The Long Thread Podcast

At a time when many fiber arts stores are closing, Sara C. Bixler is bucking the trend. With degrees in both fine art and education, she had developed a studio practice as well as a teaching repertoire at the Pennsylvania weaving school where her father, Tom Knisely, had taught for decades. When that store closed, she decided to take the risk of opening a brand-new fiber arts center known as Red Stone Glen. It was an audacious project: the school and accompanying store occupy a rural campus in southeastern Pennsylvania, with space for several classes and even on-site lodging for students. Beginning a few years ago, the family took another step into the fiber arts when her husband, Dustin, acquired Bluster Bay Woodworking from its founders and began producing shuttles and other weaving tools “in the Glen,” too. She had support in her project from former students and from Tom, who was delighted to have a teaching home base again. Sara also loves opening her students' eyes to other weaving traditions, whether exploring weaving destinations overseas or preserving the legacy of American textile history in the National Museum of the American Coverlet, where she serves on the board of directors. Links Red Stone Glen (https://redstoneglen.com/) Triaxial weaving: Hex Weave & Mad Weave (https://red-stone-glen-fiber-arts-center.myshopify.com/products/hex-weave-mad-weave-an-introduction-to-triaxial-weaving?_pos=1&_sid=01e5449c8&_ss=r) by Elizabeth Harris and Charlene St. John National Museum of the American Coverlet (https://www.coverletmuseum.org/) Sara's videos on Boutenné (https://learn.longthreadmedia.com/courses/boutenn-with-sarah-bixler) and other subjects are available from Long Thread Media. (https://learn.longthreadmedia.com/collections?q=bixler) Sara leads tours to Japan (https://opulentquiltjourneys.com/all-craft-journeys/weaving-dyeing-holidays/item/discovering-japan-and-its-textiles?category_id=61) and Switzerland (https://opulentquiltjourneys.com/all-craft-journeys/weaving-dyeing-holidays/item/switzerlands-textile-heritage-and-christmas-markets?category_id=61) with Opulent Quilt Journeys. Bluster Bay Woodworks (https://blusterbaywoodworks.com/) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. The Michigan Fiber Festival—Michigan's largest sheep and wool festival—is a vibrant world of fiber arts. Discover five days of classes with nationally recognized teachers in spinning, weaving, lacemaking, dyeing, felting, and rug hooking. Enjoy three days of shopping. Delight in shearing and fiber arts demonstrations. Enjoy a truly immersive experience. Join us in August at the picturesque Allegan County Fairgrounds (you can even camp on site!) Find more details at michiganfiberfestival.info. (The Michigan Fiber Festival – Michigan's largest sheep and wool festival – is a vibrant world of fiber arts. Discover five days of classes with nationally recognized teachers in spinning, weaving, lacemaking, dyeing, felting, and rug hooking. Enjoy three days of shopping. Delight in shearing and fiber arts demonstrations. Enjoy a truly immersive experience. Join us in August at the picturesque Allegan County Fairgrounds (you can even camp on site!) Find more details at michiganfiberfestival.info.)

You know about North Pole and the South Pole, where polar bears and penguins live. Have you heard of a third pole? West and south of the Tibetan Plateau, a mountainous area holds more glaciers than any place in the world outside the Arctic and Antarctic poles. This region has a special significance for fiber artists: it is the home and habitat of the goats that produce much of the world's cashmere. And as at the North and South Poles, climate change is threatening the animals and people who call this region home. To bring attention to the threat to glaciers in the region, engineer Sonam Wangchuk climbed into the Himalayas of in Ladakh, India, and carried back a 7 kilogram chunk of glacier. It began a journey across two continents, wrapped in 3 kilograms of cashmere, and finally arrived at the United Nations in New York. The UN has named 2025 the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation (https://www.un-glaciers.org/en), and Wangchuk's Travelling Glacier brought the threat of climate change to the world's door. The cashmere covering the sample not only insulated the ice, it also demonstrates what's at risk when glaciers melt. The animals and people living in these regions depend on glaciers for water; when the glaciers melt too abruptly, the overflow of water sweeps away whole villages and cities in devastating floods. Stories of people and animals on other continents can seem remote, abstract, and hopeless, but joining in the movement to preserve this important resource can be as near as your fingertips. Long Thread Media is joining with Wild Fibers to sponsor the Cashmere on Ice Contest (https://cashmere.longthreadmedia.com/), which invites fiber artists to make a project containing cashmere. Projects can be wearable or decorative; a special category highlights fiber grown in the Ladakh region from which Wangchuk sourced his Travelling Glacier. In this episode, celebrated storyteller and wild fiber expert Linda Cortright shares details about why she cares passionately about this crisis and what fiber artists can do to help the cause. Learn about the contest (https://cashmere.longthreadmedia.com/) and find an FAQ (https://spinoffmagazine.com/a-fiber-contest-with-global-impact) for more details. Discover the Wild Fibers (https://www.wildfibersmagazine.com/cashmereonice) resource page. Hear about the effects of glacial melt in another high-elevation fiber-producing region: the Andes. (https://spinoffmagazine.com/alpaca-for-life/)

When Tom Knisely decided to buy his first item in an antique shop, he had two strokes of luck: the spinning wheel that he chose included all the parts needed to make yarn, and he lived not far from the landmark weaving store The Mannings. There, he learned to spin and eventually to weave. Enamored with the crafts, he got a job at the store there as a teenager and eventually built a career there over 37 years. That love of antiques led Tom to accumulate a collection of historic coverlets and rag rugs, along with knowledge about the old techniques used to make such durable textiles. Students often turn to Tom to learn such traditional skills as rag-rug weaving, working with linen from plant to fabric, and weaving with counterbalance looms. Through these antique rugs and coverlets, he traces the legacy of the weavers before him—those who pursued a life in weaving centuries ago. His nine books and ten videos explore contemporary and historic techniques, structures, and tools. As much as his knowledge, Tom's patience, enthusiasm, and warmth draw students to his classes. Named Handwoven Teacher of the Year, he loves helping students—from children who watch his living history demonstrations to dedicated weavers—develop their skills and love of spinning and weaving. His longest-lasting teaching relationship has been with Sara C. Bixler, one of his daughters, who took up the mantle to become a weaving teacher and designer herself. “I think we have an obligation to get out there and promote what we do,” he says. “You'd be surprised how much it means to other people to see this. But I guarantee you, you'll come home with stories that are far greater than what you have put out. It's a real reward.” Links Read about bumper looms in “Never Say Never” (Little Looms Spring 2025 (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/easy-weaving-with-little-looms-spring-2025)) and “Never Say Never Again” (Little Looms Summer 2025 (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/easy-weaving-with-little-looms-summer-2025). Find Tom's classes, including How to Weave a Rag Rug and Weave a Good Rug with Tom Knisely: From Fiber to Finish, streaming (https://learn.longthreadmedia.com/collections?q=tom+knisely) and in the Handwoven online store. (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/search?q=tom+knisely) Tom teaches frequently at his daughter Sara C. Bixler's shop, Red Stone Glen (https://redstoneglen.com/), in York, Pennsylvania. Cracker Country (https://www.crackercountry.org/) is a living history museum in Tampa, Florida, where Tom and his wife often demonstrate spinning and weaving. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your “local yarn store” with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore. Tapestry weaving's simple structure lets you weave almost any image you can dream up. Rebecca Mezoff, author of the bestseller The Art of Tapestry Weaving, will teach you how to weave your own ideas, designs, and adventures. Join Rebecca online to learn all about the magic of making pictures with yarn in the fiber technique of tapestry weaving. Find out more at tapestryweaving.com (https://rebeccamezoff.com/).

A lifelong lover of fiber arts, Susan Strawn's career in textiles began in an unexpected corner: with training as a biomedical illustrator. She found cloth far more exciting than biology, so she turned her eye for detail to illustrating PieceWork magazine. She added photostyling to her duties, bringing textile stories to life and demonstrating the steps of various needlework techniques. After a decade on the staff of the magazine, she decided to devote herself to studying and writing about textiles, earning a PhD in Textiles and Clothing. Although her initial interest was in writing, she discovered that she loved teaching. She became a Professor in the Department of Fashion at Dominican University, with a roster of classes she loved to teach (and that would make a textile lover swoon to take). Now retired from the university, she is exploring the importance of textiles, especially knitting, in her own life through essays and illustrations. With a particular interest in everyday cloth and the insight it offers into women's lives, Susan's hands are always busy with needle, pen, or keyboard. Links Susan Strawn's website (https://susanstrawn.com/) Susan's Substack (https://open.substack.com/pub/susanstrawn/p/susan-strawn-meanders-through-the?r=bitk3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true) Discover Knitting America and Susan's other writings (https://susanstrawn.com/writing/) Knits of Yore (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/knits-of-yore-download-in-hd) video The Gaman Mittens pattern (https://farmfiberknits.com/library/a8gLt51DTaq9lHTnogF0gA/) is available in the Farm & Fiber Knits library or in PieceWork September/October 2017. (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/piecework-september-october-2017-digital-edition) Read about Susan's visit (https://farmfiberknits.com/cotswold-sheep-and-benedictine-nuns-of-shaw-island/) to the nuns of Shaw Island and their flock of Cotswold sheep No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/104985/no-idle-hands-by-anne-l-macdonald/) by Anne L. MacDonald A History of Hand Knitting (https://archive.org/details/historyofhandkni0000rutt/) by Richard Rutt Blazing Star Journal (https://www.agarts.org/blazing-star-literary-journal-archives/) from AgArts This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Knitting and wool are so essential in the Faroe Islands that in the early 1800s, exports of sweaters and socks made up about half of the economy. Today, the nation of about 55,000 people has 8+ knitwear brands, 2 active spinning mills, and 70,000 ewes. Sissal Kristiansen, the owner of knitwear company Shisa Brand, started an initiative called The Wool Islands to celebrate the heritage and potential of Faroese fiber. “We owe it to our past and our future to utilise the natural resources that we have, and on the Faroe Islands, that is wool,” she says. The first project of the Wool Islands was a 15-minute documentary that takes viewers on a sweeping journey through the Faroese landscape, meeting shepherds, knitters, and of course sheep. Available to watch free on YouTube and the project's website, the film welcomes you to the small country, which is located in the North Atlantic between Shetland and Iceland. Today, the economy of the Faroe Islands relies on tourism; the film shows how enticing a destination it is for knitters, spinners, and textile lovers. Sheep and knitting are everywhere in the Faroe Islands, but maintaining the quality and value of the local wool depends on visitors, locals, knitters, and consumers to recognize its unique importance. Drawing on the natural colors produced by the native sheep, Faroese knitting patterns are characterized by graphic, highly contrasting stranded patterns that generally carry floats over less than five stitches. Sissal's designs for Shisa Brand feature bold traditional motifs in contemporary silhouettes and scales. Some of Shisa Brand's iconic garments feature black-and-white geometric patterns, and the ready-to-wear items are handmade by local handknitters using Faroese wool. Undeterred by wool's reputation for scratchiness next to the skin, she celebrates the lofty texture, warmth, and silkiness of the dual-coated fleece. Hearing Sissal speak about her home and her passion for Faroese wool will leave you yearning to wear Faroese knitwear, knit with Faroese yarn, and visit the country's wool islands. Links Shisa Brand website (https://www.shisabrand.com/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/shisabrand) Find The Wool Islands film and resources about wool in the Faroe Islands at the program's website (https://www.thewoolislands.com/) Watch a panel (https://youtu.be/O07UJxisLeg?si=mUwdb82UIJfXW4gk) moderated by Isabella Rossellini featuring Sissal and other Faroese designers and producers, hosted by the Scandinavia House in April 2024 Read Sissal's “Legacy of Wool: Faroese Gold” in Farm & Fiber Knits (https://farmfiberknits.com/legacy-of-wool-faroese-gold/) Føroysk Bindingarmynstur (Faroese Knitting Patterns), the collection of Faroese knitting motifs documented by Hans Marius Debes, is available from Navia. (https://www.navia.fo/en/knitting-patterns/1151-foroysk-bindingarmynstur.html) Yarn grown in the Faroe Islands is available from Navia (distributed in the US by Kelbourne Woolens. (https://kelbournewoolens.com/collections/navia) Spinnaríið við ánna (Spinnery by the River) (https://kyrra.fo/pages/about-us) produces 100% Faroese yarns at a family-owned micro mill. Snaeldan (https://snaldan.fo/) mill produces yarn and knitwear in the Faroe Islands. Signabøgarður tógv (https://www.facebook.com/siignabogardur) offers 100% Faroese wool yarn. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

When young Shay Pendray told the head of her school that she wanted to learn to sew, he had a prerequisite: He would give her a lamb, and she would learn to process the wool, spin it into yarn, and weave it into cloth, and then she could learn to sew. It was an extraordinary home ec class, but the administrator in question was Henry Ford. Shay was one of the students in Greenfield Village, a living museum on the grounds of what is now the Henry Ford Museum. Shay has combined curiosity, hard work, good fortune, and a passion for needle arts ever since. Many fiber artists will remember Shay from the Needle Arts Studio with Shay Pendray. Wanting to share her knowledge of needlework, she developed a television series that ran on PBS stations for years. Before finding a national television audience, Shay opened successful needlework shops, studied embroidery in Japan, China, and Britain, and wrote several books. After decades as a business owner, television pioneer, and teacher, Shay finds great joy in sitting down with needlework every day, reveling in the variety of threads, materials, and information available to stitchers. Besides needle arts, Shay's other passion is for horses. She loves to ride her horse in the open spaces of Wyoming, admiring the value of the greens and golds in the landscape. Not long before we spoke, USA Today wrote (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/15/85-year-old-michigan-cowgirl-still-drives-cattle-across-wyoming/) about her: “This 85-year-old cowgirl is still herding cattle across Wyoming: ‘We will age together.'” This episode marks the fifth anniversary of the Long Thread Podcast, which was first released in April 2020. I've thought so fondly of this conversation, our first podcast to release, and was excited to revisit it. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Tapestry weaving's simple structure lets you weave almost any image you can dream up. Rebecca Mezoff, author of the bestseller The Art of Tapestry Weaving, will teach you how to weave your own ideas, designs, and adventures. Join Rebecca online to learn all about the magic of making pictures with yarn in the fiber technique of tapestry weaving. Find out more at tapestryweaving.com (https://rebeccamezoff.com/).

