shopping – Felting and Fiber Studio

Finally Mer-Felting! in Toronto Ontario Canada part 2

November 16, 2025 Jan Comments 9 comments

October 22^nd 2025

As we prepare to head out of Oakville, we were sad to leave. We have so many happy memories, of visiting Glenn’s parents, the years we were walking our giant black barking “cat” through the neighborhood, even a couple times past the hotel we were just in. That was a long time ago. We stopped at his parents Church and visited the memorial garden. It still had flowers even this late in the fall.

7.1) Oakville Memorial garden

Now its time to get on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), the highway that turns into the Gardner Express way….. don’t let the name fool you it was not expressing speed….

As we trudged along in heavy traffic… it’s now well after 10am, the young Mer seems happy smiling out the window and looking at whatever is attracting his attention. Eventually the road turns north and becomes the Don Valley Parkway, still not moving fast but the scenery is now trees with tall building looking down into the valley. We even spotted a subway car crossing under a bridge. It all must be very exciting to a young mer on his first big trip. I had made cryptic notes, and checked with google maps before heading out, so we found the building without difficulty. It looks like an old industrial building that had many loading bays and production area for about 2/3rds of the building and the last part was a 2 story office area. It made me think of an old newspaper or print shop.

Finding The Olive Sparrow

Monika is upstairs, there is a small elevator so we can yet again avoid those evil stairs. Why don’t you join us and see what I found.

Holding the door open you can look past and see some of her felting supplys 8.1 Monika welcomes us to the Olive Sparrow

If you have seen Monika’s booth at various fiber festivals you will remember walls of bags of colour in various fibers, tools, fine theads, needles and other distractions. I was looking for something to help a friends project and I was curious to see what else she may have that she hadn’t shown us at the various sales.

8.2-8.9)the Olive Sparrow, an overwhelming amount of fibers and colours!! I noticed more things in the photos than I saw while there!!

9.1) Glenn found a comfy enough chair to read and nap as we chatted.

I explained what I was looking for today and we found a few options, including some viscose in excellent colours. I had not found more maori short fiber batts locally, so was extremely pleased to see she had all the brown tones I had used to make moose for the moose bags. I found it compacted to a dense even felt.

Monika showed me a piece she was working on. there are lots of ways to transfer and image to felt or fabric ground, but once you start working you can obscure the guide lines. we are both of an age that remember overhead projectors used at school. She had found some of the transparency sheets and had transferred her line drawing to it. so she could use it to check her layout. This is brilliant, it is easier then trying to redraw an outline as you are working or using proportional dividers.

10.1-10.2) line drawing, picture felting on antique linen and reference photo, and using a transparency overlay on the image to check proportions and progress.

I wonder if I could add registration marks, or use pins, magnets, or bulldog clips to keep the transparency from shifting? I have not seen the acetate sheets for overhead projectors, since I was a teen ager, that was a while ago. (I will be doing a search on line!)

Monika also shared a method of blending and storage of the blended fiber she was using. Instead of just hand blending (stacking and separating until the desired colour is achieved. Which works well for small amounts but can be harder to reproduce the same colour each blending, for larger quantities.)

11.1) hand blending

Instead she lay out the colours in thin wisps similar to how you would lay out fiber for wet felting. Then lay wisps of the other colours on top. Alternating thin layers of wisps.

11.2-11.5) blending larger quonties similar to wet felt layout but stacked in thin layers

She then took the line and from one end rolled it up keeping the fibers in the same direction.

11.6) rolling up the fiber keeping the locks parrelell

She then worked from the stack she had just made and repeated the laying out of thin layers as she had just done.

11.7-11.8-11.9) she continued to layer the wisps then rolling until the amount of blending she wanted had been reached

Once she had the colour she had wanted she took a sheet of paper placing the fiber on it, then folded the paper over the fiber. this kept the fiber parallel. she then rolled the paper with fiber inside and labeled it for latter use. If I have been storing blended fiber for later use I tend to lay it into a zip lock bag which I usually label. Storing it in a folded then rolled paper will keep the parallel alignment which is more helpful when making topcoat for a peice.

12.1-12.3) keeping the blended fibers organized and ready to use

I was very impressed with the collection of needles Monika had available. She had be able to get one of the ones I was very curious about, the “teardrop” shaped felting needle. this odd needle has all its barbs on one side. What would a one-barbed-sideded-needle be used for in Industry? It is used then a woven ground fabric, has fiber added to it. the theory is that the teardrop shape will pass through the woven ground fabric without braking the warp or weft threads and embed the fiber to be attached.

I spotted this in the industrial info a few years ago and immediately was curious, would this work for hand needle felting too? But did not think I would get my hands on a sample. Monika had one and liked it, I am looking forward to investigating this odd needle further.

13.1) some of the needles in sets, she also has a broad selection of individual needles available too.

14.1)The young Mer seems happy with my shopping and is being helpful holding my map notes on our way back to the car. (the Mer-Boyfriend is enjoying his improved hands!)

I found viscose in various colours, a mill end and more Maori short staple batts . She also sent me home with small samples of two core wools she was selling. I think the Young Mer enjoyed the shopping trip and visit with Monika! Now its time to head back to the car and start the return to Ottawa. Once we are back there is more to do to get ready for the Guild sale and exhibition.

I hope you have enjoyed the trip to Toronto and got as distracted by the reflected light and shadows on architecture as i did. i hope i can have another shopping trip to Monika’s store (i know she will mail things but its so nice to be able to feel the fiber and have a visit with her!) I promise I will tell you more about the tear drop needles when life gives me a moment to have fun and investigate.

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

November 6, 2025 Jan Comments 8 comments

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.

PS the sneaky comment button is still hiding at the top of the page if you would like to chat!

TWIST 2025, PART 3 NEW BOOTHS OF INTERESTS

September 15, 2025 Jan Comments 5 comments

PART 3 Twist 2025 new booths of interests

Part 1 (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/08/24/twist-2025-part-1-new-booths-of-interests/)

Part 2 (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/09/05/twist-2025-part-2-new-booths-of-interests/)

14.1) hat and mitts on table

As we left off last week, I had just come to a screeching halt in front of the most exquisite pair of mitts. Then left you at the cliff hanger of what else was in this booth, and its adjacent neighbour.

14.2) the booth with the fabulous mitts was Cercle d’envol

I stopped to chat and find out about the mitts and found out this was a program to mentor indigenous youth into fashion design and other programs. They had a box of yellow squares of fabric and lots of colours of sharpie pens. I was asked to draw something that the students would sew together, making a wall hangings. Hummmmmm…… something Canadian would be good. I have been felting a lot of partly 3-D moose, why not try and draw one. I haven’t sat down and drawn anything in ages…. but my latest phone screen saver is a picture of one of the felted moose bags, I can use that for reference.

14.3) drawing on squares to be use to make quilt hangings.

14.4 – 14.5) moose seem to be a theme lately

This is what I came up with, I should have kept going with this drawing, added water and pond plants hanging out his mouth but I didn’t want Glenn to get too bored or get too much of a nap (he might start snoring!).

