Farm Show

Last year, what with school and all, I didn't get a chance to go out and do too many demos with the Weaving and Spinning Guild. But I've managed a couple this winter, and yesterday was the demo at the Ottawa Farm Show. I did this one a couple years ago too, the first year they were at the Ernst and Young Centre, when we scored fleeces from Rare Breeds Canada to sample.

It's a fun show, for several reasons. I always get a kick out of seeing the contrast between the EY Centre, which is shiny-modern-new, and the show clientele, which is heavy on pick-up trucks in the lot and feed-caps, plaid shirts, and jeans on the people. And even if you're not interested in the latest breed of wheat or model of John Deere tractor, there's plenty to see in the way of antiques and fun things in the exhibition area. Our station was right outside there.

We had a  good variety of things to show people about the Guild and what we do.

Across from us was a rope maker, who also had some wooden toys and games, and who got people to help make plied and cabled ropes from cakes of baler twine. Inside the exhibition there was leather-working, antique implements, quilts, detailed wooden models, and a sock-knitting machine.

Some of the booths in the show had what definitely could be called eye-catching displays, like the stuffed bison I passed on my way in.

And then there's the loot. We saw people passing with foam #1 fingers, wooden staffs, Kubota bags, balloons, and who knows what else. I think the best, though, was the T-shirts that were for sale. Both of my demo partners bought shirts. One said 'Kiss me, I'm a farmer', and the other said, '100% Farm-Raised'.

The only draw-back, in fact, was the weather. Snow and wind all afternoon and evening, making getting home lots of fun. Sigh. More white stuff to melt before we can do more than plan gardens and start seedlings, and dream of going outside without a coat and boots...

History, Music - and Fiber

I've been getting reacquainted with my old spinning wheel this week, and enjoying it - I'd forgotten how slow and relaxing the treadling rhythm of this one is compared to the Hitchhiker. Since I got the Hitchhiker, I'm afraid the old one hasn't gotten used much. Partly because I felt like I should do most of the work on the new wheel, and not risk breaking the antique one, and partly because the new one is portable and so it came with me places and always had something in progress as a result.

I've been back on the old wheel because next Sunday is a rather fun demo that the Weaving and Spinning Guild was contacted for. The Algonquin College Theatre has an event on from Odyssey Showcase, called A Musical Taste of our Canadian Heritage. And for a few hours before the show, they are setting up an 18th C trading post in the lobby, and getting us to do a little weaving and spinning there. So I get to go and spin, on my old wheel, in costume, and talk to people about how you turn sheep and plants into clothes. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Brin de Culture

This post's pictures are coming to you via my Dad's camera. Mine decided on a murder-suicide this weekend - first it screwed up my card, and then it died. I'm not terribly pleased about it, you may imagine.

Anyway, I spent Sunday afternoon with my borrowed camera at the vernissage for the show Johanne and Chantal put together, called Un Brin de Culture / A Strand of Culture. Object being to celebrate the alpaca and its fibre, and show the steps involved between the animal and the finished product. I got to spend the afternoon demo-ing spinning and chatting with people - there was quite a good turnout, for sure! And they did a great job of setting up the show.

It always looks so much more impressive with a fancy invite, and a write-up in the gallery pamphlet. The alpaca who modelled was apparently Pivoine Jolie (Pretty Poppy), who has a gorgeous, fine black fleece.

The Salle Alfred Langevin, where the show was held, is in The Chateau in my hometown. Back when train travel was a big thing, this was a fancy hotel. After standing derelict for a while, it now houses the municipal offices, a cafe, and the gallery space.

Entry to the Salle Alfred Langevin

A huge old barn loom dominated the center front. I do not envy anyone the job of set-up and take-down for that. It's taller than most people, pegged-together timber, with a back beam the size of a telephone pole, and string heddles.

My spot was just near the entrance, on a bit of a stage.

Around the perimeter of the room, different stations showed fibre, tools old and new, a weaving project in progress, natural dyes and the alpacas' colour range, finished products and yarn, and a slideshow of the alpacas and last year's shearing.