Some shepherds research extensively and choose the breed that best matches their needs. Others come across an animal or a whole flock and everything falls into place—it becomes clear that these are the sheep they've been waiting for. Robin Lynde had a farm with a few sheep in the mix, but when a local shepherd decided to sell her Jacob sheep, Robin jumped at the opportunity to own a flock of black-and-white-spotted, two-to-four-horned heritage-breed sheep. Although the flock lives full-time between Sacramento and the Bay Area, Meridian Jacobs get around—digitally, at least. When Robin started fielding inquiries about visiting the sheep and the farm, she came up with the idea for a Farm Club, which invites members to develop a relationship with the flock, by helping on designated Farm Days, keeping up with their photos and videos, and purchasing a share of fiber as a fleece or as yarn. You can find her photogenic sheep on her webite, social media, and YouTube. “I take pictures of everything,” she says—and with sheep so cute, who could blame her? In addition to caring for her sheep, Robin immerses herself in the fiber world through writing and designing handwoven projects. She's held a weekly study group for weavers for years, first in person and now online. She has designed for both Handwoven and Little Looms magazines, with a particular specialty in weaving with wool. She teaches at a number of events and presents at guild events. Just don't ask her to go anywhere during lambing, when you'll find her in the barn with those irresistible Jacobs. Links Meridian Jacobs website (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/) Learn about Meridian Jacobs's Farm Club (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/farm-club) and see a photo gallery (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/farmclubgallery) of activities Find Robin's blog on WordPress (https://meridianjacobs.blog/) and the main website (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/meridian-jacobs-blog) Purchase Meridian Jacobs fleece (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/wool-fiber), yarn (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/yarn-kits), and Robin's handwovens (https://www.meridianjacobs.com/handwovens) on their website The Meridian Jacobs YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@meridianjacobs) features videos about shearing, weaving, and other wooly subjects Farm & Fiber Knits subscribers can read Robin's article How to Source Wool Directly from a Farm” (https://farmfiberknits.com/how-to-source-yarn-directly-from-a-farm/) Learn more about Jacob sheep in “Meet the Jacob: Robin Lynde in Black and White (and Lilac)” (https://spinoffmagazine.com/meet-the-jacob-robin-lynde-in-black-and-white-and-lilac/) Robin's article on clasped-warp weaving (https://littlelooms.com/clasped-warp-weaving/), which appeared originally in Little Looms magazine, is available online Robin designs frequently for Little Looms, (https://littlelooms.com/author/robin-lynde) and Handwoven (https://handwovenmagazine.com/library/?dato_ltm_library_hw%5Bquery%5D=robin%20lynde) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Susan Bateman started the Yarn Barn of Kansas back in 1971. She says, “Since the beginning, it's been important to us to teach the crafts we love—weaving, knitting, crochet, and spinning. Last year, we had nearly a thousand enrollments in our classes. We answered questions in store, by phone, and through email.” When you order from The Yarn Barn of Kansas, you aren't just ordering materials. You're supporting a business that can support you when you need help. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com. (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/)

Listening to her college-aged daughter making calls for AmeriCorps in 2020, Laura Nelkin was surprised at how many people in her community faced food insecurity and hunger every day. A problem that had seemed far away suddenly felt much closer to home, and Laura wanted to find a way to help. She had a feeling that other knitters would want to help, too, so she dreamed up a group effort: the Knit for Food Knit-a-Thon (http://www.knitforfood.com/). In its first 4 years, the effort has raised over $1.25 million for Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, No Kid Hungry, and World Central Kitchen. 2025 is poised to be the largest event yet, with more teams and knitters joining the effort every day. How does it work? Until Saturday, April 5, 2025, crafters register to participate, either as members of a team or solo. Participants reach out to friends, loved ones, colleagues, and other contacts to make a financial pledge to support the effort. Then from 10 am to 10 pm Eastern Time on April 5, participants pick up your craft of choice and knit (or crochet or stitch or whatever you like). Some teams and local craft groups organize public meetups for support. Anyone raising at least $100 receives a link to online events including stretching and knitting ergonomics, live music, games, and presentations from the four benefiting charities. At the end of the day, you've enjoyed 12 hours on your favorite craft, strengthened the fellowship of crafters, and helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that directly feed hungry people. Laura (and her saucy alter ego, Lola) develop dozens of innovative ideas every year, from original designs to bead-knitting techniques to a brilliant method for swatching to knit in the round while knitting flat. She documents her ideas and experiments on her YouTube channel, offers kits and mystery knit-alongs, and invites knitters to join her in real life on knitting-related tours and cruises each year. The Knit for Food Knit-a-Thon brings that spirit of fun and inventiveness to a much-needed cause, building the spirit of community with every stitch and donation. Links Knit for Food sign-up page (https://givebutter.com/knitforfood25) Knit for Food FAQ (http://www.nelkindesigns.com/index.cfm/page/knitathon/knitathon25.htm) Check out a list of ideas for charities (https://nelkindesigns.blogspot.com/2021/03/10-ideas-for-charity-knitting.html) for handknitters. Laura Nelkin's website (http://www.nelkindesigns.com/) Laura's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/lauranelkin) Nelkin Designs Ravelry group (https://www.ravelry.com/groups/nelkin-designs) Nelkin Designs on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NelkinDesigns/) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

One day, while waiting outside her daughter's weaving class, Gabi van Tassell became fascinated with an old-fashioned quilt. The Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern combines groups of paper-pieced hexagons, and Gabi found herself wondering how she could weave the shapes. An active and curious crafter, she had explored a variety of fiber crafts, though she wasn't yet a weaver. She experimented with different approaches to the pin loom, eventually realizing that she needed a combination of plain and bias weaving in the same piece. Once she developed the method, she faced the challenge of making the looms. When she realized that she would need to build the looms herself, she decided to patent the idea while developing her manufacturing process. Although establishing her business was challenging, she knew that weavers would love the little turtle-shaped looms. Turtle Looms have the can't-weave-just-one appeal of any pin loom, but the geometry of hexagons (and Gabi's newer trapezoid and five-sided Jewel looms) offer a variety of design choices. In addition to making Turtle Looms, Gabi began designing projects to show the variety of projects to be made from hexagons. To her delight, weavers have adopted the looms and even create designs Gabi herself hadn't dreamed of. Links Turtle Looms website (https://turtleloom.com/) Find Turtle Looms on Instagram @turtleloom (https://www.instagram.com/turtleloom/) The Turtle Looms thread (https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/looms-to-go/3611701) in the Ravelry group Pin Looms to Go (https://www.ravelry.com/groups/looms-to-go) offers support and inspiration. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn. Or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/)

In the early 2000's, one episode of the Late Show with David Letterman boasted that a crocheter would make Dave a sweater over the course of the show. It sounded impossible, but their special guest backstage was Lily M. Chin, who held the title of World's Fastest Crocheter. When the closing music played, Lily presented Letterman with his sweater—it was a bit short, but Dave pulled it over his head. By that point, Lily was no stranger to either deadlines or high-profile clients, having created runway pieces for Diane von Furstenburg, Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, and other Fashion Week icons. As a crocheter, machine knitter, and handknitter, Lily is known for her innovative techniques and bold designs. Fashion and speed are the hallmarks of Lily's native New York City as well as her handwork. Lily grew up at the feet of her mother, a garment worker who put a crochet hook in her hands so she'd stay out of trouble. She picked up handknitting and machine knitting, stepped off the pre-med track, and began one of the most varied and interesting careers in fiber art. Any knitter or crocheter with a yarn collection will take heart at Lily's solution for managing her decades' worth of stashed yarn. With no room for it in her 650-square-foot Greenwich Village apartment, she keeps it in 9 units in a nearby self-storage facility. She doesn't need it in her house, after all, when she travels to teach, especially on the Craft Cruises she has participated in for years. Named a Master Knitter by Vogue Knitting International, Lily has a list of credits and affiliations as long as a skein of laceweight yarn, but her down-to-earth attitude and delight in her craft make her stories so much fun. Links Lily teaches frequently with Craft Cruises. (https://www.craftcruises.com/instructor_information.php?brand=1,Knitting%20Cruises&cruise=208,Ultimate%20Viking%20Explorer&dep_date=2025-06-08&dest_date=2026-06-29&instructor=Lily%20Chin) In 2025 she will be traveling to Japan and the North Pacific. Find information about Lily's upcoming classes, current projects, and latest adventures on her socials: @LilyMChin on Instagram @LilyMChin1 on Twitter @LilyMChin on Threads LilyMChin on Ravelry @lilymchinnyc on Pinterest This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

A lifelong crafter, Jennifer B. Williams had tried a wide variety of fiber techniques, but she felt something fall into place the first time she sat down to a lesson at an inkle loom. “It was the strangest thing to me. When I started inkle weaving, I started thinking through inkle,” she says. Delicate bracelets, origami fish, flip-flop straps? Absolutely! Joining bands edge to edge, folding strips into new shapes, and exploring drape and density, the formal confines of narrow warp-faced bands just spark new ideas for her to explore. Although the term “inkle” arose in the sixteenth century to describe a narrow linen tape, some form of band-making developed around the world where something needed tying, lashing, embellishing, cinching or any of the other uses for a durable piece of cloth. Jennifer has studied bandweaving methods from Japan and Africa, finding inspiration in contemporary Yoruba aso-oke weaving and other warp-faced plain-weave techniques. Though her brain has a unique affinity for bandweaving, Jennifer loves to share her knowledge and excitement with students at all levels, using her inkle-first weaving education to help teach effectively. In the coming year, she has classes planned at the Braid Society conference, among other events. A few spaces remain in Jennifer's classes at Weave Together with Handwoven 2025 (https://weavetogether.handwovenmagazine.com/) in York, Pennsylvania, March 23–27. Links Find Jennifer B. Williams online at the Inkled Pink (https://inkledpink.com/) website or on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/inkledpink/). Jennifer documented her daily band practice on Instagram as @dailybandpractice (https://www.instagram.com/dailybandpractice/). Jennifer's patterns for Easy Weaving with Little Looms are available through the Library (https://littlelooms.com/library/?dato_ltm_library_ll%5Bquery%5D=jennifer%20b%20williams&dato_ltm_library_ll%5BrefinementList%5D%5Blibrary_item_type%5D%5B0%5D=Project%2FPattern). Jennifer's detailed tutorial (https://inkledpink.com/2013/05/28/inkle-shoelace-tip-how-to/) appears on her website. See Jennifer's process for making origami goldfish (https://inkledpink.com/2012/04/22/inkle-origami/). The Braid Society's website (https://thebraidsociety.wildapricot.org/) includes details of conferences and exhibitions. The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon is available from many weaving stores. Inkle by Evelyn Neher is available from used book sources. Aso-oke weaver Muhammed Abdulrasheed Abiodun (https://www.facebook.com/abdulrasheed.abeeordoon/) practices and teaches traditional Yoruba weaving techniques. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/)

Visiting museums and archaeological sites in the American Southwest, Louie García finds inspiration to revive the fiber techniques of the past. He has participated in creating several recreations of ancient textiles, including a replica of the 800-year-old Arizona Openwork Shirt, and is a member of the Cedar Mesa Perishables Project, which studies artifacts including baskets, plaited and twined yucca sandals, and most importantly cotton textile fragments that date back as much as two thousand years. But where others might see ruins, Louie sees connections to the Pueblo heritage that is part of his daily life. When rediscovering weaving, spinning, and cotton-growing skills, he says, “That's how I'm able to connect with my ancestors.” Navigating between his wish to maintain the role of fiber arts in his community with respect for the sacred nature of traditional knowledge, he founded the New Mexico Pueblo Fiber Arts Guild in in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He teaches classes to Pueblo weavers as well as a few non-Pueblo fiber arts enthusiasts. His handspun, handwoven gauze and weft-wrap openwork piece, inspired by a nearly 1,000-year-old Hohokam textile in the Ventana Cave excavation, was featured on the cover of Spin Off Summer 2020—one of just a few articles about Pueblo weaving written from a Pueblo perspective, he says. Looking at the piece, Cedar Mesa Perishables Project director Laurie Webster remarked, “It's probably been at least a thousand years since anyone has woven a piece like this.” Spin Off is excited to welcome Louie as an instructor at SOAR October 12-17, 2025, in Loveland, Colorado. Join us to hear how Louie connects the work of his hands with his dedication to Pueblo heritage. Links Openwork Shirt (sprang replica): Carol James, “The Arizona Openwork (Tonto) Shirt Project” (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/pct7/25) (2017). PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII. 25. Cedar Mesa Perishables Project (https://www.friendsofcedarmesa.org/perishablesproject/) Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (https://indianpueblo.org/) Louie García, “Pueblo Cotton in the American Southwest: Ancient Gauze Weave and Weft-Wrap Openwork.” [Spin Off Summer 2020.](https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/spin-off-summer-2020) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/).

Like many spinners, Charan Sachar discovered fiber crafts without realizing that they would transform his life. While studying for a masters degree in computer science, he began working with clay, making functional and decorative pieces. He loved the cool, slick texture of clay and the pleasure of working with his hands, eventually making pottery his full-time career. During down times in the pottery studio and at home, he began knitting. The soft texture and warmth of knitting proved a perfect complement to his work in clay. Knitting not only changed Charan's daily life, it also made its way into his clay work. Although his repertoire includes a variety of motifs, knitters have fallen in love with mugs and other vessels decorated with knitting and lace motifs. With a burgeoning stash of yarns for knitting and weaving, he was initially reluctant to create even more yarn by learning to spin. Then he saw colorful beehives and immediately knew that he needed to learn to make textured art yarns. After studying traditional and textured yarn techniques with a variety of teachers, he began teaching spinning at events across the country and as far away as New Zealand. In October 2025, Charan will teach at the Spin Off Autumn Retreat. Links Creative with Clay website (https://www.creativewithclay.com/) Charan Sachar's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/charansachar/) Charan will be teaching at the Spin Off Autumn Retreat (https://www.spinoffretreat.com/) October 12–17, 2025 in Loveland, Colorado. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/).

When colonists first left Spain for what became Mexico and the American Southwest in 1598, they came with the continent's first wool sheep. These weren't the famed finewool Spanish Merinos—export of those was punishable by death—but rougher multipurpose Churra sheep. With simple tools, men sheared the sheep, women spindle-spun wool yarn, and men wove plain cloth called sabanilla. In their few spare moments, women embroidered on scraps of fabric with naturally dyed yarn and a simple couching stitch. Embroidery made the fabric warm in the winter, valuable for trade, and beautiful for religious observances. Along with tinwork, wood carving and painting, and pottery, colcha embroidery became one of the folk arts that grew uniquely in the Southwest. When finer materials became available in the early 1800s, colcha embroidery began to decline in practice. Home economics teacher Julia Gomez first learned colcha embroidery in the 1970s in a class at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, a living history museum in Santa Fe. With teaching and family obligations, she didn't delve deeper in the craft until decades later, when she fell in love with this local art form. Learning not only to stitch the colcha embroidery but also prepare the yarn and woven fabric (and even shear a sheep . . . once), she developed passion and expertise for its stories and techniques. Her work has been included in the juried Spanish Market, winning first prize, and is in numerous museum and private collections. In addition to her own embroidery, Julia enjoys teaching and demonstrating, a natural continuation of her decades in the middle-school classroom and years as a docent at the Nuevo Mexico Heritage Arts Museum (formerly the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art). Whether spinning and weaving at El Rancho de las Golondrinas or demonstrating embroidery across the United States and internationally, Julia preserves the beautifully rustic tradition of colcha embroidery. Links Julia Gomez authored “The Art and Tradition of Colcha Embroidery” and created the design “A Colcha Peahen” for PieceWork Winter 2022 (https://pieceworkmagazine.com/library/141964511). Julia demonstrates at the El Rancho de las Golondrinas (https://golondrinas.org/) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is open from June through October each year (and in April and May for private tours). Julia demonstrates and teaches at the Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum (https://nmheritagearts.org/), where some of her work is also part of the permanent collection. Julia's presentation “A Stitch Out of Time: A Story of Colcha Embroidery in New Spain” at the 2024 Weave a Real Peace (WARP) conference is available to watch on YouTube. (https://youtu.be/6aDO9pV4Hv0?t=165). El Rancho de las Golondrinas hosted Julia's presentation “The Art and Tradition of Colcha Embroidery,” which is available on YouTube. (https://youtu.be/-T2r4u1kRaU) Santa Fe honored Julia as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month in 2021 and created a video (https://youtu.be/Dx1UYT6rj-k) to celebrate her accomplishments. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/).

