Thank You, Fort St. James

Fort St. James is almost in the middle of British Columbia, since it's about 70 km north of famous Vanderhoof, the geographic centre of BC. Vanderhoof is an hour's drive west of Prince George, and PG is 250 km north of me. It's a beautiful trip.

I went up last Friday for their craft sale on the weekend. I was fortunate to stay with a very good friend who is not only a superb cook but an excellent companion and helper in my booth. I do love Fort St. James for its indigenous heritage, interesting history with the Hudson's Bay Company, the beautiful site on Stuart Lake, and the great people.

I arrived in the last of Friday's daylight and took a walk along Stuart Lake.

Stuart Lake with Mount Pope off to the right in the low cloud

On Saturday we had a little surprise at breakfast: the power went out. Texts to others confirmed it was a widespread power outage but we decided to head in to the high school and see what was happening. My props were already at my booth so it was just a matter of carrying in bags and baskets. People were setting up in the dark!

However, by about 11:00 am, we knew the outage was expected to last until 6 pm, and were told that the day's event was cancelled. Later, I received an email saying that Sunday's hours were extended from 9-5 to make up for Saturday.

With some welcome light, here's our booth almost ready to go on Sunday:

And then we had a super day with some introductions and re-introductions for me; major interest in Cariboo Handwoven blankets, towels and scarves; and very good sales. Thank you all!

Fort St. James not only has a very good craft fair, but amazing people who are not deterred by their apparently regular power outages. They're ready both logistically and mentally. They carry on and don't grumble, which is a really good example for the rest of us.

Thank you, Fort St. James!

Fall 2019 Craft Fairs

After my second season at the Williams Lake Farmers' Market, I'm looking to fall projects and craft fairs. But first, I want to send huge thanks and and an attagirl each to market manager Jane Bowser, and market promoter extraordinaire, Barb Scharf. Without those two, our market would not be the success it is today. I had a lot of fun setting up each of the six times I had a booth.

Blanket scarves 

Towels

Cotton blankets on top, bath towels below

Cariboo Handwoven booth at the Williams Lake Farmers' Market

And I enjoyed seeing friends and visitors, lots of hugs and getting to know my vendor neighbours. I look forward to next year. Thank you all!

Now that we're into fall, with registrations and questions flying around, I want to outline what I'll be up to next.

First up for me is the Fort St. James craft fair at the high school:

I went about three years ago and had a great time, met lots of people and stayed with super friends who are both good cooks. :-)

The following weekend is the heralded Medieval Market in Williams Lake.  I'll be in the gym again, possibly against the back wall.  Lots of buzz is growing here for the Medieval Market!

Poster by Isaac Lauren

And Cariboo Handwoven will be at the Quesnel Christmas Farmers Market at the Quesnel rec centre on Saturday Dec. 7 from 10-3.

If you can't make it to any of these events or you're just not crazy about the crowds (especially at the Medieval Market although Sunday afternoon tends to be quieter) ... you can request a studio visit. We can arrange an appointment time, I'll give you directions, and I'll be organized and set up if you're looking for anything in particular.

Until then, enjoy the bright fall colours, the swirling leaves, the mellow sunlight and the sighs as the days grow shorter and the nights longer.

Three Days of Weaving in Perugia, Italy: Part 2

To continue from Part 1 (highly recommended to read first for Part 2 to make sense), I arrived at Giuditta Brozzetti on the first day not knowing what Marta's plan was. I had suggested I could assist with a big project that she needed some help with, but she said right away that I could weave on her small four-harness loom from the 1700s. I was quite surprised actually and I really appreciated her trust in me as a weaver. She wanted to see what someone new would do on that loom.

The main feature of the studio is the array of old Jacquard looms. They produce very complex patterns based on punched cards, meaning that each warp thread is controlled individually, like a harness for each one. Unbelievable, I know! The weaver climbs above the loom to change cards. Giuditta Brozzetti's website has examples of the beautiful fabrics woven on the Jacquard looms.

Jacquard loom looking from the back beam

One of many Jacquard looms at Giuditta Brozzetti with the design mechanism above the loom.
On the railing hang various pattern cards used for weaving. Each row in the punched cards
creates a different weft shot for the woven pattern.

Marta had two weavers working for her, a woman from Paris who spoke fluent English after her time in London, and a man from Peru with whom I communicated in gestures and very basic Italian. He liked to call me 'signora' and he was just as much help to me with the bobbin winder and advancing the warp on my loom. Marta joked that she has a multi-national studio. The Jacquard looms are quite noisy, and working beside the two of them made me feel part of the production.

My loom was apparently from 1750 and it's still working well. It's a counter-marche set-up, unlike the jack looms I've always used, and has one treadle for each harness. This required more detailed mental work for this new weaver on it, ahem. The front and back beams were held with a ratchet and pawl system, with no brake on the back beam that modern weavers expect.

I had a lot of fun on this loom and the experience was a big 'wow' to me for the three days. I wove with gorgeous 4/68 cotton from a company in Milan. Marta and her weavers double the weft for pattern stripes to help them stand out. This is a good concept to try in my own studio. A big part of the whole opportunity was using an entirely new colour palette.

