My Support For Ukraine

These past couple months have been unreal with a Russian madman gone berserk.  I cringe everytime an update is broadcast on the news. I feel so helpless, almost the whole world does, but what can we do collectively to help this nation get through an unjustified horrific onslaught?

I should back up a bit first, to explain why I feel this situation is so important to me. My father was born in what is now Ukraine (back in the 1930’s, it was very convoluted as to what the country was defined as), he, his 2 sisters and their mother, escaped … Read more...

Time well spent

Here I was a couple weeks ago wondering if I had time to write, well I certainly do now with being in the hospital awaiting an angiogram! Everything will be OK,  just a little scare that will get looked after next week.

I came very well prepared too with 2 knitting projects, my weaving project book and a dye book about using natural plant materials for dyeing yarns (a new book obtained a few months ago but have not had time to devote to perusing it) to pass the time in a less than comfortable hospital bed hooked up to … Read more...

Playing with Colour…

One of the benefits of having to spend hours on my rear….I get to write more! Along with some really, really, REALLY light-on-the-cardio-system activities.

Like planting flower and pepper seeds and dyeing yarns! Both of these activities are considered playing with colour, one starts out as a teeny seed and bursts into colour, while the other starts out as a bare skein of yarn and it too…bursts into colour!

The main reason to play with colour this time of year is to break up the visual assault of the stark white landscape outside the window. Yes, I moved to a … Read more...

Spring Crocus Flower Tea Towels

Sometimes when I create new designs for weaving, I am not 100% sure of how it will actually translate to the woven cloth. Even though I use weaving software to design using approximate colours, at times there are variables that you might not be able to account for.

Not so with this design as between the use of colour and the weaving draft (pattern), these towels turned out EXACTLY how I envisioned they would!

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This is a limited edition of 6 towels for this Spring, not be repeated until Spring 2022 and as of today’s date, 5 of the 6 … Read more...

Weaving Inspiration

Go look out the window, yup, right out the back door you will find my little herb garden patch, and in it, Spring bulbs poking their sunny, bright faces out of the soil after a long winters sleep.

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Spring is my favourite time of year as all the new growth “springs forth” and finally dissolves the bland whites, greys and browns from winter. I grabbed my camera and took loads of photos of the little clumps of green, purple and yellow flowers, and afterwards, while looking at them on my laptop screen, an idea formed on how to best utilize … Read more...

Introducing My Stormy Point Fiber~Arts Shop!

I have spent the last year gearing up for this moment. The moment I turn my “hobby” into a cottage industry…get it…cottage? Since I live in the Great White North in a cottage? hee hee, I love a good pun.

Most of you followers already know how crafty I am, sewing, knitting and in the last 8 years, weaving and spinning has crept into the lineup of things I love to create with my hands. I come by it honestly, my fraternal grandmother (Baba) was a talented woman who could make a silk purse from a sows ear as the … Read more...

Walking Carefully Into 2021

Well, 2020 was a complete $hitshow.  My only bright spot was my 2 week vacation in Cuba back in January 2020 before the pandemic and lockdown hit.

Hubby and I bailed southern Ontario on March 25th to spend the rest of the year at the Northern Homestead. Best decision ever. In our remote area, there is not a whole lot of people and the case numbers low compared to Toronto and expanding area.

I spent the summer enthralled in my gardening, helped hubby side the new garage and 3 season room addition, among many other construction tasks.  Managed to get … Read more...

Rhinebeck Adventures

It’s been a couple months since my last post, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doin’ nuthin’! Just busy in all aspects of life but this morning I made myself sit down and finally write out this post from my adventures in  NY State back in late October to the New York Sheep & Wool Festival, fondly nicknamed “Rhinebeck” after the town it is held in.

I didn’t go alone, but went with my trusty weaving/fibery sidekick Kathy, Northern Homestead neighbour and all around great gal to get in trouble with.

She drove to my southern home after flying … Read more...

Alpaca Throw Blanket ~ Take II

3 years after I started spinning alpaca fibre for my very first alpaca blanket (Fert & Palladin Throw Blanket) that was finally woven in 2016, I am back for more punishment (?) to spin and weave a new one.

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Why you ask when I already have this gorgeous one? Well, because after its first season at the cottage, I needed to wash it to put it away for the impending close of the cottage and it partially felted in my dumb washing machine.  Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike my washing machine? Its mainly because I didn’t get … Read more...

Piñata Travel Bag Project

2 years ago I had an ambitious idea. Weave enough fabric to make a travel bag set for myself.  These bags will be for weekend trips, I certainly wouldn’t allow any baggage handler near these beauties.

But before physically starting the project I had to sit down and design on paper (following up on the computer) and do all the math calculations for how much I would need for the warp and weft.  For those not familiar with weaving, the warp is the “vertical” threads that are placed on the loom from front to back and the “weft” is what … Read more...