With a Little Help From Your Friends 🎶

 Some of you long time readers may recall my memorial for a friend Rev. Wayne Nicholson. He died tragically in June of 2019.  He was a friend to many, an active weaver and fibre enthusiast, and husband to Harry.   He touch a lot of lives, especially through his good works at his church.

His posts at Warped Weavers, a group of weavers that carved out a (large) niche at Ravelry endeared him to many all over the world.   One group, the Woven Dishtowels hold an annual towel swap in his memory, as Wayne loved to weave towels and gift them.  The rules are simple: advertise you would like a swap partner and someone teams up with you. Normally it's one towel but you could agree to swap more. Some swap with one other weaver, and this year I'm shaping one towel each with two weavers.  One of my towels has arrived in the mail, just in time to help cheer me up after our recent family events.

Wayne seated at my Woolhouse Tools loom  and having fun!

My towel swap partner, Jessica, in Vancouver BC sent me this lovely set of goodies and canvas weave towel.  Jessica says she has been weaving 5 years and I must say that her weaving is lovely!   Great choice in colours that all pair nicely.

 

The goodies?   Premium Earl Grey loose tea from the East Vancouver tea company.    Sachets of ginger tea and divine shortbread cookies from The Bench Bakehouse, half dipped in white milk chocolate to nibble on. They were yummy!

Jessica is taking classes from Jane Stafford's on- line weaving school, and given Jane's love of colour, Jessica has taken to it very well! I hear back from weavers world wide about the classes and they seem to really make a difference from being a newbie who is hesitant, to a more confident weaver who embraces colour and gets a good grasp on weaving theory.....all at your own pace if you follow the videos sequently.  I sure wish this had been there for my start back in the 1990's!  There was only in person classes, books and helpful friends then. The internet has opened weaving up to a much wider audience.  Take a look at the link and see if it's right for you.

A warm thank you to Jessica! Your towel will be along soon....  😁 🌺

Friends From Afar

There are many options out there on the internet for weavers to enjoy each other's company,  their latest projects and share helpful advice on social media. One is Ravelry which was originally set up primarily for knitters and crocheters and somehow weavers carved out a little niche on the web site.   There are many groups of weavers gathered by area or region, associated by a particular yarn store or fan of a weave structure. Some are groups set up by and for a weavers guild from varying locations around the world. Its quite amazing what you will find when you do a search!   Then there are the projects which you can isolate either by 'friend' status or simply by category of 'weaving'.   Pure eye candy!

Then there are the people!

I have 'met' and made friends with so many either by my blog or by also interacting with them at Ravelry.   I reckon I could travel across Canada or the USA simply going from weaver to weaver..... and also include the UK, Scotland, Denmark, NZ and Australia.  Though, I might start with Hawaii first   :)

Through this blog, I get nice emails from many people all over and sometimes even pictures of their latest project.  Its all a wonderful connectedness that simply would not have happened if not for the Internet.   I love it!


I met Wayne, or rather, Padre Wayne in the group "Warped Weavers" at Ravelry.  Wayne is an enthusiastic weaver who is also an Episcopalian  Minister in a small community in Michigan.  We have exchanged  messages and occasionally Skyped.  He would complain about the snow and cold in Michigan ......and I tell him all about the annual flower count in Victoria in February.

So when I heard that Wayne and his partner Harry would be coming out to the west coast on a sabbatical  I hoped my surgery would not conflict with it.  They were staying at a place near Port Townsend and planned to take the ferry to Victoria, then drive north to our place in the North Cowichan Valley.  Home to the world famous hand knit Cowichan Sweater

They arrived last Monday and after lunch we had a tour of the studio and Bruce's train room. We then drove to a place a bit south of Duncan called Whippletree Junction. Its a collection of funky little shops. We visited a yarn store called "The Loom". Now you could be forgiven for thinking its all about weaving, but it isn't. Maybe one day in the past it was but it now features yarns mainly for knitting, with some spinning fibre, and a few cones of yarns. Wayne is making unique scarves on his rigid heddle loom and so bought some lovely colour ways to make some more while they are vacationing.  I was a good girl and resisted temptation.

Leola had a double building that are interconnected inside. There are teapots in the garden out front.

In behind the shops are even more shops and home to Leola's weaving studio.  We sat and waited for Leola to return from her break taking in all the flowers and water fountain. There is also a tea pot garden. Old tea pots of all sorts and sizes are tucked into nooks and crannies and filled with flowers.  I didn't have my camera with me so sadly, no picture (this time).  Its a fun and funky place literally FILLED with dozens of looms of all kinds, all with works in progress and Leola has students from the local colleges and Shawnigan Lake School there, as well as interested members of the public who want to try their hand at weaving.  There is even large outdoor dye kitchen in the back for colour experimentation too.   Wayne and Harry enjoyed the ambience and of course Wayne found some yarn that called to him and followed him home!

We had supper at a restaurant called The Rock Cod Cafe down at the shores of Cowichan Bay. Specialty? seafood of course and the majority of it is local.  We had a view of the marina with its sailboats, power boats and floating homes.   The local Dragon boat racers were out on the bay practising and it was a beautifully calm evening for it. Across the bay is Mount Tuam on Saltspring Island. After dinner we took a pleasant stroll on the pier at the Maritime Museum.  The marina is getting ready for the wooden boat festival in Maple Bay near where I live. The boats are looking grand. With it being Canada Day the next day, there were flags flying everywhere!

Later at home we cracked a bottle of bubbly and had dessert. You see, Wayne and Harry had just got married two days before in Washington prior coming to see us!  We had to celebrate and wish them well!

The next morning Bruce made a wonderful omelet breakfast and then we headed to the studio.  I set up my spinning wheel for Harry to play with. He was taught to spin by Judith MacKenzie no less!
Wayne and I each took a loom and we all started to  play!  Bruce took pictures of us.  The morning light filled the room and so they turned out great!

Wayne weaving on the Woolhouse

Harry testing the ratios on the Rose

...and me on the Louet Spring

Wayne and Harry also brought a little heat wave along with them and so it was quite warm. We had been unseasonably cool until then so it was an adjustment to make in a hurry!

All during the time Wayne and Harry were with us, Harry was folding Japanese origami paper cranes.  (The link is to a video how to guide) A friend had asked them to visit a memorial tree planted for a lost loved one in Oak Bay, Victoria  and so Harry had a plan.  He was folding cranes every chance he got and soon had a box full of them. A quick use of my hole punch and  Wayne had a cone of bamboo yarn to hand.   

After we said our good byes and they headed south to Victoria where they did locate the special tree. They later sent us this picture:

There must have been some curious people in Victoria when they found these cranes hanging in the tree later!   While Wayne and Harry are heading back to Michigan and home later this week, I somehow suspect they have fallen in love with the west coast of either country.... and we haven't seen the last of them!