don’t flatten the wing too much, or it will not look like it is sitting above the body.

16) Adding the wings to the body  

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17.1 Then adding beads for eyes  17.2 Chickadee with his new beady eyes, standing on my needle picking up tool, ready to supervise my work

Oh look there are 2 people starting the line for the games! Back in a moment! I asked one of the organizers and the 2 nice guys in line before me, if they had any idea what game Glenn had been talking about.  I would end up having a number of gamers trying to help me find the mysterious game. We did find one but it didn’t match all the criteria (it was only 5.00) so I kept it and kept looking. Another gamer picked up the one I was looking for but decided not to buy it (Thank you!!) so I now had 2 board games about Napoleon, one of which was listed for 10 dollars!

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 18.1 I was #3 in line waiting for the curtains to open so we could start to shop   18.2 some of the games  18.3 af few more games  18.4 just one of the piles of games being purchased!

I picked up a couple of games that looked interesting, including a Settlers of Catan board that held the pieces in place, since I remember Glenn mumbling about the annoyance of moving tiles. (More on that later). It was very crowded and there were a lot of games being scooped up and sold. I took my selection and hid them under my basket.  Save Doctor Lucky, Napoleonic wars, War of 1812, a couple for the cottage. OH!, I almost forgot I found Exploding Kittens.

19) games hidden under my basket cover and basket! He will never think to look for games there.

Since I have the chickadee done and before I start on the next moose bag, I think I should take a look and see what’s being played at the moment.

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 20.1 my view of the convention from the back corner by the games library   20.2 Miniature soldiers and mounted troops in blue off to fight the little guys in grey in the background   20.3 Another battle in progress, the games are taking a brake. Unfortunately, I could not ask who was fighting    20.4 this was a new game that was being introduced. it had really cue miniatures and the rules allowed you to play as individuals or teams. 20.5 is another historical miniatures game being set up. The reference book was a nice touch.  20.6) this game, from the games library, ran a good chunk of the day, the gamers are taking a snack or shopping break

Glenn finally emerged from his game and went to see if he could find the Napoleonic war game….strangely he had No luck, but he was excited to find an expansion for a game he had. The title did not sound too appealing, too much water.

We had both watched for any type of sheep game but no luck this year. We will try again next year! Some day we will get Glenn to tell us about all the sheep-related board, card and stacking games he has found. It is quite the collection!

21) Expansion for underwater cities (sounds too wet for my liking)

Glenn was very pleased with the games hidden under my basket.  Yes, I did get the correct game but I also bought one he was selling, OH well, he did like it enough to have bought it the first time!

I had people drop by Friday and again Saturday to see what I was doing and then how it was going. I think a couple will follow up and try needle felting.

With the chickadee done and now supervising from the needle-on-the-floor-collector-tool (magnet with extendable handle) I was ready to start project 2 of the weekend. But, I likely have distracted you with enough strange games for today.  So let’s paws here, before going on to the next project, and the rest of Saturday and part of Sunday.