If this is the newest trend in modern art, I'm all for it.

See Amanda Run

See Amanda. See Amanda run. See Amanda drying yarn and blocking pillow cover pieces.

Only to discover the pillow top is on the small side. Hmm.
See Amanda run around stacking interlock pieces Wednesday, attending the inaugural garden club meeting at school, learning to drive a riding mower Thursday, and then dashing off to Deb's to make measurements and pictures for an assignment (on interviewing clients and getting the needed information, presented as a theoretical garden/landscaping renovation.)

Also, see Amanda succumbing to the lure of Chapters and purchasing both the new Knitting Traditions and Knits Holiday magazines from Interweave.
See Amanda catching the nasty cold going around at school. See Amanda navigating the Friday Safety lecture and quiz with the help of Tylenol and ginger tea. See Amanda looking ahead to Saturday demoing spinning all day with the prospect of a wedding reception that evening to go to...

Yeah, that was my week. Hope everyone else's was good. Tomorrow's demo is back home, at the official store/studio opening for Johanne's alpaca ranch, L'Ourse Qui Danse, in Godmanchester, Quebec. She wants me there to spin, and show off some of the natural dye colors, since the idea is that I may be teaching workshops on those topics at her store/studio. Just hope Jo doesn't mind me coughing and blowing my nose, and croaking. But unless I feel a heck of a lot better tomorrow, I'm going to try to avoid the reception. Very thankful (appropriately) this is a holiday weekend, and I have two days after tomorrow where I hopefully don't have to go anywhere, and someone else can cook and let the cat in and out, while I rest and do homework, and try to catch up on knitting...

A Demo and a Windfall

Somehow I feel like maybe I lost a day this week. Not sure how else it got to be Saturday night again, already.

Thursday was entirely taken up with the first demo of the season, at the Ottawa Farm Show. It was actually the third and last day of the show, and the OVWSG had people there all three days, but today was the only day I went.

Historically, I gather, the show has been at Lansdowne Park. This year, they had a new venue, the brand-new and modern-looking CE Center out near the airport. Trekked out on the bus in the a.m. with my wheel. No question of whether I was in the right place - the parking lot was half pick-up trucks, and there were several pieces of farm machinery parked along the front of the buildings. Inside, a huge floor space with booths for everything from livestock breed associations to wood furnaces to equipment dealers with wagons and things parked on the floor like a car dealership. A couple of the smaller conference rooms were appropriated to antiques and associated crafts and 4-H, and that was where we were parked for the day.

Dang, that was a fun day. Watch all the farmers in their plaid shirts and ball caps and boots wandering through the tile-and-glass entryway. Chat with people, and be amused by the security guard asking if I was old enough to be allowed to spin, and the guy who wanted to know (in jest) whether we could use steel wool to spin and knit a bumper for his truck. Show the kids how to use the drum carder. Wander about for a bit after lunch and see the booths.

Rare Breeds Canada had one of the booths, and in the afternoon the lady who was there came by to visit us and ask if we could spin some samples of fleeces she had for an upcoming talk at the Ottawa Knitting Guild. So we said, sure, lovely, no problem. And 5 feedbags of raw fleece turned up for us shortly thereafter. On discussion of whether she was giving us all this, when really you'd only need a fraction for the samples, she did take part of two fleeces back, but left us with three bags full, or almost. Some for samples, some to play...
Showing the others at Fleece Spa yesterday what we had gotten, we decided since everyone was excited about the fleeces, that samples of each fleece could be prepped and spun by each person, and have a variety of styles of yarn to show for the talk. My front entry smells like sheep right now, since I was lucky enough to get the bulk of each sample - the perks of having no job right now, I have the time to do more with the wool. So excited! There's a chunk of Border Leicester, one of Romney, and a Clun Forest (new to me, but seems med-fine and crimpy and soft) in white, a pale-grey Shetland lamb, and a lovely Cotswold in silver and pewter shades, with a sheen and swirl like mohair locks. I can't wait to get started.  

Weekend Fiber Fun

I managed to get to the Metcalfe market Saturday to participate in the spinning demo, thanks to a ride from Karen. Really couldn't have asked for a better time. A sunny day, not too hot. A range of vendors selling everything from soap to vegetables to tea cozies to coffee in the booths outside and inside the hall.

Karen's husband got distracted before we got to our location, and purchased us home-baked pastries from one vendor, which made a lovely snack. We found our corner, on a bit of a platform next to a bit of a cafe, so there was coffee to go with the pastries. Merilyn and Elisabeth, two of the Guild members who have booths at the market, had set up an accompanying display of fiber, with an adorable wheel, just my age.


And Merilyn left us a batch of homemade salsa and pita chips for snacking.

 Three more spinners arrived in short order, and the morning went faster than our wheels, between chatting, talking to people, and taking turns to slip off and peruse the vendors. I made one sole purchase, a jar of Merilyn's ground cherry chutney, which I had sampled last year.

Home to the parents' Saturday night, and Sunday was wash day. I got probably a couple sheep's worth of fleece washed and spread to dry. Kiki was obliging enough to help keep it from blowing away.

Black and grey fleece is from a neighbor, Anouk. Not sure what breed it is, but I had three fleeces from her, two grey and a black, not very fine, but decent wool. Wanting to do a couple dyebaths, I washed some white I picked out of a Jacob fleece as well. The yellow in the pic is from coreopsis I had in the freezer. I seem to lose the orange when I use the frozen flowers, but it does give a lovely gold. It was more intense on the yarn I dyed at the same time.

The other two skeins are from Japanese indigo, and buckthorn berries. Gorgeous together, no? I was so happy the japanese indigo worked this time (got the instructions, in writing, from DebP, who ordered the seeds originally, and followed it as close as I could), and I got a paler sky-blue with it on some fleece as well. The berries didn't come out as dark as I hoped, but Mom is already planning a project with the results...

Pick Up The Pace

The nights have suddenly gone from warm and humid to cooler, the geese are flocking, the goldenrod is out, and the fall fairs are starting. Summer is nearly over, and the next little while is always a whirl, harvesting, preparing, storing things, and taking advantage of the last of the warm weather.

See that sky?

That's Saturday evening, which snuck up about the time I was cleaning up after supper, taking the corncobs out to the compost, and the grey water out to the tomato plants. (I noticed today that one of my tomatoes is starting to ripen, so I'm excited.)
I've not had much idle time the last few days, it seems. A lot has gotten done, though. I stripped the gooseberry bush Thursday, got a colander full of berries. I got about half the top-and-tail cleaning of them done this afternoon, and will try to do the rest this evening, with a cup of tea and a musical on the VCR for entertainment.

A few of the gooseberries did get cleaned right away and thrown into fruit salad for an indigo dyeing morning Friday with the Fleece Spa group, before I went to work. I also brought Wensleydale roving and commercial yarn previously dyed yellow, and they are now drying on my shower curtain rail, considerably bluer than they began.

Julia woke me earlier than I considered necessary this morning, but it turned out I needed every minute to finish dressing, eating and packing before my ride showed up for the demo today at Navan fair. We had a lovely day for it, a little warm perhaps, but it did cool down after a shower in the afternoon, which made the tin-roofed building we were in very noisy for a while. Half a bobbin of cria got spun, and it was a nice chance to see exhibits and check out exhibit categories and ideas at a different fair - normally this weekend I would have been home at our local fair. I still did send some knitting for entries there, though, so I'll hear how that went tomorrow night.  In the meantime, I think the teakettle is my next stop.  

June is…

June is the month of roses, as the poets have sung. The rugosas are out all over the city, and my roses are out, pink and yellow, single and double, and all smelling as a rose should smell. I like the look of the hybrid tea roses, but for scent you can’t compare with the old, ruffled, short-lived roses.

June is the month of weddings, and I had my cousin’s to attend last Saturday. She had a lovely day, which was both a good thing, as the reception was in a tent on her parent’s front lawn, and a bad thing, as they (and many of the guests) are farmers, and given all the rain we’ve had, the loss of a whole day of work in nice weather for the wedding must have been an annoyance.