I had a very nice chat with the gentleman at the booth. He was talking about blending native knowledge with non-indigenous knowledge. I asked if that was like what had happened with the very old missing arctic explorers ship problem, that had been lost until someone asked the local Inuit if they knew anything about it and they knew where it was.(no one had thot to ask them earlier?)

I have been curious about the arctic for quite a while. It probably started with snow bank tunneling and the frustration we did not have the correct snow to make igloos. We used oral history as we learned the safety rules about snow tunneling, from the older kids and told the ones younger as they started to play in the snow banks. (I also made snow dinosaurs with the other local kids, i was already a bad influence). At university, I was excited to find out that we had kimberlite pipes (they make diamonds) in the arctic and a beach made of garnets. Then I found out about the wonders of Muskox fur (well the undercoat, Qiviut). There are also Norse / Dorset archeological sites to further investigate in northern Quebec and Baffin. I was very lucky to visit Iqaluit, briefly, while my brother was working there. I would love to go back with a much better camera than I had then. Maybe I can get a good shot of arctic cotton! (the tricky little plants kept moving in and out of my focal depth!!)

Sorry I got distracted back to the booths.

The description of this group from Twist was; “Cercle d’envol is a pan-Canadian organization based in Plaisance that empowers Indigenous youth by increasing access to career and entrepreneurship opportunities. With nearly 25 skill-building labs focused on fashion and sewing, we are training a new generation of creators. We are supported by globally recognized brands, including Janome.”

The next booth was quite different from all the fiber related booths.

15.1-15.2) Kidjīmāninān booth looked like a log cabin!

Twists information said that Kidjīmāninān is “Led by the Kitigan Zibi Anishinàbeg community, Kidjīmāninān brings together the MRC, citizens, community groups, and researchers to restore and protect biodiversity in the Outaouais region. Inspired by the Algonquin term meaning “our canoe,” we move forward together, sharing knowledge and respect for the Earth to create lasting impact.”

I again stopped and he was talking about biodiversity and endangered spices. I told him of my absolute joy and amazement while hunting by hand from the family row boat, I employed the standard cray fish hunting technique (distract with one hand while the other come in from behind to grab the crayfish) on mysterious bubbles coming up through the muddy silt. I was pretty sure I knew where the turtles nose was, directly below the bubbles, but the rest of the body could be in any direction under the mud from there. I guessed correctly and lifted up a soft shelled mud turtle the size of a luncheon plate! I gently put it in the bottom of the boat and rowed quickly back to the dock, (staying safely about 6 feet from the shore line). Unfortunately, Mom was not amused or impressed when I showed her my most amazing catch and told me to “take it out side now! it is an outside creature”. I released it and it swam back to its swampy bay.

The gentleman at the booth, asked if I could identify the lower part of a leg on the counter in front of him. I admired it, then told him I hoped it was a moose. He seemed surprised and pleased. He said it was an adolescent moose leg.

15.3) leg to be identified (adolescent moose) and cool pin (landscape with a canou and 3 little circles representing heads in it).

He said he was getting signatures for a petition to protect biodiversity in the Outaouais region. We both signed it. Other kids should have the opportunity to experience catching (and releasing), many kinds of frogs, turtles, snakes and other local wildlife. We have seen a decline of plants and wild life since I was a child at the family cottage. I hope his petition will help. As we were about to leave he gave me a bag with the logo from the pin on it. There were a few goodies inside. I thanked him profusely! (and will show you at the end)

There will be an online petition coming soon to their website, but if you are interested in finding out more about this group, check here: https://kidjimaninan.com/en/ .

15.4) Kidjimaninan bag and pin

There are still spots we have not yet visited so let’s leave the gym and head past the group demos in the hallway and go look outside. (I know it’s very hot today so we will not linger too long outside and try to stay in the shade)

Outside:

16.1) the full map of the event we are at the back of the building at the top of the map.

The fist tent just right of the building doors was the kids tent (some of those kids looked quite tall and older than I had expected, but they are having fun). From the left; rare breads tent, vender tent, tent for ball winding, the talks and demonstration tent, Beer tent, and food tent. There is also a misting station (its water misting so I’m going to avoid it, but if you are feeling hot you may want to check that out too.

16.2) kids tent

16.3) just barley in view to the far left is the rare breeds tent, the large tent on the Left/middle held more vendors, the smaller tent to the right had swifts and ball winders. Off camera further to the right were three more tents. The smaller two had lectures or demonstrations and the other small tent sold beer. The large tent, held the food vendors. Off camera behind me are the kid’s activity tent and the scary misting station.

Let’s take a look at the guest sheep that was visiting at the rare breeds tent fist. You have seen this booth in previous years. They are interested in more than just sheep but they know who we want to see today! The sheep even in this heat wave was in shade, had water and seemed to de demonstrating the thermal insulation properties of wool. She seemed quite mellow and relaxed. (I wonder if she tried the mister?)

17.1) Heritage livestock Canada had a friendly sheep!

17.2) sheep in the heat! She was in the shade and seemed very relaxed.

17.3) She did seem to enjoy all the attention

18.1) On to the vendor tent!

I know it’s getting late and your feet may be getting tired, so let’s just look at a couple of the venders in the large tent and then we can think about a very late lunch.

There was a vendor with felt but this time the felt was sewn to create her sculptures. They were very cute

18.2) Felt figures

18.3) dragon sewn felt

Did you see the Ferme Tajga booth? They had yarn, sheep skins, batts, and raw fiber. I was too tempted and bought a bit of the raw Icelandic. It was in the mettle tub on her table.

18.4)Ferme Taiga booth

18.5) Ferme Taiga booth close up of some of the very nice fiber

The sheep was not the only gest fiber producer at Twist. There were these two bunnies. The little bunny kept shifting form curious to shy.

18.6) Angora production team

18.7) Big Blue Mama’s booth had more fabulous baskets

18.8) there was a lot of knitting yarn at twist, this time it was alpaca blends

18.9) there was also yarn meant for weaving, and in this booth, there was yarn meant for crochet

Glenn spotted this package and bought one to try. It was freeze-dried hole strawberries, coated in chocolate. If you spot a package you may want to try it too. It was extremely tasty.

19.1) a treat of Chocolate coated strawberry’s (we will have to look for these closer to home!)

Just to prove that Sunday was just as relaxing as Friday was.

19.2) Proof that Fiber festivals are the perfect spot for husbands to nap.

Yes I was a horrible wife and woke him, so he could carry the last of my purchases to the car. Since it will be a year until we return next, we took the opportunity to again head to our favorite comfy duck sandwich purveyor.

I hope you have enjoyed Twist, even though there was a lot of yarn, and very little long locks, there was some fiber, and new booths that were educational and interesting. If you are driving between Montreal and Ottawa and are passing St Andray du Avalon, you may want to take a brake and see if there are any Comfy ducks sandwiches available for lunch…. I will be thinking about that sandwich until the next trip to Twist.

19.3) duck, bacon, apple, celery, onion, mayo and apricot-raisin bread, salad with raspberry dressing and fries with mayo dipping sauce! Twice in one year!!!

Oh did you want to see what I purchased?

We can compare and see if you picked the same things!

20.1) Glenn gave me the twist bag which the Mer-Boy-Friend seems to have taken over. I was given a gift of green curly locks, and purchased the linen tea towel.

