The Adventure Begins

Take an obsessive knitter, add a geologist and award winning artist living in a spectacular area and what do you get? Seawall Fibres- amazing, luxurious hand dyed fibres reflecting the   beautiful setting of The Seawall on Digby Neck in Nova Scotia.

Digby Neck is a spectacular slip of nature perched precariously between the rugged waters of the Bay of Fundy and historic St. Mary’s Bay- waters whose colours are constantly changing and whose world famous 20+ foot tides dramatically resculpt the landscape twice daily.

The imposing Seawall towers over all, standing as a silent sentinel to days long past, simpler times when local wool was spun and hand dyed. Her deep red sandstone contrasts with the grey basalt massifs and treasures of amethyst, jasper and multicoloured agates found in the sand and driftwood of the beach below.

This is the inspiration for Seawall Fibres- unique, hand dyed yarns reflecting the enchanting beauty of natural Nova Scotia.

It starts with the obsessive knitter, Lisa Pakosh. She decided that to get the interesting (or sometime totally crazy!) colours  she wanted to knit with she was going to dye her own.  So she embarked on a wonderful journey of discovery, learning to dye yarn, starting with food colouring and yarn she had around the house and graduating to acid dyes with beautiful yarn bases.  She had so much fun, coming up with interesting colourways that were so scrumptious  she couldn't stop squishing and cuddling the skeins. 

Move on to the artist.  Lisa's mom, Vickie Turner, was the one who initially taught Lisa how to knit years ago.  She had taken a hiatus from the needles but got sucked back in when she saw the beautiful yarn palettes available today that her daughter kept waving in her face.  What artist can not get lost in the vast ocean of colour in a well stocked yarn store or stash!  So she started again, dragging out old projects and getting hooked all over again.  But she too wanted specific colours that she wasn't always able to find.

Now the geologist. Lisa’s dad, Peter started to find beautiful agates and amethyst near his home and decided to become a lapidary- turning rocks into beautiful specimens and jewelry. One day he issued Lisa a challenge- produce fibres that captured the beauty of the rocks he was finding. The rock he had in mind was rare, Golden Flame Agate found only in a few spots. Having visited the area a year previous, Lisa decided to go one better. She would produce colours that reflected not only the beautiful rocks but also the spectacular natural beauty of the Seawall area.

And so Seawall Fibres was born. Each colour is named after a specific mineral or natural material found in the area. It has been a long journey and it isn’t over yet! After a lot of trial and error, we have a line that we are proud to offer to the world of knitters.

We hope you will follow us as we continue on this journey.  Lots of exciting things are in store......starting with the grand opening of our etsy store in a couple of weeks and an amazing contest to get everyone involved!  Right now Seawall Fibres is exclusively available at The Artist's Mark Shop on Digby Neck so if you are in the area please take a moment and drop in. We promise you will enjoy it!  And while you are fondling all of the squishy yummy goodness that is the yarn, Peter promises to commiserate with your husbands and non knitting friends and will keep them entertained!

Hopefully, you will be able to experience this unique part of the world for yourself but if not, our yarns will enable you to enjoy its beauty.

We are including a hot link to the blog for the Artist’s Mark Shop and we encourage you to take a few minutes and check it out. You will see our product on display and it may just trigger your next vacation.