Weeding and Weaving in Everett Crowley Park
With the generous support of the Neighbourhood Small Grant, we successfully hosted “Weeding and Weaving in Everett Crowley Park”.
This event provided the community with an opportunity to learn more about Everett Crowley Park in the southeast corner of the City of Vancouver and help with stewardship efforts to remove foreign invaders so that the park can be restored to a more natural state.
The event was a partnership between Joe Boyd, a local weaver, and the Everett Crowley Park Committee, park stewards, who provided organization and equipment needed for the stewardship.
The foreign invader for this event was invasive English ivy, which has taken over areas of the park. After removing the ivy, community members learned how to process it, removing leaves and roots, dispose of/recycle/compost it safely, and weave it into baskets of various shapes and sizes.
After finding a suitable patch of ivy for weaving, participants started weeding, pulling out a large amount of ivy. A competition of sorts arose to see who could pull the longest strand of ivy – 10m! – and one participant was able to make their basket from a single core piece of ivy that had a number of branches.
Once we had enough ivy processed to weave, participants were taught how to weave using the twining method, an over/under or twist of weavers around a frame of six larger ivy frame stakes. Examples of ivy baskets were provided to provide inspiration to participants, and key skills demonstrated – starting the basket, feeding in new weavers, curving the sides, and ways to finish the basket. Natural materials like ivy have their own ways, and participants were encouraged to let their imagination and creativity go wild. All the baskets were different, and all were good.
This part of the workshop provided great community engagement, with hands-on assistance provided to the weavers, people helping each other, and complimenting each other on their weaving. Refreshments supported by the NSG funding were also available, which really helped the atmosphere and kept people going with their weaving. Stories of the park and community were also shared.
The workshop concluded with a basket show! Some amazing baskets were woven, new friends were made, and everyone learned something … about stewardship and ivy, about weaving of various types – participants shared stories of weaving in their cultures – and about the community.
