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Vancouver Island Fibreshed, situated upon unceded traditional Indigenous territories, links farmers, processors, makers, and consumers in creating a local textile economy based on renewable resources and climate beneficial farming methods.
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Welcome to our VIF Newsletter, Winter Solstice 2022 edition
As we arrive at Winter Solstice, the grey of the season leads us to dreaming of colour. Our featured projects showcase the rich colours that can be obtained from local mushrooms and lichens. We've also included a list of Vancouver Island seed vendors so you can spend these grey days browsing seed catalogs and planning next summer's dye garden! We profile two great Island sewing studios, both of whom offer classes. We at the Fibreshed seek to foster all parts of our textile economy!
Shearing at many of our local farms will start soon as most farmers try to shear before lambing starts (pdf article). Keep an eye out for local fleeces!
Everyone is welcome to submit items for the newsletter, We publish quarterly, with the change in seasons. Please tell us about upcoming events, successful activities, and requests for information and we will fit as many items as we can into the upcoming newsletter.
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Upcoming Events in our Fibreshed
January 7: Distaff Day hosted by the Tzouhalem Spinners and Weavers Guild. 10am - 4pm at St. Peters Church hall, 5800 Church Rd. Duncan. Bring a bagged lunch; soup, coffee, and tea provided. $5 admission to cover hall rental and insurance. All spinners and want-to-be-spinners welcome. Celebrating 50 years of spinning and weaving in the Cowichan Valley. (What is Distaff Day? article here)
January 8: Distaff Day in Courtenay. 10am - 3pm. Contact Amy Crook for details
January 15: Rags to Riches: Fashion By You. 1 - 5pm at the Cowichan Valley Arts Council, Duncan. Transform second hand clothing items to create your personal style. Spend an afternoon of fun and exploration starting with a garment of your choice and personalizing it using other fabrics, threads, beads etc. Register here.
January 16: Vancouver Island Fibreshed meeting at 7pm. Hybrid. Online via Zoom and in-person at The Spool Sewing Studio in Courtenay. Contact info@vancouverislandfibreshed.ca for the Zoom link.
Throughout February and March: Seedy Saturday events: Qualicum Beach Feb 4; Salt Spring Island Feb 25; Comox March 4; Duncan March 19.
March 24 & 25: Fibres West, Cloverdale Agriplex, 17763 62 Ave, Surrey (not technically in our Fibreshed... but not too far away). Welcome back to this great fibre festival of classes and vendors.
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Wearing the Wizard’s Hat, magic making with mushroom dyes
Amy Crook loves all things fibre related, especially using mushrooms to dye yarn and fibre. After decades as a scientist, no matter how consistent her dye process is, the results are often a mystery. Desired, reproduceable outcomes are not guaranteed. Amy says “I set an intention, put on my wizard hat, add pinches of this, bunches of that, and then something happens. You open the dye pot and either exclaim a delighted, ‘Oh!’ or a disappointed, ‘Hmmm!’”
Vancouver Island is a fabulous place to find dye mushrooms of many varieties. The colour of a mushroom does not always indicate the colour it gives. For example, dyer’s polypore ( Phaeolus schweinitzii) which is mostly brown (left photo below) produces a range of colours from golden yellow to forest green. The lobster mushroom ( Hypomyces lactifluorum) creates a beautiful array of deep magenta to pale pink or coral (right photo below).
 
Amy says:
Dye outcomes vary between mushroom species because of many factors: use of a mordant, fresh vs dried vs frozen, ratio of dye mushroom to weight of fibre, preparation of and exposure length of dye bath, dye bath temperature, and more. These factors make it difficult to replicate a colour. If you are making a larger project and want the yarn to be all the same color, you need to dye all your fibre at the same time.
Wool varieties and fibre blends (alpaca and wool, wool and silk, etc) take up dye at different concentrations, resulting in a heathered look with shading and variation. Some mushroom species give large ranges of color as the pH of the dye pot is changed, or with the addition of iron. Some dye mushrooms are very concentrated and give several exhausts of the dye pot. I don’t throw away dye mushrooms until they are really spent because they are so hard to come by, but when I do I put them on my garden. This dye process is completely waste free.
I often mix mushroom varieties to get beautiful colour variations. Or I over-dye or layer color through variations of pH or adding iron. With one mushroom type and one dye pot, I can easily get 15 different colours.
