Monday, October 20, 2008

The Wonders of Weaving

Look what I've been doing for the last 4 days.

We were lucky enough to have Jane Stafford come over from Salt Spring to teach us a 3 day weaving course called Lacey Places,

You can find out more about Jane here,

.......but there's more,

We got an extra bonus day of her great course, Honing your weaving skills.

Of course as a novice weaver my weaving skills will take a lot of honing, hah hah !!

but Jane is a fantastic teacher and I came away from the 4 days with all these lovely samples that I WOVE !

Plus an amazing amount of knowledge and some of Jane's passion for weaving that she shared with us.

So much so that this is what I did today !

The old work horse is up and functional. I bought some cord and just have to make new ties for the treadles but other than that she's ready to go.

She bears a lot of scars but came by them honestly as she has been around since 1944 and has woven many items through the years. I am very proud to be the owner of this LeClerc Mira loom which is a piece of Canadian history and tradition. The original owner, (I am it's second owner), bought it through a program where the Searle Grain Company traveled through the prairies during the 1940's and provided weaving instruction and equipment for the women in rural communities.

BTW there are more pics on flickr of the individual samples and the rabbits are still not talking to each other.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Wabbity Woes

Up until now Sally and Saffy have lived their whole lives together in peaceful harmony.
Until today that is,
This morning they woke up and decided they really couldn't stand the sight of each other ANY MORE.
Worse than that they spent the morning beating the crap out of each other to the extent that Saffy has a couple of nicks under her nose and Sally has a chunk out of her lip.
Of course we were horrified and sad at the same time. What happened to our sweet lovely Buns ?
Hormones that's what. So consequently we went out today and bought another cage so they will be separate at night and we will reno the hutch into a single-rabbit-duplex tomorrow. Here they are, Saffy gets the new digs as it somehow is bigger, although we thought we were getting the same unit. She actually prefers the old digs and jumps in there to eat Sally's hay at any opportunity.
Now we're considering seriously the thought of breeding them as that would take their minds off the Bunny Welter Weight Extreme Fighting Contest and give them something else to think about.

In happier news here is a skein I plied up yesterday.

And some lovely blue Babydoll/Angora mix. There are three little skeins that I will ply together

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Tent City

As you can see The Buns have their tents set up in the garden. Although they have one each they like to sit together.
Apparently they are protesting the lack of camping around here. We got the tents at Fall Fair, courtesy of Rainbow Valley Pet & Farm Supplies in Powell River. They are supposed to be for cats, ....but sssh, don't tell.

Here is Sally in hers,


And Saffy in hers. They are considering taking up Campanology, as the tents come complete with bells.

And one last picture of some geese heading south, (if you can spot them in the picture, that is !)



Reminds us we're in Canada, eh !

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Fall Fair

Due to some boring technical difficulties I haven't been able to edit pics to put up on the blog but today I found the time to work around that problem.

I couldn't let the Powell River Fall Fair pass by without a blogentry.
(I just made that a word ! I like the way it sounds)
Especially as it has occupied so much of my time lately and therefore the other part of my excuse for not blogging.
The first Fall Fair was over 70 years ago and it is an important part of our community. It is hosted by the local Agricultural Association.

For this year I think the best part was that our co-ordinator, Val, persuaded the City of Powell River to sponsor a free park and ride from the Town Centre Mall to the fair on a city bus as well as handy dart service to and from people's homes. So a big thank you to Val for the GREAT job she did as well as Mayor Alsgard and the City of Powell River for rising to the occasion and recognizing the need for accessible transit in our community...
..... (Gets down from soap box)

Here is our little granary wagon set up. You can see the community oven on the left hand side.



Here is a picture of the batches of bread and scones we made for the first day of the fair.

We sold them all and came home to repeat the process again for the next day.




Helene and I set up our fibre arts booth next to the granary. We had handwoven pieces, spinning supplies, knitted and felted items.The buns came along to help, (they always draw a crowd !) We were set up next to Manzanita and their lovely apple press. Sall and Saff liberated this apple before it got to the press.Here is Amber with her colourful hand dyed clothing for big and small people.



And here are Zoe and her dog during a sheep herding demonstration.

There were all kinds of events happening at the fair this year. You can see more pictures here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinw1/sets/72157607619077685/

Thanks for those Kevin !

And even a movie here at the Peak.

http://www.prpeak.com/articles/2008/10/02/multimedia/video/doc48e5740669cd5579967575.txt