Felting and Fiber Studio

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!

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?)

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!