There are lots of resources for more info:
Facebook group Mushroom and Lichen Dyer’s United
Alissa Allen, Mycopigments, https://www.facebook.com/mycopigments
Ann Harmer, Sunshine Coast, book called Magic in the Dye Pot, local and a wonderful reference. Also her website www.Shroomworks.com
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Potluck Scarves - Investigating Lichen Dyes and Local Waters
Isabelle Fusey, Denman Island
I got curious. What would happen if I used water from Morrison Marsh instead of water from Graham Lake to dye wool? Would the color be drastically different and if so why? The “What if” moment led to a series of events sponsored by ANWG and the Denman Island Spinners and Weavers that combined community engagement, exploration of the local wetlands, water analysis, presentation on natural dyeing with local plants, dyeing with Lobaria pulmonaria (lungwort), and weaving.
Lungwort is a lichen that grows on Big Leaf Maple trees. Its presence in the forest is a sign of clean air. Not bad for a plant named after its resemblance to the inside of a lung.
The project concluded with “potluck” scarves. A number of dyers on Denman Island were given two small skeins of wool and a bag of lungwort. The instructions were simple: put both skeins and the lungwort in a pot, add water taken from your well, simmer for a couple of hours, remove one skein, turn the heat off, and leave the other skein in overnight. The result was a luscious array of browns. The word “brown” does not do justice to the colours the dye pots delivered: think coffee, mocha, almond, butterscotch, chocolate, cinnamon, cognac. The looms are warped, ready for weavers to create a lovely collection of potluck scarves.
 
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Dye Gardens!
It may be grey and cold but our thoughts are turning to next year's garden and the colours we can make! We've compiled a list of Island-based seed vendors that sell seeds for dye plants - apologies if we've missed any.
Full Circle Seeds
Good Earth
Metchosin Farm
Ravensong Herbals
Rebecca's Garden
We will have a seed swap box in our VIF Headquarters corner at The Spool in Courtenay. Please feel free to share your seeds! Keep an eye out for your local Seedy Saturday event where you can swap seeds and purchase seeds and starts from local vendors.
Please let us know if you plant a dye garden this summer. We'd love to feature your projects in our Fall newsletter.
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News from around the Islands
Plants are Teachers reviews their workshops from last season and describes their upcoming classes.
- Small Woven Pouch from Garden Trims, Jan 15
- Nettle Processing Circle, Jan 29
- Harvesting Colour, March 11
- Weave a tea towel on a pre-warped loom (3 hours; $40). No need to set up the loom: throw the shuttle back and forth and go home with a lovely tea towel. Includes supplies and three hours of coaching.
- Weave a scarf from start to finish (3 days; $180). Learn how to dress the loom, read a weaving pattern, weave different designs, fix common problems, and finish your scarf. Includes supplies, handout, and 18 hours of instruction. 1 to 3 students per class.
Contact Isabelle Fusey at ifusey@telus.net for more information and to schedule your class. There is a loom waiting for you.
The Qualicum Weavers and Spinners had a successful annual show and sale, Elegant Threads, last fall. You can read about the sale and see photos of some items on their webpage.
We mentioned the Gabriola Island Recycling Organization (GIRO) last newsletter and now have more information about them! The Textiles Makerspace is in its building phase and they are collecting sewing machines, looms, embroidery frames and textiles to use and teach in this space. When they are operational,they hope to bring in many fibre artists to share space and knowledge. As far as they know, it's the only Makerspace specifically based on a textile circular economy. They are keeping it slow, low tech, and based on skill-building; no 3D printing, CNC machines or laser cutters!
The Vancouver Island Fibershed Producer Program is a network of farmers, growers, designers, sewers, weavers, natural dyers, knitters, felters, spinners, millers, makers, artisans and crafters living and working on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Anyone can sign up for a free listing.
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Member Profile
The Spool Sewing Studio - CourtenayWelcome to The Spool, a sewing studio and store that seeks to make slow fashion inclusive, caring and fun! We love teaching, as well as curating a gorgeous selection of high-quality garment fabrics, , tools and books to make your sewing journey a dream. We carry a wide selection of indie sewing patterns with inclusive sizing options up to 7X.
Class Calendar: https://thespoolsewingstudio.com/pages/calendar
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Member Profile
The Spool Yard - Duncan
If you would like to share your skills, we are always looking for people to teach a class at the studio. Please reach out to Shannon by phone 250 710 1165 or email info@thespoolyard.ca.
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