In my continuing series about Fibershed, I talk with Roan Farnum about their creative journey and how Fibershed plays a role in those creative endeavors. It was fun to talk about how they are taking a raw fleece and developing it into a sweater.
You can listen to it here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts
If you would rather watch, click here to go to the video of our conversation.
to go to the video of our conversation.
Ellen is a vibrant member of the Chesapeake Fibershed so I thought it would be fun to talk about the Fibershed movement. We also get into the difficulties there are with getting local yarn and fabrics, simply because our infrastructure is gone. There are some new ideas out on the horizon, so there is lots to be hopeful about. We also talk about the status of our local wardrobes and what we are working on right now. You can listen to the podcast here or anywhere you listen to podcasts. If you would prefer to watch, you can find it here on my You Tube.
I’m answering the questions I had for my guests in upcoming episodes. I’ve been making since I was a kid. I was taught to embroider and sew clothing early on. It was a valued skill in my family. As a young adult I picked up needlepoint and even started to paint my own canvases. I was mesmerized by the wall of color in the needlepoint store. I learned to weave and dye and spin on my journey as well. And when I needed to have a smaller footprint in creative endeavors I went back to sewing and began to quilt. This has led me to wanting to creative more slow fashion for myself. But the reality of fast fashion and its environmental problems has made my goal of a local slow wardrobe more tangible and has become a passion project.
Listen here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Would you rather watch the powerpoint? You can see it here on You Tube.
I took a trip to the Carolinas last week. I was able to see how fleeces go to yarn and fabric in the large industrial process. It was fascinating, especially since I know all of those processes on my own small scale. You can listen to my podcast here or watch on You Tube here.
Season 4 Episode 10: This episode is all about the Fibershed movement. How it got started, what the mission is and how you can get involved. Links mentioned in the episode: Fibershed website, Fibershed Affiliate Zine, Chesapeake Fibershed Website, Weaving Voices Podcast. Go to the Podcast page for the links
In the new podcast episode, I teach you about how our clothing choices affect climate change around the world. Each time we purchase textiles that are made by big centralized industries in countries far, far away, that decision adds to the greenhouse gases that are responsible for climate change.
It’s not a coincidence that this month we have seen the hottest temperatures in our country for the longest period of time. We have more flooding and more severe storms. There are wild fires around the world as well.
We can make choices that will make a change for the better. Will it be easy? No! Will it be quick? No! But it will be something.
Listen to the podcast here. OR watch on Vimeo or You Tube
In this episode, Lisa discusses the human cost of fast fashion. There is a high price to be paid for cheap clothing and other textiles. It is paid by the garment workers who are paid by the piece but never reaching a living wage. It’s paid for by the dyers, farmers, spinners and weavers who don’t have access to health care for occupational injuries and illnesses. What can we do about it?
Listen to this episode here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. OR watch on Vimeo or YouTube. You will find a couple of simple ways to support the supply chain and those who work to make your clothing.
It’s so important to reduce the amount of textile waste is going into the global landfill. It is alarming to see the amount of textile garbage. It is a symptom of our rampant consumerism in the effort to have the trendiest clothing. However that clothing is out of fashion the next week or it is made so poorly that it doesn’t last but a few wearings.
Reducing out waste by being mindful is perhaps the easiest thing we can do as we switch to a more sustainable wardrobe. We can take better care of our clothes. We can reuse cloth that we no longer want to wear. I offer several ideas for recycling and upcycling your clothing. We can make artful mends on our favorite pair of soft worn jeans that we can’t bear to part with.
Listen here to the podcast. Of course there is a call to action as there is with each and every episode.
Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcast. Or if you would rather watch, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.
Season 4 Episode 6 is all about the Integrity Index developed by Greta Egan. This index is a smorgasbord of a sort. There are 16 factors that you can use to pick the most important values to you and build your mindful wardrobe with these in mind. It makes sense to use this kind of system as you change your wardrobe over to one that is more sustainable. Of course there is a call to action!!
The Tour starts on July 1st. That’s just 9 days away. What’s the Tour de Fleece? Well it is a spinners event that runs the duration of the Tour de France. It was born probably over 10 years ago. I know I’ve hosted teams for at least 7 or 8 of those years. The premise is that you spin everyday that they tour is on. On the rest days, you can take the day off. And when the bicylcists are in the mountains you have a challenge day. Your challenge can be learning a new technique or maybe you spinning longer and farther than your usual day. The point is to have a goal in mind for this time.
What I know for sure is that every year that I commit to this event, what I am really committing to is me time. By spinning every day, you are spending time practicing your skills. And each time that I finish the tour, I am a better spinner. My goal this year is to make friends with my e-spinner. I have a Heavenly Handspinning e-spinner and it has a different kind of tensioning system. And it is not working for me. I have to change my spinning technique in order to get the yarn that I want. I need to do some research and reading and maybe some YouTube watching. And then I need to practice. I am looking over my stash and most of that is what I have for sale in the shop. So in the next 9 days I will be picking some colors and fibers to use.
At this time I have 3 people on my team. If you would like to join the team, just reply or comment to this post. You should also join our facebook group here. We can post photos, ask questions and just be part of a community. Let me know your goal for the tour as well.