Button Make and Take Class at A Twist of Yarn

We had a full class last Saturday morning that was held at A Twist of Yarn in Vernon. The ladies all had fun making textured buttons in the jewel tone colors using mica powders.  We have been using the Sculpey Souffle clay for these workshops as we have found it to be the best clay suited for this technique and is soft enough where you do not need a pasta machine and can roll it by hand.  We provide all the materials and supplies for these classes and the ladies just come and have fun.

A Twist of Yarn is located in a vintage Heritage home that has been beautifully restored inside and out.  They have several rooms upstairs for gatherings and classes which worked out really well.

The ladies enjoyed the class so much they asked us to do our beginner workshop so they can learn more.  Hopefully we have more potential members for our Okanagan Polymer Clay Guild as well.

We are taking a break from our classes for the next couple of months as the winter climate settles in but already booking for next year.  If you are in the area and interested in any of these classes, you can keep up to date by checking our Events page on our website or contact us so we can add your name to our list for sign-ups.

Button Make & Take Classes

We just finished our Button "Make & Take" class at Lynden Tree Yarns in Grande Forks, BC.  The ladies made some really beautiful buttons for their knitting or quilting projects.  Some even made a pendant or two as well.  It was nice to be able to visit Lynn's lovely store again before the snow flies as the roads through the mountains in the winter time are not the best for travelling on.  We plan to go back again in the spring and will hold another class or two then.

We are holding another Button making class this Saturday, November 14, but this time at A Twist of Yarn in Vernon.  The class is from 10:00 to 1:30 and you can contact them direct if you are interested and to see if there is still a space available.

Follow up on Fibre Festival in Vernon

We had a great time at the Fibre Festival put on by A Twist of Yarn in Vernon, BC last Saturday.  There was all types of activities all day for the young and the old.  The day started with a sheep shearing demonstration by Phil, a professional sheep shearer.  Three sheep for shearing were provided by Homestead Hill Farm of Armstrong, BC.

 

This sheep (above) was pretty relaxed the whole time and was almost enjoying it.  We saw the harness there and I first thought it was for the sheep but later discovered from the demonstration, it was for the shearer for support for his back while working.  As he was carefully removing the layer of wool, it came off in one piece.  Here are the piles of wool from the 3 sheep that lost their winter coats.

And a happy one who was feeling much cooler afterwards!

A display was set up showing the various stages of preparing the wool to make it ready for spinning.

There were ladies spinning, weaving and knitting all day with plenty of chairs to take a break in the day and relax in the shade.

Front of heritage house which is now a quaint yarn shop.

This is Nikki from Nickelbee Art Studio and Supplies.  She gave an excellent demonstration on Nuno felting and acid dying of fibres and by the examples of her work, she has a real eye for color.

Nikki also did a kids felting workshop and some of the pieces they made were pretty impressive.

We brought along a selection of our latest work to show off and set up on the front porch.  We are just setting up here.

And here is everything finally in its place.  We wanted to show off our button and shawl pin selection as well as our popular scarf jewelry and interchangeable earring system.

 

I had the opportunity to do a flower and lady bug cane demonstration and share a bit on how our buttons are made.

All in all it was a fun day and a job well done Camella and Ryan of A Twist of Yarn!

Fibre Festival at A Twist of Yarn in Vernon, BC

We have been surrounding ourselves with flowers this week -- both in the garden outdoors and these new ones we have been making indoors.  These are our "Brilliant Blooms" shawl/hair sticks in our new display ready for the Fibre Festival in Vernon this Saturday, May 24th.

The Fibre Festival is put on by A Twist of Yarn and it should be a fun full day.  There is lots of activities and we are especially looking forward to see the sheep sheering and felting demos.

We will be there with our large selection of buttons, shawl pins and scarf jewelry and I will be demonstrating how we make our flowers and ladybugs.

A Twist of Yarn

Some of the stores that sell our products are not traditional stores at all.  One of them is an adorable yarn shop set in an historic heritage home in downtown Vernon, BC.  It has been lovingly restored by Camella and her family right down to the hardwood floors and stone fireplace.

Camella is a great knitter, but as you can tell from these photos, she also has a green thumb!

Besides carrying a variety of our buttons and shawl pins, A Twist of Yarn now carries a good selection of our hottest new innovation - scarf jewelry.

More Scarf Jewelry Delivered

With the BC Quilt show over with, I thought I was going to catch a little free time in between preparing for the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts coming up in July but I thought wrong.  I didn't mind really when one of the stores had called to tell us they were in need of more scarf jewelry and we had a few more stores waiting as well.  The scarf jewelry has been keeping us busier than ever which is a good thing.  Don't worry though -- I am still working on that tutorial -- it is just taking a little longer than planned.

So I am happy to announce that there is a nice supply of scarf necklaces now available at A Twist of Yarn in Vernon as well as at The Sewing Basket in Salmon Arm.  To see all of the stores that sell our scarf jewelry you can check them out on our website here.

New Stores

Dave and I are both relieved that the largest Christmas show (Kamloops Craft-a-Fair) of the year is now over and we only have two more smaller type shows left for the season.  We can now go back to focusing more of our time on servicing the yarn and quilt shoppes that sell our work.  This is even more important now that we have recently added two more shops to our wholesale list.

One of the stores is the Nee Nee Girl's Yarn Shop which is located in the General Store in the quaint little town of Falkland.  We pass through this town on a regular basis when traveling over to the central Okanagan area and sometimes enjoy stopping in at a local cafe for some tea and coffee or brunch.  We are excited that a good assortment of our buttons, shawl pins and other accessories are now available in this shop and we are looking forward to creating new ideas and pieces for Kelli, the owner.

The other store we have just added is a new yarn shop that just opened in Vernon called "A Twist of Yarn".
It is located in this beautifully restored vintage home just one block off the main highway.

The photo below shows one of the cozy rooms with a dining table and chairs for sitting at.  Our buttons and shawl pins are on the rack in front.  You can see the gorgeous hardwood floors throughout that have been all refinished.

This is Camella, the owner, standing in front of the beautifully restored fireplace and skeins of her own hand dyed yarn above.

One of the rooms is filled with an assortment of looms and spinning wheels.

A Twist of Yarn has only been open a few weeks but is already buzzing with lots of excited knitters in the area.  We wish Camella and her shop great success!