August 9th, 2012
Where has this summer gone? We have been so busy with retreats and the garden that I really haven’t noticed the days clicking by. We have had a very mixed bag of weather here in B.C. but we are finally pulling ahead of the slugs, beetles, deer, rabbits and oh I almost forgot…..the tent caterpillars that have invaded us this year. During the June Twills on 4 Retreat, my whole class got into picking them off the raspberries every night. Despite all their efforts (the caterpillars) we have harvested a bumper crop of raspberries which will last the whole winter.
Every night now we are feasting on fresh greens, potatoes, tomatoes, summer squash, peas, cabbage, carrots~the garlic and onions are hanging to dry~oh my! Each day provides us with the opportunity to be eternally grateful for our bountiful lives. This also means that all our retreat guests are going home with extra big smiles on their faces. This is the first summer we have had our chef Rosemary Harbrecht cooking for retreats. I just can’t tell you how amazing it is to go to the table during our retreats to see what a French Trained Chef can pull off. Don’t ever think you will be able to come here to weave and go home having lost weight! It isn’t possible…but you’ll be very happy. I don’t know if Rosemary has ever had such rounds of applause or so many hugs at her other jobs :^)
Organic Cotton Patterns
We have created two lovely sets of tea towels from our new Organic Cotton. They are very soft and absorbant and we are so proud to be able to sell this quality of cotton. It is certified organic, spun and dyed in Holland by the same company that produces our very high quality cottolin Venne. These two sets of organic cotton tea towels are now available as patterns on our store site. This 2/8 cotton is sett the same way you would sett our regular cotton but is grown without the use of pesticides or herbicides. It is the perfect yarn for those specials gifts that are easier on the planet.
Our First Basketry Retreat at JST
In May we had the pleasure of hosting a Wicker Basket Workshop with the incomparable Joan Carrigan. She took over our classroom with dyed willow reeds, wild crafted materials and spray bottles. As you can see, the results were exquisitely beautiful! Many of these students had never made a basket before and look at what they created in just 2 days. We will be offering many more workshops like this in the new year. Watch for the 2013 class lists that will be coming out in the October Newsletter.
Our next visiting instructor is our favourite spinner Cheryl Huseby-Wiebe. She will be teaching us how to use colour in our spinning to dazzle and delight! Check out her class description here!
There are 2 spaces left in this workshop running September 28th and 29th.
Maiwa Symposium “Inspiration from the Sari”
There are also 2 spots left in Jane’s workshop “Inspiration from the Sari” which is part of the Maiwa Symposium in Vancouver. The dates for the workshop are October 23rd to 26th. Here is a photo of the samples you will weave during this workshop. They are pretty darn spectacular. Doubleweave inlaid with sequins, cramming and denting, stitched doubleweave with supplementary warps….oh my! If you have taken Pushing the Boundaries of Plain Weave with Jane you are ready for this workshop…….she will push you even further!
Speaking of the “Inspiration from the Sari” workshop, these photos show Sheri’s Ward’s creative use of her left over warp after taking this workshop last fall. She wove off the rest of the warp and turned the fabric into Speaker Covers.
And this delightful bit of craftwork is from our very own little Charlotte who spun, dyed and crocheted almost all the yarn in this sweet baby blankie for her friend Sylvie’s brand new daughter Elora Mae. The orange border is dyed Mikado.
The sizes of the squares are based on the Fibonacci sequence to make a cubed Fibonacci Spiral.
