Knit Night On The Brain!

This past weekend in Hamilton was amazing. Supercrawl was so so good. The best ever. I was so impressed and thrilled to share such a great Hamilton event with some friends and family who were visiting. And we completed our giant knit façade of The Brain, which we've been working on since June/July.



We were literally knitting and piecing the installation together as it was going up. And many of us were knitting non-stop in the week leading up to the deadline. Towards the end we pulled out the big guns to speed things up - mega huge knitting needles! Thank goodness for chunky yarn and big needles.



We couldn't have done this without our friends and family. In addition to all the knitters that helped with the actual creation of the piece, we could never have installed it without the tireless help of Gary. THANK YOU GARY! Sky Jack operator extraordinaire. And Kieran and Mike. HEROES. And thank you Heather who patiently let us take over The Brain, inside and out.



Oh, and that amazing knit recreation of The Brain logo? Yeah, that was Courtney. She's the mastermind behind this entire thing. Not only is she speediest knitter I've ever met, she's also a genius when it comes to making up patterns. Three cheers for Courtney!!!




And now it's done. Our first giant Beehive project! If you swing by in the next little while, you can still check out the yellow section with The Brain sign, which is still up.

On The Brain

We are busy busy busy busy bees (how many times can we make this joke?). Our knit installation for Supercrawl has been taking up all of our time for the past couple of weeks. Knit knit knit knit knit knit knit. We'll finally be installing the whole thing tomorrow, and it will be available to view tomorrow evening at the art crawl and all day Saturday at Supercrawl on the facade of The Brain at 199 James Street North.

Over 70 knit scarves, 2 knit window boxes, a knit sign for The Brain, half a dozen crocheted flowers, 18 constructed wood frames later and we're ready. It's going to be incredible. We do hope that you'll be able to check it out. It couldn't have been possible without the local crafting community stepping up and pitching in. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Okay. Back to knitting for us. See you this weekend.

Canning Peaches

On Sunday a few of us got together at Thea's to can peaches! This wonderful fruit is at its best right now and we really wanted to capture its deliciousness and preserve it for future enjoyment.

The most time consuming and messy part of canning peaches is the peeling and slicing bit. The more hands helping out, the better! In order to make the peaches easy to peel, we blanched them in boiling water for 30-50 seconds. Then we peeled them, sliced them, and put the slices in a bath of water with lemon juice in it. The lemon prevents the fruit from darkening unattractively.

It's best to can peaches that are just beginning to soften. If they're too soft, they may just fall apart when cooked. If they're too hard, they're a major pain in the derriere to peel.

Thea informed us that peach pits contain pips that have an almondy scent and flavour (peaches and almonds are related after all). So she cracked a few pits open with a hammer, and put some pips in a tea infuser, which we placed in the syrup to give it a slight almond flavour. Yum!



In batches, we added the sliced peaches to our sugar syrup mixture. We made a medium syrup, a combination of 6 cups of water with 3 cups of sugar. The peaches were cooked in the syrup for 5 minutes. This is the "hot pack" method of canning, since the fruit is heated before being canned. It's the most commonly used method for preserving fruit since it is a bit safer, and makes it easier to get the fruit in the jars. You can also "cold pack" or "raw pack" the fruit by putting it in without cooking it in the syrup, and then pouring the hot syrup on after.




With a slotted spoon, we ladled the peaches into hot sterilized jars, then added the syrup until there was about 1'' headspace. Wide mouthed funnels are a canner's best friend.




We processed the canned peaches in the canner for about 20 minutes.



Et voila! Peaches galore! They will provide a wonderful taste of summer in the cold dark days of winter. Yum.

Summer Craft Fair

Wow: the only word that captures all of our collective feelings over the incredibly successful and well received Summer Craft Fair that came and went last weekend. Just, wow.

It really was incredible to witness 7 months of planning and preparations unfold into such an enjoyable weekend, with the Old Friendship Shop looking its finest, and the place packed full of amazing and talented artisans. The air was buzzing with excitement on Friday evening, and it was pretty much impossible for anyone to walk into the Old Friendship Shop without a huge smile their face. Really, how could they not?

Katie Walker's screenprinted scarves

Petra Cuschieri's adorable pencil cases (I snagged that dark floral one on the left)!

Katie Muth's greeting cards and prints

Viola Fibers and Sartoria

Pin Pals

Since the fair was our first major event, and none of us had quite planned anything like it before, it was definitely a learning curve for us all. Overall the whole experience, from the application process, to getting the keys to the Friendship Shop, to meeting our vendors, was wonderful. The Summer Craft Fair was totally exceeded our expectations, and we can't wait to do it again.

Although we thanked all of our friends and family in our last blog post for their generous love and support, I can't help but echo that sentiment again. So, a huge thank you to DJ Donna Lovejoy for providing hot beats on Friday evening, Amanda McCavour for her beautiful window installation, our countless friends and family, our neighbours, and all those who came by to say hello, and support our vendors.