As a knitter in a new place, Irene Waggener looks for knitting as she explores. Not all of the countries where she finds herself have robust yarn-shop networks and textile tourism, so sometimes she needs to get creative in her search. During a three-year stint in Morocco, her first glimpse of knitting was in the back of a local museum, where a striking pair of black-and-white knitted pants hung among other traditional craft objects. Although the staff at the museum couldn't tell her much about them, she was encouraged to look for knitters in the neighboring valley, where she found not only some of the last knitters who knew how to make the knitted pants but also an existing handknit sock practice. In the village of Timloukine, men take their knitting along for months away from home as they tend their sheep. In the cold winters of the High Atlas, the synthetic mass-produced socks that have reached the village are no match for the traditional handmade wool socks. Irene learned to knit the unusual wool pants, called sirwal, and a variety of other traditional knitted items from the region. She wrote her first book about the knitting practices of the High Atlas, combining cultural anthropology, historical research, and kandknitting patterns in Keepers of the Sheep: Knitting in Morocco's High Atlas and Beyond. In her next destination, Armenia, Irene found a knitting culture that more closely resembles what North American and European knitters would recognize: contemporary knitters who pick up their needles for enjoyment and self-expression, with a variety of mostly synthetic yarns available in craft stores. Getting out into rural areas, though, she met an older generation of knitters who still use old-style, unusual colorwork techniques, many of them related to the region's rug weaving. Drawing on a breed association for the gampr, a treasured Armenian livestock guardian dog, and plenty of serendipity, Irene found knitters willing to share their sock-knitting traditions. As an independent researcher, Irene Waggener has followed her knitting to extraordinary places, and she invites us to follow and knit along. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/).

In 1974, two young industrial designers in the Netherlands started a company making spinning wheels. Beginning in a family member's chicken coop, they built a modern wheel featuring an upright castle-style format, a then-uncommon bobbin-lead drive system, and a drive wheel without spokes. Jan Louët Feisser and Clemens Claessen named their company Louët and began building the now-iconic S10 spinning wheel. The company soon moved out of the chicken coop and brought on other employees. By 1982, they began making looms, from expandable table looms to countermarche and eventually dobby looms. The founders, who loved the design aspect more than management, brought on Theo Vervoorn to handle the daily logistics. Across the Atlantic in Canada, a family of Dutch immigrants had started a farm as part of the “back to the land” movement. The sheep raised on their farm produced wool that needed to be processed, so Trudy van Stralen learned to spin, weave, and dye. She began selling Louët spinning wheels and soon became not only one of the company's largest dealers but also an adviser on the fiber arts market. The van Stralen company founded Louët North America, with David van Stralen joining in 1994 and developing a special focus in equipment mechanics and maintenance. Over 50 years, countless aspects of Louët's business have changed, and their practices have kept up. The modern manufacturing techniques that Louët pioneered in 1974 have continued to evolve, with 3D modeling, computer-guided milling, and contemporary materials finding their place in the company's products alongside the high-quality wood that exemplified even the earliest wheels. Customers seek out answers online and in videos at all hours, and Louët strives to reply to customer questions in 24 hours. From small improvements to existing equipment to new products large (dobby looms) and small (inkle looms and a brand-new ballwinder), the company keeps design as a central focus. Some aspects of the business continue unchanged as the company has passed to a second generation. Theo Vervoorn's son, Paul, joined the company in 2012 and purchased it in 2023. David van Stralen joined Louët's main business as director of operations in 2022, though he can still be found replying to customer support tickets on weekends and tuning up equipment at festivals. As they plan for their next 50 years, Louët's customer support team continues to help half a century's worth of customers, and the design team has a list of products and innovations they're working on. In this spotlight episode, discover what sustains the company and how they approach spinning and weaving. Links Louët.nl (https://www.louet.nl/) Louët's 50th anniversary celebrations (https://b2b.louet.nl/en/50-years-louet) Louët dealers (https://b2b.louet.nl/en/dealers) can be found in 45 countries. (If you have a question ourside your dealer's business hours, you may find your answer at their Support portal. (https://b2b.louet.nl/en/support) Linda Ligon's article “The Louet s10 Spinning Wheel Is 50 Years Young” shares her experiences collaborating with Louët over a half century. This episode is brought to you by: Louët Team Louët (https://www.louet.nl/) is proud to be part of a multi-generational family business. We have been producing high quality handcraft products for 50 years. We take pride in our workmanship, innovative products, and customer service. We look forward to helping you with your next Louët products or to help introduce you to our fine products for the first time.

The Nettle Dress is available to stream online (https://watch.eventive.org/nettledressfilm/play/66fd50e5edab64004eb9dd5f) from November 15–December 2, 2024. Most of us avoid nettles, thinking of them as weeds whose little stinging hairs can inject a painful toxin into the unexpecting walker. But strolling through the woods near his home in England, Allan Brown was captivated by the tall native plants. Knowing that textile cultures across the world have produced cloth from nettles, he wanted to learn more about cloth made with nettle fiber. Except for a few exceptions—giant Himalayan nettles and ramie, which is a non-stinging plant in the nettle family—the era of nettle textiles is over. But thousands of years ago, nettle cloth and cordage fulfilled human needs for garments and tools. Like other ancient textiles, nettle cloth has almost entirely disappeared, rotted away and returned to the soil. Allan knew that the only way to experience cloth made from nettle would be to create it himself, so he set about processing, spinning, and weaving fabric from stands of nettles that grew wild in the woods. Before he could get down to cloth-making, though, he had to learn how to extract the fiber from the plant—a process without contemporary documentation or a skilled teacher. (The stinging parts of the plant are removed during processing, so textiles made from nettle fiber feel more like cotton or linen than stinging barbs.) He learned to spin, which proved not only the most time-consuming but also the most meaningful part of the project. “I just found spinning so therapeutic,” he says. He felt the solace of handspinning keenly when his wife, Alex, passed away over the course of his nettle exploration. In the aftermath of Alex dying, my world grew very small, my perimeters drew in, and I was just looking after the family. Sometimes my only connection to a wider world was just going out and collecting nettles, but it was within a really small geographical margin. So I think events sort of led me to, rather than looking for bigger and more, I tuned into the familiar, going in deeper and seeing what I could find and what I'd previously overlooked. And realizing, oh my goodness—all these plants, they provide dyes, these plants provide fibers, and they're all there right on my doorstep and have been under my nose all along. So it feels like it's really connected me to a sense of place in a much deeper way than perhaps I had been before. As he spun years' worth of yarn, Allan decided that the nettle project would culimate in a dress. A simple shape, cut efficiently from a narrow width of cloth, would be enough to create a dress for his daughter Oonagh, so he wove yards of plain-weave fabric and even spun the sewing thread to stitch the piece together. Seven years after his first experiments with nettle fiber, he slipped a handmade nettle dress over her head. Following Allan on his exploration, his film-director friend Dylan Howitt captured the stages of the process and has released a film called The Nettle Dress. (https://www.nettledress.org/) The film has been released in a number of markets, including the United Kingdom, and some audiences have been fortunate to meet the fiber artist and even touch the dress at a screening. The story of the dress and its creator remind us that the long history of foraged, handmade cloth can be ours again if we have the dedication to revive it. Links The Nettle Dress film website (https://www.nettledress.org/) The Nettle Dress on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/nettledressfilm/) "The Nettle Dress: A Tale of Love and Healing (https://spinoffmagazine.com/the-nettle-dress/) review by Linda Ligon Nettles for Textiles Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1648679398499874/) Nettles for Textiles web page (http://www.nettlesfortextiles.org.uk/wp/) From Sting to Spin, a History of Nettle Fibre (https://gillianedomsbook.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html) by Gillian Edom This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn, or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/). Creating consciously crafted fibers and patterns is more than just a focus for Blue Sky Fibers, it's their passion. Ever since they started with a small herd of alpacas in a Minnesota backyard, they've been committed to making yarn in the best way possible to show off its natural beauty. While their exclusive offerings have grown beyond alpaca to include wool, organic cotton, and silk, their desire for exciting makers about natural fibers hasn't changed one bit. It all winds back to the yarn, ensuring that every precious, handmade hank is lovingly filled with endless inspiration. blueskyfibers.com (https://blueskyfibers.com/)

Melvenea Hodges nurtures a small crop of cotton in her back yard in South Bend, Indiana. Besides beautiful foliage and some of her favorite fiber to spin, she tends her plants to celebrate what she can create with her own hands—not just beautiful textiles but a connection to her heritage and a source of peace. As a primary school teacher, her working days are hectic, but she and a friend have a pact to save some creativity for themselves. Although her spinning and weaving projects are ambitious, she doesn't confuse creativity with productivity. The magic happens, she says, "once we take away the element of creating for some kind of purpose and just accept that creating is a natural part of being and that it is inherent in us." That creativity takes the form of exploring Scandinavian weaving, spinning to weave a traditional overshot coverlet, or painting whimsical wooden jewelry. No matter what, though, she grounds each day by spinning cotton, seated on the floor with her back to a wall, losing her thoughts as her spindle turns. "If your life's whirlwind is whirling too fast," she advises, "get yourself a spindle." This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/). Creating consciously crafted fibers and patterns is more than just a focus for Blue Sky Fibers, it's their passion. Ever since they started with a small herd of alpacas in a Minnesota backyard, they've been committed to making yarn in the best way possible to show off its natural beauty. While their exclusive offerings have grown beyond alpaca to include wool, organic cotton, and silk, their desire for exciting makers about natural fibers hasn't changed one bit. It all winds back to the yarn, ensuring that every precious, handmade hank is lovingly filled with endless inspiration. blueskyfibers.com (https://blueskyfibers.com/)

Exploring the textile traditions of her Scandinavian ancestors, supporting Indigenous Andean weavers in preserving their traditions, or producing material for contemporary fiber artists, Anita finds connection between makers. From hygge to the trendy Scandi Style, the design influence of Scandiavian countries has never been more popular. But beneath the graphic lines and bright colors, what is the fiber art and culture of Nordic countries? Anita Osterhaug was raised in a family whose pride in their Norwegian heritage ran deeper than cuisine and home décor. As a weaver, she loved exploring her fiber-art roots and the rich traditions of Scandinavian countries. Underlying the folk art and food, she found a set of values connecting the culture: the importance of nature, community, craftsmanship, and sustainability. In her book Nordic Hands, Anita collected projects in knitting, felting, and weaving that explore those values, inviting contributors to share designs that explore their own connections with Scandinavia. A former editor of Handwoven magazine, Anita has a particular affection for the woven textiles of Scandinavia. Weaving also connects her with another of her passions, half a world away. As a board member of Andean Textile Arts, she works to support Andean weavers in Peru and Bolivia in practicing the ancient weaving skills of their ancestors. The group raises funds to help educate young Andean weavers about their heritage and supports economic development for master weavers to continue their exquisite traditional crafts. Although the weavers of her family tradition and Andean weavers may use different materials, motifs, and equipment, Anita sees a common bond between them. Among weavers, she says, there is always a common language. Links Anita Osterhaug's website (https://nordic-hands.com/) Nordic Hands: 25 Fiber Craft Projects to Discover Scandinavian Culture (https://schifferbooks.com/products/nordic-hands) Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum (https://vesterheim.org/) Andean Textile Arts (https://andeantextilearts.org/) Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) (https://www.textilescusco.org/) Long Thread Podcast: Laurann Gilbertson (https://pieceworkmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-laurann-gilbertson/) Weaving with Linen with Tom Knisely (https://learn.longthreadmedia.com/courses/weaving-with-linen-with-tom-knisely) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your "local yarn store" with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/).

When you picture lace, what comes to mind: an old-fashioned once-white piece of Victorian embellishment? The elegant, possibly itchy decoration on a wedding gown? If you are a needleworker, you might picture an array of bobbins leashed to a cluster of pins and arrayed on a pillow, or a tatting shuttle, or a steel crochet hook. All of these images would be correct—but capture the tiniest slice of the world's laces. As a PhD student, Elena Kanagy-Loux considers lace through the lenses of history, culture, and gender. How have textile artisans around the world developed lace strutures? Who was making lace—and who was wearing it? (For what matter, what is lace, anyway?) Beyond our assumptions about lace are delightful surprises: Wearing lace previously denoted power and wealth rather than femininity. Traditional lace may include a riot of color. Although they look delicate, lace fabrics can be surprisingly durable. Outside her academic pursuits, Elena takes a more hands-on view of lace. Having studied a variety of methods, she fell in love with bobbin lace, which seemed to click in her mind when she sat down at a lacemaking pillow. Like most of our readers, Elena generally creates lace for her own interest and enjoyment, though she has accepted several notable commissions: a collar presented to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Columbia Law School on the 25th anniversary of her investiture to the Supreme court, and a collar designed for the Threads of Power exhibit (https://www.bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/118/threads-of-power) at the Bard Graduate Center. In addition to her own work, she teaches extensively, finding an audience of needleworkers eager to learn bobbin lace or improve their skills. She co-founded the Brooklyn Lace Guild, which offers classes as well as a community of lacemakers Elena often hears from non-makers, “Isn't that a dying art?” She replies—in her classes, her needlework, and her wardrobe (which often includes lace in her colorful, contemporary style)—“Lacemaking is a thriving art!” Links Elena Kanagy-Loux's website (https://elenakanagyloux.carbonmade.com/) Find Elena on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/erenanaomi), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@elenakanagy-loux3846), and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@erenanaomi) Thr Brooklyn Lace Guild (https://www.brooklynlaceguild.com/), which Elena co-founded, is hosting its first exhibition, “Little Lace: The Work of Brooklyn Lace Guild,” (https://www.brooklynlaceguild.com/exhibitions) from October 10, 2024, through January 11, 2025. See the Brooklyn Lace Guild at the Kings County Fiber Festival (https://www.brooklynlaceguild.com/new-events/2024/10/12/kings-fiber-festival) at the Old Stone House, Brooklyn, on October 12, 2024, from 10 am to 5 pm. The International Organization of Lace, Inc. (https://main.internationalorganizationoflace.org/) hosts conventions and maintains a list of chapters and events for those interested in learning about lacemaking. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. Knitters know Manos del Uruguay for their yarns' rich tonal colors, but the story of women's empowerment and community benefit enriches every skein. Discover 17 yarn bases from laceweight to super bulky made and dyed at an artisan owned cooperative in Uruguay. Ask for Manos at your local retailer or visit FairmountFibers.com (https://fairmountfibers.com/). Creating consciously crafted fibers and patterns is more than just a focus for Blue Sky Fibers, it's their passion. Ever since they started with a small herd of alpacas in a Minnesota backyard, they've been committed to making yarn in the best way possible to show off its natural beauty. While their exclusive offerings have grown beyond alpaca to include wool, organic cotton, and silk, their desire for exciting makers about natural fibers hasn't changed one bit. It all winds back to the yarn, ensuring that every precious, handmade hank is lovingly filled with endless inspiration. blueskyfibers.com (https://blueskyfibers.com/)

