When the BC government announced they would be removing the PST exemption on yarn, thread, fabric, fibres and sewing patterns, we had a lot of discussion with fieldhouse participants, neighbours and others in the maker community from across BC. We decided to register our concerns about it with our MLA. In the case of the fieldhouse, that is Attorney General Niki Sharma. 
Together wth Paula Linder, owner of Baaad Anna's yarn shop, we organized a meeting at Sharma's constituency office to request her help in retaining the PST exemption. I met with Paula at her East Vancouver home and we strategized ahead of our meeting. We summed up our argument in four main points:

• Culture, Wellbeing and Community Connection: Community and culture are an essential service – not a frivolous escapism, not a distraction, but the centre of wellbeing;
• Small Business: Provides more than product, builds communities; this end-user tax will increase prices that will absolutely lead to less spending and the closure of local businesses;
• Social Good vs Social Harms: Not a market that will generate significant revenue, but will cause significant financial difficulties to those affected – women, makers, low-income people;
• Environment & Sustainability: Making and mending clothing contributes significantly to people taking care of their clothing and keeping items longer and out of landfills.

On the day of the meeting we convened ahead of time over coffee with two other community members, Kate (my Mom) and Laura, and discussed our plans. Sharing our message with our MLA felt constructive and uplifting. I encourage others to meet with their MLAs (on this or other issues)
If you, like us feel that we should be encouraging people who are making and mending clothing and other handcrafted items please sign this petition. 
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Baaad Anna's has a good blog post detailing our discussion.

Spring has come and we've put Winter Wool Buddies programming to bed until next Winter. One thing has come out of it though. Wednesday mornings have become A Thing - and will continue. How does a thing become "A Thing"? I guess people just show up. That's what's been happening here at the Fieldhouse since late January when I added a Wednesday morning to the monthly mix (a few weekend days and a few weekdays) - and people keep coming. So I keep putting it on the calendar. It's now called Makers Drop In and it's from 10am to 1pm every Wednesday.  I ask that people RSVP to let me know who's coming. Makers drop in when they want for as long as they want, bringing their own handwork projects like knitting, mending, embroidery, etc. AND/OR I have fieldhouse projects they can help with: Shade Umbrellas (crochet, patchwork, or painting acrylics on canvas); Baskets (let me know in advance so i can soak materials!) and of course Needle Felting is always an option. 
Now there are still other days on the calendar - and I invite people to get in touch and make maker dates with me outside of the posted schedule - but Wednesday mornings are taking on a life of their own.

Starting out with a pop-up card co-make I was inspired by Michele and the Lunar New Year - of the Fire Horse! - to make pop-up cards. Many thanks to Michele for her expertise and her excellent example (she makes hundreds of fun, positive pop-up cards which she gifts to seniors borrowing books from the VPL!).

Winter Wool Buddies in February saw a series of small gatherings and conversations that got me thinking about how I need to have "an Ask" - or something (or several things) to invite people to when we connect.
Specifically I'm thinking about neighbourhood-based organizing, starting from a common interest in art and craft.. I appreciate the good talks we've had this past month. I came away with was an over-arching metaphor of mending the world and our relationships as we also mend out material things. It's a reminder of the "ExperiMending" presentation I did a few years ago for the Museum of Anthropology.
My mending included my felted wool coat that I've been wearing for the past couple years - i removed the sleeves, over-dyed it and have begun adding needle-felted decoration to cover up the wear and tear.
Also my mom requested copies of the little mending zine that i originally created for Roedde House's family day a few years ago... and revisiting that sweet zine has reminded me of the power of care, repair and mending.

Thanks to a windfall of wool fibre and yarn from a friend, I opted to devote the Winter public programming at Adanac Park to the magical hair of the sheep. There's little that brings us back in touch with our human heritage than gathering together to make fibres into cloth. So far into January we've had a number of small gatherings with good company and conversation. Projects have ranged from learning knitting and weaving to freestyle stitchery, mending garments, spinning - and jazzing up a winter jacket with needle-felted flowers. We've also had some non-wool related activity - some pop-up card making  and some furniture repair projects - and I'll talk more about that in a later post. Winter wool buddies will run through March - so look at the events schedule and RSVP to come join in on a session. If you don't already have a project to work on I can help get you started on something - did I mention we have a lot of wool? 

This December was all about keeping a regular rhythm of events and locking in the coziness with the addition of a few new decorated lanterns, a refinished table and learning how to make chai. This December we made wool felt ornaments; wet-felted cowls; bean bags; Solstice lanterns; decorative paper garlands; a laptop case, plus mended some clothing items and made a few nametags.
We're also looking toward January programming when we'll be focussing on wool - spinning, dying, weaving, felting - and discussing the Canadian wool industry and secondary use of local wool. Tentatively titled "Winter Wool Buddies" we anticipate quality making time in the studio producing wooly wonders with friends.
If you'd like to come work on some woolens - please reach out via the contact form on this website. We'd love to see you!

Programming from September through November I chose a weekly repeating event (Felting Fun Tuesdays) - to have a familiar rhythm - and scheduled a handful of "Marathon" weekend events - where we'd focus all day on a particular activity and people could drop in and take part. All of this is experimental: trying things to see what people respond to, what works well in the Fieldhouse - and what we want to do ore of in the future. I chose the "All Day" approach because that's how I like to work: to be immersed and let my mind and creativity play in a certain mode without interruption and transitioning into other things.
During this time we tried Braiding and Weaving, Hand Lettering, Repairing Woven/Caned Chairs, Lantern Making, and Sewing. I've learned a few things that I'll tweak in future and along the way it's been great meeting more folks and getting to know each other better.

Felting fun Tuesdays continued through October & November, keeping a regular rhythm of weekly crafting sessions at the Fieldhouse. We have a few regulars who have come back again and always a few new people as well. In December our regular Tuesday night will be a more open "Crafting Jam" where people can work on whatever they like. Felting will always be available as an option!

Picking up on our "Tradition in the Making" - I hosted three Souper Sundays: Sept 14 & 21 and October 5.
September 14 - the soup was a simple brown lentil vegetarian soup. Lindsey dropped in and worked on drawings for a contribution she was making to a collaborative chicken trading card series. 
Lentil & Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:

September 21 - the soup was a tomato red thai curry lentil soup with roasted carrot and red pepper (so zingy!) accompanied by garlic sourdough toast - Aleksandra brought her kids Alexander and Tatianna and she crafted a cute big-eyed creature out of some of my handmade felt.
Zingy Tomato Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients:

October 5 - the soup was Coconut Kabocha Miso Corn Chowder - a very experimental soup - based on "use what you've got" principle. Jason joined me and brought some mending - learining how to darn the worn out heels of his thick wool work socks.
Ingredients:
Coconut Kabocha Miso Corn Chowder
Ingredients:

Throughout September we had a series called Felting Fun Tuesdays which happened mostly in the Adanac Park Community Garden. It was promoted through the Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood facebook group and through this website, word of mouth. We had about a dozen participants per evening, mostly parents and kids.