20.2) I seem to have a theme of mostly Felt and fiber this year.

20.3) the Kidjimaninan bag had wonderful things inside it; Butterfly seed bombs, Kayo-Tea, Maple Syrup, playing cards, cloth bag and enamel pin

20.4) Horticultural felt 100% wool

20.5) silk hankies

20.6) top row tags (L to R);Top row: Solstice 2023(Grey; Cormo/Angora/Merino/Poleworth/Lama/ Tussah silk), Masham (green red black), Masham (green red black), Cheviot (White aqua and cream). Bottom row: Shropshire (Greay gold), Exmoor Horn (Brown Blue), Faroese (Blues), Masham (Greens orange), Eclipse (Greys), Cheviot (White aqua and cream).

20.7)Urso wool batts, golden tones and cream tones

20.8) 2 braids Cheviot/Peridale

20.9) Raw Icelandic fiber

Thank you for joining me, it was a very big show! I hope you had fun virtual shopping if you were unable to attend in person. The dates of next year, August 7-8-9 2026, are already on their website. if you are going to be in the area there may be a comfy duck sandwich calling your name too! Have fun and keep felting!

TWIST 2025, PART 2 NEW BOOTHS OF INTERESTS

September 5, 2025 Jan Comments 7 comments

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?)

inuit mitts and hat 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!

2025 Spencerville Fiber Festival

May 6, 2025 Jan Comments 15 comments

Yes, I think it’s spring, or at least a good attempt at spring. We have had thunderstorms, loss of hydro overnight, more rain, the daffodils have joined the crocus, scilla and lungwort and now the trees are budding! Even the portable forest has started its spring migration! (it’s sneaking a pot or two across the driveway, finally arriving in its summer location.)

In the yearly calendar of fibre festivals near Ottawa, we have had in February, the Chesterville spin in, which is a fun, small event to help get us through the remains of winter and top up our fibre hoards, if they have started to dwindle. In April, the Peterborough Weavers Guild holds a large fibre festival that is about a 3-hour drive away from Ottawa, but is worth the trip. This year, I was out of commission for both of these and was very disappointed not seeing fibre friends or topping up the fibre hoard.

1 poster for the Spencerville fibre festival 2025 (they have a Facebook page if you want to contact the organisers)

The third fibre festival this year was in Spencerville, a small town well south of Ottawa, almost to Highway 401. It’s in the Drummond building, so we will meet you there.

Glenn grabbed the book he was reading, and we headed off. It usually feels like not that long a drive, but this year the seat belt and one of my incisions were arguing loudly by about 20 minutes out and just got more livid with each other the farther I drove. I also think they moved the town further down the highway, it seemed so much longer a drive than I remember. (Good thing I didn’t try to go to Peterborough)

2 Front of the Drummond building in Spencerville, where the fibre festival takes place.

We arrived early and found that there were already a few cars with people waiting to go in. As Glenn pulled out my walker and camera, everyone else got out of their cars, and we all headed in to line up inside. (I was more interested in the washroom.) This is not a big hall, but the sale had a good selection of finished goods, equipment, Yarn and fibre. There were also demo tables from the Kingston Weavers Guild and the Knitters Guild. Most of the aisles accommodated stopping and chatting with friends you haven’t seen in months, but still not blocking getting into the booths.

3 Let’s pay our $5.00 entrance fee and head in to see what the vendors have brought for us this year.

4.1- As we entered the hall

4.2 Luna Spinning has woodworking, spun yarn, fibre and crochet tools

4.3 Janet Whittam does weaving and basketry, you may remember her work from other shows too!

4.4 This was Krys Dallaire’s first time selling and had a very nice booth. She was selling Ile de France cross North Country Cheviot (close up showing crimp), Bluefaced Leicester cross North Country Cheviot (the bag being purchased), Fin (the dark fleece that came home with me) and North Country Cheviot (bags on the shelves). She was also selling maple syrup!!

4.5 Yvieknits Yarn had lots of yarn and a bit of fibre; she also had these lovely examples of knitting with her yarn.

4.6 You have seen Top of the Whorl spindle at a few past festivals too. They had some new spindles, spindle cases and lazy Kates for spindles. This is also where I found Naalbinding needles.

5 at the Top of the Whorl, a drop spindle lesson was happening.

There was a vendor selling punch tools, including a couple of images set up as a “Try Me” sample. Ann, Carlene and I all tried it, I wonder if either will add a new fibre art to all they do?

6.1-6.3 Ann and Carlene try the sample. The loops are created on the back of the side you are working on. The different punch tools make different-sized loops. It was a bit like needle felting but with less need for band-aids.

7 Ann was interested in the rug hooking techniques, which gave a lot of textural elements depending on what was used with the rug hook.

Let’s keep looking around, ooh, do you see this hiding on the floor in the next booth? It is mostly yarn but has some wool wash, wool pellets for the garden and plastic project bags, but hidden beside the table was a lovely fleece.

8 It’s labelled as a fleece of Gotland Finn Cross, it was so soft to touch, I was very tempted.

Let’s keep going (before I buy it without seeing all the show)

9.1- I missed the name of this booth, but it had a mix of tools and supplies for weaving, felting, and knitting. Ann seemed very interested in the knitting pattern cards. I wonder if we could do that for felting? Maybe shapes of resists or book resists for the wet felters?

9.2 Pretty String Yarn Co., lots of colours to entice you into knitting

9.3 Sheeps Ahoy. They have the most beautiful patterns that remind me of Philosophers wool who closed many years ago. I wish I could knit

9.4 Crazy about yarn, they use themes to create their Colour ways. I think the purple was one of the galaxies, and the ones behind her are part of the planets series.

9.5 Studio De laine Cactus Yarn Studio, did you see the support chicken kits? She always has such interesting packaging.

10 We spotted Carlene and compared loot. We also saw a few others who showed off their finds.

There was a nice mix of things for sale, it was nice to see the new vendor with 3 different breeds of sheep. I had been hoping for the Lady who had the 3-D printed spindles at the Almonte fibre festival, but no luck on those. They’re not as pretty as the ones from the top of the whorl, but I would not want to leave one of their pretty ones in the back of the car for emergency spinning, but the 3-D printed one would work perfectly for that. Each spindle has its purpose, or just because it’s pretty and you really like it! That’s a good reason to get another spindle, too.

By early afternoon, I was wiped, and it was time to head home. Last year, we had seen the mill by the river, and I wanted to stop and take a few shots before the long drive home. I was captivated by the reflection in the river and the architecture when something large swooped past my camera.

11 Reflection of the barn in the river water

We drove around the mill building to see what it was.

12.1 Great Blue Heron waiting for lunch to come over the dam and be delivered to him or her.

12.2 Heron, waiting to select the entrée to dinner.

12.3 Spencerville Mill, the Heron is in front of the trees on the other side of the river, just left of the concrete at the far end of the dam.

We stopped in Kempville to have a very late lunch, and so I could take my meds. We finally got home and brought in my bags of loot! 5 paper bags and one big plastic bag. Yes, someone else bought the grey Gotland/fine, but one of the black fin fleeces followed me home, it was just too nice and soft not to buy it! She said she will be shearing soon, in case you desperately need one too!