And of course, a truly special thank you to all of our incredible vendors: our fair wouldn't have been as magical without your many talents. From all of us Bees: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Worker Bees

Well, today is the day that we Bees have been waiting for. Seven months of planning come to fruition starting tonight, and continue along on Saturday. We're thrilled, nervous and a little overwhelmed. Mostly thrilled. Very, very thrilled.

We've done our best the past couple of weeks to showcase some of the amazing talent that make up the fair. Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to be working alongside such creative and accomplished artists. Initially, we had our fingers crossed that we would get enough applications that The Old Friendship Shop wouldn't look empty. And suddenly, there we were, with more applications than we had room to accommodate. This fair is just bursting with extraordinary talent.

We wanted to contribute something material as well. Although the actual logistics alone of this whole event took up most of our time, we felt we had to create some kind of souvenir of our achievement. So we added a couple of more projects to our plate.

Jenna and Thea spent the beginning of this week screen printing tote bags. It's been mentioned on the blog before, but we all really love our wreath logo. Jenna did such a beautiful job designing it. Really, it'd be a shame NOT to print the design onto totes. Jenna and Thea printed up a limited number for the fair - more once we all realized that all 11 of us would like one ourselves - in a beautiful mustard colour onto sturdy canvas bags. In my head, I've already designated mine for transporting my Knit Night supplies on Wednesday nights.

During our last social meeting, most of the Bees got together and had a good old fashioned button making party. We spent a couple of hours in Roisin's new studio cutting out designs in different colours and sizes, pressing them into buttons and eating scones. I'm so thankful that most of our meetings revolve around good food, as well as learning new skills and good conversation. And gosh, our buttons turned out so cute.



Without getting too sappy here, we wouldn't have been able to pull this off without all the support of so many other worker bees. We have countless friends and family members and partners who have donated their time, their houses, their skills and their love to make all of our projects possible. Big, huge, bottom of our heart thanks to Kieran, Jeff, Peter, Dane, Kevin, Mike, Erick, Jesse, Doug, Sean, Ted, Gary, Copydog Tom, Tim, Heather, Rachael, Amanda, Ella, Dave, The Brain, Mulberry Street Coffeehouse, all of our families, all of our vendors, everyone who applied and especially to you. Thanks for being interested in what we do.

We really hope that you'll join us this weekend. We've worked so hard. For you.

Vendor Spotlight: Fidoodle

We are very excited to have Fidoodle at our Summer Craft Fair. Jen is bringing some of the quirkiest and cutest creations that are aimed at kids and young people, although I'm sure even the oldest among us will be charmed by some of her pieces.

Melanie Senko: Tell us about yourself.

Jen Bulthuis: My name is Jen Bulthuis. I grew up in Hamilton, but have spent the majority of my adult years living in Toronto. Years ago I primarily worked with people through community arts initiatives in Toronto as I continued to develop my printmaking and general making practice, but Fidoodle has developed over the last 6 years paralleling my journey into parenthood. I have two children (age 6 and 1). We live in a great neighbourhood in Toronto and for the most part, everything that I make is built in my home studio.

M.S.: Where/when did you become acquainted with your craft?

Jen: Trained as an educator and woodblock printmaker, I’ve been developing Fidoodle out of a long running interest in art as interactive object, and in the imagination of children. My fascination with the materiality of wood evolved from printmaking to include intricate construction of traditional wooden marionettes. Printmaking led to an interest in bookbinding, then the creation of flipbooks involving stop motion animation. Years of work in the community arts, particularly with street involved youth, led me to a style shaped by drawing together, in the moment.

M.S.: Where do you draw creative inspiration from?

Jen: I’m inspired by the stories that we create through objects in our lives and especially the stories that children build through objects that they play with. I’m also intrigued by small details of our natural environments and by the worlds we create for ourselves. I love the feel of sanded maple in my hands and the versatility of industrial wool felt for building objects.

M.S.: What do you love most about your craft?

Jen: I’m very happy that I get to make up or invent so much of what I do. I can choose materials and I can make up processes. I love to draw and with screen-printing, I’m able to tell stories through illustration on several objects that I make.

M.S.: What are your most favourite materials to work with?

Jen: I especially love to work with wood, industrial wool felt, organic cottons. I like surfaces that I can print onto easily and materials that I can build with.

M.S.: Is there another craftsperson/designer/artist that you admire?

Jen: I admire lots of makers. Here’s a little list: The illustration of Fiep Westendorp, and Tove Jansen, the wooden dolls of Alexander Girard, furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, Trashbonbon, Brothers Dressler, ceramics by Jeremy Hatch, Rob Southcott, Coe and Waito. So many more.

M.S.: How do you get your work out in the world? Where else can one find it?

Jen: Fidoodle is out there through a variety of weekend fairs and Etsy and I sell my work in a few small boutiques in Toronto. This information is all on Fidoodle’s website.