But before I could weave, I had to learn the complexities of the bobbin winder. After the main switch to the upper right (not visible in photo) is turned on, the whole machine comes to life through a lengthwise drive band to which individual winders can be engaged. Figuring out this monster took some time, but with help by the two weavers who often saw me struggling, I figured it out.

Winding double cotton onto one bobbin (actually a pirn)

After a little practice on my loom, I wove seven samples that Marta can sew into bags, bracelets or whatever she likes. Here they are:

On my third day, everyone had left for lunch and I planned my last sample to finish in plenty of time to catch the train back to Arezzo. I wanted to savour my last hour in Giudetta Brozzeti. I finished weaving and tidied up, then enjoyed how the afternoon sunlight filled the whole building with beautiful soft light. I walked around to photograph, drink it in, remember. It was all so enchanting for me.

The goodbyes were hard. I could only promise myself I would be back.

Three Days of Weaving in Perugia, Italy: Part 1

A year ago, my husband and I were in Arezzo, Italy and decided to take the train to Perugia, a fascinating city he knew fairly well. Perugia dates back to the Etruscans from several centuries BC and its university was founded in 1320. Situated on a massive hill, modern residents can take the MiniMetro from the valley floor up to the two main piazzas. The medieval street plan is pretty complicated and challenging to most North Americans used to a perpendicular street grid - and it's beautiful.

Piazza IV Novembre, Perugia

Before going last year, Pat found information online about a weaving studio and suggested we visit. It is the Giudutta Brozzetti Museum-Laboratory of Handweaving and it is one of the most incredible places we'd ever seen, augmented by the friendly, high-energy owner, Marta Cucchia. The building is the Church of San Francisco Delle Donne ("Of the Women") that was established in 1212 by Saint Francis and then passed on, originally as a monastery, to the Benedictine sisters in 1252. In more recent years, the building was used as a factory; holes in the roof's brickwork (covered with a tile roof now) were made for exhaust fumes.

Giuditta Brozzetti established the weaving business in 1920 to revive traditional weaving from the Umbrian province. Marta is her great-granddaughter and a passionate weaver. She and I kept in touch through the following year and then I said I'd be back this March. She very kindly agreed that I could spend three days in her studio.

I cannot write everything in one blog so I'm making this Part 1 and will finish with Part 2. To me, the three extraordinary days I spent with Marta and her weavers included the daily commute from Arezzo, where we stayed again, to Giuditta Brozzeti. First, I had a 20-minute walk to the train station, buy tickets and validate the first one, then I traveled on two trains in the morning with an easy connection. I next walked to the MiniMetro station and went up to the final stop, Il Pincetto. I first walked out and oriented myself (fairly familiar from a year ago and helpful with GPS on my phone) and made my way northwest for about 1.5 km. My favourite route was to walk along the aqueduct built in 1254 which became a walking route in 1812.

Aqueduct on the left, a long flight of shallow steps on the right

The aqueduct is just wide enough for two people. Houses have been built along
the way and their entrances have required removing sections of the low wall
(as in the example on the lower right with the open gate).

For a western Canadian, all these dates and sights were extraordinary and they really fired my imagination!

Here are some photos of Giuditta Brozzetti:

Tessuti means textiles | Umbri is the Italian province of Umbria

Looking from the far end of the building to the east.
The loom I used is in the right foreground and I'll talk about it in Part 2.

Afternoon light in the church's south transept

First and last view of the studio along Via Tiberio Berardi

Before concluding Part 1 and planning Part 2, I want to thank Marta for three really special days in her atelier (studio). She was really good to me and I will always cherish this opportunity from her.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - it's coming!

Fall Craft Fairs for Cariboo Handwoven

After enjoying several Fridays at the Williams Lake Farmers' Market through the spring, summer and early fall, I'm looking ahead to fall craft fairs.  Two special ones are on my calendar, here they are!

First, in Prince George:

I'll be back in the admin building with the beautiful timber beams, First Nations banners and bright natural light.

And next:

At both events, I'll have:

• Wool blankets ($300), including some with a story ($350) and some with local handspun wool ($400)
• Big cotton blankets ($170), and some cotton/wool ones at the Medieval Market ($200)
• Cotton hand towels ($34 each)
• 80/20 towels with approximately 80% cotton and 20% linen ($38 each)
• Wool travel shawls ($150 and up)
• Lightweight blanket scarves in fine cotton with silk, alpaca, wool and other fibres ($150 and up)

If we've met already, please drop in just to say hi. :-)

Enjoy these wonderful craft fairs with so much talent and energy.  Hope to see you this fall!

Meet Nancy, Coco and Carmen

Nancy, Coco and Carmen are three ewes (female sheep) from the Cariboo whose fleece I've spun and woven into beautiful blankets. I'm proud to present these on behalf of both the wool producers and the weaver. All three of these blankets are a little heavier in weight than my usual wool blankets. They're woven in simple diamond twill patterns and expected to last for decades of use.