As with many weddings, a few things occurred which will furnish amusement for a while. The one leaving the biggest impression was probably that the poor groom was misnamed twice – once when the priest used the wrong name during the ceremony, almost marrying the bride to the assistant priest, and once during the speeches after supper where someone used the bride’s mother’s name instead.

June is the month of sheep shearing and school trips, which two got combined last Monday at Upper Canada Village. I was helping with demonstrating spinning that day as part of their Fabulous Fibers weekend. It’s always fun demoing, but this was the first time I’d done one where the audience was mostly school groups, and it felt odd, as there were always either 20 kids around or no-one. Harder to do the one-on-one stuff, and they want something to do or they move on, so a lesson for next year. What went over great with them was the Kool-Aid dyeing across the hall from us.

And finally, June is apparently the month to spring-clean, if you’re as lazy as I am. I felt inspired to clean Saturday morning (shock!). It happens so rarely I had to take advantage of the mood, and washed the windows and the dishes, and vacuumed and mopped, and sorted papers and project bags. I feel very pleased with myself!

Productive Fun

A whole ‘nother weekend busy, and no photos to show for most of it. My excuse is that I was too busy to take pictures (really I just forgot – ssssh!). Saturday and Monday were spent at the Experimental Farm for their sheep-shearing festival. Besides shearing, there were dog trials, and demonstrations of fiber crafts, showing the kids (and parents) what happens to the fleece - knitting, spinning, weaving and finger-weaving (ceinture flechee).

And a lot of them wanted to try their hands at things. So fascinating, watching the cool preteen’s eyes widen as they get the drop spindle to work, or the reluctant boy go from prodded by the parents to enthusiastic must-do-another-row on the loom, as they realize that you can MAKE things. The little ones are fun too, especially when you get the occasional REALLY enthusiastic ones who want to do it all themselves, right away, and who are therefore trying to sit on my lap and remove my hands from the roving about 10 seconds in at the spinning wheel, before they’ve even attempted to treadle.

Despite all the help, I got two skeins of this spun and Navajo-plied over the two days. Wool/mohair/angora batt picked up at Rhinebeck a few years ago from Maggie’s Farm. I have a kilo of the stuff, it’s soft and gorgeous and I’m spinning more or less right out of the bag, just fluffing it a bit first.

Sunday, for a change of pace, I gardened. Not even mine. A family friend broke her foot, and hasn’t been able to get in and do any work this season, and the weeds were taking full advantage. More than half a leaf bag later, things are looking better but not done, so I may go again. It may be more work to weed a bed when it’s getting overgrown, but the results are as dramatic as one of those super makeovers, and very satisfying to look at.

Pink is my new obsession

I’ve had the song stuck in my head this weekend because of a new spinning project. Well, not pink per se, but the oranges and magentas I dyed last year (cochineal, madder and pokeberry), and have been looking forward to doing something with.

One of the local Quilter’s Guilds had their show this weekend, and several of the other fiber and handwork-oriented guilds set up shop there to demonstrate skills and advertise. I spent Saturday spinning there. But what do you bring to spin at a quilt show? Weavers and knitters are producing a fabric, so that is sort of relevant, but spinning is a step before that. My figuring was that there are more people who are doing mixed-media things now with quilts, and maybe they’d be interested in something colorful and textural for yarn. Besides, I wanted a break from the unending cria.

I noticed shortly after starting that I apparently didn’t rinse the dyed fleece thoroughly enough. Pink fingers. Which, after all, doesn’t look quite so bad as walnut staining or indigo.

But the singles were turning out lovely. I figure there’s about enough for three skeins.

I couldn’t resist plying up the first one before finishing the singles, just to see. Pretty, no?

Oh, the cria? I measured what I have done, just for the heck of it. There are 328 g spun, which is approximately 1640 yds. I can fit about three times the yardage I normally do on a bobbin. This explains quite nicely why each bobbin feels like it’s taking a looong time.