Half Moon Baskets

Come weave

Closer to home

This past year has brought a lot of changes to our little family, and I've been rethinking how I offer workshops. For the next while I won't be driving across the province for one-off classes. I'm gathering things into clusters instead, and the two above are the start of it: weekends at Pioneer Lodge in Red Deer, retreats at Folk Tree Lodge in Bragg Creek, and a few trips up to Edmonton to weave with Elvira in the Highlands and with Fern at Fern's School of Craft.

This newsletter is the best way to keep up with all of it. If you'd rather only hear about what's happening near you, I've set up Luma calendars for Red Deer, Edmonton, and Calgary. Subscribe to the one closest to home and that's all you'll get.

Fern's is the exception. Her workshops sell out within a few hours, and I can rarely time my own announcement to the moment she opens registration. If you're hoping to weave with me there, her newsletter is the one to be on.

Where it grows

The cattail along the ditches is just beginning to turn brown at the tips, which is the sign I wait for. Late summer is when the year's best material comes in, and the basement will soon be full of bundles standing against the wall. My own kind of nesting.

Bulrush grows right alongside it, and I leave that one until the seed heads start to release. Late August into September is the stretch for both across central Alberta. Cut, sorted, and dried slowly out of the sun, they'll keep all winter and weave beautifully once the cold sets in.

If you're feeling brave and want to come out to the ditches with me near Lacombe, I'll be out most Tuesday evenings. Reply to this email and I'll message you when I'm heading out. You'll want good rubber boots, a safety vest, solid scissors for cutting the seed heads off bulrush, and a roofing knife or sickle. I have spare vests and tools if you don't.

I'm also hunting for a good spot closer to Red Deer: a little swampy patch beside a road, easy to get to, not in a developed area or an established wetland, with a shoulder wide enough to park on. If you know one, I'd love to hear about it.

Come help

A good workshop has more than one pair of hands in it. Someone to put the kettle on, welcome people at the door, and notice when a person has gone quiet over their basket.

I'm looking for a few of those people this season, at both of the weekends above and at whatever comes after. No weaving experience is needed for most of it.

Put your name on the list and I'll send the details out with each call, so you can see whether one suits you before saying yes to anything.

Next time you pass a ditch full of cattail, stop and look at the tips. Fully green means it's too soon. Just beginning to turn brown is the moment. Then look at the tops: skip the stalks with a seed head on them. Their leaves are shorter, and the ones without give you the better weaving. It's kinder to leave them for the wild anyway. (Although if you have littles, the seed heads make a fine fairy wand, trailing their magic dust absolutely everywhere.)

Until the next turn of the season,
Freyja