13.1 My purchases that followed me home.

13.2-13.3 It was definitely a fibre-focused shopping day, and there seems to be some similarities in colours too. I was trying to push out of my comfort blue, but seem to have only shifted over one to mainly green with a bit of red/orange and of course blue.

So what did or would you have gotten today? I probably overdid it, I am extra achy and about to face plant the keyboard, but it was so much fun to see everyone and add more fibre options to my hoard. But now it’s time to crawl back into bed in hopes I will be able to make it to the guild meeting on Monday. If you are in the area next year, you might want to add the Spencerville fibre festival (The Forecast Calls for Yarn and Fiber) to your places to visit. I will hope to see you there!

PS Monday, I made it into the guild and opened the library, I even got some work done, but didn’t last all the way to the meeting. I am wiped and quite sore. I am heading to bed now. I hope you have enjoyed this shopping trip! If you saw anything that you really want to track down, check with the event organiser. I fear I may have missed a booth, but I really am too tired to figure that out, so before I do face plant the keyboard, it is off to bed. Have fun and keep felting… maybe a heron?

Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

September 2, 2024 Jan Comments 4 comments

HAPPY HOLIDAY MONDAY to those who are enjoying the long weekend!

Last post we drove out to Twist Fibre Festival, in the heavy rain, and checked out some of the booths. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/08/23/twist-2024-part-1-shopping/

As you saw, this year there was a reasonable distribution of different vendors for weavers, spinners, sewers/Quilters and yarn for knitting and crochet. for felters I only found one that had felt things (boots and slippers) and two that had tools and one had needles.

DEMOS At TWIST

At 1:45 pm, I arranged with the workshop people to get a table and a couple of chairs for our demo space. it was the best spot for demoing, right outside the main arena, where everyone would pass. Since there was no demo box, which had tablecloths and other demo supplies, I was left with whatever I had in the car and the felt pieces I had brought to choose from, as a display. I went back out to the car, to drop off shopping (we will look at that later) and see what I had to work with. I found an old sign I had made for the carp fair in 2017. (No idea why it was still in the car) It was in a plastic sleeve, on card stock. It had our web address, a bit of info about workshops and our name. OK, signage covered? I have a number of lightweight black car blankets to cover stuff in the back of the car, which will work to cover the table. I also grabbed the bag of felt pictures, the bag of wool I had brought to work from, and 2 of the braids I just purchased. With the walker loaded, I rolled back through the rain, off to set up a demo.

As I was setting up I had people dropping their stuff on the table, to get organized before going out in the rain. So I only used 2 of the black blankets to allow space at the end of the table, in case more people needed to prep for the weather. I set up all the felting I had brought and pulled out the Dragon hand (more about that even later too!) to add the first colour layer. I didn’t actually get much done on that, but I had a steady stream of questions about felt pictures, sculptures, armatures, needles and wool.

French was my favourite class up to grade 7 when our new teacher decided to teach us to read and write in French. I was very optimistic and had a working hypothesis, that I was enthusiastically testing; maybe I am not dyslexic in French! That did not work out as well as I had hoped and was proven to be a false hypothesis. While I was enjoying French, my English teacher was not. It seems my English spelling worsened and I was kicked out of French, by my English teacher….. I have since lost most of the vocabulary I had acquired before my ignominious removal.

So I was very pleased when another guild member dropped by at the end of her shopping as she waited for a friend to finish a workshop she was in. She had a sweet little support spindle and fibre to demonstrate spinning and spoke French! She was able to chat with many more of the people who stopped and was able to answer their questions or translate what I said. I was so happy that she was there to help! By the time she left, the crowd had decreased and I was able to chat with most of the remaining people.

This was a great spot and I hope they will ask us back next year.

demoing of felting, pictures, and a few sculptures with armatures — It was very busy, and these pictures, as I set up, were the only ones I got during the demo.

Friday demo space, the table was beside the the door going into the area of the Arena. — The demo spaces at the end of Friday are all ready for the Saturday demo teams.

10.1- 10.3) Demoing Friday afternoon, demo space at 6 pm, and Sunday demo teams

Now should we check and see if we bought the same things during shopping? What did you select?

braids of fiber, spindles, silk, a small bat of green, a breed study kit from World of wool, 2 bags of locks, a small bag of cashmear, battery pack for EEW6. Book The Techniques of Tablet Weaving. — Friday’s Shopping

close up of braids most are combed top, 2 plastic spindles, — Close-up of Friday’s Shopping

Sunday's Shopping, 2 more braids of top, 2 twist angle guides,2 more of those spindles i got on friday, a pen holder for a note book, extra parts for the EEW6. — Sunday’s Shopping

10.4, 10.5, 10.6)Shopping!! braids, wheel parts, spindles, fibre, Book, Silk, Cashmere and twist guides!

On to The Shopping!!

On Friday: I found 7 Braids of combed top, most were BFL, Targi and a Romni cross in deep tones. Many were dyed over grey wool. 2 large top whirl 3-D printed drop spindles, I was crossing my fingers there would be a few remaining on Sunday since they spun like a dream, holding their spin for an extended period of time. In the top picture (10.4) you will notice I found the Collingwood tablet weaving book I was about to order, and beside it is a mysterious cardboard box! That is holding my new battery, it will make my EEW6 spinning wheel free of electric plugs!! I had purchased a bag of these locks before and liked them enough to get 2 more bags this year! I was intrigued by a breed discovery pack from World of Wool (I was inspired by the upcoming workshop on Sunday), a green batt, a small bag of cashmere from the Black Lamb, and a small bag of grey/silver silk that may wind up on the dragon hand.

On Sunday after the workshop, I finished my shopping. First I was off to find 2 more of the spindles I had liked so much, then off to look at a couple more braids of combed top. (Batts are easier to needle felt but the colours!!! I could not help myself!!!) Yes, I did cave and get a braid with Merino, bamboo and silk, it was the colour! and it will likely hang out with one of the spinning wheels. I found 2 twist angle guilds for the spinning wheels to share. I went back to get info on how to hook the battery up to the electric spinning wheel and also got an extra parts bag, just because I had not seen them available anywhere and it’s good to have spare parts when you need them. Lastly, I also found something for Ann, she has been looking for one for a while but she will tell you about the item in the paper bag (no it isn’t a knotty nostepinne!!)

Although my shopping skills are not up to Carlene’s ability, I did try my best! I hope your vicarious shopping has inspired your next felting, spinning or weaving project!

Thanks to Glenn for carrying loot and wheels on Sunday (he did not shop, since there was a serious lack of blacksmithing related items at the fibre festival, maybe he will have more luck next year? He did enjoy a nice day of reading a book.)

Still to come: Twist 2024; Part 3 – Breed Study Workshop, but first a quick trip to an impressive tapestry exhibit! that will be for next week! Have a wonderful long weekend for those who are partaking!!

Twist 2024; Part 1 – Shopping!

August 23, 2024 Jan Comments 8 comments

Today Please join me for another road trip, this time we will be heading East into Quebec!!! let’s have a quick look at a map, to give you an idea of where we’re heading. (It’s 95km’s from my home in Ottawa).

