Wow, hard to believe it's been almost a month now that CBFA has been live - and almost a month since my last blog post! I've been down for the count for a while with a nasty cold but finally went to the doctor yesterday and came home armed with four (4!) new prescriptions. Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, my germs should be a thing of the past in no time, which means I'll be more able to stay on top of ALL THE (fibery) THINGS, at least for a while.

Had I been on my game, I would have posted last week about the De-Stashing Sale at the Cedars Club in Sydney last weekend before it happened. It was amazing! There were over 25 tables filled with craft supplies that needed a new home - and many new homes were found! I went and filled two tables in spite of my germs (never could have done it without TONS of help from my friend Sandra, even if I had been feeling 100% - thank you, Sandra!) and came home several bulky things lighter, for which I was truly thankful. It's taken me most of the following week to get things put away again and I'm still not done, but at least now I have a much better idea of just what I've got in my prodigious stash and there might be a few folks out there interested in lightening it further. You know anyone who'd be interested in basketry supplies, buttons, purse findings, zippers, or #3 zipper coil (with sliders!), you send them to me!

If you check out the calendar, you'll see that the De-Stashing Sale was just one Saturday out of a whole series of 'em on which fun stuff will be happening. Tomorrow in particular is one that I'm excited about: it's the Spinthrifts 2nd Annual Back to Back Challenge! I'll make an announcement with all the deets in a bit, or you can go check out the flyer right now, or you can even find it on Facebook if you're into that sort of thing, but first I want to say how much I'm looking forward to this! My friend Chris and I are going over today and staying the night Friday and Saturday so that we're there with the team from the time the clock starts to the moment when the last seam is sewn. We did the same last year and it was great!

The deal is that a team of seven knitters and spinners (plus one sheep and one shearer) work like mad to take a fleece straight from the sheep's back, spin it, ply it, and then knit it into a full sized, adult's sweater - all in one go. There's a strict pattern they must follow, and strict rules as well, and there are teams all over the world doing exactly the same thing all during the Spring, all of whom are using their events to raise money for cancer related charities. Last year 12 teams competed around the world and three of them were from Nova Scotia! There was also a team in Toronto, meaning that Canada represented 1/3 of all the teams in the world - how cool is that!? In fact, I think the Toronto team won again last year, but don't quote me on that 'cause I'm not 100% sure it's true. They have won in the past, at least, and those ladies are freaky fast knitters 'cause they did it in less than 5 hours!  We Nova Scotians tend to take a bit longer but I've heard rumours that the Spinthrifts are hoping to finish before dark this year. I can't wait to go and cheer them on as they make the attempt!

They're going to have a craft sale, and a tea, and a silent auction, and I suspect prizes awarded for other kinds of contests like their "three bags full" contest last year for which you had to guess the total weight of three giant bags of fleece. All of this is happening at the Scottsville School of Crafts on Lake Ainslie, and all of it is to raise funds for their chosen organization: the Central Inverness County Palliative Care Society. Last year they raised over $1000 (a goodly chunk of which came from me - I won so many cool things in their silent auction!).

There are lots more events coming up on the calendar, too: there's WeaveFest on May 28th in Charlottetown, another Nova Scotian Back to Back Challenge on June 4th near Wolfville at Gaspereau Valley Fibres, and Fibre Fest at the Gagetown Fibre Emporium on the June 11 - which is also World Wide Knit in Public Day - just to name three.  If you know of any more, please please please let me know so I can add them to the calendar!

- Janet

Oh, boy, this is SO exciting! Things are ticking right along! People are subscribing, both to the announcements and to the RSS feed, and event listings are coming in from Sydney to Gagetown, NB.* Shari MacLeod of Red Twig Brown Twig even wrote a post about us on her beeeoootiful blog! Thanks, Shari! I've spent an inordinate amount of time on this over the past little while,** so it's gratifying to see it that it's apparently been time well spent.

