Canada's Forests in the Fall

As both a forest lover and weaver, it's intriguing and fulfilling to combine those two special interests of mine. I've woven quite a few blankets by now for my ongoing Autumn Storm series, and then I began a series called "Oh Canada!" to portray different aspects of Canada through handwoven blankets.

"Oh Canada!" began with a custom blanket woven for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, held in Prince George, BC last February. The organizing committee accepted my work for their VIP gifting program, and several of my blankets were purchased as gifts for, I gather, various national and provincial dignitaries who attended the Games for the opening ceremonies and other events. Yes, very exciting for me!

The custom blanket was entitled Canada's Forests in Winter. Each end was woven in shades of blue to represent the oceans. After the oceans was a deep layer of snow, then layers of branches in green and more snow, representing the link of Canada's forests from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

I decided to take this idea a step further recently, and recently wove a blanket entitled Canada's Forests in the Fall. Again, each end of the blanket begins with blues to represent the ocean. From there, one side is predominantly reds, oranges and golds to represent the colourful Acadian and Great Lakes - St. Lawrence forests west of the Atlantic Ocean.

The other half is predominantly rich greens with spots of golds and yellow to represent boreal, montane and coast forests with their dots of bright aspen, birch and shrubs. (Thanks to my ancient university copy of Forest Regions of Canada by J.S. Rowe 1972.)

This blanket measures 170 cm x 130 cm (69" x 51") and ... Update:  It sold at the Medieval Market in November.  The buyer fell in love with it and had to have it - made me happy.