Now that the snow is gone and it is shearing season, I started to sort fibers as part of my fiber apprenticeship in a path to become a Master fiber sorter, grader, and classer. I have collaborated with Carol Haff of Hidden Alpaca Farm to sort and grade her alpaca’s fleeces. Her farm is in…
Alpaca Shearing Day
Shearing day is a fiber filled day of excitement! I volunteered to help during the annual shearing day at Under the Moonlite Alpaca and Garlic Ranch in Ulster Pennsylvania to have experiences sorting during a live shearing. The PA farm is about 1.5 hour south of Ithaca and is nestled in between rolling hills just like many NY fiber farms. The…
Green Eileen Take Back Program & Higher Ed
Watching sustainable fashion and textile initiatives emerge to address pre- and post-consumer waste issues provides hope that closed-loop, zero-waste fashion will be the norm in the future. Over the past few months, I have been able to learn more about the Green Eileen take back program, a recycled clothing intiative of the sustainable women’s wear brand…
Yarn Love Challenge
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…
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…
Exploring Alpaca Fiber Quality
Last month I had the great opportunity to volunteer during the annual Alpaca Owner’s Association National Fleece Conference in Arlington Virginia. On Day 1 I took the Basic Fiber Sorting & Grading Class with Wini Labrecque of Star Weaver Farm and SWF Fiber Innovations. She has over 20 years of experience adding value to alpaca fibers with hand-spinning,…
Tour de Fleece 2016
This was my second year participating in the annual Tour de Fleece (July 2 to 24). As bicyclists in France spun their bicycle wheels, hand-spinners spun fibers on drop spindles, and spinning wheels throughout the world! It was all captured on Ravelry through various groups such as the ‘Rookies,’ ‘Sprinters,’ and ‘Climbers.’ There were also several independent…
Wool Dryer Balls
I recently experimented with making some wool dryer balls. A majority of the wool was wool that could have gone to waste, but that I used here. The interior shell is from meat breeds of sheep, and the exterior is extra wool that I had in my stash. It was fun to wrap the puffy wool…
New York Wool Socks!
My first One Year One Outfit pieces for 2016 are hand-knit socks! I’ve wanted to learn how to knit socks for several years, and am excited that I was finally able to take a sock knitting class using the Rose City Rollers pattern. I made several mistakes on my first set, but felt a lot more confident on my second set. It was…
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…
Exploring NY Wool Manuscripts
I’ve been looking at New York wool historical archives at the Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections at the Kroch Library in Cornell. I’m looking at historical documents when New York wool when it was at its peak in the 19th century. So far I’ve looked at the Simon Newton Dexter North Papers (1848-1924). He developed…
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…
HELEN TREJO 