Arts & Culture

The Victoria and Albert Museum, the world’s leading museum of art and design, contains a sock from around the third century. Perhaps when future humans visit our planet from a distant galaxy, they will unearth a bicycle wrapped in woolen threads and, in this less-than-light speed mode of transport, discover a work of art.

Before Ryan Davis and his wife, Stephanie Papik, took on a fiber arts business in Victoria, BC, called Knotty by Nature, Davis worked as a courier. He always thought bikes were beautiful and started wrapping bikes in wool two years ago.

While the bike in his shop window is decorative, Davis’s wrapped bikes – he's completed three – are meant to stand up to West Coast weather, and he says wrapping does not affect the ride. He prefers the changing colors of Noro wool, but says that bikes can be wrapped in almost any kind of yarn.

“The average cost for wool and labor, which takes about 10 hours, is about $140. But I’d rather teach someone how to wrap,” says Davis. “Anybody can do it. The quickest way is to wind the wool around a bobbin and then wrap the bike.”

The shop carries these bobbins – used more often in weaving – as well as a type of spinning wheel used by Gandhi, and some unique consigned items.

It caters to spinners, weavers, felters and knitters; it hosts Friday night social events and educational classes; and brings in renowned weavers and knitters. While most of the knitters are women, there are a growing number of men who knit.

Tourists from all over the world come into the shop looking for something they can’t find back home, and Davis and his wife take pride in the fact that they are using local wool.

“Our business is local centric. There are so many experts in this part of the world where wool is concerned,” says Davis. “There are people here who know how to wash, card, spin and dye wool.”

While his days are spent managing the shop and trying to figure out how far to enter into the e-store business, he has added wool spinning to his love of cycle spinning, and is busy trying to discover new ways to dye wool for the customer who wants a unique look for an old ride.