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Coming Soon

We create unique indigenous fusion handmade knitwear and sell environmentally conscious yarn. We will deliver knitting and other fibre arts workshops.

Modern

Indegenous wool arts
Salish Fusion

Salish Fusion Knitwear is an Olsen family business. We are based in the W̱SÁNEĆ territory in Brentwood Bay, BC. Owner, Joni Olsen, is from W̱JOȽEȽP, she is of Coast Salish and European descent and is a 4th generation Coast Salish knitter. Continuing in the steps of those before us who innovated to preserve our wool-working culture, Salish Fusion honours the historical and unique original design. In the spirit of our grandmother Laura Olsen and in her words we “like to try new things—to do things differently.” Fusion is our aesthetic. We work and create in a place where people, ideas and the imagination come together in an impermanent and often imperfect space—the space where beauty emerges.

Salish Fusion in-house products have a felted finish, felting turns casual knitwear into fashion, ancient geometric design into graphic design and knitting into textile art. The wool we use is 100% Canadian and is natural in its form and colour. Our finished woolwork products are one of a kind, each Salish Fusion item has its own unique identity—inconsistency is part of their charm.

Salish Fusion also provides a platform for other Coast Salish artists, all other work that we offer is created by Vancouver Island artists who are highly valued, fairly paid and profit from their work.

GEOMETRICS

The Essential Fusion

Salish Fusion uses a variety of motifs, some of which were traditionally used by Coast Salish knitters and basket weavers and some we create ourselves. Geometric motifs can be found throughout the world and across history from ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, to the Vikings in northern Europe, to the Incas in South America. At Salish Fusion we believe geometric designs are part of a universal language, loved by all for their gentle persuasion through soothing predictable and repetitive shapes that have no beginning and no end.

Yarn

Environmentally
Conscious

The wool we use is from Custom Woolen Mills in Carstairs, Alberta. Using early 20th century industrial revolution machinery they produce quality yarns made from wool they source from Western Canadian farmers. They complete each step of processing right at the mill, from sorting and washing to spinning the wool into various weights.

Salish Fusion products lean heavily on natural sheep shade. At times our designs are highlighted with Custom Mills’ chemically dyed yarns, but when we can we use their Field & Forage Yarn—a yarn line dyed with raw plant material grown or gathered at the mill and surrounding area.

Being

Blogging
Books

Sylvia Olsen, Joni’s mother, and the other half of Salish Fusion, is of British and German descent. She lived in W̱JOȽEȽP for more than 30 years. Already a knitter and designer she continued to make wool and knit with her beloved mother-in-law, Laura Olsen. The Olsen family also operated Mt. Newton Indian Sweaters for many years where they bought, sold, repaired and zippered Cowichan sweaters. Sylvia is a writer and storyteller and often finds herself writing about knitting, knitting things to write about and, in the process, uncovering some of the mysteries of being.