1.1-1.2) Map showing the Drive from Ottawa to Complexe Whissell, 530 Rue Charles Auguste Montreuil, Saint-André-Avellin, view showing Complex Whissell where Twist will occur.

Friday, August 9^th 2024 finally arrived and yet again, it was raining, quite heavily…. Something about the remnants of a storm called Debby…. This is the first day of shopping for the Twist Fiber Festival it’s not too bad so far. Grab your raincoat and rubber boots, I have an audiobook ready (Wen Spencer’s “Harbinger”) and meet me in the driveway at about 8 am.

It’s about an hour and a bit east of Ottawa in Quebec but today Google Maps says it will, like, take at least 1 hour and 40 minutes. We will take Highway 50, enjoying the fabulous scenery, tall rock cuttings and usually at least 1 dead skunk. Until we reach the sign for the town that makes me think of pineapples, head north from that exit to Saint-André-Avellin. This year the drive was not as picturesque as it usually is, being somewhat obscured by waves of heavy rain…… it did decrease to drizzle for a bit so I got a glimpse of the Ottawa Valley with the river, then back to rain… traffic was slow and we all stayed on the road (no hydroplaning).

2) best parking spot ever!! and the heavy rain backed off to a heavy drizzle as I pulled into the parking spot!

The construction detours and weather contributed to arriving a bit later than I expected. There was another blast of rain so no one was out to direct parking, but I did find the last handicapped parking spot (right beside the back door!!) there was a drop in the rain intensity as I unloaded the demo display bag. The plan was shopping and photos Friday morning, then a demo for the Ottawa guild from 2-6 pm. I checked in about my pre-booked workshop on Sunday (I will show you that later) and found out where the guild would be demoing (an amazing spot). Unfortunately, no one was there from the morning team (Due to the bad weather reports), so I put the bag of felting I had brought for display options, back in the car and was ready for shopping.

3.1- 3.2 ) The first few people going into the arena shopping area. (Arena entrance with booths in the background with people walking in.)

The crowds were quite damp and a bit lighter in number, but those who made it seemed enthusiastic in their shopping. There are 3 areas for shopping; the tent outside (which I understand had a small river running through a few of the booths on Friday. I did not check it out until Sunday.) There was also the Arena and the gym for shopping and classrooms down the other side of the building for workshops that started on Wednesday and ran through to Sunday afternoon.

I had a short list of things I was looking for, and a few things I hoped I might find. If you want a full list of all the vendors, check out the Twist website with PDFs with vendor locations and names. https://festivaltwist.org/pages/program-and-site-maps

4.1) Sight maps of complex and vendors

I headed for the main arena first. It has the largest number of booths. there was a good variety of things to buy; Knitting yarn, sewing and quilting, spinning, weaving and occasionally bits of felting. then on to the Gym. It’s too wet to get to the tent outside so I will leave that till Sunday and hope the weather is better. Then it will be time to demo. We have a plan so let’s have a look around before it gets too busy.

( I know it’s a bit out of order but I am going to show you both Friday and Sunday shots then we can check out the demoing in the next post.)

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5-5.91) Some of the booths in the Arena

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6-6.3) Some of the booths in the Gym

7.1- ) Rare breeds tent

8) part of the Twist team about to get photographed (I snuck in behind their photographer, I had camera envy!! Look at that lens!!!!)

booth map of the shopping tent, photo of the front entrance with a big grey arrow showing the location of the tent in the background.

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9.1- )Some of the Booths in the Tent

I hope you enjoyed poking around some of the booths at this year’s Twist Festival. It’s been a lot of walking and shopping so let’s take a rest before we go check out the demos. We can also check out what I found!

Next: Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

later: Twist 2024; Part 3 – Workshop

Spencerville fiber festival, For the Love of Fibre, 2024

May 15, 2024 Jan Comments 10 comments

Ann suggested you might want to go shopping again. This time we are going a bit closer, only about 45 minutes south of Ottawa, to the small town of Spencerville Ontario. As she mentioned, this one was called “For the Love of Fibre” (but it’s basically a fibre festival with lots of distracting things to look at!) it’s a much smaller hall than the one I showed you in Peterborough but it is also a lot closer to get to (it was even closer for Ann since she is starting south of Ottawa!) So now that you know where we’re going today, let’s meet in the parking lot just before it opens at 10 am. From where you get off the highway (the 416), there are small (ok, Tiny) signs directing you to the hall, in the fairgrounds so you won’t get lost. If you get there early, there is one outdoor vender, we can check out first.

1) When you reach the building, you are greeted by this banner, (so you know you have found the correct location).

Somehow, we got there before Ann, so Glenn and I sat in the car and were ready to wait a bit. I watched vendors going in and out with last minute stuff. I noticed a tall, black, fluffy, dog, taking himself, or herself, for a walk. The dog was mellow, friendly and quite happy to be wandering around on its own. The dog also watched various people going in and out of the automatic door to the building. After considering for a moment, the dog strode up to the door, it opened, as it had for the person who had just entered, and the dog proceeded to wander in. ah, well, maybe the dog has some shopping to do? By this point, if they were letting dogs in, I probably should go in to line up and Ann would find me.

Glenn started getting the walker out of the car and I noticed a panicked-looking person looking around franticly. AH, the dog’s lost owner? Yes, I pointed at the door and said the dog had gone shopping so she hustled off to collect him/her before he/she could spend all the kibble money on fibre and yarn! The Dog, now accompanied, emerged looking resigned, I guess the shopping trip had been cut short.

2.1-2.2) Here is a picture of the missing dog, who is being sent back to work In the outdoor booth with all the lovely bags and baskets. As well as a close-up of the bags

It was at this time I realized something Horrible!! My camera battery was almost dead (the guild meeting had eaten the life out of one on Monday…. did I recharge it when I got home? Because this second one is now dyeing… no the backup is totally dead. Oh no….. this could be a very short blog post… So I asked at the entrance if they had an outlet I could borrow. Why Yes let’s go in and see if we can find one. Luckily, Janet Whittam had one at her booth. She had a power bar for the lights to illuminate her booth, so I shared her wall plug. Now don’t let me forget it!!!

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3) Three shots from Janet’s Booth, she has garments, rugs, placemats, and basketry.

It was fun to watch the vendors finishing set up for a moment, but I better leave the battery to recharge and go back to start the line to pay and go in. Just in time, there are more people arriving! But still no Ann! A bit before the 10am the organizers let the Hordes enter!! And we are off!!

Across from the entrance was Kelly’s booth, you will like Kelly she has nice sheep. She is also a member of the Ottawa Guild. Check out her beautifully painted Louet Spinning wheel!

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4.1-4.2) Kelly’s booth, Yarn, Fiber, pelts

The next booth was also Ottawa Guild members, they had turned yarn bowls (check out the little blue one that is being admired!) there was also weaving, handspun and shall pins as well as a few second-hand books.

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5.1-5.3) Luna booth, woodworking and weaving

Across the aisle, looking back towards the entrance, was a booth of Yarn, lots of colour and seemed quite popular. I was looking for felt ground and interesting fibre so enjoyed looking for a moment then continued on.

