LOCAL CLOTH BLOG
Many local fiber folks have been involved in the Blue Ridge Blanket Project, providing hands-on, organizational, and teaching contributions. Now we invite everyone in the community to participate in the first round of blanket popularity contests.
Come down to Local Cloth, touch, and see the new blankets. Then, vote on your three favorite Blue Ridge Blankets! You don't have to be a member of Local Cloth. The voting will determine which designs and colors we put into production in 2023.
The first series of samples woven from the Blue Ridge Mountain Blend (wool, mohair, alpaca blend) has been dyed using natural dyes, the design weaves generated, and the samples woven (see previous BRBP blogs). They are now on display at Local Cloth, 408 Depot St. Asheville, NC. Come in the door and continue towards the back and you will see them on the right.
You will also get a sneak peak at the second wave of sample blankets woven from Shetland wool, although these are not included in the first voting sessions for the best Blue Ridge Blend blankets.
To decide which colors and design weaves should move forward into projection next year, the blankets from the first test blankets (Blue Ridge Blend fiber) are on display with area appropriate names (you'll see!).
Please come on down and vote! This is the ballot that you will find:
This is the table on which they sit:
There is also a bag into which your finished ballot can be placed:
Our next phase is to take the sample blankets "on the road," with more voting. If you can suggest venues for display, contact judi@judijetson.com. Here are some events for display that have been lined up so far:
Below is a picture gallery of a some of the blankets:
Weaverville
Vale
Black Mountain
Barnardsville
Swannanoa
Mills River
#localclothinc #BlueRidgeBlanketProject #fiberfarmer #spinning #weaving
Here is the latest on the Blue Ridge Blanket Project.
1. Wool has been obtained from Black Thorn Farm & Kitchen in Sandy Mush. These farmers maintain a herd of about 124 sheep, mostly for meat. They are a mix of Tunis, Finn, Texel, and Southdown. 100 lbs. of fiber including wool, alpaca and mohair (for blending) will be delivered to The Green Mountain Spinnery after volunteers finish skirting and cleaning up the fiber. I brought home a small amount of the wool from the farm to card and spin as a knitting sample. I will add photos in the next blogpost!
2. 50 lbs of Shetland was delivered to Two Roots Alpaca and Fiber Mill some time ago for processing into yarn. The finish date has been pushed back now to mid or late July this year, 2022.
Above: Two Roots Alpaca and Fiber Farm / Photo by Caroline Williford
Because of various unaccountable delays in processing the fiber, it looks like our one year of development will stretch into the second year. Thus, our timeline for development and marketing the product in time for Christmas retail is unrealistic. After fiber is processed into yarn (at uncertain time frames, the earliest being Feb 2023), the samples will also require 3 months for natural dyeing and 3 months for weaving to be finished. Christmas 2023 is our new target!
This new timeline generated a considerable amount of discussion at our leadership team meeting this month. In the meantime, we will continue to identify retail locations to market our finished products. We are living and learning and still working hard.
Above: Josephine and Tina skirting wool just behind the Local Cloth studio. In the background Judi and Beth recently painted a nice, sheep-filled hills with blue sky background to dress up the mostly concrete covered space. Photo by Judi Jetson.
To catch you up, here are the links to previous blogposts about the 1st phase of our project.
And, links to blogposts from the Spinning Interest and Natural Dye Interest groups that are directly relevant to this project.
June 21st we had a Leadership Team meeting. For those who do not know, this consists of the elected board members plus a few others. Each month we receive an update from Caroline Williford. She also oversees the Blue Ridge Blanket Project website page.
It would be worthwhile to make a list of the various wools that have been collected and to say that Local Cloth is always on the alert from local farmers who could provide skirted, fine wool with staple about 3-3.5" long and containing some crimp.
1. Blue Ridge Mountains Blend #1,
Photos above (by Caroline Williford):
Top, Melanie Wilder and Eileen Hallman at a Weaving Design workshop
Bottom, Melanie and a participant examining "cakes" (wound yarn) and bobbins of the naturally dyed wool.