Nanne Kennedy has her feet firmly planted in the soil of midcoast Maine. Growing up on a farm near the ocean, she could smell the salt air and small local factories, and she started saving in her “future farm fund” when she was 12. Eminently practical, she looked for ways that her farm could make her a living. “I'm a New England Yankee, and self reliance is really important,” she says. “So it's always been a critical theme to me that, yes, you do the right thing, but it sure as heck has to make economic sense in a way that is good today, but good forever.” Raising sheep could offer multiple sources of income, but the available finewool sheep were poorly suited to her climate. Studying in New Zealand, she grew interested in Polwarth sheep, which combine finewool and longwool genetics. Nanne imported genetic material from New Zealand and set about establishing the breed in the United States, seeking sheep with dense, fine fleeces; long staples; excellent parasite resistance; and sound feet. After decades of careful breeding, her flock has exceeded her expectations for wool and healthy animals. To increase the value of her wool, Nanne learned to dye yarn. Once again seeking an economic and environmental solution, she developed a unique system using seawater to provide the salts and sunshine to warm the dyepaths. Seacolors Yarns are what Nanne calls bioregional, produced within 5 hours of Meadowcroft Farm. Like many farmers, Nanne works on a variety of projects at the same time. The popular Maine blankets she developed in partnership with other small textile manufacturers have hit a snag with the retirement of the napping machine used in finishing, but she partners with local knitters and crocheters to offer unique handmade sweaters. She runs a short-term farmstay and also offers educational opportunities for aspiring shepherds. She vends at farmer's markets and hosts fiber art classes. At least, that's some of what she was doing when we spoke. By the time you hear this interview, who knows what Nanne Kennedy will have dreamed up to benefit her animals, ecosystem, and regional economy? Links Visit Nanne Kennedy's farm, yarn store, and other projects at GetWool.com (https://getwool.com/meadowcroft/sheep-doula/). Learn about the dye process for Seacolors Yarn (https://getwool.com/yarn/seacolors/) and buy it online (https://getwool.com/yarn/). Meadowcroft Farm raises Polwarth sheep (https://getwool.com/meadowcroft/animals/). Naturally colored roving is available on the Seacolors Wool website (https://getwool.com/roving/). Watch a video of Meadowcroft Farm, Polwarth sheep, and Nanne in the video The Science of Soft (https://vimeo.com/714278628). Stay in the farm's Airbnb (https://getwool.com/cuckoos-nest-air-bnb/), or stay longer with a Small Ruminant Residency (https://getwool.com/meadowcroft/small-ruminant-residency/) or Sheep Doula Apprenticeship (https://getwool.com/meadowcroft/sheep-doula/). This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn, or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) The Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival is the perfect way to spend a weekend surrounded by over 150 craft vendors in Greenwich, New York. Discover a curated group of vendors featuring the best of wool and artisan crafters. Throughout the weekend enjoy workshops, free horse drawn wagon rides, free kids' crafts, a fiber sheep show, and a sanctioned cashmere goat show. Join us September 21 & 22, 2024, and every fall! For more information visit adkwoolandarts.com. (https://www.adkwoolandarts.com/)

When Knit Picks was founded by husband and wife team Kelly and Bob Petkun in 2002, the company began with a mail-order catalog and soon added online purchasing. Buying yarn online seemed both strange and inevitable: knitters began choosing yarns that they could only see onscreen, in the early days of functional search engines, at a time when many people had internet only at the office if at all. But for crafters who lacked easy access to a local yarn store or even a big-box craft store, being able to order craft supplies online broadened the horizons of knitting. After carrying other companies' yarns for several years, the Petkuns began working directly with mills in South America to create yarn lines that were exclusive to Knit Picks. Several of their first yarns, including Wool of the Andes, Andean Treasure, and Alpaca Cloud, are still available (though the Butterfly Kisses eyelash yarn that was a staple of the early 2000's has been discontinued). With the success of their exclusive yarns, Knit Picks began working with manufacturers to create their own tools, most significantly an extensive range of knitting needles. Sustainability-Minded Yarns By making their yarns available directly to knitters, Knit Picks was able to keep their prices low and developed a reputation for affordability. Perhaps less well known, though, have been their efforts to offer sustainably produced yarns. In this episode, Alexis Wilson explains that the company recently completed the process to certify their warehouse to the Responsible Wool Standard, the last link in the chain that makes their 100% US-made High Desert yarn line fully RWS-certified. High Desert yarns use Shaniko Wool, sourced from ranches that meet multiple environmental and social responsibility standards and are demonstrated to capture carbon in the soil. Even before the official RWS certification, Alexis observes, Knit Picks purchased their wool, alpaca, and mohair from certified Responsible Alpaca Standard, Responsible Mohair Standard, and RWS sources. In addition to natural-fiber yarns, they have added several lines that use innovative methods of recycling or reclaiming waste fibers: Oceana (https://www.knitpicks.com/yarn/oceana/c/5420504), which features Seaqual Upcycled Marine Plastic; Salvage (https://www.knitpicks.com/yarn/salvage/c/5420505), which contains recycled cotton; and Samia (https://www.knitpicks.com/yarn/samia/c/5420462), which includes cupro, a silky fiber made from waste cotton produced in a closed-loop process. The environmental concern extends to their wooden needles, which are made from sustainably harvested forests. For Every Knitter (and Dyer and Weaver and Spinner) Although “knit” is right in the name, Knit Picks offers products for other crafts as well (and not just through their sister brand Crochet.com (https://www.crochet.com/)). In addition to finished yarns, Knit Picks offers the Bare (https://www.knitpicks.com/yarn/bare-dye-your-own/c/300110) line of popular yarns ready to be dyed by consumers, as well as a variety of natural and synthetic dye products (https://www.knitpicks.com/accessories/yarn-dyes/c/300508). Spinners can select the wool blends used in some popular Knit Picks yarns as processed wool tops (https://www.knitpicks.com/3001/filter-products?Category=Roving) to make their own yarns. For weavers and machine knitters, the popular Dishie cotton comes on cones as well as in balls, and Alexis reveals that some weights of their staple yarns Wool of the Andes and Palette will be offered on cones soon, too. For nearly 20 years, Knit Picks produced almost every product offered on the site. In recent years, though, they have started supplementing their offerings with select yarns that they believe customers would enjoy, such as Kelbourne Woolens Germantown and Baa Ram Ewe Woodnote. Alexis looks forward to adding yarns from Berroco in upcoming months. In this Spotlight Episode, discover the sustainable side of Knit Picks. Links KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/) High Desert (https://www.knitpicks.com/search?q=high%20desert&filter___category%5B0%5D=Yarn) yarn is Knit Picks's 100% made in America, fully traceable, Responsible Wool Standard-certified yarn featuring Shaniko Wool. Knit Picks's Learning Center (https://www.knitpicks.com/learning-center) includes information about the company and its products as well as knitting instruction and links to the podcast and blog. The Freebies (https://www.knitpicks.com/freebies) page includes a delightful collection of printable tags, care instructions, cheat sheets, and other knitting information you didn't know you needed. This episode is brought to you by: KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

Laverne Waddington discovered weaving by accident—bike accident, to be precise. Recuperating from a mountain biking crash in Utah, she discovered a book on Navajo weaving and was immediately intrigued. A local exhibit of Diné textiles enthralled her, and she set about learning to weave in the Navajo style. Returning to Patagonia, where she had been living, she built a simple loom and explored weaving on her own until it became clear that she would need to move north to satify her hunger for weaving knowledge, settling in Bolivia. Over the following decades, Laverne traveled in South and Central America, learning backstrap techniques from indigenous weavers. Her curiosity has led her to the Andean Highlands, Guatemala, and other regions to learn hand-manipulated and pick-up methods and patterns from skilled local weavers. Laverne loves to explore complex and intricate weaving styles, enjoying the way that each inch of warp and weft passes through her hands in a variety of pick-up techniques. Weaving on a backstrap loom, she sits inside each weaving project. Through videos, online classes, books, and ebooks, she teaches other weavers how to set up a backstrap loom for themselves and weave a variety of patterns. Teaching backstrap and pick-up techniques is as much a part of her practice as deepening her understanding of the weaving structures. In this episode, discover Laverne Waddington's passions and processes. Links Laverne has maintained a blog and weaving journal on her website (https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/) since 2009. Laverne's books (https://www.taprootvideo.com/instructorClasses.jsf?iid=3) are available from Taproot Video. Laverne offers a number of tutorials (https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/tutorials/) of techniques she practices as well as videos (https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/videos/) of a variety of weaving techniques and traditions. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. The Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival is the perfect way to spend a weekend surrounded by over 150 craft vendors in Greenwich, New York. Discover a curated group of vendors featuring the best of wool and artisan crafters. Throughout the weekend enjoy workshops, free horse drawn wagon rides, free kids' crafts, a fiber sheep show, and a sanctioned cashmere goat show. Join us September 21 & 22, 2024, and every fall! For more information visit adkwoolandarts.com. (https://www.adkwoolandarts.com/)

Embrace the potential of your phone's camera, choose indirect lighting (not a flash) to show texture, and get your knits off the ground—these are just a few pieces of Gale Zucker's advice for how to take knitting photos you love. Whether she's shooting in a studio or a barnyard, Gale uses her camera to bring her subjects to life. Gale grew up in a family where everyone learned to knit, and the craft has been a constant since childhood. With a love for the storytelling potential of photography, she studied photojournalism, becoming a stringer for The New York Times and shooting for national publications. Her subjects ranged from intensely serious, even grim, to lighthearted and quirky. Occasionally she found herself on the sheep beat, sent to farms to photograph stories for lifestyle publications. During the knitting-blog boom, she started a website and called it “She Shoots Sheep Shots,” all while continuing her photojournalism and commercial photography work. Invited to propose an idea for a book, she surprised her agent by suggesting a series of photos and profiles of fiber farms across the country, which became the book Shear Spirit. Her work has grown to include more knitting and fiber projects—subjects in which she shares her knowledge in this episode. Although she still photographs a range of commercial and lifestyle projects, Gale finds her lifelong love of knitting thoroughly intertwined with her professional work. And when she's lucky, she still gets to shoot sheep shots. Links Gale Zucker website (https://www.gzucker.com/) She Shoots Sheep Shots (https://www.gzucker.com/she-shoots-sheep-shots) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Yarn Barn of Kansas Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your "local yarn store" with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore. Shaniko Wool Company Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival The Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival is the perfect way to spend a weekend surrounded by over 150 craft vendors in Greenwich, New York. Discover a curated group of vendors featuring the best of wool and artisan crafters. Throughout the weekend enjoy workshops, free horse drawn wagon rides, free kids' crafts, a fiber sheep show, and a sanctioned cashmere goat show. Join us September 21 & 22, 2024, and every fall! For more information visit adkwoolandarts.com. (https://www.adkwoolandarts.com/)

Have you ever opened a book or seen a photograph and thought to yourself, “I have to learn to do that”? When Emily Lymm first fell in love with knitting, she wondered casually if she could turn her passion for fiber arts into a profession. Not seeing many successful pathways to a career in knitting, she continued as a graphic designer. She loved the visual problem-solving of her job, but as time went by, she wished that she could do more to live her values of conservation and environmental responsibility. Then one day, she picked up a copy of Rebecca Burgess's book Fibershed and was immediately captivated with the idea of natural dyeing. She was so certain that she had found her path that she invested in dyepots and equipment, and she set out to learn the nuanced skills to create the colors of her dreams in yarn. She initially experimented with processing her own fiber and having it milled into yarn but quickly realized that she would need to find a millspun option. Responsibly raised non-superwash wool yarns were difficult to find in the variety of weights that she would need to rely on, so she resorted to cold-calling farms in her home state of Oregon. One of her calls reached the perfect partner: Jeanne Carver, owner of Imperial Stock Ranch, produced just the kind of wool that Emily was hoping for—and her new project, Shaniko Wool Company, was beginning to produce the first fully traceable, RWS-certified yarn in the United States. Emily could base her business on yarn that is demonstrated to sequester carbon in the soil, milled within the United States. The path to developing her color range has led her to develop colors using with extracts, home-grown dyestuffs, and a variety of other dye materials. She has found old methods for creating richly saturated colors that coax unexpected colors out of familiar dye materials. She has learned to use time and temperature in her dye chemistry. In this episode, learn how one woman has creates a hand-dyed yarn business—sustainably. Links Wool & Palette's website (https://woolandpalette.com/) and online shop (https://woolandpalette.com/collections/all-weights) Emily sources her non-superwash Merino/Rambouillet wool from Shaniko Wool. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Learn more about the company from founder Jeanne Carver in her episode of the Long Thread Podcast (https://spinoffmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-jeanne-carver-shaniko-wool/). Aurora Silk (https://aurorasilk.com/wp/product-category/natural-dyes/) offers natural dye supplies. Jenny Balfour-Paul, Dominique Cardon, and Anita Quye wrote about the Crutchfield Archive, a collection of natural-dye manuals dating to the 18th century, in Nature's Colorways. (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/natures-colorways?_pos=1&_psq=natures+colorway&_ss=e&_v=1.0) Rebecca Burgess's books [Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy], (https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/fibershed/) and Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rebecca-burgess/harvesting-color/9781579654252/) Color: A Natural History of the Palette (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/49699/color-by-victoria-finlay/) by Victoria Finlay (Random House, 2004) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter. The Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival is the perfect way to spend a weekend surrounded by over 150 craft vendors in Greenwich, New York. Discover a curated group of vendors featuring the best of wool and artisan crafters. Throughout the weekend enjoy workshops, free horse drawn wagon rides, free kids' crafts, a fiber sheep show, and a sanctioned cashmere goat show. Join us September 21 & 22, 2024, and every fall! For more information visit adkwoolandarts.com. (https://www.adkwoolandarts.com/)

