October 3 – 9 is spinning and weaving week…
This is my recent spinning….
This past weekend the Salt Spring Weavers and Spinners Guild had their annual sale and I had a SAORI weaving workshop in Victoria. This week I have two classes coming up, plus some weaving and spinning to work on myself.
I’ll do another post with things I work on during the week.
What are you spinning or weaving this week?
Happy Weaving & Spinning,
Terri
My website: www.saorisaltspring.com
I love fall. It always feels like the new year to me, getting back to schedules, school for some, fall harvests and so on. In celebration of the season, one of my favourite things on Salt Spring is the Salt Spring Fall Fair – a chance to connect and enjoy the community, friendships and abundance.
The Salt Spring Weaver’s and Spinners guild always has a display and items can be entered into the show. My SAORI loom is always there for people to try out…
This year’s theme of the Fair was ‘Green and Growing’. Here is Jane’s SAORI multi-media entry into the fair…
Aya made a bag for carrying her yoga mat…
I did some spinning this year – something that I had dabbled in off and on – but inspired by Kristen and Carmen and Elaine (who taught me to use a drop spindle when she was here for a weaving retreat) – I have done more spinning this year…(and won a first prize ribbon!)
Next, it was off to the Fairfield Community Fall Fair in Victoria. Again, the SAORI loom came along and Lynn helped with the hands-on demo, Claudia was doing some spinning, Karen some crochet and Bob was making buttons…
– a fun, foggy and fibre-y day…
…and a finished banner to hang in the community hall…
Happy Weaving,
Terri
My website: www.saorisaltspring.com
On Mother’s Day we went for a walk down to a nearby beach…
…and I took along my spindle once again.
Happy Weaving (and Spinning),
Terri
My website: www.saorisaltspring.com
Through Chris at Joybilee Farm and the Fibershed blog I have learned about Fibersheds – or should I say Fibresheds in Canada.
A fabulous idea! Since I moved to Salt Spring Island, I have been thinking about ideas like this – with all the sheep here (and alpacas, llamas, etc.), spinners, weavers, dyers, clothing makers as well as the Gulf Islands Spinning Mill there is a great potential. Add to that everyone within a 150 mile (more or less) radius and there is a lot of products and a lot of talent! The idea of a Fibreshed has brought it all together for me.
The 150 miles would include everything from Salt Spring Island almost to Penticton, Vancouver, Hope, Merritt, the Whistler area, most of Vancouver Island (perhaps all if we extend it north a bit), down to Seattle and Tacoma, the Olympic Peninsula…wow!
Wouldn’t it be great to bring that all together and create a collaborative group to share, learn and produce local products? How about connecting that with the Transition Town movement and Transition Salt Spring? Transition Victoria and others?
Here are those Salt Spring sheep again….
Interested in joining me to explore this idea? I’m going to set up an email list and start putting ideas together. Please contact me with your ideas and let me know if you want to be on the list. Chris (at Joybilee Farm) is also setting up a Fibreshed in the Grand Forks area (southern interior of BC) and surrounds, so you can also contact her here.
Happy Weaving (and spinning, dying, knitting, sewing, shearing, …..)
Terri
My website: www.saorisaltspring.com
Well, my trip to New Zealand was fantastic! I met so many people, had beautiful summer weather, saw wonderful beaches, forest, farmland, etc. etc. etc. and had so much fun!
I was so happy to be able to introduce Saori weaving to some people in NZ. I ended up with just 5 people in the workshop – they were all so enthusiastic and tried out many different things.
I cannot thank Glynis (and Owen) of Majacraft enough for all they did to make the workshop possible!
I was invited to speak at the Tauranga Weavers and Spinner guild the day following the workshop and when I asked the 40 or so people there if they had heard of Saori weaving – most hadn’t – so I had about an hour to do a Show and Tell – of some Saori weaving, the Saori loom, the philosophy, etc. At the end of the presentation there were a lot of people who wished they had taken the workshop. Perhaps an opportunity to do another workshop in the future!
I will do some posts also with some of the beautiful New Zealand scenes and some of our experiences there – here are just a few to get started…
Happy Weaving,
Terri
My website: www.saorisaltspring.com
On a beautiful autumn day we went for a walk at Duck Creek….the colours were gorgeous!
When I saw the colours of the trees, the sunshine and the blue sky, I had this image in my mind of a small child, spinning with arms outstretched – under the tree, with the yellow leaves spinning under the bright blue sky – of course getting so dizzy and falling down in the grass and leaves!
I tried to capture this feeling with my camera…
in a couple of ways…
Happy Spinning 🙂 and Weaving,
Terri
My website: www.saltspringweaving.com
In January, I went to Distaff Day (distaff – wikipedia definition) in Duncan. There were about 75 people of all ages spinning, knitting & weaving, a great potluck of food and a show & tell of things people had worked on in the past year. A wonderful get-together.
So, I took my spinning wheel (an Ashford traditional) and some roving and tried my hand at spinning. I took a spinning class many years ago and have only done a bit of spinning. The last time before this was 2 years ago at this same event.
In Saori weaving, you are a weaver as soon as you start. Why then do I keep saying ‘oh, I’m not a spinner’ ‘I’m not really a spinner’ and so on. My yarn looks very ‘handspun’ indeed! In writing these past posts about Saori weaving and the philosophy, it dawned on me that I have not been looking at my spinning in the same way.
Here is my handspun from Distaff day (on a beautiful arbutus tree):
(click on images)
So, perhaps I am a Saori spinner? I certainly had fun spinning. I am very excited about using my handspun to do some weaving too. I actually have a narrow warp on my Saori loom that has some arbutus-like colours…..so I’ll be back with some photos of my combination of Saori weaving & Saori spinning!
Happy Weaving (and Spinning),
Terri
My website: www.saltspringweaving.com