Nancy and Coco are both Icelandic sheep from Fox Mountain, just north of Williams Lake. Long-time blog readers may remember Nancy from an earlier post with her rich, very dark brown fleece. The pattern I wove is a series of large and small diamonds from one end to the other.

SH232 | Nancy 2 | 100% wool | 180 cm x 143 cm (71" x 56") 

Coco's fleece is what I call butterscotch pudding, which is a warm, creamy brown that blends well with the black, greys and white in my first blanket with her handspun wool.

SH233 | Coco 1 | 100% wool | 180 cm x 135 cm (71" x 53") 

SH 233 | Coco 1 | Detail

And Carmen is from Tyee Lake, a little further north of town. I believe she has some Friesian blood but I can't recall the details. What I do remember is her incredibly long and silky fleece. After some quick carding of the raw fleece, it was a dream to spin. This is another very beautiful blanket.

SH234 | Carmen 1 | 100% wool | 178 cm x 127 cm (70" x 50") 

SH234 | Carmen 1 | Detail

All three of these blankets have sold to very enthusiastic buyers.  The Coco blanket was the first to go - at the Williams Lake Farmers Market in September.  Then the Nancy and Carmen blankets sold on the first day of the UNBC Artisans of the North craft fair.  Thanks, everyone!

Studio Visits

Studio visits are one of my favourite ways to show off my work. (Craft fairs have become a close second.)  As well, visitors sometimes bring something for me to see that I find interesting and artistically expanding. Most often I will receive a request from a friend or new person about a certain item, or just to see what I do with all this weaving stuff I talk about.

Earlier this week I had a memorable studio visit by a woman from the Arctic doing a short-term work stint in my community. My first question when she arrived was what brought her to Williams Lake, and my second question was how did she hear about me?

She said she'd searched online for weaving stores, so calling me that was a nice start.  She wanted to look at travel shawls and I had them all out for her to see (a huge advantage when there's a visiting plan, as I have out what's requested and the studio is reasonably tidy).  Once she'd seen them, she meandered over to the blankets and I returned to what I'd been doing before she arrived. But almost immediately she started gushing over the Resilience blanket, which I wove last fall and blogged about in December.

She loved the colours, texture and everything about it, and knew it would be far more useful for her than a smaller travel shawl. Then I told her the Resilience story and she loved it even more. It was a very quick and definite selection.

On the way out to her car, she met the Resilience image photographer and told us more about her life in the Arctic. As she drove out the driveway, he and I were already looking at the map.

The Resilience blanket story was really important to her, which is important for me to remember - the story part. It was so gratifying for me to see someone fall in love with my work right in front of me. Business is always secondary when that happens.

Enjoy and stay warm!

The First 2018 Craft Fairs for Cariboo Handwoven

It's always fun in the winter to look ahead to another year - set goals, expand on ideas, try new things and register for craft fairs. At this point I know I'll be at two good ones this spring and summer.

First up on Saturday April 21 in Williams Lake is Handmade in the Cariboo:

This is its second happening and I was really glad to be accepted.

Next up is the Great Shuswap Pottery Sale in Celista, BC on Shuswap Lake.

The website is really well-designed and quite elegant. Scroll down on the home page if you want to read more about the artisans and see samples of their work.

These craft fairs all take major organizing, and I'm really impressed with how well each of these ones has gone for enquiries and registration. Thank you!

Cariboo Resilience

This blanket has a story, a fairly long one, depending on how you want to look at it. But I'll keep this short.

I blogged through the summer about the British Columbia wildfires and their effects on my community, Williams Lake, and on my friends and family. In some ways, the summer seems a long time ago; in other ways, it doesn't seem that long ago to others.

Pat Teti, my husband, took this photo north of the city in the White Lake burn on the Soda Creek Road. He called this image Resilience and I gave out these postcards at the Medieval Market in November. The photograph shows sprouting Douglas maple in the very recent burn. People loved it.

Then I thought that a Resilience blanket might be a good idea. My plan was to emphasize the charcoal grey with the charred black stumps, and add a splash of the Douglas maple colours roughly in the middle.

SH205 | "Resilience" | 100% wool | 183 cm x 130 cm (72" x 51") | Sold

"Resilience" depicting charred soil surface and blackened stumps

"Resilience" blanket depicting sprouting Douglas maples

Cariboo Resilience will continue in different ways for all of us in 2018, I am quite sure.

Three of My Best Wool Blankets

Today I delivered three wool blankets, all generously sized, fringed, soft, and ready for years and years of use. They cover a range of natural shades of wool from the Wenger Sheep Farm north of Williams Lake, BC. I know the Wengers from years of fleece sales and spinning tales, but they no longer have sheep and so their last fleeces were really special to me.

These three blankets have a warp of Shetland wool threaded in a series of diamonds in what I call smooth and rough twill. Each blanket is woven with a variety of the five shades I spun - from white through light grey, two browns and a dark brown.

This is where I stood back and thought - "Wow, I love these blankets!"

Three wool blankets with handspun weft from the Wenger Sheep Farm

Wenger Blanket #16

Wenger Blanket #17

Wenger Blanket #18