Local Cloth Inc is a local refuge for fiber artists and farmers.
I am a member of Local Cloth (LC for the purposes of the rest of this blog!), I am on the Leadership team (the board and some additional members that have substantial involvement in LC), I host a Virtual Handwork Circle (V-Handwork Circle) Fridays 4-6 pm, and I blog for LC mostly about the V-Handwork Circle.
A great interview with Judi Jetson describes Local Cloth located on the LocalCloth/about page, why it was started and its function, links from farmers to spinners to knitters and weavers, promoting impacts on local economy, promotion of local products, education and training in the fiber arts, and the communal studio available to members. I highly recommend listening to her video interview to get the full picture. Of course, due to covid-19 in the year of 2020, LC has increased virtual and social distancing strategies to continue workshops and gatherings of fiber artists. Although the interview was pre-covid, many activities Judi described have continued.
A recent example was the Fiber Farmers Day, morphed in name from the Fiber Feel Day. This is the day at the WNC Farmers Market, barn 5, where fiber farmers come out to display and sell their wares: fleeces, processed fiber, yarn, and knitted items; several farmers were demonstrating spinning with their fiber. I took many pictures and bought a serious amount of wool.
I am going to learn to spin wool, something I have thought about for many years. Under the influence of spinners in Local Cloth, including Judi Jetson, Sebette Hamill, Beth Sellars and others, it is all coming together-safely, despite covid!! I’ll tell you more next blog.
I would like to share with you some images from the 2020 Fiber Farmers Day.
[FYI_I am learning, bit by bit, more about SquareSpace. My approach is usually to figure the software out on the fly while reading the minimum of help notes. Not a great strategy perhaps, but when I really want to learn something new I use google searches to find the answer under SS Help that fixes my problem. Previously the images were so huge on the page; google! You will find the following images in the card format with titles and captions easier to follow I hope.]
Spinning
Terri Godleski of Princess Ridge Farm. Don’t mistake all the fluff in her lap as sheep fiber!!
Spinning
Sebette Hamill of Wooly Ridge Farm. Sebette is in Leicester, NC just down the road from me! I bought lots of wool fiber from her for spinning. Sebette also participates in the V-Handwork Circle which is where I first met her. On my screen I saw her opening up the shipment of her Cormo fiber just back from the mill-beautiful- and it turns out it lives up to its reputation as very soft. At the Fiber Farmers Market I had a first hand (!) experience of its touch.
Wooly ridge Farm
Sebette Hamill of Wooly Ridge Farm showing me her price list and figuring out the final bill.
Out in Jupiter farm
Ann and Trish Hord-Heatherley sell fiber from angora goats (mohair from angora goats; not angora from angora rabbits).
Local Cloth Spinning Study Group
Judi Jetson (center) and some of the other study group members discussing which fibers to buy. Each study group member gets 4 samples each month to spin and knit. The group then discusses them (a few in person socially distanced in the LC studio or virtually via Zoom)
Discussing Fiber
Beth Sellars and Elizabeth Strub in discussion. Beth participates in the Virtual-Handwork Circle with me and that is where we met. Beth has an Etsy Shop called Curly Fur where she sells her carded novelty fiber for spinning.