KNIT SHEEPSKIN BOOTIES
Wednesday May 19, 10am – 2 pm
Registration is $40 which includes all materials

Learn how to make these great little sheepskin bottom booties with Brenda. Materials include wool, pattern, and sheepskin soles. Maximum of 6 participants. Please call or email the shop to register.

FEBRUARY 2010 FELTING CLASSES
with Marilyn Rand

WET FELTING
Wednesday February 10, 10 – 3

Registration fee $55, includes materials

Participants will learn to make an article from merino wool fibre. Choose from handbag, tea cosy, or
vessel.
Please wear old clothes or bring an apron. We will do a small
triangle scarf of cobweb felt when the first articles of felt are finished.

NEEDLE FELTING for art work or embellishments
Wednesday February 17, 10 – 3

Registration fee is $55, includes materials
(merino fibre, felting foam and
felting needles)
We will work on a piece of material 11″ by 8.5″. You can
bring a design you would like to try, enlarge a favourite picture, choose
something from a colouring book, draw out a quilt block or geometric design.
Rug hooking patterns are also fun to do. If you have made an article in the
wet felting class you can embellish this as well.

SCULPTURAL NEEDLE FELTING
Wednesday February 24, 10 – 3

Registration fee is $55 includes materials
(assorted fibres, felting needles, foam block)

Participants will make small ornaments, birds, fish, Christmas ornaments or
small animals. Instruction included to build armatures for larger items.

Please bring a bag lunch to all of these classes. Coffee, tea, or cold
drinks will be provided.

Registration for classes can be done by phone with a credit card or in
person to hold your spot. Maximum of 6 per class. Class fees are not
refundable or transferable.

SUMMER/FALL ‘09

For Sale: Purebred Cotswold Ram Lambs, not registered (mother not registered). Beautiful fleece. Born May 15, 2009. $150 each.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND CLASSES:

Guest Speaker, SHIRL THE PURL

Join us Friday evening, September 18th from 7 to 9 at the Grand Pre National Historic Site where SHIRL THE PURL (Shirley A. Scott) will delight us with her prose. Knitting has a small but very important place in the Canadian psyche. It winds its way through our history and our literature, as well as having a strong presence in our material culture. In this entertaining talk, of interest to both knitters and non-knitters, Shirl will lead you along the paths of our rich Canadian knitting heritage.

Shirl is a well-known knitting writer and teacher. A native of New Brunswick, her first love is re-creating and adapting traditional knitting patterns from North Atlantic countries. Since moving to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2006 she has turned her attention to lace knitting, feeling that it symbolizes the beauty and fragility of life in hard places. Shirl is the author of Canada Knits: Craft and Comfort in a Northern Land (1990, McGraw Hill Ryerson), an easygoing history of knitting in Canada. From 1997 to 2003 she operated Knit With Us, a summer knitting school that traveled to Canada’s best-loved beauty spots. She was also the owner of Cumberland County Knitters for 10 years. Shirl now knits purely for joy, peace, tranquility, and the welcome opportunity to teach others about the knitting life.

Wine and cheese to follow.

Free will offering. All proceeds will benefit the Carey Me Fund for palliative care in the home.

Maritime Spinners Retreat
October 30-November 1, Fredericton, NB.

If interested in booking a room, contact Linda Brine at linbrine@nbnet.nb.ca. Rate: $119.00 at the Crowne Plaza/Lord Beaverbrook Hotel in Fredericton.

SEPTEMBER CLASSES:
Knitting Little Lace Shawls, Saturday, September 19th, 10-3
taught by Shirl The Purl at Gaspereau Valley Fibres. In France, where fashion is everything, a little lace shoulder covering is sometimes called a fichu. Interesting to knit, the finished product can be spectacular. A fichu is a great way to dress up an outfit, especially when you use a skein or two of delicious luxury fibre yarn.