See recent Newsletter for more detail.
Above: Weaving/photo of Naturally Dyed Blue Ridge Blend #1 by Melanie Wilder
Above: Weaving/photo of Naturally Dyed Blue Ridge Blend #1 by Miles, WWC student
Above: Weaving/photo of Naturally Dyed Blue Ridge Blend #1 by Miles, WWC student.
2. Shetland from local farmers
3. Polled Dorset
4. Rescued Cotswold X Tunis
5. Wool from Black Thorn Farm & Kitchen will be delivered to The Green Mountain Spinnery after skirting is finished.
6. Gathering more mohair, alpaca and fine wool from farms across the region, including those in Barnardsville, Leicester, Tryon, Mills River, Vale, and Rutherfordton
Today's blog really is a gathering of information from various sources including:
First and foremost, the Blue Ridge Blanket Project (BRBP) is not a one-off project!
The goal is that it will become self-supporting after a couple of years so that the seed money we received from WNC Community Foundation is an investment in the production of blankets from local fiber. Forever.
This first year is our research & development year (2021-2022).
To catch you up, here is a link to a blogpost about the 1st phase of our project.
Updates from March to present:
Judi Jetson, See video (with audio) on Instagram
Welcome to the Blue Ridge Blanket Project! First things first. Below I list where else to find information on this project and how to get involved.
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More Information on the Blue Ridge Blanket Project:
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Local Cloth, a non-profit in Asheville, is undertaking a challenging and multifaceted project that springs directly from our mission statement.
“Local Cloth is dedicated to growing and supporting the fiber economy in Western North Carolina through education, inclusive programming, and services which add value to local products. We advocate for our regional community of farmers, artists, makers and designers.”
The first segment of this project named The Blue Ridge Blanket Project (BRBP), is now funded by a Natural and Cultural Resources grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina with a funding period of Oct1, 2021-Dec 30, 2022.
The overarching goal of this project for Local Cloth, it members and volunteers, is to identify and develop the materials, methods, and networks to build future for-profit endeavors for fiber artists, farmers, and companies. Thus, Local Cloth will participate directly in re-booting the Western North Carolina fiber industry.
The location of Local Cloth in Asheville’s River Arts District, in the center of a region supporting numerous fiber artists, fiber farmers, and a strong tourist market will help support the development of the fiber market. Local Cloth, individual fiber artists, and the regional colleges and universities such as Haywood Community and Warren Wilson Colleges, offer excellent education in various aspects of fiber arts for the aspiring fiber artist/craftsperson.
Specifically, the first aspect of this project is to work with local farmers and local fiber mills to produce yarns for weaving blankets. Weavers will be engaged to weave sample scarves and blankets (about 40” by 60”). Possible threading and treadling examples have been made by Melanie Wilder of Local Cloth and a teacher at Warren Wilson College. A fiber was selected that is similar to a blend developed at Local Cloth called Blue Ridge Mountain Blend (wool/mohair/alpaca).
In preparation for making a small scale run, volunteers at Local Cloth skirted alpaca and angora goat fleeces (mohair). Ruth Ann Goss and Louise Nuttle at Two Roots Fiber Mill blended a Rambouillet x Romney, a fine wool from a farm outside of Franklin, NC. with Alpaca and Mohair after cleaning the fleeces. 2 ply yarn was spun by Two Roots Fiber Mill.
The Natural Dye Interest group is in the process of dyeing about half of the yarn, with the remaining yarn to be left undyed. From the Natural Dye Interest Group:
"We've dyed with Indigo, Madder and Walnut thus far. Next up: Weld! Our Weld is sourced locally, from Warren Wilson College. We will dye with Weld on its own for a brilliant yellow and over dye light blue Indigo with Weld for a green. We also plan to dye with Lichen for a purple hue, and possibly some more Madder. "
The next two small runs will be with local Shetland wool and from a large donation of Polled Dorset wool. See a previous blog describing the Polled Dorset story.
With samples in hand, the market for blankets (and perhaps scarves) will then be explored and developed to best address a successful commercial context.
