Market at Whippletree!

Just a little reminder about the market at Whippletree - we have started and our third one is on this Sunday - we hope it will grow and become the place to get fresh veg and the best art and crafts in the valley. We are still small, but the vendors that come love it. The courtyard lends itself to this kind of market - music and belly dancers too! If you have something to sell, or would like to entertain, please email: marketatwhippletree@gmail.com

I will write later and put a picture on of the market.

Studio work and other textile joy

I have been trying so hard to get to this blog, but I have been busy getting ready for the Baby Fair with Oma Gosh! Designs, so soon that will be finished with for a few months before the next one. And then we have the Market @ Whippletree Junction starting on the 13th, with the day before being the World Wide Knit Public Day all in the courtyard outside my studio! Lucky me - I am very excited. This photo is of a little poncho I am making today using Mochi Plus - a favourite yarn that has lovely repeats to it. Just imagine a little one with a colourful poncho on. I have made a few in the cream and pastel colours, but felt that colour was in order!

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of taking a spinning workshop with Anne Field from New Zealand - what great fun that was. It was all about exotic fibres and although I was nervous, I was able to manage very nicely and everyone was lovely and welcoming. Lucky me. I took a picture of my spinning wheel (a Schacht) - isn't she pretty and riding on a ferry!!!!


So now I am dyeing and spinning and picking and carding, and fleeces keep coming my way - so much wool and so little time to enjoy it. I was trying to spin at least 2 hours a day, but somehow I am doing about 2 hours a week. Expectations can be so high. Anyway, I am loving what I am doing and just wish I could do more.

Tartans

I have just visited an amazing website http://www.stonearabie.com/ for those of you that are facinated by the tartan. This man apparently has been weaving for only a few years and he is a genius. For me tartans have been too slow and too precise for my patience level, but I have been inspired to look into it again. One of my students is really crazy for them, so I put her on to this website so she can drool. Whenever I have done a tartan, I, of course would put crazy colours and threads together to maintain my interest - always breaking the rules! The tartan I have pasted in was the one I did for my mother-in-law many years ago - and I set it up correctly but I used shiny reds and greens and a boucle white. It was fun and fanciful rather than a 'true' tartan. I wish I had the stole that I wove for her - it would be interesting to see again.

The studio has been very busy with students, Oma Gosh! Designs and selling used weaving and spinning equipment. I love being in my space and sharing what knowledge I have and hope that I can be as inspiring as Tartan John.

Imagine a day...

Imagine a day....
...when the peace of a forest
and the strength of a mountain
become a cathedral
for your heart...

This day has been filled with such energy that I am exhausted by it. And it is all extraordinarily good filled with generosity, goodwill, kindness and creativity. There are very good people in the world and I just happen to know some of them.

Spinning and memories

I was thinking today about how I have been spinning and being in the zen zone - lots of memories coming back. This spindle whorl appeared while I was looking for something else which was odd, as I had been thinking about Simon Charlie ( I believe I took a picture at the museum in Duncan (I'm not sure where I got this photo) and I believe it is Simon Charlie's...anyway...) I was thinking while spinning, about my Cowichan princess daughters and our visit with Charlie in his carving studio which is just down the hill from my studio. The girls really were humbled by this great man and I was glad that they had the experience before he passed away. So that is just one of many memories that passed through my mind while spinning some incredibly beautiful local wool.

Spinning out of control!

Spinning seems to be my new obsession.......can't spin enough and the dyeing is getting a little out of control as well. I have carded wool I have dyed and I am also dyeing in the fleeces - getting it clean at the same time........and just spinning in the grease. I was given some Shetland fleece to play with and I am loving it - the natural colours are amazing - lovely browns. I will post some pictures tomorrow. I will be attending a spinning workshop - spinning with exotic fibres, so I am warming up and I am trying to spin at least 100 grams a day - a goal easily accomplished I think. Then my dear friend Ann came by as I knew she would and did we ever have a good gabfest and she told me about Gotland wool, so now I have to have some of that. My new friend Alberta who has the Shetland sheep knows lots about fleece and was able to educate me about Romney and then my friend Annie gave me this amazing fleece from Wales (the breed is from Wales) called Clune Forest (not sure of the spelling) - but it is amazing fleece...........so much fleece, so little time. Had two students today as well, and wow they made beautiful warps. I am so very satisfied with my life today. And welcome full moon - the Beltane moon.

I am loom rich these days - but have been also been selling equipment - not mine, but others that have brought in equipment, I use it while it is residing in the studio and then when someone comes looking for a loom, or spinning wheel, off it goes.....works well. I have also been weaving double weave pickup, thanks to a local guild having a workshop and my demonstrating to a student that didn't know what it was, and I was pulled in by the technique. Hadn't done it in a long time - but it is so easy and so effective. I, of course do not weave it traditionally - had enough of that weaving with wool on one layer and linen on the other - the Swedish way! Loved it at the time, but then discovered other threads to use.....

The Studio has been busy with lots of tourists coming through already. I have been going to the studio earlier and earlier to get some concentrated work done...

I took a couple of pictures - an 'arty' picture of my newest teapot - the 25th one and it is a 25th anniversary teapot with wedding bells on it and all.

And the newest warp - bags with simple double weave pickup, or as I always called Finn Vav