Thank you to everyone who has taken time to respond to the New York Fiber Farm map survey. I received 70+ responses, and developed an initial map that is shown below. I will be adding more farms as I get more responses. Please feel free to click through. The map includes farm names, types of…
Tag: alpaca
Building a New York Fiber Farm Map & Database
I began to look for New York fiber farms online in 2013. In 5 years, my database has grown to over 470 sheep, alpaca, and goat farms, and I am sure there are many more. I looked at several mapping platforms to visually communicate my fiber farm research including ArcGIS, QGIS BatchGeo, CartoDB, Google Earth,…
New York Regional Yarn Sourcebook & Make it with Wool
Over the past few months, I worked with a team of designers, fiber scientists, and educators to develop a New York Regional Yarn Sourcebook to increase the visibility of diverse farms and stimulate greater interconnections between local farms and designers. The book features 17 sheep, alpaca, and goat farms that I’ve previously visited, and several…
Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta & Spinzilla
Over the weekend, we had the great opportunity to participate in the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta that formed to support the local fiber and arts community in San Diego. Me and my twin sister, Nidia, made our debut as Fiber Novation Loops, a farm-to-fashion social enterprise. We shared my NY fiber farm research, the New York Regional Yarn…
Hidden Alpaca & Sorting Fibers
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…
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…
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…
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…
Eucalyptus Experimentation with Wool, Alpaca, and Silk
I recently spun with Icelandic wool from Trinity Farm and Shetland wool from High Bid Farm. I spun these fibers during Spinzilla, which took place during October 5 to 11. Spinzilla promotes global hand-spinning to support the Needle Arts Mentoring Program and needle arts. In total, I spun 453 yards of slub yarn, including plying! 🙂 After spinning, I…
Part III: New York Fiberscape Dress Almost Complete!
I previously wrote about my spinning and knitting processes with fibers sourced from the Washington County Fiber Tour. I am happy to say that it is 99% complete! The dress fits my twin sister comfortably. I was worried that it would be too large since my knitting gauge varied based on the yarn. In total…
Season for Fibers – Fingerlakes Fiber Festival!
The Fingerlakes Fiber Festival was my first festival of the fiber season. I got to see a lot of familiar faces and I stocked up on a variety of wools from unique sheep breeds including Hog Island Sheep, Icelandic Sheep, and Blue Face Leicester Sheep. Thanks Fingerlakes Woolen Mill, Trinity Farm, and High Bid Farm! I am…
Part II: New York Fiberscape Clothing & Textiles
An update about the NY Fiberscape Dress that I wrote about earlier in the summer. I knitted some swatches with stockinette and cable stitches to figure out the knitting gauge. I liked how they both turned out, so I decided to make the dress in stockinette stitches, and create the cables in a knitted cowl made of…
HELEN TREJO 