In this blog, which will be regularly updated, you will periodically get to read about and see photos of behind-the-scenes work. I know I have many questions to ask and I hope you the readers do as well. Please leave questions on the blog, contact Local Cloth, or email me and I will add the answers!
The in-person and virtual handwork circle participants have so many interesting projects. For those of you not present or only present on the Zoom handwork circle, photos of past and present projects are wonderful to archive and look back upon later.
QUILTING
Joanne D’Andrea, for example, is an expert quilter. She and her friends had a great idea to make squares for quilts in collaboration with each other. Each person made a center square establishing their “look”, especially their colors that would define the quilt. Then, the squares are exchanged with another for the next series of additions in the log cabin pattern, and so on, until the quilt top is completed. In the end, each person ends up with a quilt top to finish. Here is what they look like now (some are detail photos; the overall views are labeled with the quilter’s name):
ICE DYEING INCIDENTALS
Have you ever felt that fiber reactive dyes are wasteful? Unlike acid dyeing wool where all the dye is taken up, fiber reactive dyes are quite inefficient. Joanna has taken paper and placed it below fabric being ice dyed and achieved some beautiful results. What I find exciting is that they are not one big blur of color but have white undyed spaces in places. Joanna then sat about doodling with a pen to create something entirely new. I have to say it reminds me of Nancy Gamon and her ice dyeing and noodling around over pictures. Check out her YouTube videos.
Here are some of Joanna's pieces from her ice dyeing experiments:
starting pieces:
with drawings superimposed:
INVENTING A BASKET:
Camille Daunno has made an unusual basket with fiber and rings. Beautiful colors! First the rings with crochet and then assembled:
Spinning Samples.
Last week, the Spinning Interest Group at Local Cloth worked with two samples brought by Judi Jetson, the leader of this interest group. The first was some washed Blue Ridge Mountain Blend (wool, mohair, and alpaca). We have explored an earlier version last year during one of our interest group meetings (blog link here; Blue Ridge Mountains Blend #1, 30% Montadale, 25% Shetland, 25% Alpaca, 20% Mohair). The second sample we explored this month was some washed Polled Dorset.
The Blue Ridge Mountain Blend, made from fibers grown by farmers in our Blue Ridge Mountain Fibershed, will be woven into blankets as a part of the Blue Ridge Blanket Project. More on that later; a new link in the Local Cloth webpage is nearing completion and I plan to periodically blog on the progress of this newly funded initiative by Local Cloth.
Our interest group participants enjoyed spinning this fiber because it was very easy to spin, soft to the touch and fuzzy, and had a lovely sheen creating an overall beautiful result. I spun singles from which Judi made two-ply yarn. Below is a photo of the resulting yarn. I will test it knitted up and save a portion for weaving by others.
Blue Ridge Mountain Blend. Z-spun singles were spun into 2-ply using the single ball, two end method.
The second sample the Spinning Interest Group explored was a small amount of hand washed Polled Dorset fleece. We found that this portion of the fleece was sensitive to the method of washing because many noils were generated during the washing process.
An article by Kate Larson, 2018, in Spin Off Magazine describes differences between neps and noils with illustrations and ascribes them primarily to processing errors, particularly when washing very sensitive fleeces. Fibers contained within raw fleeces can break and tangle for a number of reasons including disease. Some fiber folk use the terms neps and noils interchangeably.
Never-the-less, during our session we tried combing, carding, and drum carding this fiber. Everyone gave up on it finding it too hard to spin and many hated the noils that clung tightly to the fiber. We all agreed that it should be processed professionally. I, however, driven by a stubborn streak and beingmore tolerant of noils, persisted with some hand carded fiber and got the results shown below. I don’t mind the fluffy bits that stick to the wool as I spin!
The above two photos show the Polled Dorset sample formed by spinning z-singles and then chain plying. The yarn was knit using #8 knitting needles.
Skirting Polled Dorset fleeces.
