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,…
Tag: emotionally durable design
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…
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…
Spindles & 3-D Printing!
ATTEMPT 1: I began to learn about 3-D printing recently. My main motivation is to try to print my own drop spindle. I love my wooden spindles, but ran into an issue of breaking one this summer. I had to pause my spinning for a while until I got hold of a new spindle at the…
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…
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…
Tour De Fleece 2015
Over the past month, I’ve been spinning along with the #spindlers Ravelry group during the Tour de Fleece (July 4 to July 26). The Tour de Fleece is a nod to the bicyclists in the Tour de France. As they spun their bicycle wheels, fiber spinners around the world spun their wheels, or spindles. It was…
Part I: New York Fiberscape Dress
Over the past few weeks I have been hand-spinning with fibers collected during the Washington County Fiber Tour, and fibers in my stash. In total I spun 449 yards of yarn. My goal is to create enough hand-spun yarns for a New York Fiberscape Dress. The Dress is meant to draw attention to the variety of natural…
Fibers for “Solace”
This fiber flag was made to contribute to India Flint’s open “Solace” artistic project in response to the global and local distresses of the 21st century, including inequality and injustice. “Solace” provides everyone the opportunity to express what gives them comfort, or consolation. My “Clusters of Love” flag is made of local wool and mohair fibers….
Curves of Fibers ~ Half Scale Pre Pilot at Cornell University
Over the past few weeks I’ve participated in the Half Scale Pre-Pilot project that aims to stimulate design creativity through experimentation on a half-scale dress form. Working on a half-scale, rather than a full scale dress form reduces fabric usage in the mock-up stage, and speeds up production time with shorter seams. The Halfscale Forum for Creative Patternmaking is led by…
“Fibershed” as Social Entrepreneurship
“Social entrepreneurship” involves social change, continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning. The Northern California non-profit “Fibershed” embodies the definition of “social entrepreneurship.” Initially, the founder of Fibershed, Rebecca Burgess, collaborated with local fiber producers and artisans to make an “150-mile wardrobe.” The success of the “150-mile wardrobe” project steered the development of the non-profit Fibershed that promotes a local clothing and…
“Make it with Wool” & Repurposing Wool Remnants
Wool is attracting attention at local, regional, and national levels. In Fall 2014, the Fibershed Wool Symposium emphasized the value of wool from diverse breeds of sheep to highlight the rich landscape of fiber resources at the regional level in Northern California. In January 2015, the American Sheep Industry hosted their annual convention, and the “Make it With Wool” national…
HELEN TREJO 