March 2026

In this newsletter you’ll find (back to the regular program):

• Knit City Toronto

• Roncy Packs Collaboration

• Interwoven: Art and Ecology of the Island

On March 27-29, 2026, the knitting festival Knit City is returning to Toronto. I’ll be at the Irene Textiles booth on Saturday March 28th with Yde and her beautiful weaving yarns, looms, and textile supplies. Please come by and say hello if you are attending and stock up on weaving materials from Gist Yarn (like Beam and Sero), Fonty Merlin linen yarn, or this intriguing Mondofil Japanese paper yarn — I’m not sure what Yde is actually bringing, so if there’s anything you’d like, please email them in advance so they can pack accordingly or bring your order along.

My friends from Black Sheep Farm will also be there with beautiful Ontario wool for knitting and weaving. Brenda gave me some of the intriguing new yarn she’s just had spun from the Navajo Churro members of her flock. This unique 3-ply was made especially for rugs at Wave Fibre Mill, and comes in generous ~530g/1400yd cones! I’ve enjoyed having a little side-quest in the last week trying out this yarn; Brenda will have the samples I’ve made at her booth for you to feel starting Saturday, but cones can also be purchased online here.

For those who want to know the details or plan a project: I sampled this yarn as a rug weft (6 EPI using a doubled 2/12 linen warp), in plain weave (6 EPI) and in twill (8 EPI). I’m not sure which structure I liked best (rug weaving does not come naturally to me), but the yarn has a beautiful hand for something that looks so rustic.

The complete vendor list for Knit City can be found here; it’s being held at the Enercare Centre, an easy five minute walk from Exhibition Station. Please come and say hello!

While the regular parts of my newsletter have taken a rest for the past few months, there have been several small (and a few large) projects going on behind the scenes.

The one coming up the soonest is my next collaboration with Roncy Packs, a family-owned company in Toronto that makes cross-body bags and other accessories. A few years ago Le Ching, Lyli, and their mom turned the off-cuts and leftover fabric from Generation’s upholstery process in packs. The limited collection of twelve packs sold out in 24 hours (!!), a very exciting and humbling experience.

This spring, we’re making another set of packs from a new batch of hand woven fabric I’ve made especially for this collaboration. Like our previous collection, the packs will have my custom fabric on the face, with a recycled fabric lining and recycled leather back and sides.

Roncy Packs is still the same inspiring mother and daughter team that I worked with in 2023. They continue to make amazing bags and packs entirely out of recycled textiles that come to them as scraps and deadstock from local businesses and recycling partners or via clients who want to upcycle an old coat or bag. This month, they won a small business prize from Moneris; in this short video, Le Ching gives a great overview about how the company started and how they plan to continue.

The plan (I think!) is to debut these new packs at the spring One of a Kind Show, April 9-12, 2026, in Toronto. I’ll share more when I know, but just in case this newsletter doesn’t come out before the show, I recommend you follow Roncy Packs on Instagram if you’d like a pack.

In February I had the pleasure of being a visitor at an artist residency called Interwoven: Art and Ecology of the Island. Having so recently thought a great deal about my own experience at a residency, it was a huge treat to be a guest at another for a brief, but extraordinarily rich, day and a half.

Interwoven happened at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on the Toronto Islands, a unique chain of fifteen interconnected islands that sits a short ferry ride from downtown Toronto. What I’ve always liked about the island is the contrast between its proximity to the hustle and bustle of a major city and the peace and disconnection you feel when there — the ferry ride takes less than ten minutes, but it feels much, much farther away. The islands were originally known by their Indigenous name of Menecing/Mnisiing1, or “On the Island,” and are part of the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples.

I grew up in Toronto, and while I’ve visited the Island many times before, I’d never actually visited Gibraltar Point — which now seems like a real oversight! It’s a rambling old school building that has felt the hands of many artists since it was saved from demolition 25 years ago and turned into a dedicated arts centre by residents of the Toronto Islands.2

Interwoven was a thematic residency that brought together sixteen artists interested in exploring where place, ecology, and creative practice intersect. Guided by “principles of slowness, reciprocity, and attentiveness,”3 it was hosted by Deborah Dewbury and Sammy Tangir, and participating artists worked in many mediums: basketry, broom-making, crochet, cyanotypes, drawing, sewing and stitching, knotting, natural dyeing, paint-making and painting, spoon carving, and more.

The seeds of Interwoven were planted a few years ago when Deborah attended a residency lead by Métis artist Gordon Brochu-Ingram, who was looking for willow and dogwood weavers to gather and create a land-based installation at Gibraltar Point. In Deborah’s words, “Gordon spoke of the vital role red osier dogwood plays in the fragile ecosystem of Toronto Island — its roots securing the shoreline from erosion, forming what he described as an interwoven raft beneath the surface, holding the island together. A living basket. A woven foundation.”4

One mild Sunday, I got on the ferry and travelled across the bay among ice sheets and arctic ducks for the residency’s open house. In the warmth (both literal and figurative) of the event, I visited artists studios and explored the results of the group’s week together. And there was so much!

I am lucky enough to be a friend of the host, so I got to spend the night and really get a feel for how their week ebbed and flowed. There was a sunset beach walk (the rounded ice balls rolling in the waves were especially beautiful), went on a trip to the “store” (where the wild dogwood grows), chatted about natural dyes, and admired paints, brooms, birds, and wind socks.

I attended their closing circle and was touched by the outpouring of gratitude from the artists, who clearly connected very deeply during their week creating together. That’s not always a given at residencies; sometimes you’re alone, other times you luck the hell out like I did, but there’s always a risk in a large group that something won’t click. But the atmosphere at Interwoven was obviously very special, tangible even to a guest like myself, and I was grateful to get to experience it.

If art and ecology interest you, the hope is that there will be another iteration of Interwoven in late 2026 or beyond; please follow their Instagram account to see more from the participants and be alerted for future calls.

Upcoming on my calendar in April is Mass Exodus, TMU’s graduating exhibition. After three years teaching in the Fashion program I finally get to watch students I know and have taught walk their final collections down the runway or present their graduating projects in an exhibition I’ve been consulting with two past students on hand woven elements for their final collections and I am SO excited to see what they’ve made and sharing their work here.

See you in April,

Amanda