Shop will not ship Aug 1 to 9

I love alliteration.

Just a quick note to let you know I am scouting out LYSs, farms, and fiberistas in BC from August 1 to 9. We won't be shipping any orders during this time. If you desperately neeeeeed something, please let me know by 7 am July 31, and I can have it in the mail by the evening.

Have a great first third of August!

What a week...

Its' been a busy week at OVFA. The Canadian Fibre Box has been a hit. Thanks to everyone who has shown interest or ordered a box. I can't wait to send them out in August! September's main event and I are figuring out which fibers to include.

Quite a few shipments came in, so I need to update the online store. (Edit: Mostly done!)

New additions include:
Cottolin weaving yarns from Louet. Have I mentioned how much I love Louet? Their linen and lined blend yarns, Merlin and Euroflax have me enchanted. My impression is that linen isn't used to it's full potential in North America. I wonder why? Any thoughts?

Wool combs from Louet...one set is mine, all mine. I have spent the week combing wool while watching Nurse Jackie and Dexter. Really nice, clean line combs. The Dutch know how to make an old tool look modern. Highly recommended. Easier on my wrists than carding (and of course, for a different fiber outcome, too).

Undyed Northern Lights. This would dye up nicely for beginner and intermediate spinners...

More BFL. Some Corriedale.

A new line of professional acid dyes...I am *stealing* some for store use, and the rest are for you.

Wool from my secret fibre farm. Can't share this yet!

Canadian Fibre box tm

It's announced. Hurrah! The Canadian Fibre Box...and yes, I finally spelled it rite ;).

The secret is out! Everyone knows about the *box that shall not be named* Fiber Box which has taken the fiber community by storm. Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts has created the Canadian Fibre Box^tm. This is your chance to get to know Canadian Fibre.

Subscribe, and each month you will receive a box with a variety of Canadian Fibre: natural, and dyed, as fleece, batts, roving, locks, and more... Get to know your Canadian Fibre sources! Enjoy sampling a range of fibres, colours, and forms. Special extras will be included in each box.

Subscriptions are on sale through our Shop or on Etsy. The first boxes will go out the week of August 15th showcasing a very special farm!

If you would like to be profiled in the Canadian fibre box, please contact us.

Little happy dance projects

I have a special surprise project in the works through OVFA. I should be announcing within a few days on the site, blog and etsy, having lined up my first ducks (or is that sheep)!



I am doing little happy dances about it, as it meets my goals of sharing fiber-y goodness, supporting local (in this case, Canadian-local) farms/artisans, and lets me have a whole pile of fun. Stay tuned.

Have I mentioned I am not good at keeping secrets. Ask my better half Troy, he'll confirm.

In other news, dyed up a bunch of weaving yarn yesterday in shades of plum. I can't decide whether to weave it myself or post to etsy. Also dyed up some Lopi Chunky from Iceland in Killaloe Sunrise (light plum and yellow). Fun, bulky, yarn. I wanted to try dyeing commercially spun yarn since I hadn't yet, and I feel a need to really understand all my products in a range of uses.

Oh yes, apparently our camera is in Switzerland visiting Mozart's birthplace, Salzburg. Should be back Monday. At least I know that I haven't lost my mind or my camera!

Animal, vegetable, mineral?

Fibers are elongated strands of material that can be twisted together to form thread or yarn. They can come from animals -- such as wool fiber from sheep, plants -- such as cotton fiber from the cotton plant, or can be manufactured -- such as nylon, if you really want to know, "a flexible thermoplastic polyamide."

Fibers from different sources have different characteristics, and will result in different finished yarns. Some important characteristics of include the width and length of the fiber; crimp, the number of "bends" in a given length of fiber; and luster, the sheen of the  fiber surface due to light reflection.


Both animal and vegetable fibers can be considered renewable resources. Every year, the sheep or other animal is kind enough to produce another fleece The cotton plant produces another round of bolls. The bamboo plant continuously grows, allowing us to harvest it and obtain its fibers. Spinning can be truly environmentally friendly, as long as attention is paid to good practices

The thing I love about this job is that as one wheel goes out the door, another arrives to soothe my aching heart.

