Cariboo Handwoven Makes the Top 100 Weaving Blogs

Imagine my surprise to check email first thing one recent morning and find the amazing news that Cariboo Handwoven's blog was chosen as one of the top 100 weaving blogs by Feedspot. There we are at #63. (Or find the website at http://blog.feedspot.com/weaving_blogs/.)

Thank you to Anuj Agarwal, Feedspot founder, and the blog selection panelists. Perusing the list of blogs, I feel honoured to be in such good company.  There's Laura Fry, my neighbour north in Prince George, at #27; Susan Harvey on Vancouver Island - she also does amazing work - at #49; and Dianne Dudfield in New Zealand at #93 - my sister saw her work when traveling in NZ and I've been a big fan of Dianne's since. And there are other good ones that I also subscribe to or check regularly.

The Feedspot list is a goldmine of 99 more weaving blogs that interest me. Thank you for adding me to this esteemed list!

Nancy Blanket #1

Nancy is one of the Froese's Icelandic Sheep Farm ewes on Fox Mountain near Williams Lake, British Columbia.  Here she is in her field last summer.

I spun one of Nancy's washed fleeces from Donna Froese ...

... and wove it as weft in a wool blanket ...

SH168 | 100% wool | 175 cm x 144 cm (69" x 56.5") 

The blanket's weave structure is undulating twill and woven with about 50% handspun Icelandic wool in a swirling back and forth pattern. Simple pattern, and yet lots to absorb in the design.

Nancy Blanket #1 is the first of more, I hope, and this one's headed to the Medieval Market in Williams Lake on November 19-20.  Might see you there!

Update: A local resident bought my first Nancy blanket at the Medieval Market and I'm thrilled it's gone to an appreciative home!

A Local Source of Icelandic Fleece

I'm celebrating Icelandic wool on Canada Day!

Almost a year ago, I posted a blog about local Icelandic fleece and I was back to see Donna last week. I had spun her Icelandic fleece that had been processed into beautiful roving. I wanted to show her my spun wool and we talked about some upcoming ideas and plans together.

Last year I bought two lots of Icelandic fleece: the first was beige and when spun I wove it into a blanket - which later sold in Ottawa.

SH137 | Shetland wool and handspun Icelandic wool | 175 cm x 138 cm (69" x 54.5") | Sold

Donna told me that the darker wool I'd spun was from Nancy. I still have it ready for a special blanket. Here is Nancy and here is what I spun from her fleece:

Nancy

Plied wool spun from Nancy's 2015 fleece

Last week I bought two washed fleeces. One is from Coco -

Cocoa and one of her lambs

- and the other is from Dimayo, the herd's ram. Dimayo is a noble character who was seeking shade on the hot day. He's considered a badger colour because he has cream-coloured fleece with strong elements of beiges, golds and even black. This wool will be stunning when spun and woven.

Dimayo

I am so delighted to have a friend with a local product that I want to buy from her, work with and add to my own products. To me, this is the heart of a local economy. Add Donna's small-scale farming practices and this weaver's artistic input - and it's a really exciting partnership.

A Collaborative Towel Project

I just hemmed 34 towels in two days, and I did lots of other things, too. Twenty of those towels were delivered right away to the weaver, Jon, and the other 14, which I wove, were hung to dry on the line - some of which are here.

Jon and I beamed the old loom in January with a very long warp for towels. The plan was for each of us to pick away at it until the warp was done. After he began and then was away for awhile, I wove what I thought was 8 or 10 towels.

He continued through March and April, and cut off the warp last Saturday. I was glad he had the amazing experience of unwinding the front beam into his lap and then unrolling the very long warp on the studio floor.

It made a few passes back and forth, and then he separated the towels by cutting them very carefully and stacking them. Over to me for the hemming.

I've never been crazy about using a sewing machine, and even less about hand sewing. But if I'm going to weave towels I need to hem well. After a few thousand hems, I'm getting to be not bad. I've never met a sewing machine that lacked a bit of personality, but once I get going into the stack of hemming it can actually be hard to stop. The Zen of Hemming. Just like weaving. :-)

Towels are so fun for experimenting and feeling carefree with crazy ideas. I won't do that with blankets, as I've probably emphasized already, but towels are a little test piece for a new idea or something. They all end up selling anyway.

Thank you, Jon, for a very enjoyable collaborative towel project. (We collaborated on the blog photos, too.) I look forward to more weaving fun together!

Photo Contest!

Announcing a photo contest opening today, February 1, and closing on March 31 at midnight Pacific Daylight Time.

Send a photo of your Cariboo Handwoven blanket, towel or scarf in a unique pose or use. Think of an exotic location, creative use of props, or some other way to grab attention. Pets are allowed, but no people.

