This year’s LA County Fair was themed “Art Unleashed.” Several fiber and textiles activities showcased intersections between fashion and agriculture during May 2025. A hand-woven community-based textile was created based on the leadership of apparel student Angela Becerril. The textile was exhibited at the annual Home Arts exhibit and showcased a variety of students’ hand-spinning…
Tag: local resources
Engaging in Fiber Arts: U.S. Wool Spinning & Weaving
By Isabella Andrade, Apparel Merchandising and Management Undergraduate Student and Research Assistant Working with Wool Fibers For the past year of my undergraduate college experience, I had the opportunity to work with different types of wool materials from U.S. sheep farms as part of Cal Poly Pomona’s USDA Education research project. My first task as…
Exploring Wildlife Habitat and Family-Friendly Activities at Sarvodaya Farms
This past week, I visited the CA Native Garden Grand Opening at Sarvodaya Farms in Pomona CA. It was interesting to see it is certified as a wildlife habitat for “its commitment to sustainability” providing vital elements to the habitat, including “food, water, cover and places to raise young.” Activities In this context, there was…
US Wool Outreach with Yarn Spinning & Textile Weaving
By Sharon Jane Wong, Apparel Merchandising and Management Undergraduate Student and Research Assistant At this year’s LA County Fair – Cal Poly Pomona faculty and students gathered to demonstrate as part of the annual fair’s Schools’ Agriculture and Nutrition Program exhibit through Cal Poly Pomona Agriscapes. I had the opportunity to work as an Undergraduate…
Sharing Wool Research @ the International Textile & Apparel Association Conference
By Malia Chang, Apparel Merchandising & Management Undergraduate student Towards the end of October, I had the opportunity as a Student Research Assistant to attend the International Textile and Apparel Association 2022 Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. I was able to attend several sessions that were offered at the conference. Throughout the conference, many gathered…
Community Outreach with US Wool, Textiles & Demonstrations
During the last week of the LA County Fair in May, I shared US wool research project activities along with my Apparel Research Assistant and recent Cal Poly Pomona alumni, Katia Quiroz. Katia was in my AMM 4630: Apparel Research project course in Fall 2021. Student projects focused on exploring US sheep and wool farms…
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…
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,…
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…
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,…
New York Fiber Podcasts
I’m going to post podcasts that focus on the New York fiber community here. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting several of the interviewees throughout my time in New York, so I’m really excited to share these! I’ll update this post as I find more, or if anyone knows of any others let me know!!! WAMC Northeast Public…
HELEN TREJO 