Anthony Cole was the origin of the Polled Dorset fleeces. He is a sheep shearer and 5th generation farmer living in Leicester, NC who after shearing Polled Dorset sheep didn’t want to keep the fleeces. After contacting Judi Jetson, he donated a 700 lb contractor bag filled with fleeces to Local Cloth. It still sits at the spot he deposited it because no one can move it!
Following the decision of our spinning group and others to send the fiber to a mill for processing, a skirting event was organized for once per week over several weeks. Volunteers will complete skirting the fleece to save on cost before bringing to a mill for processing.
Joining Judi and me at the first session was Josephine Brewer, Natalie Pollard, and her daugher Rosa Lee. Later Elizabeth joined me to finish and clean up. Elizabeth Strub of Hobby Knob Farm is a local fiber farmer and knows more about skirting a fleece.
So my first experience of skirting taught me it is an experience in lanolin. Lovely stuff in my opinion. First it feels dampish on your hands and then dries a bit later. Great for cracks in your fingers in the winter! Lanolin is also called grease. And, when spinning fiber that contains some, it is called spinning in the grease.
On the freshly sheared fleece, lanolin is mixed with dust, dirt, and sweat from the sheep. Throw in some bits of hay and some wood chips and you have a dirty fleece. It depends greatly on the type of surface that sheep encounter as to how much and what kind of dirt is retained in the wool. The neck, maybe the legs, the stomach, and the sheep’s bottom are especially dirty and bits of fleece there might be culled during skirting as too dirty or short.
Thus, skirting a fleece has nothing to do with a skirt that you wear. This is the first observation of the complete novice. It also is not exclusively an experience in picking out bits of dirt by hand. One must remove as much debris as possible, short cuts, weak or disease-affected fibers, and any fibers that are too short to use. We tried for at least 3” long when stretched out.
Samples of bits of fleece from various locations and with varying qualities of fiber and dirt content.
This section of the fleece is a keeper! Note the lovely crimp. The micron count was about 25 micrometers. The yellow is probably sheep sweat.
Although we shook the fleece to remove loose dirt and debris, the top of the fleece (tips of the fibers) was facing down and the clean cut side up. We flipped it over so that the dirty side was facing up and shook it and found that the short cuts adhering to the cut side fell out. There weren’t many. Short cuts form when the shearer backs up the shears and cuts slightly closer to the sheep’s skin. This results in the presence of short bits of fiber; these are too short to be processed and spun and so must be removed.
This coming week, more skirting.
As everyone knows, but sometimes get confused over, the Handwork Circle at Local Cloth has two different forms. The Handwork Circle (HC) began just as covid began and when the studio was still located on Coxe Ave. After an introductory meeting (March 6, 2020) and the beginning of the covid lockdown, we moved to a Zoom format (March 20, 2020). The Rise of the Zoom World.
While music jams failed to flourish on Zoom except as a social outlet, the Virtual HC florished, on Fridays from 4-6 pm, despite the visual deficits for sharing our work limited by monitors with poor resolution and poor color representation. As a result of the visual frustration, and because we were learning so much from each other and about each other, a blog was born to highlight our doings. Participants could email higher quality pictures of their work. Check out the earlier blogs about these HC events on this site.
In May, 2021, we moved to Thursdays from 1-3 pm and then in June we switched to in-person Handwork Circles down at 408 Depot Street. The new site of LC launched with the June 12, 2021 opening. This new, expanded dye studio, learning center, Shop Local Cloth store, and resident artist booths is based in the River Arts District (RAD), fantastically across from a free parking lot. There, in the setting of warm, beautiful weather and the wonderful patio to the side of 408 Depot Studio, we saw each other in-person, often for the first time ever. Alpha, beta, gamma, omicron come and go and so did fall and winter.
Currently, the in-person, masked, sessions on Thursdays 1-3pm is indoors in the LC studio and is hosted by Cecilie (Ceil) Jensen. NOTE: the in-person is only on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month.
The 2nd and 4th and occasionally 5th Thursdays of the month, a zoom Virtual HC is held instead of in-person. I lead this group. There is overlap with the in-person participants, but the virtual group also incudes those who live too far away, those who can’t leave their home, and those who are avoiding covid/and/or having to wear a mask indoors. Spring is not so far away now though!
