Earth Day

Today is the 50th celebration of Earth Day. It’s a reminder for all of us, every single one of us, that our job is to take care of the Earth, to keep it, conserve it, and steward it for future generations.

We only get one earth, and so many of the things I think about each day come back to it: Is this a sustainable action? Will this go on to stay in a landfill after I use it? What kind of world am I creating by purchasing this product, or choosing these materials to craft with, or picking this project? It’s all so important and complex and it can feel very overwhelming at times to think about being a maker, consumer, and person living on this earth and trying to keep it healthy.

One of my favorite things from the past few weeks of quarantine has been seeing how the earth is absolutely rebounding without the negative influence of human activity: smog is clearing in large cities, wildlife is returning to old habitats, waterways are no longer being actively polluted. This is all so good! While we need to be able to exist in the world, run businesses, interact with each other, and I, like so many, can’t wait for the world to continue to turn, there are lessons to be learned here, and I hope that many of us have the space here to reflect on those.

Fashion is a HUGE source of pollutants and carbon emissions globally, so when I take the time to knit a sweater or hat, sew a dress, or mend a pair of jeans, I am choosing sustainability, slow and mindful work, and to opt out of oppressive systems that affect people and the planet in ways we can’t begin to predict yet. There is so much hope in being able to make a choice for myself and for my family that is not only beneficial for us, but for our planet.

I have learned so much from other makers who are also working to make the world more beautiful with their creations and with the processes they use to create them. While choosing natural fibers over synthetics is a great way to make a more sustainable choice with crafting overall, here are a few of the companies and resources that I love who are doing wonderful work with crafts and sustainability.

• Brooklyn Tweed’s American grown yarns, particularly their breed specific collections
• Echoview Fiber Mill, who creates yarn and fiber from farms primarily in the Southeast and has the COOLEST recycled fiber yarn.
• A Verb For Keeping Warm’s podcast, highlighting their process of creating yarns and working with designers rooted in sustainability. Their yarns are also absolutely incredible.
• Mending resources by Katrina Rodabaugh to extend the life of our clothes and make our clothes into art
• Needles by Indian Lake Artisans (swoon).
• Natural Dyeing books: The Modern Natural Dyer, The Wild Dyer, and Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing are three of my favorites
• Quince and Company’s affordable American wool yarns, including mohair from Texas and their own “cleaner cotton”
• So many good posts by The Craft Sessions
• The work of building regenerative fiber systems across America through Fibershed and all of its affiliate groups
• Favorite fiber farms: Wing and a Prayer Farm, Sawkill Farm, Bovidae Farm, and Rising Meadow Farm
• An oldie, but a goodie: the Woolful podcast. Also love the Local Wool podcast these days.

Gosh, this doesn’t even scratch the surface. I’m sure I will come back and add additional info here in the future, but for today, I invite you to peruse these awesome businesses, authors, and farms, and to take JOY in the earth! When we live in harmony with the earth, there is so much joy to be found.

the year in yarn

All of these images can be found on my Instagram!

It seems like the MOST cliche thing you could possibly say in a year end wrap up post, but I can't believe 2015 is over. It went by SO fast, and yet at the same time I can't believe that I made some of these things this year, not last year. One of the most special things about all of the things that I've created this year, they fit so seamlessly into my life, so comfortably into my wardrobe, it feels like I've had them forever.

More than ever, I've fallen in love with fiber arts this year. I knit my first sweater, started spinning my own yarn, started my handmade business, and really engaged in my local and virtual fiber friends. I finally found a knitting group that I love! I travelled to Asheville (twice!), returned to Rhinebeck, and knit so many beautiful pieces. I checked off all of the things on my Knit Years Resolutions for this year, which feels so good!

I get a little teary with gratefulness writing all of this out. I can definitely be hard on myself, choosing to see all the ways that I need to improve and grow, and don't spend too much time celebrating all the wonderful things that happen. And these were just the fiber-related things! This year the hubs and I also moved to a house, celebrated our first year of marriage, took trips all over the Southeast & Mexico, started the last year of medical school, passed the final part of medical board exams, and adopted our two sweet kitties who we can't imagine life without. 

This week is still a vacation week for me (hallelujah), and I'm really focusing and challenging myself with some big goals for 2016. So check back for that before the week is through. My family were so incredibly generous with me this Christmas, and I can't wait to get back to our house and set up all of the improvements to my studio/guest room! 

I hope everyone who reads this little blog of mine has had a wonderful holiday, full of love and family and hope. I'm blessed that you choose to spend some of your time here. 

Slow Fashion October: You

Hey friends! This month, in addition to all of my normal postings, I'm going to be doing something a little bit different added to the mix. Karen Templer of Fringe Association had this great idea a couple of months ago to have a whole month dedicated to slow fashion - the idea that the clothes that we wear can be made intentionally, beautifully, ethically and sustainably. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably have picked up that this idea is one that really resonates with me (and you can read a much more eloquent explanation of this whole idea here.). 