Tommye McClure Scanlin had a choice. To make the images she wanted to create with weaving, she could either pursue complex forms of weaving that rely on dobby, jacquard, and draw-loom technology—or she could go the other way and place every color and pick by hand using tapestry techniques and a very simple loom. Preferring a drawing pencil to a calculator, she made the choice that now seems inevitable and dove headlong into tapestry. She speaks of herself modestly as a “picture-maker,” but Tommye's imagery reveals the richness of her surroundings. She has lived most of her life in the Southern Appalachian region of North Georgia, and her artwork delves deeply into the natural world that surrounds her. Her woven work comprises many leaves and plants as well as feathers, seeds, and stones. The restrained subject matter is all the better to play with a variety of styles and perspectives. In addition to her main artistic works, Tommye explores creativity through formal restrictions: using the roll of a die to direct her next color, or challenging herself to add an installment each day in a woven diary. The woven diary project has developed into not only a series of beautiful records spanning more than a decade but also her latest book. Marking Time with Fabric and Thread : Calendars, Diaries, and Journals within Your Fiber Craft describes the daily textile practice of not only weavers but also quilters, embroiderers, and other fiber artists. Tommye's first steps in fiber art came as an art teacher, and she went on to establish the fiber arts program at the University of North Georgia. Now retired from her academic career, she has taught at programs such as the John C. Campbell Folk School, Arrowmont, and Penland. Besides teaching in person, she writes articles and books on tapestry techniques and design principles. Links Tommye McClure Scanlin's website (https://www.scanlintapestry.com/) Gallery of Tommye's daily tapestry diaries (https://www.scanlintapestry.com/tapestrydiary) The Nature of Things: Essays of a Tapestry Weaver (https://www.scanlintapestry.com/new-page) Tapestry Design Basics and Beyond (https://www.scanlintapestry.com/new-page-3) Tommye's latest book is Marking Time with Fabric and Thread : Calendars, Diaries, and Journals within Your Fiber Craft (https://schifferbooks.com/products/marking-time-with-fabric-and-thread?_pos=2&_sid=ce1eb2a0e&_ss=r), available October 2024 Read Tommye's articles for Little Looms (https://littlelooms.com/author/tommye-mcclure-scanlin) and Handwoven (https://handwovenmagazine.com/author/tommye-mcclure-scanlin) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn. Or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Sustainability and regenerative ranching have been a way of life for the ranches of Shaniko Wool Company for decades. They are the first “farm group” in the U.S. to achieve certification to the rigorous international Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVA Regenerative. Shaniko ranches raise Merino/Rambouillet sheep in the Western United States, delivering a fully traceable wool supply that gives back to the Earth and its ecosystems. To learn more, and discover Shaniko's yarn partners, visit ShanikoWoolCompany.com. (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/)

Indigo is a unique dyestuff, no less so for being found in so many different plants. Coaxing the blue hue out of green leaves and onto yarn or cloth requires a combination of chemistry and skill that has arisen across the globe. Rowland and Chinami Ricketts each found their own way to indigo in Tokushima, Japan: Rowland was looking for a sustainable artistic medium after learning that the darkroom chemicals in his photography were making their way into local streams where he was teaching English. Chinami was seeking a colorful lifelong practice working with her hands, and it made sense to pursue the specialty of her region. Tokushima is celebrated as one of the leading centers for indigo cultivation, and both Rowland and Chinami took on an apprenticeship in traditional Japanese methods of working with indigo. Rowland and Chinami are now located in Bloomington, Indiana, where Rowland is a Professor in Indiana University's Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. Though thousands of miles from where they first learned to grow indigo, Indiana also has a temperate climate that suits Persecaria tinctoria plants. Following the cycles of planting, harvesting, and processing, they cultivate a crop of indigo for their own work and to support other artists each year. Rowland's earlier indigo works included noren, a form of decorative home textile that often screens a door, and geometric paste-resist wall hangings. In recent years, he has taken on more large-scale installations that play with light, volume, and even sound; these works have occupied interior and exterior spaces on several continents. Chinami chose to pursue the difficult kasuri technique, a bind-dye-weave method akin to ikat. Chinami creates warp and weft kasuri in patterns that require great skill and precision to dye and weave. Her primary format is narrow-width woven cloth intended for kimono and obi, though recently she has transformed that cloth into wall-mounted artwork. In addition to their separate work, Rowland and Chinami collaborated on Zurashi/Slipped, a large yarn-based work created for the Seattle Art Museum exhibition Ikat. We also spoke about Rowland's explorations of the traditional American coverlet in a few multicolored works. Whether you're drawn to fiber art, traditional textile methods, or the magic of indigo, you'll love this interview. This episode is available in two formats, a full version that includes portions in Japanese and English (available in the Handwoven Library (https://handwovenmagazine.com/library/ESyBfuxJRaCn6bLimw1SXw)) and a voice-over version in English only (available through the regular podcast feed). Links Ricketts Indigo (https://rickettsindigo.com/) Watch Rowland discuss the recent piece Bow as part of Project Atrium (https://youtu.be/NOgNt1XhRvM) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida. See photos of Chinami (https://rickettsindigo.com/kasuri/) as she plans, dyes, and completes a project in kasuri. See Zurashi/Slipped on exhibit at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (https://fwmoa.org/exhibition/rowlandricketts/) until September 1, 2024. The Fort Wayne Museum of Art exhibit also includes a number of pieces from Rowland's series Unbound (https://rickettsindigo.com/unbound/), which uses historical American coverlet patterns in a meditation on the colonial globalism of the triangle trade. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. At Stewart Heritage Farm in New Market, Tennessee, farm to fiber and yarn has been a part of their story for 20 years. Home to a small herd of alpacas, Stewart Heritage produces small-batch roving, yarn, and finished goods available in 100-percent alpaca and natural blends in natural tones and brilliant hand-dyed colors. Discover the fine quality, long-lasting comfort, and soft luxury of alpaca to wear and enjoy in your home. Explore and shop alpaca at stewartheritagefarm.com (https://stewartheritagefarm.com/). The Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival is the perfect way to spend a weekend surrounded by over 150 craft vendors in Greenwich, New York. Discover a curated group of vendors featuring the best of wool and artisan crafters. Throughout the weekend enjoy workshops, free horse drawn wagon rides, free kids' crafts, a fiber sheep show, and a sanctioned cashmere goat show. Join us September 21 & 22, 2024, and every fall! For more information visit adkwoolandarts.com.

Andrew Wells is the third generation of the iconic American yarn manufacturer Brown Sheep Company. Living near the family business outside Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, he grew up giving tours and sweeping the floors when his parents, Peggy and Robert Wells, ran the business. His grandfather, Harlan Brown, had been a sheep and lamb farmer before deciding to begin processing wool yarns, a business he eventually passed along to his daughter and son-in-law. (The company is named not for the color of the sheep but for the Brown family.) In 1980, the following ad appeared in Spin Off magazine: Sheep Company Starts Mill The Brown Sheep Co. of Mitchell, Nebraska, has started a spinning mill. They have wools in gray, black and white and knitting and weaving yarns for sale. For more information write: The Brown Sheep Co., Rt. 1, Mitchell, NE 69357. Send $1 for samples. The risk that Harlan Brown took in 1980 put the family on a course to become an important resource for American crafters. Decades later, Andrew and his family are pushing their commitment to A Building on Tradition The first five decades of Brown Sheep Company have been times of decline for both natural fibers and American manufacturing, but the Wells family continues producing wool yarn. Mantaining consistent quality in the face of such seismic shifts has called on the family's creativity and perseverance. Instead of straying from their core values by moving production overseas or reducing quality, they continue purchasing wool from the American West and creating yarn in their small-town facility. Brown Sheep Company performs as much of the processing as they can do themselves, from spinning through dyeing and packaging. Finding a dye house has become a challenge for many yarn manufacturers, and Western Nebraska has a dry climate with scant water resources. Brown Sheep Company keeps the process within their own hands by doing all their own dyeing. Their dye facility conserves water and energy by filtering waste water to use for the next dye bath (even if it's a different color). The company stores a sample length of each dye lot for years, just to make sure that each skein of Lamb's Pride or Nature Spun will match the same colorway that you bought years ago. The choice of fiber reflects Brown Sheep Company's philosophy, too. Instead of chasing ultrafine fibers that prove less durable in finished goods, Andrew travels to the Center of the Nation Wool Warehouse in South Dakota to choose soft wool in grades appropriate for hats, mittens, scarves, and sweaters. Lamb's Pride blends in some mohair for luster, drape, and durability. The easy-care classics Cotton Fleece and Cotton Fine include enough wool to stay light and elastic, which makes them popular for summer and baby items as well as weaving. Their newest yarn, Harborside Aran, is composed of four plies for a substantial yarn inspired by Irish sweaters; the palette of 17 colors has a rich, slightly heathered look. On the Needles and Beyond These days, Brown Sheep yarns may be most popular for knitting and crochet, but the company has always served a variety of fiber crafts. Lamb's Pride and other non-superwash wool yarns are go-to essentials for fulling (knitted or crocheted feltmaking). The company offers a number of their yarns wound on cones to make them accessible to weavers from pin loom to rigid heddle to multi-shaft. Brown Sheep Company's yarns have been used in weaving since the very beginning, when Harlan Brown sold his yarns to Diné (Navajo) weavers out of his car on his first sales trip. Diné weavers continue to use Brown Sheep yarns in their handwoven textiles, and they are an important partner for the company. Closer to home, the company's Director of Merchandising—and Andrew's wife—Brittany Wells has fallen in love with weaving and design. In addition to designing for magazines such as Handwoven and Little Looms, she created an officially registered pattern for Scotts Bluff County Tartan. Andrew and Brittany's young sons are the fourth generation of the Brown-Wells family to work in the family business—so far, as models. In this spotlight episode, Andrew and Brittany talk about the process of making high-quality wool yarns, the impact that Brown Sheep Company has in the American craft landscape, and what makes them more excited than ever to carry on the family tradition. To see photos of Brown Sheep Company's yarns, the Wells family, and the projects discussed in the episode, visit the show notes at Handwoven magazine. (https://handwovenmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-spotlight-episode-brown-sheep-company/) Links Brown Sheep Company website (https://brownsheep.com/) Visit the Brown Sheep Company blog (https://brownsheep.com/blog/) for knit-alongs, yarn spotlights, and craft tips Subscribe to the Newsletter (https://brownsheep.us16.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=490f4e087335e469026bf3291&id=33e52716c0) Find Brown Sheep Company on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BrownSheepCompany) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/brownsheepco/) Find Brittany's “Quick Guide to Weaving with Brown Sheep Yarns” (https://brownsheep.com/a-quick-guide-to-weaving-with-brown-sheep-yarns/), with advice for multishaft, rigid-heddle, and tapestry looms Watch Peggy and Andrew Wells share the history and values of Brown Sheep Company in their About Us video (https://brownsheep.com/about-us/) See the “Nebraska Stories” (https://youtu.be/IKx7oyJvqtU) feature from Nebraska Public Television Take a class in person at the Brown Sheep Schoolhouse (https://www.brownsheepschool.com/) near Scotts Bluff, Nebraska This episode is brought to you by: Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/).

Working together in a Philadelphia yarn store, Kate Gagnon Osborn and Courtney Kelley learned how to help customers choose the right yarn for a project, welcome in timid new knitters, and create samples to help move yarn out the door. They learned what didn't work (donut-shaped balls of yarn that hopped off the shelves and tangled, patterns that used a few yards of a 100-gram skein) and what did (unfussy classic yarns, wearable sweaters, and lots of fun-to-knit hats). They founded Kelbourne Woolens in 2008 to offer yarns and patterns to local yarn shops like the one where they met. Their academic and artistic backgrounds gave them a love of fibers—both studied weaving and dyeing—but much of what they've learned in business has been gleaned through trial and error, common sense, and their extraordinarily collaborative partnership. They have developed a slightly eclectic grouping of yarns based on natural fibers: a range of colorwork-friendly 100% wools, a trio of heathered and tweed yarns milled in the Donegal tradition, some lightweight summer cottons, a mohair blend, and several other projects at various stages of development. Their Germantown yarn, named for the Philadephia neighborhood and the centuries-old American wool yarn tradition, was fueled by Courtney's love of history and Kelbourne's desire to offer a domestically grown and spun yarn that welcomes knitters at all levels. In addition to developing yarns for the Kelbourne Woolens label, they distribute a small number of other yarn companies, bringing their yarns to American knitteyarn stores. That includes Faroese company Navia, which preserves the knitting and agricultural heritage of a tiny group of North Atlantic islands, and Misha & Puff, a knitwear company that offers a RWS-certified line of yarns and patterns. Having recently opened a retail space attached to their warehouse in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadephia, Kate and Courtney now have their own space to welcome knitters in person, experience the currents of the knitting world, and learn to suppport other yarn shops. Links Kelbourne Woolens's website (https://kelbournewoolens.com/) and store locator (https://kelbournewoolens.com/pages/store-locator) Read more about the history of Germantown yarns in “Yarn with a History as Old as America” in PieceWork Winter 2022. (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/piecework-winter-2022) The Wool Islands, (https://www.thewoolislands.com/) a short documentary about Faroese wool and yarn This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

If you knit, spin, sew, weave, or follow any crafty pursuit, you will not be surprised that many of our most common metaphors come from textiles. They are interwoven in our vocabulary, and whether you like to spin a yarn from words or fibers, you will recognize many of them. But then there are the words whose textile roots are less obvious: Rocket. Bombastic. And we've forgotten the regional roots of some kinds of fabric, where the skill and creativity refined in a particular place produced an exceptional kind of cloth. You might know what fiber comes from Kashmir, but can you identify the sources of muslin, gauze, damask, or calico? You might know that the pejorative term “shoddy” comes from the fabric trade, but can you identify the roots of tawdry, sleazy, and chintzy? In this episode, Jess Zafarris and I trace the threads of textiles in our vocabulary. Jess is co-host of Words Unravelled (one of my favorite podcasts) and author of several books, most recently Words from Hell: Unearthing the Darkest Secrets of English Etymology (https://bookshop.org/p/books/words-from-hell-unearthing-the-darkest-secrets-of-english-etymology-jess-zafarris/19652293). Links Useless Etymology website (https://uselessetymology.com/) Words Unravelled with RobWords and Jess Zafarris podcast audio (https://audioboom.com/channels/5128892-words-unravelled-with-robwords-and-jess-zafarris) and video (https://youtu.be/ThxUBOUnRLM) Useless Etymology Instagram @uselessetymology (https://www.instagram.com/uselessetymology/) Rigmaroles & Ragamuffins: Unpicking Words We Derive from Textiles and Ruffians and Loose Women: More Words Derived from Textiles by Elinor Kapp are available from the author. (https://shewhoembroidersthetruth.com/books/) Dhaka muslin (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210316-the-legendary-fabric-that-no-one-knows-how-to-make) “Drizzling: A Regency Rainy-Day Hobby” (https://handwovenmagazine.com/drizzling-regency-hobby/) Shoddy From Devil's Dust to the Renaissance of Rags (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo24045083.html) by Hannah Rose Shell This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Yan Barn of Kansas Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your "local yarn store" with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore.

When Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan's friend lost her mother, she had the challenge of going through her mother's things while grieving her loss. Among her posessions was something almost every crafter has at least one of: a work in progress. Jen and Masey had each finished projects for bereaved family members before, but neither of them could take on this one, a pair of crocheted blankets for two very tall sons. If the two of them were happy to finish a loved one's unfinished craft project, they thought, other fiber artists would be willing to do it, too—fiber artists with a variety of craft skills. And there must be families of deceased crafters who weren't lucky to know someone personally who could take on the task but would treasure having a finished item that their loved one began for them. So began Loose Ends (https://looseends.org/), an organization that Jen and Masey think of as matchmakers for heirs and finishers of uncompleted works, Loose Ends, which was established in May 2023 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, set out to build a network that connects volunteer crafters with local families to complete projects that were left unfinished by death or disability. Hanging flyers near their homes, Jen and Masey quickly found finishers and projects in crochet, knitting, and quilting. Loose Ends currently seeks finishers in any textile handcraft and matches finishers with projects across the world. Projects under way include weaving, embroidery, and beading, as far afield as Alaska, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Their informational flyer is now available in 12 languages. You may be surprised to learn that for about 2,000 projects in process, 25,000 volunteers have signed up as finishers—so crafters far outnumber craft projects at this time. But Loose Ends is always looking for more volunteer finishers, both to cover a variety of crafts and to match families with nearby finishers when possible. Any of us who love making things with our hands hate to think of our work in progress going to waste, languishing in boxes or (worse) winding up in the trash if we're not able to finish them ourselves. By matching finishers and unfinished works, Loose Ends brings solace to families of deceased crafters and honors the work of their loved ones. Links: Loose Ends Project website (https://looseends.org/) Sign up as a finisher or request help with a loved one's project on the web forms (https://app.looseendsproject.org/). Help families and finishers find Loose Ends by hanging flyers (https://looseends.org/flyers), which are available in several languages. Visit the website to make a donation (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/65186b43-546a-4077-a1d2-a7998a7ef83f). This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. At Stewart Heritage Farm in New Market, Tennessee, farm to fiber and yarn has been a part of their story for 20 years. Home to a small herd of alpacas, Stewart Heritage produces small-batch roving, yarn, and finished goods available in 100-percent alpaca and natural blends in natural tones and brilliant hand-dyed colors. Discover the fine quality, long-lasting comfort, and soft luxury of alpaca to wear and enjoy in your home. Explore and shop alpaca at stewartheritagefarm.com (https://stewartheritagefarm.com/). Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/). KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

A career professional at Levi Strauss & Company, Eileen Lee learned about dyeing, weaving, and sewing on an international scale: giant factories full of loud looms weaving 2/2 twill, pattern pieces cut out of four-foot-high stacks of cloth, and no possibility of adding a tuck here or a dart there without retooling. During her years in the industry, Eileen saw major shifts in the market for the company's signature product, as their target customer began to look elsewhere and their manufacturing shifted overseas. A century ago, Eileen's grandmother saw a tradition on the cusp of changing, even disappearing. Hawaiian quilting grew from the basic stitches taught by Christian missionaries into a distinct cultural tradition, with large appliqué motifs and echo quilting lines. But the quilters who made these quilts didn't share them outside their families; some quilts were burned to keep their designs a secret. Hannah Ku´umililani Cummings Baker threw open her cache of quilt designs and taught the skill to anyone who cared to learn, creating both a wider market and a fresh generation of quilters. One of her students was her granddaughter Eileen, who wrote about her grandmother in PieceWork Summer 2021. From her grandmother's tutelage to a career in mass-market textiles to her current studio and teaching practice, Eileen Lee's story is woven and stitched together. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn. Or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/).

Lilly Marsh creates blankets, shawls, and other cloth, almost exclusively from local wool. Working closely with farmers and the nearby Battenkill Fiber Mill, she gets to know not only her neighbors but the fibers they grow: the surprisingly lovely wool from East Friesian sheep raised to produce milk, the springy Dorset crosses that are popular in the region, and other fibers of the Hudson Valley Textile Network. Formerly a shepherd herself, Lilly knows how important and unique this wool is to the families who raise it. She is a full-time professional custom weaver. “I weave primarily with all local wool,” she says. “That's what I do full time, day after day after day.” The cloth that she weaves helps farms and small businesses transform their fibers into finished products that shoppers at a farmers' market can take home and enjoy. She sees her role as weaver not as the sole artistic voice directing textile production but as one link in the chain between farm and consumer. Lilly appreciates her complex, powerful looms and their ability to create dynamic cloth, but the designs that make her heart sing are the ones that bring out the best in her materials. Where many weavers gravitate toward cotton, silk, and lyocell, she finds wool yarns fascinating and nuanced. At earlier points in her textile journey, Lilly was a shepherd herself, raising a flock of Corriedales in Indiana. She earned a PhD in America Studies, focusing on the work of knitter Elizabeth Zimmermann. As she expands her studio and deepens her work with the Hudson Valley Textile Project, she says, "What else would I do with my time? This is what I want to do. If you ask me what I want to do tomorrow, I want to show up at my studio and see what else we can make. Wow, that's what I want to do." Links Lilly March Studios (https://lillymarshstudios.com/) Hudson Valley Textile Project (https://www.hvtextileproject.org/) Long Thread Podcast interview with Mary Jeanne Packer (https://farmfiberknits.com/long-thread-podcast-mary-jeanne-packer-battenkill-fibers-carding-spinning-mill/) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. At Stewart Heritage Farm in New Market, Tennessee, farm to fiber and yarn has been a part of their story for 20 years. Home to a small herd of alpacas, Stewart Heritage produces small-batch roving, yarn, and finished goods available in 100-percent alpaca and natural blends in natural tones and brilliant hand-dyed colors. Discover the fine quality, long-lasting comfort, and soft luxury of alpaca to wear and enjoy in your home. Explore and shop alpaca at stewartheritagefarm.com (https://stewartheritagefarm.com/). Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/). KnitPicks.com has been serving the knitting community for over 20 years and believes knitting is for everyone, which is why they work hard to make knitting accessible, affordable, and approachable. Knit Picks responsibly sources its fiber to create an extensive selection of affordable yarns like High Desert from Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. Are you looking for an ethical, eco-friendly yarn to try? Look no further than Knit Picks' Eco yarn line. Need needles? Knit Picks makes a selection for knitters right at their Vancouver, Washington headquarters. KnitPicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/)—a place for every knitter.

The call of complexity draws some weavers to more shafts, more structures, more hand-manipulated techniques. For Annie MacHale, refining the techniques and celebrating the artistry of very simple bands has been a lifelong fascination. Starting when she first picked up a shuttle and inkle loom in her teens, Annie has worked in wool, cotton, and hemp, creating practical cloth that's just a few inches wide. Any bandweaver has heard the question more times than they can count: “But what can you do with it?” Annie replies, “The uses are limited only by your imagination.” Her work has found an avid audience and market among guitarists and reenactors. The simplicity of an inkle band is its key to versatility as a strap or ribbon. “A woven band can be so many things to so many people, and in the world of weaving, it's very simple, but it's also very useful,” she says. “That's what attracted me to inkle weaving.” (She has a list of uses on her website for anyone who weaves more bands than they currently have a use for.) Although Annie describes her own approach to design as spontaneous, her first book contains an extensive directory of patterns and palettes for weaving inkle bands. In Celebration of Plain Weave can be read as a response to the idea that making plain bands isn't real weaving. “It seemed to me there was this general sense that plain weave wasn't all that interesting, that if you wanted to do something cool, you either had to learn some pickup technique or do card weaving. And I disagree with that,” she says. Plain weave holds plenty to keep her engaged and exploring, but Annie also plays with pick-up in her work. Her second book focuses on an unusual and complex Baltic technique using three warp colors. She also loves finding connections between her bandweaving and traditional weaving techniques from around the world, from banded Chimayo designs to Scandinavian backstrap bands to Andean pickup. Besides weaving miles of inkle bands on her own, Annie enjoys teaching inkle weaving, including basic skills, color and design, and several methods of pickup. “Have loom, will travel,” she says, referring to her upcoming classes across the country (listed on her website). Links Annie MacHale's website (http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/) Upcoming class schedule (https://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/classes.html) In Celebration of Plain Weave (https://taprootvideo.com/preview_class.jsf?iid=12&cid=1) Three-Color Pickup for Inkle Weavers (https://taprootvideo.com/preview_class.jsf?iid=12&cid=2) “Inkle Weaving Basics” (https://taprootvideo.com/preview_class.jsf?iid=12&cid=3) (free class on Taproot Video) “Uses for a Woven Band” (https://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/uses-for-woven-band.html) Annie's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/aspinnerweaver/) Annie's woven guitar straps (https://weaverguitarstraps.com/) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your “local yarn store” with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore. Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/).

“Rule number one: Never drink the dye bath.” Indigo and cochineal may be the most widely recognized natural dyes for many fiber artists, and there's little temptation of sampling an indigo vat or pot of ground insects. But a simmering kettle of dye mushrooms or lichens? That might smell delicious, but if you're in a class with Alissa Allen, it's not soup you're making—it's an amazing range of colors. Depending on the species you find and the methods of extraction, you may get not only earthy browns and yellows but vivid purple, magenta, green, and more. “Mycopigments,” the term that Alissa coined to talk about her work, draws from the word “mycology,” or the study of fungi. From her background as an ecologist with an interest in foraging, she has become an expert and sought-after teacher on the art of extracting pigments from mushrooms and lichens. As interest in mushroom dyeing has grown, the Facebook group she founded on the subject has become a popular international resource for aspiring color foragers. One of the most intriguing elements of mushroom dyeing is the regional variation, not only in the mushrooms and lichens available but what influences come from the local biology. To make sure that her students have a good experience in a particular region, Alissa gathers and dries samples in preparation for classes. Having taught from coast to coast, and with a series of classes in Oaxaca, Mexico this fall, her library of mushroom samples is substantial. She sometimes ventures out mushroom-hunting with a small kit to test potential dye sources in the field. Essential to Alissa's work is careful and respectful foraging practice—not, as you might think, to avoid toxic mushrooms but to leave enough fungi and lichens to fulfill their roles in the ecosystem. Collecting only a portion of the specimens she finds and never purchasing dyestuffs gives her enough to dye and teach. And the whole process is a source of wonder: What do these chemical compounds do for the mushrooms and fungi that they're found in? Why did the first person decide to try extracting color from them in the first place? Why do the dyed products so often come out different colors from the original mushrooms? Listen as Alissa Allen shares some of the natural delights that she finds in unexpected places. Links Mycopigments website (https://www.mycopigments.com/) Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/mycopigments/) Mycopigments Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mycopigments/) Schedule of Alissa's classes (https://www.mycopigments.com/collections/classes) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. At Stewart Heritage Farm in New Market, Tennessee, farm to fiber and yarn has been a part of their story for 20 years. Home to a small herd of alpacas, Stewart Heritage produces small-batch roving, yarn, and finished goods available in 100-percent alpaca and natural blends in natural tones and brilliant hand-dyed colors. Discover the fine quality, long-lasting comfort, and soft luxury of alpaca to wear and enjoy in your home. Explore and shop alpaca at stewartheritagefarm.com (https://stewartheritagefarm.com/). Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/).

In a period when agriculture moved toward chemicals, genetic engineering, and monoculture, Sally Fox decided to explore what could happen if she collaborated with nature instead of fighting it. With an academic background in entomology, she studied ways to minimize the amount of pesticides needed to grow crops, and the more she saw the effects of those chemicals, the more she wanted to steer clear. Looking to avoid synthetic dyes, she was intrigued when she came across a few seeds of naturally colored brown cotton, which is naturally pest-resistant. According to conventional wisdom, brown cotton couldn't be bred to have a staple long enough for textile mills to process it commercially. Only easily dyed, longer stapled white cotton was suitable for large-scale use, the thinking went. But Sally decided to try anyway, breeding a few plants on the side as she continued working in agricultural research. Over time, she saw interesting results, including a range of green and brown hues; more washfast and lightfast color; longer staples; memory; even improved flame resistance. As a spinner and weaver, Sally had a unique advantage as she developed her cotton lines: the help of skilled spinners who tried her samples and put them through a variety of tests. It was the handspinners who introduced the idea of boiling the cotton yarn, which weakened some colors and strengthened others that she brought forward. The support of handspinners and weavers helped sustain Sally through challenging decades when conventional agriculture threatened her work and her livelihood. Her cotton proved naysayers wrong: organic and naturally colored cotton could be spun at industrial scale and provide similar or better results to conventional cotton. Today, Sally's textile work is recognized not only for creating beautiful fiber and minimizing avoiding chemical pesticides and dyes but also fixing carbon in the soil. On her farm, she raises naturally colored finewool sheep and heirloom wheat in rotation with cotton. Like the fibers she has cultivated, her farm expands our ideas of what's possible in organic agriculture. Links Vreseis website (https://www.vreseis.com/) Fiber, fabric, and yarn in the Vreseis shop (https://www.vreseis.com/shop) Vreseis's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vreseis) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Yarn Barn of Kansas You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn. Or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Brown Sheep Company Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com (https://brownsheep.com/).

When Susan Bateman first opened Yarn Barn of Kansas in 1971, a woman starting a small business couldn't get a credit card in her own name. Weavers like her had a hard time finding yarns, tools, and other supplies, some of which were only available from overseas, and she thought there must be an opportunity to bring fiber artists more of what they needed. Susan and her husband, Jim, have spent decades building the kind of store she wanted to see when she was learning to weave and hoping to grow her fiber skills: one with a wide selection of yarns, a lively education program, and lots and lots of books. Yarn Barn of Kansas occupies thousands of square feet with a storefront, classroom, and a massive warehouse stacked with boxes of yarn. (Jim says that he can easily prove that they have ten tons of inventory, and the stock room has a directory to help staff find just the right box.) Although the shop has Kansas right in the name, many of the store's customers never set foot in the Lawrence, Kansas storefront. Susan and Jim make regular trips to fiber arts conferences from coast to coast, some years as many as one per month, always with that extensive (and heavy) selection of books that are difficult to find elsewhere. But many customers will never meet them or their staff in person anywhere. Beginning with printed catalogs and continuing with their website, Yarn Barn of Kansas meets many fiber artists where they are—literally, shipping to nearly all of the 50 United States every month. That doesn't mean they're strangers, though. Customers across the country call the shop for advice, troubleshooting, and some quick how-to in addition to placing orders. The shop has a full roster of classes in a variety of crafts, but much of the teaching that the staff does every day is unscheduled help by phone or in person. Between answering customers' questions and taking orders, Susan and other staff design projects and create samples to help customers use the yarns and techniques on offer. Although they have offered classes and supplies for crafts from basketry to needlepoint to lacemaking in the past, Yarn Barn of Kansas currently focuses on weaving, spinning, knitting, and crochet. The store may be best known nationally as a weaving supplier, but closer to home, most of their local customers come for knitting. Susan and Jim had that range of customers in mind when thinking of their newest venture, a 100% organic cotton yarn from fiber sourced in Texas and spun and dyed in North Carolina. The unmercerized 4/2 yarn in 45 colors is a versatile size for crochet, rigid-heddle and multishaft weaving, and knitting. They've called the yarn Ad Astra, in recognition of Kansas's state motto). Links Yarn Barn of Kansas website (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) Discover Ad Astra (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/Ad-Astra-4_2-Cotton/productinfo/WY%2DADAS42%2D/), the new organic cotton yarn Read about Classes (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/Classes/departments/410/) Subscribe to the Newsletter (https://yarnbarn-ks.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=899d1417b1baaa14275593bfe&id=845ac91a43) Find Yarn Barn of Kansas on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/yarnbarnks/) Read Susan Bateman and Melissa Parson's series on weaving best practices for beginners and beyond at Handwoven (https://handwovenmagazine.com/best-practices-beginning-weaving-series/) This episode is brought to you by: Yarn Barn of Kansas Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your “local yarn store,” with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore.