6) Crazy About Yarn booth

On the other side of the door is a booth you may recognize from the drive out to Peterborough, Twin Pines Alpacas. There was that lovely sample you saw last time, some fibre I had not noticed, the palm washboards, some interesting batts as well as stitch markers and yarn.

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7.1-7.2) another colourful booth, Fiber, yarn tools and stitch markers

Oh, do you see what’s in the next booth? It’s the booth with spindles that was at the Guild Sale and Peterborough! They had lots of different drop and support spindles, more Naalbinding needles, support bowls, spindle cases and Fiber!

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8.1 8.2) Top of the Whorl had spindles, nalbinding needles, spindle cases and rolags

As I turned to check out Jane Macmillan’s booth with artwork (lots of Cute Sheep!) and cards. I found Ann. She had turned Right and I had turned left when I entered.

9) Paintings, prints and cards

Ann and I checked out what we had found so far

10) Ann has been shopping!! She has a Star Wars shirt since it was May the Fourth Be With You day!!

Ann had found a couple of very nice sky /water bats as she had wandered around in the opposite direction than I had. She showed you them in her last post. I wonder if there are any more of these blue batts, and where did she find them?

We zipped past a few more booths, I took a few shots (I don’t zip as fast as I used to but Ann still does!) let me show you a few things that caught my eye

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11.1 –11.4) Ann spotted this tiny emotional support chicken it’s for really small issues

We found the booth, Alpaca Tracks T(h)read Lightly, which was the source of the pretty batts Ann had purchased.

12.1 Felted Purse There were felted purses that looked like they were made on a ball.

12.2) There was a selection of dyed yarn but I was quickly distracted by the batts on a shelf next to them

12.3) There were a couple interesting ones left but not as sky-like as I had been hoping for.

Ann spotted a selection of Maori short fiber carded fiber in colour collections. Each is labeled with their colour name so I can get more if need it.

12.4)Maori short-staple batt sample packs different shades and tints of a single colour

Now much more encumbered with packages we moved on. Look! Black Lamb’s booth was directly in front of us! I checked to see if she had more of the size of thick felt backgrounds I wanted, but no luck the pieces here are not the right shape.

Oh, those tempting balls of hand-dyed super wash merino, the colours are so enticing.

13) Supper wash Merino wool

Let me pull you away from the wool as Ann and I drift over to look at the Yarn based on bird colours (what a cool design idea!) Songbird Yarn and Fibers.

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14.1 -14.3) oh there is that cool hat again!!

Next was another booth of yarn, Yarn seems to be the theme this year! Check out the samples, what cool knitting.

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15.1 -15.2) I have no idea how this was created, self-striping yarn? Complex colour changes? Still looks cool, and makes me think of a bed of little tulips with tiny leaves occasionally interspersed.

OH MY those tapestries look familiar. I saw similar ones being Jurried for the guild show in November. Yes! it’s the same person, I have forgotten her name, but I bet Ann will remember. She had some very pretty tapestry landscapes with fringe bottoms. I am looking forward to seeing what she has woven by the fall.

16) Booth of landscape tapestry’s

There were a few more booths, more Yarn and this one had felt key chains

17) felt Key Chains ornaments

18) By the time I got to the Husband-waiting-spot, he was reading a book (he may have been snoozing earlier and I missed it?)

It was a fun event, a bit more yarn than fiber but still lots of interesting things to look at and I did come home with 2 bags of loot. I did remember to go back and get the camera battery and charger before heading out, but I almost forgot!!

Would you like to see what followed me home?

19.1) 2 batts, a sachet of Lavender and 2 more Naalbinding needles

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19.2-19.3) Dark blue batt close-up

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19.4 – 19.5) Light batt

19.6 Gotland fibre Locks (Curls)

19.7 Maori short-staple fibre batts

19.8 Silk hankies

There is one more item that followed me home, but did not get to come into the house. As I was about to leave I looked again at the fleeces in Kelly’s booth, the white one had been sold but the really pretty grey/beige coloured fleece was still there. I was trying to think of who I could split it with and finally caved and bought the whole fleece. It’s out in the side yard so let me take the camera out and see if I can get you a shot. It has a lovely crimp. And the staple length looks like it will be fun to spin or felt. It is a large fleece so it will take me a while to sort and wash each section. Hummm, we have had so much rain this spring, do I really dare wash a fleece we know what happens when I try to dry fleeces!!

19.9) this is Cupcake, she is a 6.4lbs/ 2.90299kg BFL (Blue Faced Lester)/Romney cross

I have to find the little Shetland fleece that I purchased at the April (?) guild meeting. I guess this means that there will be fleece washing in my near future! (I will just warn everyone to keep the Umbrellas handy!)

PS: Ann, I see your inspirational garden Violets (did I send you the speckled ones? They look like the ones I got in Oakville) and raze you an inspirational Purple Sand Cherry Blooming!

20) Inspirational Purple Sand Cherry Blooming

Have fun and keep felting!!

close up of sign for Peterborough fiber arts Festival and Sale 2024

Peterborough Fiber festival 2024 Part 2

April 25, 2024 Jan Comments 10 comments

part 1 can be found here: feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/04/15/peterborough-fiber-festival-2024/

Welcome back to the Peterborough (Ontario, Canada) Fiber Festival, 2024. I hope I have not left you sitting too long. So before you develop a numb butt let’s go look at the inside group of booths. I hope you have saved a bit of window shopping money since I think you may need it!

25) Map showing the location of the sale in Peterborough. Located between Ottawa and Toronto to give you an idea of the scale of the drive. approx 270km/167miles

While we are still by the windows, let’s look at what else is here. Next to the sitting area, where we are leaving Glenn to continue reading his book and hold my shopping, there are two more booths. The first is the display by our hosts, the Peterborough Weavers and Spinners Guild (ptbo-hwsg.com).

26.1-26.2) The Peterborough guild booth display, And close up of the display with rug hookers display in the background.

As I pull you away from the guild display let’s fill in our door prize ticket and we can check back to see if any of us won before we head home.

27)Door prize table and list of winners for the hourly draws.

Did you see the booth with the chickens as we came in? Let’s start there with the inner group of booths. this should be Earth and Vines. There was a distracting display of emotional support chicken wire legs! This prompted a chat about wire armatures and wire acquisition (aliexpress had aluminium wire, in a large range of gauges. For toes the coated steel floral wire worked well when needing a finer gauge but with greater strength than aluminium.) She also had an interesting neck armature idea, which I may investigate later.

28) Earth and Vines had Chickens, Chicken armatures and baskets.

The next booth, What’s Weft, it seemed quite busy most of the day. It had fibre and felted items

29.1 What’s Weft pictures, bags, purses and bags of colourful fibre (I think it’s silk and merino)

29.2 felted scarves and wraps, fibre to spin or felt.

Although the next booth should be the Embroiderer’s Guild with hand-stitched items, I don’t remember seeing it. I was likely distracted by something fluffy. So we will keep going. I think this next photo is at A River of Yarn which lists Luxury Knitting and Crochet yarns, tools, and accessories. When I see these knitted shawls I wish I could knit. Oh well, maybe someday.

