I’m dying. I just luckily stumbled on this amazing weaver, Amy Revier. She’s making the nicest, softest on the eyes clothing I’ve seen in ever. She weaves all her fabrics by hand. I’ll let the images do the talking.

Finally. I’ve done it. My new shop will be opening Friday January 25th! Items will ship on or before February 16th. Probably before. Also, here’s a little treat, 10% off with the coupon code GRANDOPENING. Support a weaver!

Now that school is over I’m putting all my effort into a little textiles online shop. I guess this is a bit of a sneak peak. I hope to get it going before I take off to Hamilton for Christmas! Eep!

Last weekend was a great one. Nick, myself & another couple drove up to PEI for the weekend. We Stayed in a cottage near Cornwall, PEI which is on the south shore. We would drive up to the north shore for some swimming at various beaches but my favourite was Cavendish Beach. So beautiful. It reminded me a lot of The Pinery on Lake Huron in Ontario. Nice white sands, blue water & dunes! I am a major sucker for dunes. The red dirt was awesome. How could dirt be awesome?! I don’t know, it was pretty bright red though. I don’t want to wear my sneakers ever again because the bottoms of them are red still. Also, I am currently kicking myself for not finding a PEI Dirt Shirt.

We took the ferry over from Caribou, NS to Wood Islands, PEI. The first trip over was pretty windy so we mostly stayed inside & ate our Cow’s ice cream. The ride back was very calm & warm though. We saw what was probably a porpoise & a small whale! Very cool. My first sightings. I really hope to get back there sometime but it looks like next summer we might head up to Newfoundland! Yikes.

I did take some film pictures but I have to get them developed still. I’ll be posting those up later. For now, deal with my repetitive Instagram photos!

More…

I’ve been pillow obsessed for the past few weeks while I was working on my Independent Study for school. I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out too!

I made a 82cm around floor pillow from some wool fabric I wove. My favourite bit about it are the black & white tufts, that you can see at the top of the post. The bottom of the floor pillow is black canvas & the down-filled insert is sewed up & trapped inside. I also made a 50cm square throw pillow. That one has an envelope back that allows the down-filled insert to be removed. The front of the throw pillow is embroidered with white & pink french knots. I also added a couple of little wooden balls hanging from some ivory suede cord on the bottom corner.

I made four flat chair pillows with ties that are meant for dining room chairs. Those are screen printed with eight sided stars on the top, a hexagon on the bottom side & a dip dye look on the ties. These are a set I’m not as happy about, it’s tough screen printing opaque on black & I wish I had used a bit thicker fabric for them. They work though!

I wanted to keep my designs simple but also playful. I pulled a lot of my inspiration from various Scandinavian design/ers. Thinking about basic patterns, quirky details, and clean, cosy spaces.

Much has happened since I last wrote. Mum came for a week long visit to Halifax. Then we flew back to Hamilton together & I stayed for two weeks. I had my 26th birthday on the 23rd (I’ll never have a golden birthday again. I miss it!). Sorry about all the Instagram photos but I haven’t had any film developed yet. I’ve also been pretty lazy about that but I think I’ll just look at it as being more selective.

While I was in Hamilton I got to make a Wiksten dress with my old friend Liz of Needlework. We also had the best waffles ever at Cannon.

Looked through old photos with my Uncle. Both my Grandparents are gone now so he’s going through their stuff. He’s found a lot of old photos of him & my mum that I had no idea existed.

Scored some goodies at Cheapies. Bill Callahan & Washed Out.

Had some pool time on the hottest day of the year with Christine. We also hit Wonderland together & rode Leviathan three times!

Went to the most amazing store with mum & also to her friends alpaca farm! I met one named Obie & I bought some of his yarn. So cute.

I woke up each morning at my best girl’s house with a good Hamilton view. We ate a lot of popsicles, listened to records & watched Arrested Development.

Dad & my step mum took me to Toronto to see the Picasso exhibit at the AGO. There were so many rooms full of his work. Very amazing.

Then I left & came back to Halifax. Since I’ve been back I’ve been working hard on my Independent Study for textiles. I’m working on a series of pillows! I’ll be done August 15th. Then I can have some real stress free times before classes start again in September.

One more thing. I know I’ve been going off about this for a few days on Twitter but I’m very excited. We finally got ourselfs a turntable, amp & the cutest speakers for our living room. We have had records & have been buying records but with nothing to play them on for so long. I’m just listening constantly now.

My good friend Tara-Lynn of Good Night, Day was kind enough to send me one of her new knitting pattern booklets. She’s really blown me away with this project. The photos are all so beautiful, the instructions are very clear, even for a novice knitter like myself. Tara-Lynn’s patterns are all completely thought up by herself & are cleverly designed to be as painless as possible. Hardly any piecing or seaming to worry about, you can just knit away & you’ll have a new garment in no time. Unfortunatly by the time the package arrived she’s sold out! Thanks for that, oh so slow Canada Post. However, she’s making more copies! I suggest you go here & sign up for her mailing list so you can get your hands on one.

If knitting isn’t your thing, I highly recommend her shop for her knitted items. All the yarns she uses are absolutely beautiful. Everything is hand spun & dyed in Peru & Uruguay. All extremely soft & lush. I can’t say that I see to many knitted pieces that really grab me but TL has a real eye for it.

A very long time ago (January 2012) Cole Bentz of Students That Make contacted me for an interview for her amazing website. After so much time sucking on my part it’s finally up on the website! I never feel totally confident about interviews so I spent a lot of time on this, even still. I hope I don’t come off as too much or too little of anything… & if I do, I didn’t mean to! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. There are interviews with other awesome artists (including an amazing weaver!) & more on the way so be sure to check them out.

I don’t quite know how I feel about this design but it’s my first four-way repeating pattern! There are a couple of slight errors that I’ll know how to fix on my next go so I’m pretty satisfied. This one was kind of complicated to figure out & my brain doesn’t work too well with precise measurements so I might simplify more on my next one. Next up will be two colour!

There has been poster up for the sale of this loom at my school for the past couple of months. I finally mentioned it to my mum & she decided that even though my birthday isn’t until July it would make a great birthday gift. I emailed the instructor selling it & now I have a loom in my home!! I still need some bits for it before I can start weaving but I’m on the hunt!

It’s a cute 8 harness Lillistina lom from Sweden. I love the midcentury style & the light wood. It has all string heddles which is new to me & also it’s all hand controlled, no treadles for my feet so that’s going to be new too. It’s 27″ which is pretty wide for a table loom & 8 harnesses is also a nice treat! I can’t wait to start weaving & show you what I’m up to.