There may be no other type of textile that is more art and craft at the same time than tapestry weaving. Tapestry allows the weaver to create images with simple tools, but the skills and materials in tapestry are generally hard-wearing. You might find a tapestry on the floor as a rug as often as on a wall as a piece of art. Rebecca Mezoff became a tapestry weaver after a career in occupational therapy, finding that it suited her artistically and let her use other skills she loved, such as teaching, dyeing, and spinning. She weaves very large pieces in her studio and very small pieces in outdoor spaces that she explores with a small handheld loom. In addition to teaching in person and online, she is the author of two books. Links The Art of Tapestry Weaving (https://rebeccamezoff.com/the-art-of-tapestry-weaving) Untangled: A Crafty Sheep's Guide to Tapestry Weaving (https://rebeccamezoff.com/untangled) Online classes (https://rebeccamezoff.com/online-learning) Rebecca's article “Weaving with Handspun: What Makes a Good Tapestry Yarn?” (https://spinoffmagazine.com/weaving-handspun-makes-good-tapestry-yarn/) appeared in Spin Off Spring 2017. (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/spin-off-spring-2017-download?_pos=1&_sid=86b50d00b&_ss=r) Listen to our interview (https://spinoffmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-maggie-casey-and-judy-steinkoenig/) with Rebecca's spinning teacher, Maggie Casey, on the Long Thread Podcast. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. At Stewart Heritage Farm in New Market, Tennessee, farm to fiber and yarn has been a part of their story for 20 years. Home to a small herd of alpacas, Stewart Heritage produces small-batch roving, yarn, and finished goods available in 100-percent alpaca and natural blends in natural tones and brilliant hand-dyed colors. Discover the fine quality, long-lasting comfort, and soft luxury of alpaca to wear and enjoy in your home. Explore and shop alpaca at stewartheritagefarm.com (https://stewartheritagefarm.com/). Peters Valley School of Craft enriches lives through the learning, appreciation and practice of fine craft. For more than 50 years, accomplished artists and students have come together in community at our craft school for powerful creativity and joyous life-long learning in the beautiful Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We are firmly dedicated to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access through all of our programs. We value and welcome the experienced professional artist, the new learner, the collector—and everyone in between who can be touched by the power of craft. Visit petersvalley.org (https://petersvalley.org/) to start your journey today!

For Hannah Thiessen Howard, slow knitting isn't about the speed of making stitches or finishing projects. Swift and leisurely knitters alike can embrace the purpose and experience of knitting and how it connects crafter to community. Selecting materials, choosing projects, and approaching your work with an open mind all contribute to a meaningful knitting life. Knitting can offer refuge, inspiration, and self-expression. It can also be a step, large or small, toward bringing about the kind of world that you'd like to see. From her first yarn-industry internship at a large international company, Hannah has gravitated to smaller and more independent projects, such as her work with the Hudson Valley Textile Project and consulting with small fiber-based companies. She has a new project in the works, a yarn-focused stock image website, that will provide photo resources that accurately reflect what crafts and crafters look like. Although knitting is her primary professional focus, Hannah's fiber practice wouldn't be complete without spinning, both for the education it offers about yarn properties and for the connection to animals and farms. Not only do spinners have a more intimate experience with a fiber source, but they often provide meaningful financial support fiber farmers. And what could be a better complement to slow knitting than the hands-on process of making yarn yourself? Hannah's latest yarn passion is the carefully, lovingly curated collection that so many knitters mention with a hint of shame: her stash. Diving into the skeins she's adopted over the years is an opportunity to reflect on her slow-knitting values . . . and decide what she wants to carry forward. Links Hannah Thiessen Howard's website (https://slow-knitting.com/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hannahbelleknits/) Slow Knitting (https://slow-knitting.com/shop/p/slow-knitting) and Seasonal Slow Knitting (https://slow-knitting.com/shop/p/seasonal-slow-knitting) books By Hand Serial (https://www.byhandserial.com/) Greater Cumberland Fibershed (https://fibershed.org/affiliate/greater-cumberland-fibershed/) Hudson Valley Textile Project's Common Threads (https://www.hvtextileproject.org/common-threads-publication) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Yarn Barn of Kansas Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your "local yarn store" with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to shop, learn, and explore. Peters Valley School of Craft logo Peters Valley School of Craft enriches lives through the learning, appreciation and practice of fine craft. For more than 50 years, accomplished artists and students have come together in community at our craft school for powerful creativity and joyous life-long learning in the beautiful Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We are firmly dedicated to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access through all of our programs. We value and welcome the experienced professional artist, the new learner, the collector—and everyone in between who can be touched by the power of craft. Visit petersvalley.org (https://petersvalley.org/) to start your journey today!

Although she grew up in the freezing winters of New York, Keisha Cameron and her husband decided to move their young family to a rural spot outside Atlanta, Georgia, to set down roots and rebuild their collection to the land. They began with raising what their family needed for food and other daily necessities, but over the past decade, High Hog Farm has developed stocks of rare-breed sheep, angora rabbits, and chickens. In their gardens, the family cultivate produce as well as medicinal and dye plants. As returning-generation farmers, they not only love what they do, they also feel an obligation as stewards of their land. Rediscovering the traditional ways of cultivating and using plants, Keisha has sampled different types of indigo, madder, marigolds, and a range of dyestuffs. The farm offers naturally dyed fibers as well as dyestuffs and classes in natural dyeing. As she grows attuned to her soil, she appreciates the multiple roles that a single plant can play. As a seedkeeper, she focuses on not only preserving a diversity of plants but on reviving the knowledge of how they can serve a variety of needs. Although High Hog has been home to a variety of different farm animals, Keisha fell in love with sheep. She felt an instant affinity for Gulf Coast Natives, a rare breed that can carry color genetics and are exceptionally well suited to her location. Her insistence on participating fully in the lives of her animals has led her to explore fiber arts—but also to learn the demanding skill of shearing. As a crucial part of her animals' health, shearing is too important to leave undone if they can't locate a shearer when needed. For followers around the country, High Hog Farm is mainly accessible through their newly relaunched website and online store (as well as their enchanting social media accounts). For the community closer at hand, the farm has developed a variety of programs in fiber arts, photography, food preservation, and a variety of other agrarian arts. On being part of the grassroots fiber community, Keisha says, “I want to encourage everybody else, all the fiber artists and fiber and dye growers, to keep doing what you're doing, because we are the people who are bringing color to the world.” Links High Hog Farm website (https://highhog.farm/) High Hog Farm's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/highhogfarm/) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Stewart Heritage Farm At Stewart Heritage Farm in New Market, Tennessee, farm to fiber and yarn has been a part of their story for 20 years. Home to a small herd of alpacas, Stewart Heritage produces small-batch roving, yarn, and finished goods available in 100-percent alpaca and natural blends in natural tones and brilliant hand-dyed colors. Discover the fine quality, long-lasting comfort, and soft luxury of alpaca to wear and enjoy in your home. Explore and shop alpaca at stewartheritagefarm.com (https://stewartheritagefarm.com/). Peters Valley School of Craft Peters Valley School of Craft enriches lives through the learning, appreciation and practice of fine craft. For more than 50 years, accomplished artists and students have come together in community at our craft school for powerful creativity and joyous life-long learning in the beautiful Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We are firmly dedicated to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access through all of our programs. We value and welcome the experienced professional artist, the new learner, the collector—and everyone in between who can be touched by the power of craft. Visit petersvalley.org (https://petersvalley.org/) to start your journey today!

Justin Squizzero loves exploring the frontiers of technology, seeing how he can tune a piece of equipment to produce a complex textile. The technology that fascinates him reached its peak before the 20th century. Weaving on an old loom doesn't mean trying to turn back time, though—it means choosing the most refined technology to create the handwoven fabrics that he envisions. If a modern tool is better than the historic one (like the laser cutter that produced the small metal rings called mails, which were needed to to convert his loom from weaving coverlets to damask), that would be one thing. For all the supposed advances in technology in the last several hundred years, though, the best tool for weaving fine linen damask is still the one invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard more than 200 years ago. Studying with Norman Kennedy and Kate Smith at the Marshfield School of Weaving helped Justin deepen his understanding of and fascination with the tools and techniques of 18th- and 19th-century weaving. What began as a winter occupation between summers working in museums led to beginning a business as a traditional handweaver, becoming a regular teacher in School's unique curriculum, and most recently taking on the role as its Director. In Justin's weaving practice, discovery and ingenuity are as vital looking to the past as to the future. Visit the show notes page (https://handwovenmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-justin-squizzero/) to see a photo of Justin's Jacquard loom. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Yarn Barn of Kansas You're ready to start a new project but don't have the right yarn. Or you have the yarn but not the right tool. Yarn Barn of Kansas can help! They stock a wide range of materials and equipment for knitting, weaving, spinning, and crochet. They ship all over the country, usually within a day or two of receiving the order. Plan your project this week, start working on it next week! See yarnbarn-ks.com (https://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/) to get started. Links The Burroughs Garret (https://www.theburroughsgarret.com/) Marshfield School of Weaving (https://www.marshfieldschoolofweaving.org/)

Kaffe Fassett doesn't play favorites in his work—he doesn't have a favorite medium, and he definitely doesn't have a favorite color. What he has is a powerful delight in combining the simple elements of color, line, and image, and a passion for helping other people share in that joy. For someone whose career is inextricably linked to stitching, his needlework techniques are surprisingly simple. “I'm never interested in technical acrobatics,” he says. “I think that color is what is fabulous, and you know, a beautiful image that has beautiful colors doesn't need to go any further.” Some of his best-known work layers brightly colored cotton fabrics of his own design into patchwork quilts, which he takes to beautiful locations to photograph. Yet one of the textiles he's excited about is a vintage patchwork quilt top worked in diamonds and squares, with striking contrasts placed next to soothing harmonies. Visit the show notes page at pieceworkmagazine.com (https://pieceworkmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-kaffe-fassett) to see a photo of the quilt. Kaffe's work has expanded into so many formats in part because of a series of remarkable collaborations, both with companies (including Rowan, FreeSpirit Fabrics, and Peruvian Connection) and other artists. When sharing ideas or teaching, particularly with partner Brandon Mably, the enjoyment of seeing the spark of creative understanding in someone else is part of the joy. “That's what I would say to people: you know, the first thing is, get friends who are sympathetic to your dream. Try to find somebody who's going to encourage you rather than discourage you.” As the first living textile artist to have a show at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Kaffe's artwork is valued and renowned the world over—yet through books, patterns, and his own “paint box” of fabrics and materials, his work is accessible to every crafter. This episode is brought to you by Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links Kaffe Fassett Studio (https://www.kaffefassett.com/) List of Kaffe Fassett books (https://www.kaffefassett.com/publications/) Find a listing of Kaffe's events (https://www.kaffefassett.com/about/events/) Kaffe's designs and collaborations in yarn, needlepoint, and quilting fabrics are available on his website. (https://www.kaffefassett.com/gallery/)

Between the sheep in the field and the lovely yarn in your hands lies the complex network of the wool industry. Fiber must be scoured, spun, and maybe dyed, and it all starts with shearing. Attending a Fibershed symposium in 2012, Stephany Wilkes was surprised to learn that one of the barriers to local fiber production was a lack of trained shearers. A knitter and software developer, she had no hands-on livestock experience when she signed up for a shearing class through an extension center and found herself up to her elbows in wool. Despite the grueling labor and intensely specialized learning process, she relished the work and the way it pushed her squarely into the world of American fiber production. Ten years into her career as a sheep shearer and wool classer, Stephany has supported small flocks, a small mill, and her fibershed. Her 2018 book, Raw Material: Working Wool in the West, is a riveting chronicle of her immersion in the world of sheep and wool. As a shearing instructor and catalyst for transformation in the fiber community, she has made it her business to improve the conditions and the market for quality wool. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links Stephany Wilkes website (https://stephanywilkes.com/) Raw Material book (https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/raw-material) Fibershed (https://fibershed.org/) Mendocino Wool & Fiber (https://www.mendowool.com/) mill Lani's Lana (https://lanislana.com/) Stephany's article “Lani's Lana: Sheep, Landscape, and Western Wool” appeared in Spin Off Winter 2023. (https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/spin-off-winter-2023) Wild Oat Hollow (https://www.wildoathollow.com/) Happy Goat (https://www.visithappygoat.com/) cashmere and contract grazing project Kaos Sheep Outfit (https://fibershed.org/producers/kaos-sheep-outfit/) Shave 'em to Save 'em (https://livestockconservancy.org/get-involved/shave-em-to-save-em/)

What do you get when a crafter who loves colorful hand-dyed yarns (and hates stalking shop updates) crosses paths with a fresh, new yarn producer? Like many of her knitter friends in 2013, Lisa Chamoff was enchanted by the artful and expressive work of the independent dyers whose skeins were cropping up around the yarn world. Shoppers found new favorites by word of mouth, hearing about a new colorway or restock here and there. At the same time, talented dyers with fledgling businesses relied on that word of mouth to sell a few skeins at a time. Lisa saw an opportunity for a new kind of website: a marketplace where shoppers and dyers could come together to share new work. Indie Untangled opened for discovery. After a few months of the online marketplace, Lisa realized that the hand-dyed-yarn fans who visit her site wanted more than just two days at the annual New York Sheep and Wool Festival (“Rhinebeck”). Gathering on the Friday before the larger festival, a group of crafters were interested in extending the weekend's shopping and social opportunities. There was also an opportunity for smaller and newer yarn companies, who didn't have booths at the larger show, to introduce themselves to an audience eager for the next new thing. Beginning with just a few booths, the Indie Untangled event is now an anchor of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival weekend, drawing a few dozen vendors and offering timed shopping opportunities. Although most of Indie Untangled's offerings connect shoppers and dyers directly, Lisa also collaborates with dyers and yarn producers for Indie Untangled-exclusive projects, beginning with the Knitting Our National Parks Collection. The latest project is the yearlong subscription Heritage Wool Collective, which pairs dyers with unique yarns from small farms and mills, beginning in 2024. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links Heritage Wool Collective Subscription (https://shop.indieuntangled.com/collections/subscriptions/products/heritage-wool-collective) Indie Untangled (https://indieuntangled.com/) Rhinebeck Indie Untangled Event (https://indieuntangled.com/rhinebeck/) Indie Untangled Marketplace (https://indieuntangled.com/marketplace/) Knitting Our National Parks Series (https://shop.indieuntangled.com/collections/knitting-our-national-parks)