The winner will receive a hand towel with free shipping or delivery, in the colours of their choice based on what I have in stock or will soon be making.

Send your pic to Jane at [jane "at" cariboohandwoven "dot" ca] or my usual [cariboojane "at" shaw "dot ca]. I'll share the winning photo on this blog and the Cariboo Handwoven Facebook page.

Thanks for your interest ... have fun with this!

A Local Source of Icelandic Sheep Fleece

I recently learned that a local friend has Icelandic sheep with fleeces processed into roving that's ready for spinning.  As far as I know, Icelandic sheep are pretty highly renowned for their fibre quality. The fleeces have long fibres that are great for spinning.

I'm always on the hunt for local suppliers because I strongly believe that we should support each other and help develop our local economy, even at a very small scale. On that note, I hope to continue to do business with Heritage Valley for their gorgeous alpaca, and the Wengers for their beautiful Romney wool. And, the local economy and doing business among friends is really positive and just plain fun.

Anyway, last week I visited Donna on Fox Mountain and met her sheep and their valiant guard dog.  I bought over a kilogram each of two shades of brown roving, which is cleaned and carded fleece that's been processed into a long strand that only needs drawing out as much as the spinner wishes. Donna and I, along with her daughter, have great plans to combine my handwoven wool cloth with her expert sewing into some useful and classic designs. This is a big part of the fun for me.

Here are the Icelandic sheep and their fearless protector:

And here are some samples of Donna's roving, nicely packaged into big balls of 200 g and 600 g.

Donna has more roving available, so feel free to contact her at dfdonnafroese "at" gmail "dot" com if you're interested. I highly recommend it! Just be sure to leave me more. :-)

I'm a Weaver and I Went to a Photography Seminar!

Last weekend, Pat and I drove down to Burnaby for the annual seminar hosted by the Abbotsford Photo Arts Club. The speaker for the day was Frans Lanting from California. To call this incredible man a "nature photographer" is only part of what he shares with the world. Frans Lanting has a personal mission to present the environment vividly to his viewers, and to make us see differently, think differently and act differently about our world.

So what's in a photography seminar for a weaver? Lots.

With a husband who is a keen and very good photographer (and photography teacher), I'm becoming a little indoctrinated in the art of photography and seen the many connections with weaving. Seeing, composing, finishing - photographers and weavers proceed through these and other related steps. Photographers may see an image before them whereas weavers first can only see the cloth in their mind. But photographers and weavers both compose, produce and finish carefully, involving many technical steps along the way.

As well as those obvious (to me) overlaps, even some of the photographic discussions and critiques start my mind racing. One photographer's dud photo could be this weaver's major inspiration.

Some of Frans Lanting's key points that I could really relate to included:

1. Art is starting with nothing and making something, or it is starting with too much and having to remove and reduce.
   One of my key faults in cloth design is trying to do too much. I would take a complex weave structure, add a complex colour regime, flip the colour sequence around across the width - too much.
   Simplify, and the beauty will stand out.
2. Pause, think about what interests you, analyze a bit, then compose.
   This is not only relevant to photographers, but true for me as a weaver. I have some ideas still incubating for over a year. Other ideas need far less time or can even be acted on quite spontaneously.
3. Look for your favourite colour combinations.
   I have mine, and I use them as often as possible in my work. What gets me is how versatile and essential some apparently unexciting colours may be - a Prussian blue, my Tuscan gold standby, a favourite verdant green that springs with life. Yarn dyelots may vary though, and perfect consistency from one yarn order to the next can never be guaranteed.
4. Dig down into one topic or location rather than traveling all over and trying to photograph everything.
   I dig down into weaving blankets :-) and my colours are earthy, natural combinations or I go a bit wild now and then, such as in my Energy series.

Frans Lanting is a very skilled and engaging speaker, and a really outstanding individual. Pat and I knew he'd done his seminar many times before, but it felt new to us as audience members and not recycled from past presentations. Check out Frans' website if you want some major inspiration.

Thoughts on Cloth and Life from an Honourary Doctorate

Charllotte Kwon, owner of Maiwa Handprints in Vancouver, Canada and founder of the Maiwa Foundation, recently received an honourary doctorate from the University of the Fraser Valley for her work with artisans in developing nations - particularly weavers in India.

Charllotte had some words of wisdom in her address to the audience. Here is one segment that really spoke to me:

When I thought about how to address an auditorium of graduates, I thought: each person is like a length of cloth. 

For many of the artisans I work with, cloth is believed to be a living thing. Something invested with potential. As a cloth ages, it records a narrative. Like a person, its best qualities become more pronounced with time, and like a person, it can be stained or tainted. Like a life it can unravel, or be torn apart. 

