Felting and Fiber Studio

From August into early September we had 3 local fiber festivals to help top up our felting and other fiber needs. You just saw Twist, the large fiber festival in Quebec, but it is now leaning more heavily towards knitters. I had no luck with long 12-14 inch locks this year, maybe I just missed them, it was very busy on Friday!

1.1) Poster for Stash-It!

The next one after Twist is a much smaller festival in Kempville, “Stash-It Fibre And Textile Event”!  Don’t let the smaller size detour you. There was a good selection from fiber to finished goods and multiple groups demoing diverse fiber arts, including knitting, weaving, spinning and Needle felting.   yes I did a bit more shopping and I picked up another full Shetland fleece and a few part fleeces.

2.11 ) I think I may need to get a bigger walker or one with an attached cart for shopping.  Now I have to take everything off so I can sit down!

the first section of the big “White” fleece in the plastic bag, has just come out of the soap wash and will be going back in to soak, probably multiple times….. What was that ram doing? Was he rolling in the mud and dust daily?  As you can see, the inside cut end of the fleece is glorious, if only I can get it clean. He is a lovely (Creamy?) Shetland and I hope the weather holds long enough to get him washed. (Tonight we had the first call for frost, and we have put tarps and sheets over the herbs and pulled under the overhang the hanging baskets.) I am still washing in ambient outdoor temperature water, so I have lengthened the soap soak to make up for the lack of heat from the sun, who is not working as hard as it was just weeks ago.

2.12-2.14) I have about half the fleece in the strainer buckets and this is what remains. The water is a lot cleaner than the soap soak it came out of! I am using sunlight dish soap I can’t seem to find this anymore, so what I have left is saved for fleeces.

I have already washed the little paper bags of part fleeces and they are all draped over one of my Ikea fleece drying racks. (Ikea should add that use to their description!) They were all relatively clean and only took one soap soak and a single rinse soak to be ready for the spin dryer. The brown is, as listed, a bit short in staple length, but very soft, and will make a lovely bat to spin or felt from. I will have to find time to use the drum carder at the guild. it has a finer cloth than my drum carders have.

2.21-  Shetland – 2.22 – Icelandic  – 2.23 Gotland/Fin

2.3 one of my hanging baskets this year, Fussia

Oh no, today I was going to tell you about the Needle Monika of The Olive Sparrow had. Drat, I got distracted by that dirty ram and now feel like I will leave you dyeing of suspense if I don’t give you a quick tour of the event and a link to the list of vendors. (https://stash-itfibreevent.ca/)

Ok a quick travelogue (I promise not as long as Twist and there will be felting!!)

Early Saturday August 23rd 2025 Glenn and I headed south of Ottawa to Kempville. When we got there we realized i had forgotten the camera (I thought Glenn had grabbed it, he thought I had) he left me waiting first in line and drove back to Ottawa to get it.  He stopped to get Cookies from Ann on the way back.  So, a very exciting morning, and I have less photos to inflict upon you!

Lets have a quick roll around the event.

3.1) the event fills a gym, and has Equipment, yarn, project bags, knitted items, fiber and demos.

3.21-3.22) Judy Kavanagh’s Spindles and bandweaving loom, she also had the cool mitten pattern (if only I could knit and follow a pattern)

3.3) Alpaca tracks thread lightly silk hankies hand died

3.4) Wind Weft, Mohair and Mohair/wool blends

3.5)Luna (wood turning and weaving)

3.61-3.62)Janet Whittam handwoven cloths, blankets and baskets

3.7) Karberry Farm hand dyed combed top and fiber (its where the dirty ram came from she always has lovely Shetland fleeces)

3.8) Croocked fence farm

Occasionally I spot something I think one of my friends or family may truly like. This time it was the exquisitely fine needle work making this thimble into a necklace. I think I was told it was 24 count(?) cloth, with single strand floss. It required an illuminated magnifying glass to do the embroidery. Did you see the subtle shifts of blue from one square to the next? The recipient makes teddy bears, all hand sewn so I was sure she would enjoy and appreciate the delicate work.

4.1) Charm N Stitches, Butterfly embroidery in incredibly fine detail (those are miniature pins in the thimble)

4.2) Top of the whorl

4.3) Les Moutons de Richard, they are new vendors and had batts as well as spun and hand died yarn.

4.4) Originals by Lynne,  Knitwear

4.51-4.53) Yvieknits Yarns

4.61 – 4.62) Cactus Yarn Studio

4.7) Les Belles Bouchlettes, Mohair yarn For knitting and weaving as well as combed top.

Demos:

Demos were along one end of the gym. I was looking at the display from the Kingston guild when I got distracted by the demo table at the end of the row, so i wandered over there next.

5.1) Kingston weaving and spinners guild had a nice display of weaving

The Kingston guild will be having their sale Nov. 6^th-9^th (www.khws.ca), the weekend after the Ottawa Guilds sale Nov 1-2^nd 2025 (www.ovwsg.com/sale/). (in case you are somewhere near eastern Ontario and would like to drop by!)

I promised there was felting in this blog!!

This demo was by Farmer Brown’s of Spencerville. Shannon and I had a lovely chat. (well, I was having a lovely time, I hope she was too!) This was her first demo and she did fabulously.  She was making play mats using wet and dry felting. We chatted about needles and felting with naps and sneaky way to persuade them to stay stuck.

6.16.2 6.3-6.4) Farmer Brown’s Felted play mats.

I was so pleased when I found out Shannon has been reading the Felting and fiber studio and has been enjoying my odd distraction about needles and their origins. I did warn her there were a couple more chats about needles coming up soon.

As has become a tradition with fiber festivals, we should check in with the husbandly viewpoint of how the event went.  Was this fiber-festival up to Glenn reading and napping standards?

7.1-7.2)  I would say that was a yes.

Were you curious to see what followed me home? I took my purchases into the guild so I could spread them out and get a good shot of them for you. I seem to be on a fiber acquisition theme this festival I have defiantly increased my stash!

8.1 8.2 8.3) jan’s shopping

I am not sure how I got distracted into another Fiberfestival travelogue, when I was sure I was going to chat about felting needles but I promise I will get back to the felting needles soon. I have got my hands on a needle I didn’t think I would be able to find. Monika from The Olive Sparrow was able to get her hands on some and I am looking forward to chatting about them in the near future. I also have the post mostly finished about odd comments from over the summer again about needle, I am not sure which will appear first.

I hope you have had fun virtually shopping again and have found local fiber venders to top up your own fiber supply in preparation for winter. Have fun and keep felting!!