PREVIEW
Fibrations
When: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: St. Ann's Academy orchard
Admission: Free
It's hard to say what makes Vancouver Islanders so nutty for knitting that organizers of a fibre-arts festival had to impose a cap on participants this year because there were too many interested parties.
"Maybe it's just the West Coast mentality," said Ryan Davis, one of Fibrations' organizers. "Making things by hand is an important part of our culture."
While last year's inaugural event hosted about 35 vendors, interest nearly doubled this year and forced organizers to set a cap at 50. Visitors can check out knitting patterns by Jane Richmond Designs of Saltspring Island, 100-mile socks and felted soap from the Comox Valley's Morrison Creek Alpacas, items knit from dog-and cat-hair yarns by Entwined, Peruvian hand-woven items by the Q'ente Textile Revitalization Society and more.
Checking out the goods and demonstrations by knitters, spinners, weavers, felters and the like is free on Sunday at St. Ann's Academy Orchard.
Davis, who co-owns Fairfield fibre-arts store Knotty by Nature with wife Stephanie Papik, said they created Fibrations with a group of like-minded artists to fill a void left by the defunct Victoria Fibre Festival.
"It was on very short notice, but we just made some calls and a dozen people came out of the woodwork to put together the festival," he said. "And it was hugely successful."
At least 1,000 people attended, he said.
Fibrations differs from the Victoria Fibre Festival in a few ways - most notably in its funding structure.
"We wanted to involve all the small artisans," said Davis. "We wanted to make it accessible to them, because from our own experience, these markets can be hard to enter," he said.
Many craft markets require $100 or $200 in participation fees. Instead, Fibrations participants donate a retail item valued at $35, which is entered into a toonie auction: Customers purchase tickets, drop them in containers beside each item and winners of the items are determined by draw. "We more than covered our costs and had a bit of extra money going into this year," Davis said.
Fibrations is also cooperatively run by several artists.
Apart from the toonie auction and dedication to inclusivity, pretty much anything is open for discussion.
"It's very much a community-run event," he said. "Anyone can come to our meetings and give their input on the direction of the festival."
In addition to more vendors, this year's Fibrations will feature expanded demonstrations and kidfriendly events. Demos include willow-weaving, making designer yarn from fabric, finger weaving, nuno felting, needle felting, Scandinavian rep weaving, silk fusion, rug hooking and a talk on the history of growing flax to make linen.