But it can also be mended, cleansed, renewed, embroidered, patched, and ultimately coveted.

Her full speech is presented in the Maiwa blog at http://maiwahandprints.blogspot.ca/ - go to June 18, 2014.

Congratulations, Charllotte!

Gift Certificate

I was recently asked for a gift certificate to be given as a Christmas present for personal selection of a Cariboo Handwoven Shetland wool blanket. The future blanket owner had admired my blankets at a recent event, which the gift certificate-buying spouse had noticed, and that prompted the gift certificate idea. This is my first gift certificate and I had fun designing it. I'll have more fun after Christmas when the recipient goes through the selection process and makes a choice.

Fibres West - Q'Ente Booth

Q'Ente had a very interesting booth at Fibres West last weekend.  Q'Ente calls itself a textile revitalization society, meaning that Q'Ente works to revitalize the culture and economy of the Sacred Valley of Peru through its support of local weavers. I met Catherine and Gail, and had good chats with each.

There were Peruvian textiles for sale at their booth, all of which are absolutely beautiful - bags, table runners, ponchos and more.

Many of my friends have either traveled to the Sacred Valley or volunteered there to improve the lives of indigenous peoples. The local textiles are distinctive and exquisite, and all the more special because the intricate patterns are woven without harnesses. I'm fortunate to have some Sacred Valley textiles in my own home and studio.

New Ski Chair

I just picked up my new ski chair from Pat Radolla, who is a wizard in recycling and reusing old materials to make practical and beautiful creations. These skis were from a youth group that was about to throw them out before Pat stepped in and saved them. And that gave him what he needed to make ski chairs.  (If you want to see some amazing designs, enter "ski chair" in Google and press images.)

Pat and I kind of agreed to trade a ski chair for one of my blankets, so he and his wife are coming over when all the Shetland blankets are ready. This one is very comfortable and it's really solid. It will be fantastic in my weaving studio!

1,000 Pageviews

I just reached 1,000 pageviews - from an iPad user browsing with Safari from the United States.  That's all I know.

The next big milestone of five digits will take a long time, but reaching one thousand pageviews is exciting for me. Thank you, blog readers!

Towels in Use

My friend, Shirley, bought two more towels at the Medieval Market and just sent me this photo of one of them on her table at home. Like so many people, she said "I could never dry my dishes with this lovely towel!" But I think, and hope, that many dishes and hands eventually meet up with my towels.

Thanks for this photo, Shirley!

A Memories Blanket with Many Memories

Cariboo Handwoven Memories Blankets began as baby blankets that I wove over many years and gave to family members and friends with a new baby. I usually produce them in classic waffle weave which forms insulating air cells, and always in 100% cotton that can be machine washed and dried - good thing, considering how they are used! I've modified the colour scheme to reduce the pastel baby colours while staying with soft shades that suit many ages. These blankets are enjoyed and admired for many years by the parents and the growing child.

My friend, Diane, recently posted this comment and sent me these photos about her well-loved blanket:

"I can sooo vouch for these blankets. We are fortunate to have one of Jane's that is now 23 years old. It was so cozy to cuddle up in for those late night feedings when you didn't think you'd ever get 8 hours of sleep again. Two children and dozens of washings later, and it has only gotten softer. It'll be used with our children's children next ... "

Thanks, Diane!  

Pageviews and Pageviewers

One of the interesting parts of blogging is seeing all the stats. The breakdown is amazing, although nothing can be followed back to a certain individual. I thought that when I reached 500 pageviews it would be a good idea to blog about it, and share some of my insights with pageviewers (you) and anyone interested in starting a blog about any topic they wish.

First of all, blogging takes a bit of figuring out ... but if I can blog, anyone can. Bloggers have to get a sense of how to make their way through to the formatting, layout, stats or whatever they need to change or see. It's a bit of a labyrinth, but it's sure interesting and very satisfying to figure it out.

Two-thirds of my blog readers are from Canada, and the remainder are from the United States, Russia, Germany, South Korea, Finland, Australia and other countries. I know that some pageviews are unintended from random searches, but the blog stats also list the traffic sources, which are the websites that led to finding my blog. I also know what browsers and operating systems were used, as well as the number of pageviews by post. And there's probably more information available, but that's certainly enough for me.

Recently I installed the total number of pageviews to the right of the latest post. As I write this, I'm at 522. It's a good start. Anyone wanting to receive blog updates right away can add their email address under "follow by email." This does not give me access to your email address; it's totally confidential as far as I know.

If you're a weaver or just interested in weaving, feel free to email me at cariboojane "at" shaw "dot" ca and I'd be happy to hear from you.

Thanks to all readers for their interest!