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Weaving Cultural Identities: Conversations between Now and Then
[For Paid Members] Amanda Wood takes us on a tour of the Weaving Cultural Identities exhibition featuring a collection of prayer rugs created through collaboration between textile artists and graphic designers.
An Introduction to Rug Hooking, by Prairie Alphabet Artist Shelly Nicolle-Phillips
[For studio members] An illustrated introductory tutorial on rug hooking, written by Prairie Alphabet artist Shelly Nicole-Phillips. Getting started with this creative and flexible craft is easy! You likely already have many of the necessary tools and materials around your home.
The Prairie Alphabet Project: A Window into the Grasslands Ecosystem
[For Paid Members] Sarah Thornton interviews rug hooker Shelly Nicolle Phillips about her Prairie Alphabet rug-hooking project that showcases one Canadian Prairie animal or plant for each letter of the alphabet.
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Weaving Cultural Identities: Conversations between Now and Then
Driving from Vancouver to the Museum of Surrey you get a sense of being in-between. The landscape changes from dense city to farmland as you drive over a bridge, through a tunnel, and under a river. At the museum, layers of belonging, displacement, diaspora, the land,...
An Introduction to Rug Hooking, by Prairie Alphabet Artist Shelly Nicolle-Phillips
Meet Shelly Nicolle-Phillips and see her fabulous Prairie Alphabet project here.Finding a way to simultaneously express your creativity and bring some peace and calm into your life sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? Well, I’m thrilled to introduce you to the...
The Prairie Alphabet Project: A Window into the Grasslands Ecosystem
When an artist conceives of a large body of work, it can be helpful to have a structure to constrain the project. A number, a list, or perhaps, the alphabet. Shelly Nicolle-Phillips’s Prairie Alphabet Project is tied closely to a place, and is in that way related to...
Fibre Characteristics Deep Dive: Cotton (plus Linen and Hemp)
Cotton is everywhere in our lives. In fact, the cotton research and promotion organization Cotton Incorporated calls it “the fabric of our lives.” We wear it, we sleep on it, we use it to dry our dishes. It’s everywhere in crafting, too. Weavers love cotton; there’s...
Canadian Comfort Quilts in World War II, Part Two
In Part One of this two-part interview, Joanna Dermenjian defined a Canadian wartime quilt, talked about the possible origins of Canadian relief quilting efforts, and described some of the quilts she’s encountered. Read Part One here. Nadine Flagel: I understand...
Fibre Characteristics Deep Dive: Luxury Fibres
When we think of “luxury” fibres, we tend to think of animal fibres that are not as readily available as wool or cotton. These fibres come from animals that are not farmed as widely as sheep and are sometime not farmed at all. It is their rarity and high price that...
Canadian Comfort Quilts in World War II, Part One
In Part One of this two-part interview, Joanna Dermenjian defines a Canadian wartime quilt, talks about the possible origins of Canadian relief quilting efforts, and describes some of the quilts she’s encountered. Nadine Flagel: How did you get into this research?...
Sock Mending: Replacing Heels and Toes on Gussetless Socks
This is Part One of a two-part series on replacing sock heels. See our previous three-part sock-mending series covering how to do Swiss darning, stocking darning and Scottish darning.One of the many benefits of knitting a toe-up sock, or any sock without a gusset, is...
A Tale of Small-Scale, Home-Grown, Hand-Spun Craft Linen
Six years ago, I launched my deep dive into growing flax and transforming it into linen cloth. Does that sound like magic? It sure does to me. My journey began when I inherited a spinning wheel and grotty wool fleece from my mother-in-law, Katie. To honour that...
Archive Deep-Dive: Things We’ve Learned About Wool
It's no secret that we're #TeamWool here at Digits & Threads (ok, more like #TeamNaturalFibres, but we sure do love wool). We love wool for its warming properties, for how easy it is to work with, and for what great fabrics it makes. And thanks to experts like...
Archive Deep-Dive: Craft Patterns
We are a community of makers, crafters and artists. Digits & Threads is not primarily a pattern-focused magazine, but craft patterns complement our articles and deep dives. Below are all the craft patterns we’ve ever published. If you aren't a Studio Member yet,...
Archive Deep-Dive: Artist Profiles
It's so inspiring to learn about fibre and textile artists' motivations and inspirations, to see how an individual's background leads them down a particular creative path and to have our eyes open by someone else's perspective. As part of our deep dive into our years'...