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…
Category: textile
The Many Lives of the Fashionable Pussyhat
When I first heard of the Pussyhat project in late 2016, I was excited to create for a cause as part of a global community empowerment initiative. I decided to create my Pussyhats with upcycled yarns-salvaged from an old sweater that sat in my closet for several years. I knew the sweater had a higher calling, and…
Fiber Quality for Scaled Production
I previously talked about my experience taking the Basic Fiber Sorting and Grading class. More recently, I took an adventure to SUNY Cobleskill to take the Advanced Fiber Sorting and Grading Class. It was great to be surrounded by people who love fibers as much as I do! I’m so happy that I received more exposure to…
Wool Womb
Wool has become a large part of my life lately with my constant hand-spinning, visits to farms, sheep gazing on social media, and pop ups of sheep in popular culture. More recently, I had the great pleasure of seeing an artistic piece full of wool fibers by Emelia Black. It is on display in the annual…
Volunteering at the Laughing Goat Open Farm Day
This Saturday was an Open Farm day at the Laughing Goat Fiber Farm. It’s an annual event that welcomes the public to see and learn about fiber animals such as angora goats, alpacas, and sheep. It was a great pleasure to attend the Open Farm day as a volunteer with my twin sister, Nidia. When we first got…
Who Grows our Clothes? Focus on Alpacas
A lot of people are asking “Who Made My Clothes?” based on the influence of Fashion Revolution. I am taking cue from Fibershed’s proposal of asking “Who Grew our Clothes?” This question draws attention to both the farmer and fiber producing animals. Since my focus is on animal fibers in New York, I’m asking “How are fiber animals being…
Celebration of Ag and #FashionRevolution
I am lucky to participate in a Sustainable Fashion exhibit in the Jill Stuart Gallery. It was coordinated by the College of Human Ecology Green Ambassadors at Cornell University. The Exhibit includes student, faculty, staff, and local community member contributions. Since my focus on Sustainable Fashion is the intersection of New York fibers and fashion design, I included my…
Fashion Revolution Week & Ag Arts
This week celebrates both Agriculture and Fashion Revolution in Ithaca. In honor of both, I am posting photos of the first hand-spun and hand-knit scarf I made from New York fibers. The scarf was a lifesaver during Winter, especially during the Arctic Blasts over the last 2 years. The last time I wore the scarf was in March,…
Honeycomb Knits with Alpaca Fibers
I’ve been spinning with alpaca fibers lately and I’m in love with all of the different color combination possibilities! I ordered 1 pound of brown and black alpaca roving from A+ Fiber Mill earlier this year. I’ve been spinning the fibers on my drop spindle, and am surprised that I spun all of the brown roving already! I…
Inspiration from Fibershed Wool & Fine Fiber Book
I recently borrowed the Fibershed Wool & Fine Fiber Book that presents a variety of fibers available in Northern California. There are several types of wool that highlight the unique sheep breeds in the region, such as California Red, Santa Cruz, Navajo-Churro, Merino, and Ouessant sheep to name a few. There are also suri and huacaya alpacas, angora goats,…
(dis)order with New York Fibers
This textile is made of a variety of animal fibers in New York. I was surprised by the variety that I ended up including such as wool, curly horse hair, alpaca, angora rabbit, and mohair. The fiber that I was most intrigued by was the curly horse hair, which I blended with mohair, and is integrated…
Fiber Concoction
I started to knit my mohair, wool, and curly horse hair yarn that I spun last summer during the Tour de Fleece. I’ve been waiting to use it, and thought it would be perfect as textile art that I can appreciate forever! I am very intrigued by the honeycomb design and made it a core part…
Part IV: New York Fiberscape Dress Complete!
The New York Fiberscape Dress is finally complete! This was my first time making a garment entirely out of my hand-spun yarns, and it took a lot of determination and patience. I was motivated to work on it even though it was very labor intensive (over 800 yards of yarn plus hand-knitting!) because I was able…
Honey Bees & Knitwear Design
Lately I’ve been very interested in learning more about honey bees. I was inspired after learning how to do the honeycomb diamond knitting pattern last December. These are some things I’ve learned so far… Their Lives Honeybees are very dependent on each other for survival in a matriarchal society led by the Queen Bee, who is the…
Natural Dye Exhibit
This Fall I took a Natural Dye special studies course led by Professor Denise Green in Fiber Science & Apparel Design at Cornell. Each week, students presented about different natural dyes including Japanese Indigo, Madder Root, Eucalyptus, Onion Skins, and Gypsywort. It was fun to see the variety of colors, and learn about their seasonality….
HELEN TREJO 