In this course you’ll learn the basic triangular shaping method used in the knitted lace shawls of many northern countries, how to work basic lace stitches, reading lace charts, preventing and correcting mistakes, adding beads as trim, finishing and blocking techniques, and even how to drape and wear your fichu with style. In short, everything you need to know to launch your career as a lace-knitting fashionista.

A list of materials will be provided to registrants. Only stash yarn and readily accessible materials are needed for the class, but you will be invited to purchase yarn for a luxury project if you wish. Registration includes a free Fiber Trends pattern for this project.

Register early, as class size is limited to eight people. Cost: $50.00 per person.

Series of Mini Workshops in Spinning, Carding and Felting

Instructor: Marilyn Rand

Textile artist, Marilyn Rand, works from her home studio in Delhaven, Nova Scotia. After thirty years in textile related industries, Marilyn is now working full time at her craft. An avid spinner, felter and knitter, Marilyn raises a flock of fibre sheep to supply raw materials for her creations. “Ten years of crossing wool breeds to achieve quality wool has been an exciting learning curve for me.” Marilyn has taught knitting courses at Holland College, PEI, and Memorial University in Saint Johns, NF. Working through government-sponsored programs, Marilyn did a number of “on the job training programs” in Nova Scotia and Northern Quebec, working with First Nations Cree women. “Starting our farm was like a step backward in time for me. I had gone from the top of technology in knitting back to the grass roots. I am now spinning wool from my own sheep in the same way my grandmother and great-grandmother did. For me, the beauty in the yarns has always been the texture and colour.” Marilyn now creates mostly hand spun, hand knit garments and hand felted hats, scarves, purses, and accessories from her own patterns. Marilyn also teaches a wide range of courses in spinning, felting, knitting, silk fusion and dyeing.

Spinning
Tuesday, September 8th, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Beginning spinning using a drop spindle. Learn preparation of wool and drop spindling techniques. Use of drop spindle included. Materials cost: $6.00.

Tuesday September 15th, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Beginning spinning. More drop spindling. Use the drum carder and a diz to prepare your fibre. Supported drop spindling for fine fibres. Spinning from the fold. Materials cost: $6.00.

Tuesday, September 22nd, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Beginning spinning on the wheel. Participants must have use of a wheel to participate. Learn the parts and function of the wheel and create spun wool. Materials cost: $10.00.

Tuesday, September 29th, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Beginning spinning on the wheel, part two. Plying techniques to create unique yarns. Two colour plying, two texture plying, Navajo plying, cabling, spiral plying. Why we use different plys of wool and their intended purpose. Students are to come equipped with three bobbins half filled with wool, and one spare bobbin empty. If you don’t have enough bobbins, please have your single ply yarns wound into a center pull ball and have a container to control it while plying. If your yarn is on bobbins, please bring a lazy kate or other delivery system. No materials cost.

Tuesday, October 5th, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Beginning spinning on the wheel, part three. Use the drum carder to create unique textures in your wool. Blending of mixed fibres and ways to spin these fibres to create unique yarns will be taught. Materials cost: $20.00.

Felting

Tuesday, September 8th, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Tea Cozy wet felting. We will create the tea cozy using merino wool and wet felting techniques. Materials cost: $15.00.

Tuesday, September 15th, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Tea Cozy part two. Needle felting and embroidery techniques combined to decorate your tea cozy. This technique can be used to decorate any felted knitwear, or tightly woven materials. Materials cost: $10.00.

Register for one class or all classes! Cost per class: $20.00 (plus HST) plus materials cost. All classes will be limited to six participants with a minimum of two.
Weaving
Tuesday, September 22nd, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Triangle loom weaving. This is a unique method of weaving a triangle shawl using a triangle loom and it is entirely woven by hand. Students will pay $20 plus HST for initial lesson day and will have ongoing teaching support on two more Tuesday afternoon sessions, September 29th and October 5th. You may work out any other days that you just want to work on your project unassisted. The 7ft. shawl takes approximately 12 hours to complete. Materials are to be purchased by the student. Requirements: 750 metres of worsted or bulky weight yarn for the 5ft. shawl (ample size for a smaller person) or 1000 metres for the 7ft. shawl (suggested for a larger person). Looms will be provided.