A double treadle Ashford Joy arrived today. I am still practicing control and have not yet cleverly found excuses to appropriate stock. I am sure I will find a loving home for this wheel. The Little Gem however, is calling...Perhaps it really does need to see BC with me.

*Sigh* So many wheels...

I'm looking forward to quickly flipping through the Ashford Book of
1. Projects
2. Rigid Heddle Weaving
3. Dyeing and
4. Carding
before tidying them away into the stock room. I love the pictures and the info that Ashford authors provide - I wonder what the difference being from the other side of the world makes. I'll have to post reviews as each of these eventually make it into my own library (although they have tended to quickly end up on others' shelves first!).

Speaking of dyes, a large order of Acid dyes will arrive later this week. I'll be able to provide 1 and 2 ounce sizes, as well as urea, citric acid and Synthrapol (a gentle detergent for post dyeing wash). Hopefully the list of colours will be posted by Friday. I'm looking forward to dyeing up some more roving myself.

Now if only I could find my camera and transfer the pictures of the last batch I did: Ode to Monet; Bee Balm and Goldenrod; and Fall Plum. Ana already snapped up the Oceans away...see pic above!

Keep the fleece 2.0

The neat thing about the keep the fleece is watching different people spin up the same fiber dyed in the same colourway. I did up a bunch of wool/silk roving in "Autumn in Gatineau Park" which local spinners will spin up, knitters will knit up, and then we will send to NY to be grafted on to the world's longest scarf.

This is a charity project to contribute to the world's largest fleece flock through Heifer International. Farmers in developing countries earn excellent income by producing fibers.

Here are some of the fruits of our labour so far:
And there's one more by Ragz, but I can't find my camera and the pic is on my memory card. *Sigh* Where is that darn camera. All of my hand dyed rovings are there to!

Blogging Fiber in the Valley...

Hello all! This is my new blog to chronicle my fiber and handspinning adventures. I'm migrating over from Livejournal to blogspot to better line up with my community.

I discovered spinning by hand this year after yearning for yarn with more texture for my knitting. I picked up a drop spindle by happenstance, and the rest is history. Recently, I started Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts. I hope to share my passion for spinning by hand, and to share great information and great products for spinning, weaving and other fiber arts with others in the Ottawa Valley and throughout Canada!

Ottawa meet up

It might not be a good sign when you walk into a cafe and realize that it is the first time you have been out socially in the evening since your two year old was born. *sigh*

Not only was spinning the absolutely right thing for me, but clearly its people are too. I spent the evening with a bunch of knitters, spinners, weavers and generally cool people. I haven't felt more at home with mostly strangers in a very long time.

After an almond roca latte I spent the evening working on my scarf, woven with Mermaid's pleasure thickly spun from an art batt by stellalunag on Ravelery. Ana had spun up the "mystery fiber" confirmed to be wool/silk blend by hilltopfiber in a beautiful shade of lime green. I must spend more time spinning in order to approach that level of skill.

Meeting hilltopfiber was nice. It is really all her fault. I picked up her drop spindle kit earlier this year, which is what sent me into the upward spiral that resulted in Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts.

Danger Will Robinson...

Oh no. Not another wonderful thing that feels right.

I chose one of Ashford's Knitter's Looms as a demo model for OVFA (Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts). I had spun up some Dorset singles in peacock colours, and decided to try my hand at weaving. Today, I realized I had not saved enough singles before plying to finish my scarf. *le sigh* So, I have part of a scarf.

I can weave! It is relaxing, like spinning, and rhythmic. And for someone a little impatient like me, more gratifying than knitting. Here is a picture of my first woven item. I anticipate more in the future. I think ragz or anabanana from ravelry had suggested a need to focus on projects and not just spinning. Or was it knitgeekery. Too many cool ladies to tell...