St Distaff's Day

St. Distaff's Day is a fictional holiday. Actually it didn't start out as a holiday at all. It was more of a call to get back to work after the 12 days of Christmas. It was also aimed at women.....but for fear of ranting I won't go any furthur.

So what are the crafty people of the modern age to do?

How do we honour the fictional patron saint of weavers and spinners?

Hold a crafting day of course!!!!!

So here in the Ottawa valley, each year, one of the local groups will take up the task to host this event. This year I was lucky as the location was only 20 minutes from my place. Vendors are invited to attend to give us reason to be separated from our money, and there are workshops to learn new things. I took a workshop on making Victorian buttons. "Victorian needle woven button on fabric covered mold with decorative thread work."

Okay so it's not the greatest picture. The camera is not the best for close up shots....but you get the idea. This was how buttons were made in the 1860's. Our instructor, Margot Dixon, is a knitter, weaver, spinner, all round enthusiastic woman ...... etc and is the dress maker at Upper Canada Village. She also organizes the yearly Spin-In held in Chesterville. (An event I never miss.) Unlike the Australian Heritage Village (don't ask), the UCV is a thriving National Park set in the 1860's depicting life in this part of Canada during that time.

Looks like Stripes found her way into the picture with Margot.

On a sad note I was to take fabric painting in the afternoon but had to rush off to work to teach the second half of my Toe-Up Sock class. All in all it was a good day and I exercised a great deal of self control in my spending. In truth there wasn't much to tempt me.

I'd better run......there is knitting and quilting to be done!!!!!

Yours in Yarn

The Fibreholic