30) Colourful knit shawls

You may recognize this next booth from photos from the Ottawa Guild sale last year!! Top of the Whorl I didn’t get too far into this booth, I was distracted by nalbinding needles. One had two holes, the rest had only one. Did you know that the two-hole needles allow you to work with longer lengths of yarn, so less splicing as you work?

Check out the spindles (both drop spindles and support spindles) and see if you pick out a spindle case with built-in support spindle bole! I spotted them down on the bottom shelf! Ann will be sorry she didn’t come too when she sees they had all the little boxes of rolags she enjoys spinning.

31) Top of the Whorl; spindles, nalbinding needles, spindle cases and rolags

Lanes End Farm was the next booth, I was distracted by the cute little wheel but was being good and just admired the little Saxony. Looking down I noticed needle felting kits with lots of coloured fiber. I also spotted more of the blue needle felting fake clover tools. They usually work well but are a bit noisier and not quite as smooth as the green actual clover tools (but are also a lot cheaper than the clover tools). If you have tried the blue tools, like the concept but not the feel of it, try the green Clover version before giving up on this style. they are different.

32) kits with balls of fibre for felting and a little Saxony wheel.

If you picked up the wheel and one of the fake clover tools, let’s go see what is in the next booth.

Eakoworks Fashions- (Quilts) I was distracted by the display of through pillows at the end of the booth and there was fibre in the next booth calling to me!

33.1- 33.2) pillows, is that a black moose on a green background?

Oh no is that fiber? yes, definitely fibre! I am distracted by Shepherd’s Hill Farm – raw fibre bags and locks as well as knitting yarn, books,

34.1) Shepherd’s Hill Farm, Yarns, books and locks mostly dyed

34.2) 2 bags of raw fleece BFL X Coridale and “Marsha” who had even nicer crimp I think she was also a BFL cross.

The fleece named Marsha had tiny tight crimp and more lanolin than the other bag. I was very tempted but needed to check a couple more booths before making an extra purchase. I did not see it when I went past a second time!

We now are going to turn the corner and start heading back towards the comfy window chairs. I must apologize, I was distracted at this point by felt backgrounds in the Wool for Ewe booth and missed a good shot of the Indigo Dragonfly – “luxury yarns dyed in small batches”. If you look behind the Shepherd’s Hill Farm booth, you can see some in the background. I remember deep rich colours, but the quest for wool felt background overcame my documentary photography tendencies.

35) Indigo DragonFly lovely yarn

Mostly Mohair – fibre bumps in bags, I got some! When I tore myself away from the felt that had distracted me, I headed across the aisle to Mostly Mohair, which had Bumps in bags fresh from the mill! Three bumps of top were wool, the others were blends of wool 60/ mohair 40.

36.1) The plastic bag above the table is the fibre blend fresh from the mill, the bags on the floor are state wool.

36.2) white fibre with knit sample

36.3) Felted Teddy bare with mohair locks

36.4) Bags of 60/40 wool/mohair blends in bags100.gr/10.00canadian.

By the time I got home, I had buyer’s remorse for not getting a few more bags. The colour does not show as well in the photo. It was lovely and should spin or felt very nicely. I will try it out on the new wheel (we will talk about that later) once it’s all clean and ready to go.

Once you have picked out a couple of bags for yourself, let’s go on to Songbird yarns. I was quite fascinated by the knitting of these hats. Knitting is so different I do wish I could figure it out. I will keep working on one needle and maybe, someday, I will be ready for two.

37.1) Fancy knitted tooks and yarn for hat kits $60.00

37.2) colourful knit took.

By this point, I was starting to get snide comments from my back about too much standing and bending forward and buying things. So I am pretty sure this was Sweet Pea Cottage Fibre – I got distracted by the fibre box in the corner. it was a sampling of local fleeces. let me read you the tag;

” All-Ontario Sheep Breeds Sample Pack”

Polwarth roving 40g
Babydoll Southdown Roving 40g
Icelandic lamb, Washed
- Black/white 60g
- Black /charcoal 60g
- White 60g
Cotswold Lamb, Washed
- Ewe, white 80g
- Ram, Brown/Grey 80g
Cotswold Ram Locks washed and picked;
- Light Grey 10g
- Mid-Grey 10g
- Dark 10g

(Price $45.00 Canadian)

There were also some individual bags of various fibre all well labelled. I probably should have dug around in that bin a bit more!

38) A study of Ontario breeds and some well-labelled samples in another bin.

I must apologize again I can’t remember either of the next two booths that were listed, Lisa Rideout Jewellery and Hek of a Knit – Knitted items and patterns. I suspect I may have been rushing by to see the double booth of the Olive Sparrow. I was able to pick up some more felt backgrounds for picture felting from Monika, as well as get distracted by all the colours (some of which were not Merino!)

39) Olive Sparrow Felting supplies as well as other interesting offerings.

I am not sure if I can drag you away from all the fibre but we only have a couple of booths left to peruse so let’s keep going!

We are back across from the bake sale table, but they have sold out! so we will have to go on without a sugar boost! Maybe we can stop for a treat on the way home?

Fabric Art- is at the end of the aisle across from the window chairs. It was quite busy and it took me a bit to get a clear shot of this booth. It was around 2:30 when I finally got a shot down the far aisle with this booth and the alpaca booth beside it visible.

40.1) glimpses of landscapes made with fabric

40.2) the far aisle, notice the empty bake sale table across the aisle from fabric art.

40.3) the edge of Fabric Art and the last booth we will see Twin Pines Alpacas

This too had been a busy booth each time I had passed it. I had spotted fibre in one corner and then a palm washboard hanging further down from the fibre. (unfortunately, it was priceless).

41.1) I may be able to get into the alpaca booth now!

41.2) This is from just before opening as vendors were doing their final setup

41.3 I have finally made it inside the booth and there are some very nice knitting samples as well as the yarn that made them.

41.4 here is a close up of one of the samples

We finally made it all the way around the sale! Now don’t forget to pick up your packages that were dropped off with Glenn. I will also remember to collect Glenn! I hope everything will fit in the car. Check the board with the door prize draws before we leave, to see if we were lucky. (I was not this time, maybe next year?). oh my, the clouds and rain seem to have wandered further east so maybe we will have a nice drive home?

42) the sky has blue spots and white fluffy clouds it may be a nice drive back.

If you will accompany us for a bit longer I wanted to point out to you something that quite shocked us on the way down. I remember hearing about tornadoes touching down along Highway 7, around Madoc – Tweed, but I don’t remember seeing them the last time we drove here. It’s really quite traumatic, so you may want to pull over and stop along the worst section. It looks like the last time we made the trip was May 2022 and the tornado hit July 25, 2022 (which would account for why we had not seen it yet). If you google-search “Ontario tornado highway 7 2022” you should find more information. It was rated as a high-end EF-1 tornado with wind near 175 km/h, but the swath of damage looks like it had a friend with a grudge and was a bit more aggressive. It picked up a big pickup truck on Highway 7 tossed it across the highway, over the power lines, and dropped it in a farmer’s field, the driver was shaken but relatively fine.

As we drove, you will see, we quickly caught up to the sombre weather, which seemed correct for the distressing sensory.

43) tornado destruction is still evident from July 2022.

