๐๐งบ New workshops in Red Deer & Edmonton
Home from the garden, with willow season just ahead.
Half Moon Baskets
Home from the gardenHello friends, The leaves are beginning to turn yellow here. We have just come home from Baskets in the Garden, tired and happy after a few days spent weaving together. It was such a beautiful weekend. Thank you to everyone who came, to those who taught and helped, and to all the hands that quietly stepped in when something needed doing. I'm still carrying a little of the weekend with me. And while we were in the garden, autumn seemed to arrive. The nights are cooler now. The light has changed. Yellow is beginning to move through the trees. Soon the leaves will fall and the branches will be bare. And then we gather. 
Come make one with usOne of the things we made in the garden this year was this rather wonderful pile of very large twisted willow baskets. I love teaching this basket to beginners. It is big and a little unruly, takes an enormous armful of willow, and only asks you to learn two weaves. Everyone begins in much the same place, and somehow every basket wanders off and becomes completely its own. 
Can't stay for the whole weekend? Join us for the day on Saturday, October 17. We'll share lunch, head out for a willow walk, weave a small gathering tray, and finish the day with dinner and a fire.
A little more room for cattailFour of the ten sessions at our September Weekend of Weaving have filled, and I am so grateful. There is a waitlist for each of those if you'd still like a chance to join us.
I've also made a little more room for cattail.
Into the willowBy November, the leaves should be down and my attention will have turned almost entirely to willow.
And then, tucked into a home in Edmonton's Highlands, we'll keep weaving as winter settles in.
December 13 ยท Tiny Trug Three small, full-day willow workshops spread across the winter, with all the willow and tools waiting for us and chai and cake somewhere in the middle. Come for one, or weave your way through the winter with me. See the Highlands workshops โ
Where it growsThe willow is getting close. The rods are beginning to lignify, turning from soft summer growth into wood. The bark has stopped peeling, and the leaves are loosening their hold. If you're really keen, you can selectively harvest a few rods now and weave with them. Just strip the leaves straight away, while they still pop off easily. I wouldn't fill the car quite yet. Taking the leaves off bundles and bundles of willow is far too much work. For now, I take only a few rods from each stool and leave the bigger harvest for later in the season. Soon the leaves will be down, the branches will be bare, and we'll head out with our snips to begin filling our arms with willow for another year of baskets.
Until the next turn of the season, |