So it's the first day of October (yay!) and so about once every week or so I'll be posting a new post around the general template that Karen has laid out.  This should be fun!

So, a little more background on me as a maker. I've been a crafty-type person pretty much my whole life, starting from a young age when my family would take extensive car trips across the country. My parents, desperate to entertain us four kids for several days in the car, equipped us with every sort of kit and activity you could imagine. For me, that meant everything from crochet to knitting with this strange round circular contraption, to needlepoint and cross stitch and latch-hooking and many others. My mother and I also used to sew clothes for my American girl dolls, and I got my first sewing machine when I was 13. Sewing kind of came in and out of my life through high school and out for a while in college, and I have just recently started sewing my own garments as well as a few random household objects. 

My knitting journey started in high school in Florida when a friend of mine in my IB program taught me how to knit. I loved it so much, I knit and eventually started to crochet all through high school and college. But it wasn't until I moved to North Carolina two and a half years ago that my fiber obsession really began and my queue of projects really developed into a full-blown lifestyle. In that time I was introduced to wool in all of its beauty, attended the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY (and am going back this year!) and started to learn about the process of making yarn. My eyes were opened to the environmental impacts that superwash yarns have, as well as the carbon footprint of most commercially made yarns traveling from South America, Australia, China and all over to get to my local craft store. This knowledge, paired with the gristly reality of dye houses and garment factories in Southeast Asia created a real conviction to change the way that I think about my wardrobe and my fiber pursuits, as well as a real love and passion for fibers that are not only beautiful and soft and strong, but are made locally and encourage a newly awakened fiber industry in the U.S. again. 

This month, my goals are less about making and more about being intentional about my current state and where I want to go. I am a big thrifter and lover of secondhand, and while wonderful, this has led me to a place in my wardrobe where I find myself looking into my closet and feeling like my style is all over the place. I would love to find some time to pare down, eliminate items I never wear and really think carefully about what I WANT to wear - and how to make that happen. Whether that be knitting, sewing, mending and altering, spinning yarn I want to knit with, or buying sustainably. I will likely also be knitting lots of bowties for my online shop and starting to knit Timberline for my husband's fall and winter wardrobe. 

So there you have it! If you have any goals or thoughts about Slow Fashion October I would love to hear them. October is already my favorite month and I'm so excited that this project is now a part of it!

natural dyes: mushrooms take 1

Last week I had an unexpected opportunity from a farm nearby, and I came to be the owner of some aged shitake mushrooms. They were past the point that they could be eaten, which would have definitely been my first choice (mushrooms forever), so I thought I'd finallytry my hand at some natural dyeing. Home they came and in the dye pot they went. 

I didn't use a mordant, but did soak the yarn (Moeke yarns Elena) in hot water before dropping in the dye pot. I boiled the mushrooms for about an hour and the water turned this really lovely mahogany color that the photographs didn't quite capture. I was so excited! I put the yarn in the pot at about 170 degrees for around 45 minutes, swirling occasionally, and then let the yarn sit in the pot overnight with the heat off and the lid on. 

My results were less than stellar, to be sure. The yarn basically didn't change color from its original shade, which was crazy with the water color being such a deep brown. It seemed like it had gone down a shade or so towards brown, but it turned out that was just the color change from the wool being wet. Ha! 

The next day I went to my public library and picked out about 6 books on natural dyeing, so I think my future attempts will go much better. This was just a shot-in-the-dark, I-randomly-decided-to-do-this sort of activity (and I have frozen some additional mushrooms to try again later), so I'm not too disappointed. Sometimes it's just fun to try new things and see where it will take you. 

Spinning in color

Continuing in my recent trend of working with LOTS of color this summer, I worked on a couple of spinning projects this past week that were filled with bright color changes, soft fiber, and all around just a great time. 

I first found Melissa of Hey Lady Hey months ago via the Woolful podcast (really, my source for every fiber goodness ever) and just made my first purchase this past week. I'm so sad it took me this long! The fiber pictured above is Targhee dyed in a colorway called "Flower Power". The picture doesn't totally portray its range of colors: pinks and orange and lots of green and blue. I used my drop spindle (my only spindle...so far) and plied together 2 oz each. My spindle was SO full towards the end, it kept breaking and I had to use a bit more twist just to keep it together! I'm really happy I didn't cave and spin two skeins, though, it is so big and squishy and feels like a real accomplishment! I measure about 8 WPI so an aran/bulky weight for sure, about 100 yards. 

