Fern's School of Craft

Punch needle does quilting! Three new colourful kits inspired by the classic quilting designs of house blocks, flower blocks and the log cabin. Last summer I thrifted a $5 book on appraising antique textiles which led to the punching of these three projects. Each kit comes with wool yarn, cotton monks cloth, printed 18x18” pattern and an in depth instructional booklet. Available with or without the Oxford punch needle!

Thank you to Danny and our crew of students for an immaculate weekend of indigo dying with resist pattern making! Each day focused on a different Japanese shibori technique; Itajime and Mokume. Vibes were perfect, learning and experimenting was joyful, and we all left in awe of plants and these ancient textile practices. Sincerely can’t wait to do it again.

Observations: I made this scarf, 70 inches of deflected double weave woven with three shuttles and a somewhat complicated treadling. There was a little warp left over so I wove that off in a simple plain weave. SIMPLER DOES NOT = EASIER. The simplicity didn’t demand as much attention and my mind kept wandering then I’d mess things up and have to weave backwards to fix mistakes. Sometimes a simple pattern is less engaging and harder to focus on.

Dropping three quilting inspired punch needle patterns next week!

Thanks to lovelies Freyja and Autumn for a day of weaving little berry baskets! What a delight it is to smell willow, wrangle it into shapes and then store your bits and bobs in a handwoven basket.

A rag rug woven with my late grandmas jeans. My grandma Elaine passed away 5 years ago and when my mom and I were cleaning out her condo I grabbed five pairs of jeans. I knew immediately I wanted to weave a rag rug with them. Time passed and as my mom reached a big birthday it seemed like a good occasional to finally make this rug as a gift for mom. The jeans still smelled like grandma, I found some Kleenex in a pocket and touched her hand sewn hems as I cut the jeans into 1” strips. It was nice to feel her close again. Aging is a gift. Aging is hard. It’s nice to have some way to meditate on it all.

Say hello to the newest drop in weave The Meta Towel. An intermediate project with 8 shafts, 8 treadles and two shuttles. Weave as pictured or instead of pink choose any colour of your liking. Last picture shows some colour experiments my volunteer June wove up. February dates are now open for registration!

THE AMISK RUG! I spent my last work day of the year getting this weaving pattern online! The Amisk rug is inspired by my friends log cabin home on Amisk lake. A lifelong weaver herself, her home is lined with many handwoven rugs. Amisk is the Cree word for beaver, and we’d often spot one as we dipped into Amisk Lake after heating up in the sauna. Available as a digital download or as a kit with all the fibres for weaving. Weaves up fast and thick thanks to Briggs and Little’s bulkiest 4ply wool.

Don’t know about you but I’m ready for days on days of couch crafting in soft clothes.

Fern’s will be closing for a couple weeks over the holidays! Today and Tuesday we’re open for all your last minute holiday crafting and gift shopping needs. Then we’ll be taking a two week break until January 6th. (Studio mates Former and Latter Fabrics and will be reopening January 2nd.)