Yetsa's Sweater and Chasing the Moon launched in Victoria

What a week we had! Seven wonderful days launching our two newest children's books at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, BC.
We began the week by launching Yetsa' Sweater on Thursday night. The gallery looked spectacular with Joan Larson's beautiful artwork for the book hanging on two walls; a third wall held some of her latest equestrian artwork, for which she is best known for. Nikki Tate's very talented daughter, Dani, put together an informative display about Cowichan knitting in one of the large display cases, and we had the NFB documentary, The Story of Coast Salish Knitters (based on Sylvia's thesis) playing beside it. The real Yetsa, who is Sylvia's adorable granddaughter, was there along with Joni, Sylvia's eldest daughter (and Yetsa's aunt); they were the models Joan Larson used to pose as Yetsa and her mother. May Sam, who posed as the grandmother, was also there; she showed us how to spin wool and make pompoms for Cowichan sweaters. She was a huge hit!

Sylvia Olsen, May Sam, Joan Larson and Yetsa:

Group hug!

On Friday school groups visited; one class had a 45 minute session with Penny Chamberlain (Chasing the Moon)

while the other had a session with Sylvia Olsen, Joan Larson and May. Then they swapped. A two for one deal!

Everyone got a kick out of Sylvia showing how cool we thought we looked in our Cowichan Sweaters and hats back in the 70s!

On Saturday we had an open house for the public. May was the main attraction.

On Sunday we launched Penny Chamberlain's, Chasing the Moon:

The Maritime Museum put up a great display on rum-running:

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday school groups visited for sessions with the authors in the mornings and afternoons. I think we had over 750 children visit. Whew!
Many, many thanks to Nikki Tate and her ever-so-helpful daughter Dani for the countless (unpaid) hours they put in helping me put on this huge event and for the (usual) incredible job performed by Nikki contacting and scheduling all the school visits and keeping us all on schedule.
And also a big thank you to Sylvia Olsen, Penny Chamberlain, Joan Larson and May Sam; you are all exceptionally talented women and it was an honour to work with such remarkable women!
Nikki Tate manning our busy sales table: