Touching my fibers for most, if not all of the year, led me to realize how much I really love fibers! The Yarn Love Challenge on Instagram has opened my eyes to a world of fellow fiber enthusiasts who also love their fibers! I wasn’t able to keep up and post every day in February, but here are my posts! Many of these can fall under multiple #yarnlovechallenge themes: #close-up #inprogress #whereicraft #community #progress #yarnlove #family #fiberfriends #throwback #selfie #library…
The process of following along on Instagram whether I posted or not led me to realize how much fibers are embedded in my everyday life. It ranges from physically touching fibers, reading about them, talking about them, and visiting fiber farms with cute angora goats, alpacas, or sheep. I realized the posts also carry the energy of many contributors to local fibers including fiber farmers, mills, festivals, and designers.
This includes Laughing Goat Fiber Farm (the first farm I visited in NY), Orchard View Lincoln Longwool Farm (with Emma who has a sheep breed that is currently threatened on the Livestock Conservancy list), Hudson Valley Sheep & Co (and their wondrous singles that I found at the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival), Ewe & Me Merinos (that I currently have on my needles). I am planning to make Laura Nelkin’s Skywalker shawl. I feel so lucky that she was at a Fiber Collective meeting in Ithaca, and gave me a recommendation of which shawl to try! I felt so inspired watching Victoria Hantout of Wooly Knit Things near the completion of her shawl during that meeting!
One of my greatest accomplishments in February was finishing an entirely Made in New York hand-spun and hand-knit hat. The fibers included mohair from the Laughing Goat Fiber Farm, and wool from a heritage breed of Hog Island Sheep from the Fingerlakes Woolen Mill. The pom pom is made with angora fibers from Fiber Kingdom, I got the yarn during the Washington County Fiber Tour. I mailed the hat to my boyfriend David in San Marcos CA and he has been wearing it through the surprisingly wet winter season in California. What a lucky hat to spend time in loving company on the east and west coast!
HELEN TREJO 