What is fun about the virtual group is that we get peeks into their home/studio space. We can go find stuff to show as the topic of some type of handwork comes up. We love to show our work. It is validating.
The in-person group similarly likes to show things and you can actually touch it and see the real color and texture.
Last week a new participant came to the in-person group. Joanna D'Andrea joined our Local Cloth Handwork Circle. We were impressed with her art quilting and embroidery. She was an elementary teacher who took up handwork when she retired ten years ago. The piece with the Swiss flag is based on her high school years boarding in Gstaad, Switzerland. Her triptych is a view out her back windows here in Asheville. Welcome, Joanna!
Here is the summary of the members meeting wrapping up 2021: our accomplishments, new board members, Strategic Planning introduction, show and tell, and membership volunteer opportunities. Find the one that fits!!
“Greetings,
We hope this finds you happy and healthy in the new year. We can't believe January is almost over! Thank you to all of the members who attended our virtual Annual Meeting last week. It was great seeing your faces and your handmade items. We hope you enjoyed the brainstorming breakout sessions and our guest Greg Walker Wilson. We have an exciting year ahead of us!
If you would like to review the presentation please do so, we have included the link below. There were lots of great photos and recaps of the fun we had together last year, so many events and opportunities to connect with your fellow members.
Also attached is the Annual Report as well as the Volunteer Opportunity List. If you are interested in joining a committee this is your chance. Local Cloth is growing and we want your input. The contact person for each committee is included, but as always if you have any questions feel free to reach out to info@localcloth.org.
Stay safe and warm,
The Local Cloth Team
Members were emailed the Annual Report and the Slideshow, so check your email!!
Local Cloth Volunteer Opportunities
Assistant Treasurer (1)
2-3 hours per month, meet via zoom. Should be computer literate, good with numbers, and fun to work with. Help with all aspects of the Treasurer’s job, with an eye to becoming Treasurer in the future. Contact JoAnn
Workshop Committee members (2)
*Attend one meeting per month, first Tuesday of the month (currently on zoom)
*Monitor class registrations and communicate with teacher and students as needed
*During class: help teacher set up and clean up and help during class as needed
***Perks: Audit the class you monitor, no charge except materials fee
Contact Joyce
Retail - Shop Volunteers and Committee Members (several)
Shop volunteers - Looking for fun and enthusiastic volunteers to work a 3-hour shift 1 to 2 times per month. You’ll get to work with customers, tell visitors about Local Cloth and show folks around the Studio. Contact Betsy
Retail committee meets once per month (Zoom or in person). Your role could be to communicate with vendors, find new vendors and invite them to apply to sell in the shop, review potential new items, tag merchandise, maintain display areas, or organize quarterly retail events. Contact Beth
Marketing Committee members (1 or 2)
Create calendar listings for Local Cloth events and workshops on the Explore Asheville website, Mountain Xpress online calendar, River Arts District webpage/FB/press releases. Create Yelp, Trip Advisor and similar listings, and encourage members to leave reviews. Contact Caroline
Membership/Volunteer Committee members (2 or 3)
Meet and greet new members and community groups while giving tours
Engage current members by reviewing membership profiles and matching skills with the people who need them
Plan new member orientation
Plan quarterly members events to help build networks and community. Contact Marilyn
“
You may have noticed that the LC blogger for the Handwork Circle (me) has taken a (very long) hiatus!
MY DISTRACTIONS AT LOCAL CLOTH (all good and fun)
There are so many things going on at Local Cloth that beg my attention, both in-person and zoomishly.
I am not the busiest person at Local Cloth by any stretch. Lots of wonderful volunteers; we are, after all, a non-profit.
HANDWORK CIRCLE 2021
Over the past year, the in-person handwork circle has proved very popular and a few sessions were held outside prior to Omicron and the cold weather. Even with masks, the in-person handwork circle is still popular. There are some of us who are also very comfortable in the zoom circle despite the inability to see colors and projects very well. It is very cozy at home.
