Bringing Inspiration Home
It was good to be away. It is good to be home. Normally vacations leave me mildly depressed about returning to life as usual. This time I am buoyant with new inspiration for the present, and hope for...
View ArticleChassagne’s Shetland Sheep Thrive Naturally
On Saturday we discovered an environmentally responsible sheep farm practically on our back doorstep. At Chassagne, the original North American flock of Shetland sheep thrives without chemical...
View ArticleEco-friendly fibre craft
In my effort to live more lightly on the Earth, I am beginning to review what kinds of fibre I use for knitting, spinning and weaving. Just as the organic certification of food has become increasingly...
View ArticlePhotovember 5
Over the weekend Guelph Guild of Handweavers & Spinners held its annual show and sale, Fall Fibres, at Wellington County Museum. I did a weaving demonstration and my partner, Danny Ouellette, did...
View ArticleCombining fibre with a hackle
Kit Fisher recently gave a workshop, at Guelph Handweavers and Spinners Guild, on combining fibre with a hackle. Creating yarn this way has always appealed to me. In fact, thinking back, it was one of...
View ArticleAn exotic pigeon inspired this handspun, knitted shawl
Bath Time by Sue Demetriou Last year our local Guelph Guild of Handweavers and Spinners presented a show at Greenwood Quiltery‘s gallery, featuring fibre crafts inspired by images (paintings or...
View ArticleOHS: Spinning stories from fibre, Part 1
Ontario Handspinning Seminar took place this past weekend. It was attended by more than 140 spinners. This year’s theme explored the connection between spinning and storytelling. Children’s stories,...
View ArticleCore spinning: painting with fibre
Now I am painting with fibre and having so much fun, it is probably illegal in Russia. In a recent workshop with Lisa McKenzie, I learned a technique called core spinning, in which you wrap fibre...
View ArticleHandspinning outside the comfort zone
Red is outside my comfort zone. I created these skeins of handspun yarn over the past week. I have been working from photographs, choosing fibres that capture the colours and textures of the scene,...
View ArticleLorraine Roy’s fabric art inspired this handspun hat
I made this hat for my friend, fabric artist Lorraine Roy, based on one of her works, “Tobermory sunset”. Her pieces are perhaps best described as fabric paintings. She spreads countless fragments of...
View ArticleMy hot autumn colour scarf
A few weeks ago I posted about handspinning outside the comfort zone. I set out to create some lively yarn concentrating on reds, not a colour range I naturally gravitate to. For inspiration I used a...
View ArticleNatural dye from mountain-ash leaves
American mountain-ash (Sorbus americana) leaves provide an excellent natural dye in coppery-gold colours. This plant does not often arise in discussions of natural dyes, perhaps because it lacks wide...
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