[Sponsored Content] If you've been weaving, knitting, or playing with fiber for long—or if you've passed some fiber animals in a field—you probably think you know what an alpaca looks like: a fluffy creature with a long neck and spade-shaped ears. But you may not know that there's a different kind of alpaca, one whose coat grows in long, silky ringlets instead of an allover fluffy halo. Suri alpacas make up a small fraction of the alpacas, both worldwide and in the United States, but their special fiber is worth checking out. The number of Suri alpacas isn't specifically known, but they're estimated to make up as little as 5–10% of the population, with the remainder being Huacaya alpacas. But although Huacayas dominate in numbers, Suris are gaining recognition, in part thanks to a group of farmers who formed an association to promote the breed. The Suri Network strives to “protect, preserve, and promote the Suri alpaca” by educating fiber artists and farmers about this special fiber. What makes Suri alpacas different is the exceptionally long, lustrous, silky locks of fiber that they produce. Growing as much as 7" per year on a young animal, Suri fiber is far longer than almost any other animal-based fiber. When spun into yarn, it is strong and feels even softer than its micron count would suggest. The smooth fiber is a treat to work with on its own, and it also brings strength and softness to fiber blends. In recognition of the unique properties of the fiber, Suri Network has taken the unusual step of developing a trademark program, an indication to consumers that the producers have met the breed standards in a number of areas, including animal husbandry and suiting the fiber to its best purpose. In this episode, Suri Network members and Suri producers Liz Vahlkamp of Salt River Alpacas and Laurel Shouvlin of Bluebird Hills Farm describe what makes Suri alpacas special, what fiber artists can expect from working with Suri fiber, and how the Suri breed is taking its place in the world of yarn and fiber. This episode is brought to you by: Suri Network The Suri Network (https://surinetwork.org/) was established in 1997 to assist its members to protect, preserve, and promote the Suri alpaca. Since its beginnings, the Suri Network has been at the forefront of the alpaca industry promoting both the Suri alpaca and the use of its wondrous fleece. Links Suri Network (https://surinetwork.org/) Suri Simply Stunning (https://surinetwork.org/Suri-Simply-Stunning) Sip and Share (https://www.surinetwork.org/Sip-and-Share) about a variety of Suri subjects Suri Network Video (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYE1L1HvB2IaITJFIgX_agGUAej4MpHt1) series about spinning, knitting, felting, and weaving with Suri fiber

The scale of Sarah Neubert's work varies from miniature to monumental, from small pieces such as earrings to room-sized installations. She dreams of creating entire woven environments that are sensory and tactile, like cocoons or sanctuaries of fiber. Working on a large scale allows her to explore new techniques and push the boundaries of her art. However, she also appreciates the sense of accomplishment that comes from creating small, wearable pieces. Her classes at the upcoming Weave Together with Handwoven (https://weavetogether.handwovenmagazine.com/) event in February 2024 will let students work on a small tapestry loom to explore some of her favorite subjects. When Sarah teaches tapestry weaving with nontraditional wefts, she often brings found and foraged materials and invites students to bring their own elements to incorporate. Although these may be nontraditional (and even sometimes non-yarn), the weaving skills to incorporate and stabilize them strengthen the student's grasp of weaving fundamentals. A class in textural weaving includes hand-manipulated techniques, traditional skills that she employs in very nontraditional ways. One of her recent projects, a Woven Upholstery Mending tutorial (https://www.sarahneubert.com/woven-mending), started with a refusal to just dispose of the couch that her cats had clawed. Using her weaving skills in a different application, she repaired her couch with rope and sturdy tools. When she shared her project and results on social media, the interest and enthusiasm were overwhelming. Sarah found herself designing and filming a course on how to create your own woven mends on furniture. Instead of charging to view the class, Sarah has posted it on YouTube on a donation-based model in hopes of keeping other couches out of landfills. “I think having an energetic exchange is important in a lot of spaces, and I was really grateful for the people that donated,” she says. Weaving isn't just a form of art for Sarah, it's also therapeutic. At first accidentally and now deliberately, she has found relief from anxiety and an opportunity to process her emotions while working at the loom. She experiences this as a flow state, an opportunity to heal. Although her early experiences as a weaver were fraught with perfectionism, she now explores how to make a piece the best she can . . . and then make room for the next project. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links Sarah Neubert's website (https://www.sarahneubert.com/) Woven Upholstery Mending (https://www.sarahneubert.com/woven-mending) online class How to fix furniture with visible mending (How to fix furniture with visible mending) tutorial on YouTube Tapestry Cuff Bracelet (https://littlelooms.com/free-project-tapestry-cuff-bracelet/), a pattern for a woven cuff, available on the Little Looms website (https://littlelooms.com/) “Woven Flow: Weaving as Meditation.” (https://handwovenmagazine.com/woven-flow-weaving-as-meditation/) Sarah Neubert, Handwoven website (https://handwovenmagazine.com/) “Fiber art is finally being taken seriously.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/t-magazine/fiber-art-textiles.html) Julia Halperin, The New York Times Style Magazine (accessed online), September 11, 2023. Maya Angelou interview (https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2279/the-art-of-fiction-no-119-maya-angelou) in the Paris Review, 1990.

The picture of a flock of primitive-breed sheep, the last of their kind, living on an island off the northeast coast of Scotland, has a certain romance to it. Plenty of knitters, spinners, fiber artists, and citizens of the modern world might idly dream of living on such an island and tending such a flock. With no background as a farmer and only a few years as a shepherd, Jane Cooper decided to bring that dream to life. Enchanted by the fiber of the Boreray sheep, and with her life transformed by a class on knitting with rare breeds, Jane decided to buy a small parcel of land and start a spinner's flock by adopting a few wethers from another farmer. In a short time, however, she found herself with more land—and more sheep—than she planned for. And so began her adventure as the shepherd of the “lost flock,” a group of sheep whose ancestors had escaped the official registry. Since obtaining her first sheep in 2013, Jane not only developed her own breeding program but established several other breeding flocks in the Orkneys. She has explored the recent and ancient history of her sheep, from the Vikings who used dual-coated wool in their sails to the breed registries established in the 20th century (and traced how her own sheep came to be called “the lost flock.”) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links Orkney Boreray website (https://orkneyboreray.com/) The Lost Flock book by Jane Cooper US edition (https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-lost-flock/) and UK edition (https://chelseagreen.co.uk/book/the-lost-flock/) Blacker and Beyond (https://www.ravelry.com/groups/blacker--beyond-with-ffsb) Ravelry group Blacker Yarns (https://www.blackeryarns.co.uk/) and The Natural Fibre Company (https://www.thenaturalfibre.co.uk/) Woolsack (https://woolsack.org/) British wool website

Felicia Lo spent most of her college years wearing a lot of black. The bright, happy color combinations that she loved as a child—lime green and hot pink, pink and yellow—didn't fit other people's idea of what colors went together, so she avoided wearing colors altogether. It took years to begin introducing color into her wardrobe again. As handdyeing began its groundswell in the early 2000s, Felicia began experimenting with dyeing fiber and then yarn. As it turned out, fiber artists across the world thought that her color sense was not only acceptable but irresistible. What began as a casual project in 2005 has grown into a company with a dozen staff members, hundreds of colorways, and a roster of yarn and fiber bases. Yet despite the company's larger scale, each skein or braid of fiber is still prepared, colored, rinsed, and packaged by hand. Maintaining consistency in their very handmade product has meant transforming SweetGeorgia from her initial solo project into a team effort, with staff members collaborating on new colors and initiatives. Felicia published her book Dyeing to Spin & Knit in 2017, with techniques for fiber artists to choose colors, apply them effectively, and use their handdyed creations. That same year, she founded the School of SweetGeorgia to offer online classes and community, first in handdyeing and later in knitting, spinning, weaving, and other fiber arts. Although her fiber-arts practices stretch from spinning to crochet, tapestry, machine knitting, and weaving, Felicia always has a knitting project on the needles . . . and these days, it's almost certainly not black. More of our conversation with Felicia, including what's on her needles and her suggestions on how to choose yarn colors for a knitting project how to choose the right yarn structure for a knitted project, is available in the library (https://farmfiberknits.com/library/CxLIBUXRRtOoXdNqgvPh_Q) for subscribers to Farm & Fiber Knits. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links SweetGeorgia (https://sweetgeorgiayarns.com/) School of SweetGeorgia (https://www.schoolofsweetgeorgia.com/) Dyeing to Spin & Knit (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/629139/dyeing-to-spin-and-knit-by-felicia-lo/)

In 2009, Mary Jeanne Packer founded Battenkill Fibers Carding & Spinning Mill to work with small farms, yarn companies, and even individual handspinners who wanted great yarn. The partnerships built around the mill are helping revitalize the regional wool economy and sustain shepherds and shops alike. We are far from the days when 13 water-powered mills lined the Battenkill River in Greenwich, New York, all processing American wool, but through collaborations across the textile industry, the prospects for high-quality yarn look bright. For a farm with a few dozen sheep, a local yarn store wanting to make a special line of yarn, or even a handspinner with a prize fleece from the wool festival and no means to wash it, creating roving or yarn comes from a partnership with a mill built on expertise and trust. How should the fiber be washed, spun, and plied? What will bring out the best in the wool? The mill transforms and adds value to a year's fiber crop, the results of the feed, care, and shearing that farmers condult year-round. Mary Jeanne relishes the opportunity to support members of the yarn community and make connections among them, so that a niche yarn company can source a special kind fiber or shepherds can keep their farms going with an additional source of revenue. Seeing gaps in the regional textile industry and opportunities for sustainable growth, Mary Jeanne and yarn shop owner Gail Parrinello brought together a group of farmers, dyers, millers, designers, makers, distributors, and retailers in a network called the Hudson Valley Textile Project. One of the initiatives of the project is Clean Fleece New York, a medium-scale scouring facility that processes batches of fiber too large for a small mill but below the minimum for an industrial-scale scouring facility, which has just opened in fall of 2023. More of our conversation with Mary Jeanne, including how to choose the right yarn structure for a knitted project, what surprising yarns you might be overlooking, and how to find the most wonderful yarns at a fiber festival, is available in the library (https://farmfiberknits.com/library/209474243) for subscribers to Farm & Fiber Knits. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links Battenkill Fibers (https://www.battenkillfibers.com/) Hudson Valley Textile Project (https://www.hvtextileproject.org/) Clean Fleece New York (https://www.cleanfleece.com/) Mountain Meadow Wool (https://mountainmeadowwool.com/) Shaniko Wool Company (https://www.shanikowoolcompany.com/) Green Mountain Spinnery (https://www.spinnery.com/) Laxtons Wooltrace DK (https://www.bylaxtons.co.uk/products/wooltrace-dk) Foster Sheep Farm (https://www.fostersheepfarm.com/) Bare Naked Wools/Knitspot (https://www.barenakedwools.com/) The Woolly Thistle (https://thewoollythistle.com/) Brooklyn General Store (https://brooklyngeneral.com/) Kingdom Fleece and Fiberworks (https://www.kingdomfleeceandfiberworks.net/)

Many weavers find their inspiration by asking, “What if...” Since she first sat down at a loom, Deb Essen has pushed the limits of her weaving by asking, “Why can't I?” Deb has followed that question since childhood, right through her career as a weaving teacher and author. Since she first neglected her table-clearing duties to watch a weaving demonstration at the age of 9, the craft of weaving has held her fascinated. And despite the disciplines of teaching, designing, and writing, that childlike spirit of exploration still gets free rein in her weaving studio. “I play with everything. I mean, that's the beauty of weaving,” she says. “There's something to play with all the time.” When Deb talks about her favorite classes, the word “play” comes up often, and her approach is as lighthearted as it is methodical. “There's always an amazing surprise for everybody in the class,” she says of her class on color in weaving. “You kind of have to throw color theory for artists out the window” and sample different color combinations. (Deb will be teaching color in weaving at the first Weave Together with Handwoven (https://weavetogether.handwovenmagazine.com/) event February 25–29, 2024.) Deb's love of structure isn't limited to complex multishaft looms, or even to pick-up patterns on rigid-heddle looms. When the new Zoom Loom debuted, Deb accepted the challenge to play with the small loom and see what she could create. “You know, never say no,” she says, and developed a line of toys and figures made solely of 4" woven squares. She explores the possibilities of texture, color, and pick-up on the little squares, too. We're looking forward to Deb joining us in Loveland, Colorado, February 25–29, 2024, for Weave Together with Handwoven. (https://weavetogether.handwovenmagazine.com/) Her classes include Color in Weaving and two classes on weaving with pin looms. For photos of Deb's work, check out our show notes at handwovenmagazine.com. (https://handwovenmagazine.com/long-thread-podcast-deb-essen) This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links dje handwovens, (https://djehandwovens.com/) Deb's website and line of weaving kits Color in Weaving video (https://learn.longthreadmedia.com/courses/video-only-color-in-weaving) Easy Weaving with Supplemental Warps (https://schifferbooks.com/products/easy-weaving-with-supplemental-warps-overshot-velvet-shibori-and-more) book

Most of us avoid nettles, thinking of them as weeds whose little stinging hairs can inject a painful toxin into the unexpecting walker. But strolling through the woods near his home in England, Allan Brown was captivated by the tall native plants. Knowing that textile cultures across the world have produced cloth from nettles, he wanted to learn more about cloth made with nettle fiber. Except for a few exceptions—giant Himalayan nettles and ramie, which is a non-stinging plant in the nettle family—the era of nettle textiles is over. But thousands of years ago, nettle cloth and cordage fulfilled human needs for garments and tools. Like other ancient textiles, nettle cloth has almost entirely disappeared, rotted away and returned to the soil. Allan knew that the only way to experience cloth made from nettle would be to create it himself, so he set about processing, spinning, and weaving fabric from stands of nettles that grew wild in the woods. Before he could get down to cloth-making, though, he had to learn how to extract the fiber from the plant—a process without contemporary documentation or a skilled teacher. (The stinging parts of the plant are removed during processing, so textiles made from nettle fiber feel more like cotton or linen than stinging barbs.) He learned to spin, which proved not only the most time-consuming but also the most meaningful part of the project. “I just found spinning so therapeutic,” he says. He felt the solace of handspinning keenly when his wife, Alex, passed away over the course of his nettle exploration. In the aftermath of Alex dying, my world grew very small, my perimeters drew in, and I was just looking after the family. Sometimes my only connection to a wider world was just going out and collecting nettles, but it was within a really small geographical margin. So I think events sort of led me to, rather than looking for bigger and more, I tuned into the familiar, going in deeper and seeing what I could find and what I'd previously overlooked. And realizing, oh my goodness—all these plants, they provide dyes, these plants provide fibers, and they're all there right on my doorstep and have been under my nose all along. So it feels like it's really connected me to a sense of place in a much deeper way than perhaps I had been before. As he spun years' worth of yarn, Allan decided that the nettle project would culimate in a dress. A simple shape, cut efficiently from a narrow width of cloth, would be enough to create a dress for his daughter Oonagh, so he wove yards of plain-weave fabric and even spun the sewing thread to stitch the piece together. Seven years after his first experiments with nettle fiber, he slipped a handmade nettle dress over her head. Following Allan on his exploration, his film-director friend Dylan Howitt captured the stages of the process and has released a film called The Nettle Dress. (https://www.nettledress.org/) The film has been released in a number of markets, including the United Kingdom, and some audiences have been fortunate to meet the fiber artist and even touch the dress at a screening. The story of the dress and its creator remind us that the long history of foraged, handmade cloth can be ours again if we have the dedication to revive it. This episode is brought to you by: Treenway Silks Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com (https://www.treenwaysilks.com/). You'll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white. If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed. Links The Nettle Dress film website (https://www.nettledress.org/) The Nettle Dress on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/nettledressfilm/) Nettles for Textiles Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1648679398499874/) Nettles for Textiles web page (http://www.nettlesfortextiles.org.uk/wp/) From Sting to Spin, a History of Nettle Fibre (https://gillianedomsbook.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html) by Gillian Edom