This past week was an unusual one since the Shop LC inventory prohibited the in-person group from meeting and so we carried on over Zoom. Yes we are having fun, and yes we are at home, and yes we look better in person and not with our chins in the air! Susette Shiver, Camille Daunno, Karolyn Burkhart-Schultz, Paula Entin, Ceil Jensen, Mary Kelley, Rebecca Norris, Kathleen Lewis, Martha Brandon. Yesterday Kathleen asked everyone to tell a bit of their history leading up to present day fiber interests which was fun. We are a highly educated group. A few have had lifetime professional interest in fiber. The rest of us have had a lifetime hobbyist interest with recent increased education via classes at Local Cloth and elsewhere in town. Everyone has tried many techniques and fiber applications. Rebecca is the only one we know, however, that stitches Japanese temari. We hope that she will teach a class this year at Local Cloth or perhaps start an interest group.
A GREAT DEAL ON THIS YARN/FABRIC, BUT WHAT FIBER IS IT?
Several times we have discussed how to identify unknown fibers in the form of yarns and fabrics. The burn test is very accessible to a novice, but requires more than a modicum of caution and preparation.
Here are some recent data collected from the internet:
From www.threadsmagazine.com
a video and chart (see below)
and another video on burn test for yarns.
Signing out for today,
See you all soon,
Susette Shiver
The Local Cloth Spinning Study Group began last September 2020 and each month we get together to spin four local fiber samples (currently on zoom, but.....soon together!).
Previous blogs have highlighted local fiber farmers, many of whom sell their fibers.
Our running summary of the activity of the Spinning Study Group can be found at "Spinning Study Group Samples: Sept 2020 - to present"
Conservation Breed (American Jacob), rare Ewe and Ram weights: 80-120, 120-180 Fleece Weights: 3-6 pounds Staple length: 3-7" (HobbyKnob sample: 3.75", 4.3") Fiber diameters: 25-35 microns (HobbyKnob sample: 27 micron) Colors: white or lilac with black, brown-black, gray, brown, spots. Horns: 2, 4, or occasionally 6 Use: wool
Conservation Breed (American Jacob), rare
Ewe and Ram weights: 80-120, 120-180
Fleece Weights: 3-6 pounds
Staple length: 3-7" (HobbyKnob sample: 3.75", 4.3")
Fiber diameters: 25-35 microns (HobbyKnob sample: 27 micron)
Colors: white or lilac with black, brown-black, gray, brown, spots.
Horns: 2, 4, or occasionally 6
Use: wool
Live Stock Conservancy information on Jacob sheep.
See also The Field Guide to Fleece by Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, Storey Pubishing, 2013.
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Just like all of us, the mature critter looks rather different, and can be very diverse in appearance; see photos and this note from Elizabeth.
"They can have 2, 4 or more horns. Their spotting pattern is like our fingerprint, specific to every sheep. There is a wide range of acceptable traits for registration but they all must fall within a range of 15-85% color. Also a range of fleece character. Rams specifically cannot be finer than 23.5 micron. And yes, we test if we (the inspectors) believe a ram is too fine and he will fail if he is below 23.5. You will notice in one of the photos a lighter looking ewe, she has a color we refer to as “Lilac” a dark color with a lavender like hue instead of black/brown. You can tell she is a bit lighter than the others. " Elizabeth Bell Strub
This light colored Jacob is almost lavender in appearance (probably not adequately seen in the photograph).
This is a Jacob ram. The rams can, amazingly, have different numbers of horns. This guy has four horns (how must his neck feel at the end of a long day?). As a scientist, I would find it fascinating to study the development of these horns from embryonic bud to fully developed adult horn and then try to understand the nutrition costs to the animal relative to coat production, for example.
This is his fleece seen from the top and parted to show down to the skin.
Physical Address:
408 Depot Street, #100 | Asheville, NC 28801
Mailing Address:
30 N. College Street | Weaverville, NC 28787
828.774.5134 | Info@localcloth.org
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