Register for classes via phone or e-mail. Classes must be paid in advance by check or by credit card over the phone. 15% discount offered for any materials purchased on day of class.
The International Back To Back Wool Challenge results for 2009 are as follows:
1st Place: Spinning Knitwits, Newcastle, Patterson, NSW, Australia, 6 hrs., 3 mins., 20 secs.

2nd Place: Toronto Spiders, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 7 hrs., 6 mins., 55 secs.

Fourteen teams from six different countries including two new teams from South Africa and the U.K. raised over $17,000 for various cancer charities.

Our local group, hosted by Brenda Gilmour of Gaspereau Valley Fibres, recorded a time of 11 hrs., 50 mins., 5 secs. Their effort raised $712.00 for the Carey Me Fund, administered by the Valley Regional Hospital Foundation of Nova Scotia. The Gaspereau Valley team members included Dale Gruchy, Tina Morse, Amanda Nash, Debbie Oxby, Marilyn Rand, Liz Miller, and Delia Burge. Shearer: Sarah Nettleton; Assessor and Timekeeper: Amanda Mansfield.

LETTER FROM JALI GIROUX

Dear Knitters, Spinners, Felters and Lovers of Fibre,

I want to thank you immensely for the generous support you sent my way in the Yarn Yard Sale where I was not able to be. I was delighted and privileged to have received so much support. This is going to help with complimentary therapies to help enhance my immune system, which is a very important part of my healing.

Thank you, each of you, and I hope what you chose will bring you as much joy and fun as it will bring me support and means in my journey.

Love,

Jali

NEW YARNS

We have just received a shipment of KOIGU, Kami
Bison from FibreIsle in PEI, new laceweight mohair from Noah’s Place in
Clarence, Nova Scotia, and a sampling of the first yarn from Hilltop Hollow
Farm in Middleton. The yarn was spun at Legacy Lane Fibre Mill in Sussex,
New Brunswick and is 80% Alpaca, 20% merino, 3-ply in 5 beautiful natural
shades of grey and brown.

ALL YARNS AND FIBRES CONTAINING ALPACA are 30% OFF until September 12th.

9:00 am rain or shine – yarn, fibre, books, equipment. Up to 50% off in the shop! Be sure to stop in and check it out.

Brenda and Manda were both surprised to look out the shop windows and see these two beauties sitting in the driveway! These two couples brought down their classic cars from Ontario and were touring the Valley and enjoying the sunshine. They stopped in to say hello to us and hear a bit about how the shop used to be an old car garage. Enjoy the rest of your stay!

Come visit us at the Wolfville Farm Market on May the 29th. We will have our own farm products from our flock of Cotswold sheep – yarn, fibre, and hand knitted items.

We will also have a sampling of products from other Maritime fibre producers including: Noah’s Place Farm, Legacy Lane, Fibre Isle, Fleece Artist, and some sheepish gifts from Nova Scotia Artisans – Catfish Moon and Sarah Reesor. We will also have some sheep’s milk soap available as well. Hope to see you there!

Gaspereau Valley Fibres and Sheep Thrills would like to extend a big thank you to all of the people who helped make this years Back to Back Challenge possible. A world wide race to shear a sheep, spin the wool and knit a sweater all in one sitting, the Back to Back is an annual fundraiser for cancer care and research. This year we were able to raise $1018 for Carey Me palliative care and Sheep Thrills completed their sweater in just less than 10 hours. Placing 9th out of 13th teams, Sheep Thrills came in first out of the three Nova Scotia teams that were competing. A big thanks to: Delia Burge who supplied the fleece for this years sweater; Marilyn Rand who took the sweater home and washed it, and properly seamed it and presented us with this beautiful final product; FibrEnsemble from PEI for creating and donating a felted shawl for a raffle prize, as well as some hand spun yarn and for giving felting workshops in the afternoon; Tina Morse for lending her hands and knowledge whenever they were needed; Sarah Nettleton for the shearing expos and for answering all the questions everyone had; our sponsors who helped make our team uniform possible; and lastly (but not least) everyone who purchased a raffle ticket and came out the day of to support the event, none of this would be possible without you. Here’s to next year!