My second project was a spontaneous decision coming off the high of finishing Flower Power - while it was drying I launched immediately into this project. The fiber here is BFL which Melissa kindly sent me because she knew I was practicing my drafting! She is the sweetest! Amazingly, despite the long staple length, this fiber was SO soft. Is there anything else you could want?? Every time I finished one of the little batts it felt like another mini project done - so fun! This was her "Hodgepodge Fiber Kit" which you can still find on her website, but I wouldn't wait! Her fiber is one of a kind and goes fast. 

This project was about 2 oz of fiber so I imagine it will be for something small, or as an accent to a bigger piece, and I spun it as a stand-alone single. I soaked it and attached a weight as it was drying to help set some of the extra twist I got in it, and am pretty happy with how I spun it!

One element I'm really still working on in my spinning is consistency. On some level, I love the charming thick and thin nature of handspun yarn, and my drafting is getting much more consistent, but I find that the longer I spin, the more the thickness of my singles increases as I go. I've been reading all sorts of spinning books recently and am hoping to pick up some tips on how to avoid this, any experience from readers would be much appreciated!

These are the only two projects in my Handspun section on Ravelry, but I have no doubt it's just going to grow from here. I've already ordered some new top - BFL and silk blend I am going to try to spin into some sock yarn - on request from a certain husband and crazy sock lover. ;)

Happy week!

Another sheep related post

source

Hi hello hey there. 

The closer that the holidays get the shorter the days seem. Does anyone else tend to feel that way? Lots of knitting in my life, not so much picture taking because the sun has been setting at 4:30 PM. Wut. 

Anyhoo, last night the hubs and I were hanging out, browsing iTunes U, which has lots of great resources for post-college individuals like myself, and found a course from the University of Glasgow about, wait for it - "Hand Knitted Textiles and Economies of Craft in Scotland". It includes lessons on the history of sheep farming in the highlands, Shetland wool production, Shetland lace and a few other topics on Shetland history, all which were recorded during a seminar in 2012 at the University of Glasgow. In addition to getting caught up on the newest Knit.fm and Woolful podcasts, my super nerdy side is very excited to dig into that resource. 

There were a few other courses I was looking at as well that were non-knitting related, but thought I would share that with the world in case anyone else was interested in learning more about Shetland's knitting and textile history. 

Hope your Wednesday is just wonderful!

Thoughts: being fiber-conscious

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately, to be sure, but on top of the projects I'm working on for Christmas (which is approaching much more swiftly than I'd like), I've also been doing a lot of research. Two weeks ago the first Woolful podcast came to be, and I was so excited to listen to it, and also so challenged. This happened again with the second podcast, and again as I read Ashley Yousling's post about superwash wool. 

I feel like there has been a pretty natural progression the more serious that I become about knitting and other fiber arts, that I just sort of naturally have started to gravitate towards more natural fibers & yarns, but all the research I've been doing has been bringing those feelings into much sharper focus. In Kylie Gusset's interview with Woolful, she talked a lot about her company, Tonofwool, but even moreso towards the end of her interview about the wool industry in general. That 80% of the merino wool in the world, regardless of where it is produced, is processed in China. That chemical dyes that are used to dye the yarn are often harmful to the environment and the people living in the communities where the factories reside. That superwash wool gets that way because the fibers are actually coated in plastic to resist felting in the wash. I realized that as far as sourcing goes for the wool that I knit with, I had very little idea about where it came from originally or how it was made.

As a knitter, my most important questions about the fibers I work with have been, "How does it feel?" and "what colors does it come in?" and "do I have enough of it to finish this shawl?". But with as with being a conscious consumer in all things, I'm trying to become more fiber-conscious about the fibers that I'm buying, and asking for this Christmas. 

Before I read the history of Brooklyn Tweed and how their two yarns came to be, I had no idea that finding wool that was sourced, dyed and processed all in America was so rare. Or even, finding wool and other fibers that are processed in their country of origin at all, or act transparently about where their fibers are processed at least. And I think at the end of the day, that's really what I want: transparency. I want to know that the money I'm spending on these fibers are going to companies that support sustainable practices for the environment, that treat their workers fairly, that treat the animals they come from with respect, and that strive to connect the consumer with their process as much as possible. 

This summer, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to my local farmer's market and discovered that a vendor there not only brought vegetables from her farm, but had brought wool yarn from sheep on her farm native to NC! I made a hat that week and it was one of my favorite projects to date. My most recent project was knit in O-Wool, a company that has a real commitment to organic and sustainable fiber processes. Every time I knit with these natural fibers, it's so rewarding. And as tempted as I might be by the acrylic blends that go on super sale this time of year, I'm trying to remember these projects as I shop, and how the money I spend on yarn sends a real message this holiday season about what I value as a consumer. 

I suppose I just needed to ramble about all this for a bit, and get my messy thoughts out of my head to process them in a way that makes sense. To get them out there. But I'd love to hear thoughts that others have about choosing the fibers they work with in their knitting, and what kinds of factors influence those decisions. 

Bye for now.