44) There are sections, that have basically, been flattened. Some spots have the odd tree, now bent, trying to stand. Many trunks have snapped like twigs.

I don’t want to leave you feeling stressed so let’s take a quick peek at a few of the shots Glenn took which were not horrifying.

45)Beaver pond east of Peterborough

46) Above: Marsh with bridge and unfortunate McDonald’s sign hidden in the trees. Below: one of the small rivers with spring runoff just west of the Tweed turn off not too far after some of the devastation.

The rest of the drive was full of more rocks, trees and beaver ponds. We arrived safely home before 7 pm. It was a fun day. Did you want to take a peek at my loot? I am sure you will recognize most of my shopping!

It was getting a bit dark for photos.

47.1) I was being good but I have a weakness for cool new tools. I will review in the next photo what I came home with.

47.2)felt, combs, Nitty-knotty, nostapin, 2 nalbinding needles, 2 bags of fibre and not shown in this group is a second-hand felting book Fabulous felted scarves.

I hope you have enjoyed the trip and are very happy with all your virtual purchases. If you want more physical purchases, there is a vendor’s contact list here: http://www.ptbo-hwsg.com/events/fibrefest/ If any of the landscapes inspire you, please enjoy felting them! Although the later shots may be less stressful, than the former ones.

Peterborough Fiber festival 2024

April 15, 2024 Jan Comments 22 comments

It is springtime in Ottawa, and the trees are migrating in my driveway. So now is the time to watch for fibre festival announcements!

1) Signs the migration has started by the trail of leaf debris and the new summer location of the portable forest (in front of the kitchen window). I just wanted to show you that spring has finally sprung!

Today I want to invite you to join us on a trip to Peterborough Fibre Arts Festival & Sale 2024. So set your alarm clock for 5 am and I will meet you in the driveway at 6 am!

2) 6 am, a light drizzle, but the new grass seed should be likening this weather. The sun is just starting to arrive. (Kea hatchback, with new tiers and a few other repairs)

I have an audiobook ready to go, and a heavily caffeinated Mountain Dew drink, Glenn brought his book (and a spare). We will pick up bagels with cream cheese on the way! We are driving west across the Canadian Shield, old rocks abused by glaciers, lots of trees and the occasional lake and streams. This time of year has those amazing colours, of ambers, rusts, browns and hints of green to come. Unfortunately, the rain is dulling them somewhat. However, I am sure you will enjoy the scenery anyway.

3.1 3.2) Rocks and trees of the Canadian Shield

There are sections of the trip where you can see beaver ponds, lodges and dams, but let’s skip ahead so you don’t have to enjoy the full 3.5 hour drive of scenery.

We arrived at the sports centre where the sale was taking place around 9:30 am. They were just finishing up the setup and would be opening shortly (10 am)

4) Spring Daffodils

Peterborough is always ahead of us in weather and is enjoying spring flowers, here is a lovely clump of Daffodils about to open, and there was a smaller clump in full bloom.

5) admission desk sign for Fiber festival

While I waited to go in, (Glenn read) I spotted this vendor in an asymmetrical nuno felted vest and was sure to get a shot.

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6)Nuno felt asymmetrical vest

At 10 o’clock they let the hordes in!

As we waited we could see vendors photographing something just inside, to the right of the doors

7) The Kawartha Hooking Guild had a display and demo just as you entered.

Ah, that explains that mystery!

The space is in a large gym within the sports centre. The booths are arranged around the edges of the gym as well as a centre double row of booths with a wide aisle between them. I am looking for the Black Lamb and Olive Sparrow in a quest for two types of felt backgrounds. But let’s stop a moment at the booth next to the rug hookers.

As the Wheel Turns:

8) This booth has refurbished secondhand wheels and spinning accessories

You may see a couple of the smaller items that followed me home. She had a Lendrum wheel, which we both thought would be gone by the time I made it around the show, it took a little longer but it sold. She also had a woolly winder for a Lendrum but it sold separately.

Let me pull you away from the wheels, the next booth was 3 Dogsknits and they had yarn and braids of fibre.

9) shopping at 3 Dog Knits booth, love the skirt

Wondering on, Lang Pioneer Village had a booth. They also have a Jacquard loom, there was a sample on their table as well as the fabric for the purse was woven on their loom.

10.1-10.2) Lang Pioneer Village Museum display and banner.

11) The next booth is Irish Hill Shop and they had felt.

12) I think this is Etho Makes? Very pretty yarn but I was looking for fiber.

13) Yarnsomiacs had a double booth, with fiber, a picker for sale, batts and yarn.

Next was the Black Lamb, which I was looking for some of her felt ground that I have used for name tags. I got very distracted and was sure I had taken more photos of the booth but seem to have bought needles, a book on felt and the felt I actually was looking for.

14) Black Lamb had a double booth, lots of colourful dyed fibre, most was merino, in both Superwash (dose not wet felt) and regular merino. I also saw cashmere, tussah silk and a lot of felting needles. If you look back at one of my trips to Twist you will see more of the selection!

The next was also a double booth, Kim at Designs. It was full of sewing/hand stitching supplies. It was full of people most of the time I was there. If you can make it through the throng, you can pick up some cool sewing items!

15) Slow stitching, embroidery, quilting, fine needles, scissors and other hand sewing tools in Kim at Designs booth.

If I can pull you away, the next booth was Wool for Ewe.

16) Felting backgrounds, yarn, batts of fibre, felting tools, Kumohimo and Felting kits at Wool 4 Ewe

I think the next booth was called the Living Canvas. It had hand dyed scarves and scarf hardware. It took a while before I could get a shot of it!

17.1-17.2) The Living Canvas Scarves

There should have been a rug hooking booth next, but I thot it was further down, and I can’t find a shot of that one either, I was obviously distracted.

18) Santosha Fibreworks and Farm was a double booth filled with Ashford spinning and felting projects, their own milled felt, various breeds of fibre in natural or dyed,

19) Next was a booth using rescued wood, Turned not Burned. There were lots of spinning, weaving and sewing tools

20) The Artisans Center is a group space with weaving, woodworking, quilting and felting on display.

Now that we are almost all the way around the outside I think you should take a look at this next booth and maybe treat yourself.

21) Cakes, Cookies, and other tasty treats at the Guild Bake Table.

If you have selected a treat, let’s take a quick look at the Guild Demo area.

22) Peterborough Guild Demo area.

I am sure by this point, you are a bit overwhelmed and would probably like to eat your treats? With good planning, there is a seating area up by the windows! You can join Glenn (who was being good and avoided the cake) as he holds my purchases and starts his second book.

23) The Husband Resting Spot by the window and the beginnings of my purchases

Just next to the rest-full-chairs was the demo area we just looked at.

24) The very nice spinner who was doing a fabulous cross body style of long draw showed off her loot to us, she intends to blend the fibre into batts on a drum carder.

It must be old age, or getting up at 5 am yesterday, I think I should leave you resting here until next week, there are still the inner booths and the guild display to wander through. (There will be felt!) so if you don’t mind, I will be back shortly to show you a bit more then we can drive back to Ottawa and see if it has stopped raining!

Felting and Fiber Studio

An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

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