Gaspereau Valley Fibres is now operating under our new sumer hours. They are as follows: Tuesday – Friday 10 – 5, Saturday 10 – 4 and Sunday 11 – 4. We look forward to seeing you in the shop!

Brenda and Manda took a trip to Ohio at the beginning of June to check out the annual TNNA Yarn Market They were able to get a sneak peek at all the new yarns and designs for this fall.  They both took a few classes and were able to meet Norah Gaughan from Berroco and Gail Callahan, author of Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece. They shared a cookie with designer Nicky Epstein, and got to talk with Jess and Casey from Ravelry. With over 800 suppliers, they tried their best to see (and feel) everything. Some of the suppliers that caught their eyes were:Habu Textiles, The Natural Dye Studio, Ysolda Teague, Debra’s Garden, Pear Tree Yarns among many others. They returned home with their orders placed and excitement brewing for the new goods to arrive. Be sure to stop in the shop and ask to see what’s new. Things will be arriving every few weeks and we look forward to introducing some new fibres and yarns into the store. Be on the lookout for our newest addition, Berroco’s Remix, which should be arriving soon. Here is Manda modeling one of the jackets from the pattern booklet. A perfect piece to get started on for fall, and just one of many new things to come.

Here are some other pictures of their trip:

It’s hard to think about wooly wonderful things when it’s 30 degrees outside, but now is the perfect time to spin up some lovely fibre for the colder months ahead. We have just received our order from Anzula which consists of these gorgeous fibre braids made of Baby Alpaca, Baby Camel, Yak and Silk and Camel and Silk. All are hand dyed and waiting to be spun. If you are more interested in something right off the sheep’s back, we also have some local North Country Cheviot fleeces that are $30 a fleece and tax free, as well as some beautiful fleeces from Australia (English Leicester and Merino) in natural colours.

International Back to Back Sheep to Shawl Challenge
June 5, 9am – close

Come cheer on our local team “Sheep Thrills” as they shear a sheep, spin the wool and knit a sweater all in one sitting. The Back to Back is a world wide race with teams all over the world racing for the best time. Our local team consists of Debra Oxby, Delia Burge, Amanda Nash, Brenna Swinamer, Dale Gruchy, Liz Miller and Deb Orridge Barnhill.

Raffle tickets are being sold in the shop on the finished sweater, a MacAusland Blanket and gift certificates from all over Wolfville. All proceeds going to Carey Me palliative care program at the Valley Regional Hospital.

Shearing demonstrations will be taking place throughout the day by master shearer Sarah Nettleton and local fleeces will be available for purchase. Be sure to stop in and bring the family as the kids love to see the sheep up close!

Mark your calendars for the 10th Annual Maritime Spinner’s Retreat! This year it is being held at the Rodd Mill River Resort, PEI on October 22 – 24, 2010. This years theme is Spin Wild – what does Spin Wild mean for you? Wild color?  Wild fibre?  Wild techniques?  Wild textures?  What could you make using your Wild spun fibre? They want to see it! Get ready to join them for a Wild weekend at the 10th Annual Retreat!

Hotel: $95/night with 2-4 people per room with 2 queen size beds
Retreat: $130 per person
Book your room now: 1-800-565-7633 or online at www.roddhotelsandresorts.com and remember to mention that you  are coming for the Spinning Retreat.

For more information, be sure to check out their website here.

We were very excited to have the Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia stop in to the shop for a visit on Saturday. They were on a group trip to the valley and stopped in and took some photos of the shop, barn and animals. It was a pleasure having them around and we look forward to seeing some of their shots from the day. Photographers from left to right: Wayne Garland, Dean Hirtle, Marion Boyer, Rober VanNostrand, Hubert Boudreau, Joyce Chew and Paul Boyer. Come back anytime!