Great minds think alike (Melissa and Kirsten!).
\nYou all probably receive the Weaving Today e-newsletter but I thought I’d share it here as well:<\/p>\n
Who Says Weavers Can’t Buy Local?<\/p>\n
What’s in your \u201cfibershed?\u201d As appealing as a little building out back to store yarn sounds, I\u2019m talking about a different kind of fibershed.<\/p>\n
This word started popping up in online videos and blogs about a year ago as a result of Rebecca Burgess\u2019 self-imposed challenge to wear only clothing that had been created and sourced within 150 miles of her Northern California home. Rebecca\u2019s personal commitment\u2014which she chronicled eloquently online\u2014helped her identify farmers, spinners, knitters, dyers, weavers, clothing makers and a small mill located within her fibershed, all eager to help her complete her quest.<\/p>\n
Karen’s local alpaca (front right)
\nready and waiting to be woven into
\nsomething wonderful.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, back in Asheville, North Carolina, at about the same time, a small group of local weavers, spinners, knitters, dyers, fiber farmers and small-mill owners began meeting periodically to share ideas. At first we weren\u2019t quite sure why we kept coming together, but the participants were engaging, the conversation was interesting and we always seemed to find a reason to come back the next month.<\/p>\n
Along the way we came across Rebecca\u2019s fibershed story. Looking around the room at what each of us brought to the table, we realized we had a really good start on identifying our own fibershed. But what were we to do with this information?<\/p>\n
No one was ready to match Rebecca\u2019s \u201conly local clothing\u201d pledge. However, the textile artists in the room did start looking more closely at where we source our raw materials. Let\u2019s just say it was far from local. The alpaca and sheep farmers were thrilled at the prospect of a \u201cbuy local fiber\u201d campaign, but the weavers in the room were slow to come around. We like our imported, fine and highly processed silk, linen, cotton, lyocell, bamboo, merino and tussah. Thick, stretchy handspun wool and alpaca just weren\u2019t appealing.<\/p>\n
Au contraire, rebutted the fiber farmers. \u201cOur yarn processors can spin it any way you want it.\u201d \u201cFine and plied,\u201d we responded, fairly confident we wouldn\u2019t like it. Lo and behold, a few months later one farmer plunked a cone of fine, 2-ply, luscious alpaca yarn on the table in front of us. \u201cHow\u2019s this?\u201d she asked. \u201cIt\u2019ll do,\u201d we mumbled, trying to hide our drool. When she had to wrestle us to the ground to pry the sample out of our hands, she knew we were hooked.<\/p>\n
So we\u2019re going to give this fibershed thing a try. Turns out we also have a locally grown and processed cotton yarn and a buffalo ranch within a 100-mile radius of Asheville. A new yarn mill is in development just north of Asheville, and a small jacquard mill (see “The Oriole Mill,” Handwoven Sept.\/Oct. 2011) is just south of town. Haywood Community College\u2019s Professional Crafts-Fiber program is 30 minutes west, and the Penland, John C. Campbell and Arrowmont craft schools are all within a few hours\u2019 drive.<\/p>\n
Our group is working on our name, our mission statement, and our first show. It will be educational and promotional, showcasing the breadth of our regional fibershed and the depth of the textile art talent here.<\/p>\n
My personal challenge is to get that alpaca woven into something yummy by November. I\u2019ll bet I can find alpaca ideas in Handwoven\u2019s online directory, and if I need an issue that\u2019s not on my shelf or is out of print, there are always the CD collections.<\/p>\n
So take a look around your own fibershed. Start a conversation with a local fiber farmer, source some local yarn and discover an exciting way to weave it. It worked for local food!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Great minds think alike (Melissa and Kirsten!). You all probably receive the Weaving Today e-newsletter but I thought I’d share it here as well: Who Says Weavers Can’t Buy Local? What’s in your \u201cfibershed?\u201d As appealing as a little building…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobohandweavers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}