Last weekend I attended the Ontario Handspinning Seminar 2013. Yesterday I introduced the theme, which was storytelling, discussed the workshops and described a fleece I purchased. Here is part 2 of my report.
Of course shopping is part of the fun of OHS. I don’t think any other event in Ontario concentrates so much interesting spinning fibre together in such a convenient space. Most of these vendors also attend the Toronto Downtown Knit Collective’s spring Knitter’s Frolic, but there you have to jostle with 63 million crazy people. OHS provides a much more pleasurable shopping experience. You can happily spend a month’s grocery money without losing your nerve.
The past year I have enjoyed learning to blend different fibres and colours, so my primary objective was to bring home some nice highlight material. From the Black Lamb I purchased a pound of luscious but cheap mill-end type merino/cashmere/silk (75/15/10) in a variety of colours. Other treasures included some tussah silk in autumn colours from the Fibre Garden and an array of Firestar (above) from Fullin’ Woolens (top) and The Roving Spinners. This niftily painted nylon will go a long way; just a dash adds sparkle to a blended batt or dizzed roving.
Another goal I have for the coming year is to explore natural dyes. Toward this purpose I purchased some dye materials from the Fibre Garden: brazilwood, cochineal, osage orange, logwood, pomegranate and madder.
Besides the bits and bobs I also picked up some colourful blended merino/silk roving and a gorgeous sillk hanky and this delicious “Blueberry” over-dyed grey Shetland from Hopeful Shetlands and…well, I better stop there because this is becoming embarrassing.
At OHS we also have the opportunity to see amazing work by many craftspeople. There is a juried competition for which each project must be well documented, and also a “just for fun” section which draws good participation. Below are some skeins entered “just for fun.”
This handspun lace scarf, not entered in the competition, nonetheless won an award (I think it’s called the Founder’s award) chosen by popular ballot.
This beautiful handspun, woven scarf won the WOW! Award, chosen by the display committee rather than the judges. Coincidentally, it also received my vote for the Founder’s Award. Absolutely gorgeous work!
These fun patio lanterns were entered in the juried competition and won a couple of prizes.
Now back to our programming.
As if we hadn’t already had enough fun on Saturday, after the banquet dinner Danny read us the story of Stone Soup as written by Jon J. Muth. It tells of three hungry wandering monks who trick some villagers into throwing a feast. In so doing they turn a wary, impoverished town into a community. The story introduced our evening activity. We were all encouraged to create fanciful skeins from bits of leftover fibre. Drum carders were provided, and many people started by creating beautiful batts.
Everybody seemed to have a delightful evening. This whole activity was Danny’s idea, and I am proud of him.
Storytelling is a concept close to who I am, but I prefer to write stories with my hands. Many times over the weekend I was reminded of my Story Blanket. It is made of knitted mitred squares, each with a corresponding story, which I conceived while knitting it and published in a blog. The project was interrupted and has sat in a box for several years because I got preoccupied with other projects.
OHS has inspired me to return to the idea of exploring story through fibre. My interest has moved from knitting toward dyeing, spinning and weaving. I hope to delve further in the coming year.
Our “Stone Soup” skein was supposed to be geared toward producing decorative items we might wear. I was inspired to create a woodland crown suitable for a wood sprite or Green Man. Here is my skein. Like the Dracula yarn, it certainly tells a story.