The site's been live for less than 24 hours and I've already started making changes, of course. I worked my graphics-fu and designed the new banner image you see up there at the top of the page. What do you think? I used the same picture to create a new badge for the site that people can slap on their own pages in order to link back here (it's over in the sidebar), and it's also in the slideshow I added to the Home page early this morning. I've also been adding new things to the Links page -- but have still only barely begun to scratch the surface of the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. That's going to be an ongoing labour of love, I can tell, and will quickly need to be broken down into separate pages by category 'cause there are just so many great sites out there!

I'm all keen to keep working (can you say "binge"?) but it's time I was off to help my six year old niece hunt for Easter eggs. :)

- Janet

* I LOVE that events are coming in from outside Cape Breton! Keep 'em coming, folks - let's fill that calendar right up! There's SO much going on in this region that we all want to hear about! 

** Srsly, an inordinate amount of time. I've been up past 5:00 the past two nights and I'm not too proud to admit that, until I got in the shower just now, I'd been wearing the same shirt since last Thursday.

Well, this is it! After talking about it for simply ages,**  I've finally set up a website to help the Cape Breton weaving community get and stay in touch. Truth be told, I hope it will bring together fibre artists of all stripes from all over the Atlantic provinces - but start with what you know, eh wot? Still, start small but aim high: you'll notice the name of the site is Fibre Arts, not just Weaving. Please help me expand and grow into my big girl clothes!

On the Events page you'll find a calendar of events, exhibits, sales, classes, workshops and all manner of activities that might be of interest to the local fibre community. If you know of such things coming up, please drop me a line or use the handy form to let me know so I can add them. I may someday figure out a widget that will let you add your own events to the calendar but for now a quick email is all it takes.

Many of those same things will turn up on this Announcements page too - exhibits, sales, and one time events in particular - but this is also a place to let everyone know about exciting news from the textile community. Had an article published in a magazine? Won an award? Good fibre related show coming up on tv?  Let everyone know! Again, send me a quick email or use the contact form to let me know what's happening in our community so I can spread the word. There's an RSS Feed for this page, too (check out the sidebar on the right) so you can add it a blog reader if you like.

Next there's a list of textile and fibre arts groups and guilds. Some of these are formal organizations (some are even registered with the province - how posh is that?) and others are informal groups who get together on a regular or semi-regular basis. This is where to look to get in touch with people in your region with similar interests. Got a knitting club? A spinning group? A weavers' guild? List it here and let folks know how to reach you, or just stand up and be counted. For good measure, I've included some farther flung guilds as well - national and international organizations that you might want to join even if you can't ever get to a meeting. Many of these organizations offer lending libraries, long distance learning opportunities, or regular conferences. Good stuff!

In addition to the list of guilds or groups, there's room on this site for a group to create its own micro site. These micro sites can have announcement pages of their own, member contact lists, guild libraries and more. They can be password protected so that only members of your own guild can access them, or you can choose to make part of the micro site private and other parts public. For instance, the Sydney Weavers' Guild micro site has its guild library list visible to the public but the rest of its pages are not. If you'd like me to add a micro site for your own fibre or textile arts group or guild, drop me a line. 

Next up is a page of Links: the typical online resources you'll find on many other websites (but gathered into one convenient location for those of us who aren't exactly monogamous in our fibre pursuits), followed by things more focused on the local community: local blogs, local fibre artists' personal sites, local suppliers, local organizations that support fibre arts and craft in general, etc. As always, you can add to these lists by using the form or sending me email.

And finally (phew! finally!) there's a page of classified ads. Selling a loom? Looking for a used wheel? Offering a class? Need a roommate at a conference or someone to carpool with to a big sale? You know the drill: email or form and Bob's your uncle.

I have more ideas for down the road*** but this? This is enough for now. This I'm happy with. Still, if you have any ideas for other things I can add to the site, please let me know!  (There's no form for that one. You can just send email.)


Thanks for visiting and be sure to sign up for the RSS feed so that you get a notice of future announcements!

- Janet


* That's supposed to sound like Frankenstein, but you got that, right? Of course you did.

** 10 years, if anyone's been keeping track. That's actually kind of embarrassing. Oh well, the idea's got LEGS, and now its time has come!

 *** Micro sites for individuals, calendars sorted by event type and/or group, photo galleries of work, a registry of fibre folks, and oh, so much more!