Sylvia Olsen – March 14th, 2023

SYLVIA OLSEN is a master storyteller, historian, knitter, designer, and award-winning, best-selling author. She spent seventeen years buying and selling Cowichan sweaters in a shop behind her home on the Tsartlip First Nation Reserve near Victoria, BC. Since then she has studied the history of the knitting tradition and how it fits into the broader scope of knitting traditions around the world. With her daughter, Joni, Sylvia works in Salish Fusion, the Olsen family business that creates knitted things. Sylvia’s latest book, “Unravelling Canada: A Knitting Odyssey“, tells the story, sometimes conflicted, sometimes celebratory, of her six week knitting tour across the country that examines the natural spaces and cultural geography of this great land through a knitting lens. In her presentation Sylvia will talk about the history of the Cowichan Sweater and the Coast Salish knitters, one of Canada’s most exceptional knitting stories.

Kirk Dunn – January 10th, 2023

Kirk is a fibre artist, performer and writer whose greatest love is knitting. He shares his love of colour and complex design with renowned designers Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably, and in 1998 apprenticed with both at the Kaffe Fassett Studio in London, England. In 2003, Kirk was awarded an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship for Stitched Glass, an installation of three 5.5’ x 9’ tapestries, hand-knit in the style of stained glass, exploring the commonalities and conflicts between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The installation took him fifteen years to complete. With the support of the Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council, Kirk and his wife, Claire Ross Dunn, co-wrote The Knitting Pilgrim, a one-hour performance to tour with Stitched Glass that explores Kirk’s artistic and spiritual journey creating the massive project.

Chris Liszak – December 13th, 2022

Chris Liszak has been using felt as a medium for creating wearables (coats, scarves, hats, mittens) and fine art (juried gallery exhibitions and curated artisan shows) since 2010. She teaches feltmaking at the Fibre Garden in Jordan Village, at her home studio and other venues upon request. Chris is the current president of felt::feutre canada, a nationwide association of feltmakers, and is a member of the International Feltmakers Association and Studio Art Quilt Associates. Her work through those organizations has been in many online and in person exhibitions.

Saltwater Knits – October 11th, 2022

Christine LeGrow was born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland. After a long career in retail she began Spindrift Handknits, a thriving cottage industry that creates local designs that are knit by Newfoundlanders.

Shirley Anne Scott, also known as “Shirl the Purl”, is a Come From Away who made her home in St. John’s in 2006. A librarian by profession, in 1989 she wrote Canada Knits, a history of Canadian knitting that opened many doors.

Both are lifelong knitters with a keen interest in the fascinating traditions of the wonderful place they live in. In the midst of busy lives they have co-written four popular books, Saltwater Mittens, Saltwater Classics, Saltwater Gifts and Saltwater Socks.

Sally Melville – September 13th, 2022

Until her move to Ottawa in 2008, Sally Melville lived in KW. While there and in the mid-80’s, she—with friends—established the KW KNITTERS’ GUILD. Sally taught regularly for the guild, but she also hired workshop leaders from around the world, and those teachers encouraged her to both travel to teach and to publish. And thus began an unplanned and unexpected career!