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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, Spring Equinox 2023
Spring is here! As I write, I'm listening to an excited chorus of frogs. It's time to plant flax and flowers for dye. Comox Valley fields are full of freshly shorn sheep, and my social media feeds are full of lamb photos. A new season of making is here.
In this newsletter, you'll find short profiles of two Island producers, a brief look at sheep shearing, a review of our recent flax to linen event, and many listings of events and news briefs from around the Island and the world. I'm sure many of you saw the recent pieces in the Times Colonist and Chek News about the challenges with Canadian wool prices. We see more reason for optimism and have shared our response letter below.
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
April 2 (Sunday): Isle of the Arts Festival, Spinning a Gabriola Fibreshed, Gabriola
April 10, May 8, June 12 (2nd Monday): Vancouver Island Fibreshed monthly meeting online at 7pm. Contact info@vancouverislandfibreshed.ca for the Zoom link. Join us to discuss upcoming projects.
May 28 (Sunday): 100 Mile Fleece and Fibre Fair 9:30am to 3pm. 975 Shearme Rd, Coombs, BC. Bradley Centre's 100 Mile Fleece & Fibre Fair is held on the last Sunday of May. This is a fantastic shopping experience for the fibre lover. Revel in the colours and textures and tap into the skill and experience of the vendors. VIFibreshed will have an information table.
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Workshops and Classes
March 26: Beginner frame loom weaving workshop, Lupine Art Studio, in Courtenay
April 8, 15, and 22 afternoons: Beginning Spinning, Victoria Handweavers and Spinners Guild
Spring classes at Knotty by Nature, Victoria, including spinning, punch needle, frame loom weaving, needle felting, and more.
April 22: Learn to Crochet Class, Courtenay, with The Napping Wolf Closet.
April 29 (not May 20) to June 3 (Sundays): Introduction to Loom Weaving, Victoria Handweavers and Spinners Guild
May 26-27 (Friday and Saturday): 100 Mile Fleece and Fibre Fair workshops, Coombs
upcoming:
October 14-16 Creative Threads Conspiracy workshop weekend. Denman Island. Full class lineup will be announced in early April.
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An Outdated Fibre System
In February, local media covered some of the issues in the local wool industry (Times Colonist article and Chek News video). We recognize those challenges but feel there is room for more optimism.
Letter to the Editor:
Re your article on Vancouver Island wool, (‘Mountain of Wool: Fleece piles up as prices tank, mills shut down.’ Feb.12.’); we agree with your assessment of an outdated fibre system, but there is room for more optimism. I want to introduce you to our Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island Fibresheds. These two groups actively promote and support our island fibre as a regional resource.
The Fibreshed websites have Producer Directories where farmers and fibre providers can list their names, contact info, and products so they don’t have to run their own websites. We have regular newsletters that reach makers looking to buy local fibre. We are trying to do the online work that farmers and producers don’t always have the time for. In addition, the Fibresheds across North America are networked and collaborate to promote fibre-related issues, educate consumers, and advocate for Canadian fibre.
There is great interest in starting a fibre mill in our region which would provide island farms with an affordable option for processing their wool. However, start-up costs are high. We need provincial and federal agriculture ministries to recognize wool as an agricultural commodity, which would provide wool processors access to innovation and agricultural grants available to meat processors.
One exciting addition to our region is Vancouver Island Wool Pellets. Claire Nixon of Glen Alwin Farm in the Comox Valley has taken a great step towards a solution for her farm’s stockpile of wool by turning it into a revenue source. Nixon has purchased a pelletizer that turns raw fleece into wool pellets used as soil amendments and sells them to the public through the Vancouver Island Wool Pellets website. Nixon hopes to offer the pelletizer service to other local farms in the future.
There is work being done with our island-grown fibre; it is slow, but it is happening.
Emily McIvor of New Wave Fibre on Thetis Island has written a further response, examining a New Textile Ecology:
I realized that from my perspective, there is sort of an ‘old way’ or systems of thinking about textiles and the textile market and our part in it and then some newer ways. Here is my attempt at defining the New Textile Ecology. https://www.newwavefibre.com/blog |
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Review of the Flax to Linen Event in Courtenay (Feb 26):
In partnership with Plants Are Teachers, last month we hosted the Flax to Linen Talk With Karla Sandwith, B. Sc. (Agr) at The Spool Sewing Studio in Courtenay. The day before the talk, we changed our in-person-only event into a hybrid one (due to the weather advisory), so that everyone was able to join us, whether in person or remotely. We had amazing representation from across the island, from Salt Spring Island to the Central Island Region and the Lower Mainland too.
With tremendous knowledge and detail, Karla shared with us a very well-documented presentation that covered numerous topics including seed and soil preparation, planting, retting and processing. This was followed by a show and tell that included fibre samples, processing tools, woven samples, incredible books and her journals.
Thanks so much, Karla for a very informative talk and for the amazing experience and resources you shared with us and for supporting the Vancouver Island Fibreshed!
Testimonial:
"I'm glad I joined the talk. I thought I was the only one in the area interested in growing flax! I learned enough to be confident in trying out my first crop this spring." Kyla Landers, Courtenay, BC.
Are you growing flax this year? You may be interested in the BC Flax to Linen Network sponsored by the EartHand Gleaners Society. They are meeting monthly via Zoom to share knowledge. Please let us know if you plant a flax garden this summer. We'd love to feature your projects in our Fall newsletter.
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Shearing Time!
With the warm weather of the last couple of days, it's hard to remember the snow of just a few weeks ago! On February 27, on a cold, snowy afternoon, a few of us met at Francis O Vineyard to help Kris with shearing her 13 ewes.
Before Pieter of Last Side Shearing arrived, we set up a sorting frame on sawhorses and prepared bags and labels for the fleeces. The sheep were all in the barn, warm and dry and waiting for their turn to be rid of their heavy wool coats. Pieter arrived and set up his equipment - a generator to power the electric shears and a frame that allows him to protect his back as he bends over to shear. One by one, Kris led the ewes into the shearing area. Pieter sheared carefully and quickly, and then bundled the fleece and tossed it onto the sorting table. We jumped in to remove the dirty bits and give the fleece a shake to try to get rid of VM (vegetable matter) and second cuts (if the shearer has to make two passes over an area, you can get short bits in the fleece). Then we rolled the fleece, stuffed it in a bag, and labeled it with the ewe's name. Good fun! I brought home two large bags of "skirtings" to use as mulch in my garden. Thanks, Kris, for letting us come help!
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Producer Profile: Small Bird Workshop
Catherine Knutsson , a woman who wears many (wooly) hats
The Small Bird Workshop is the brain-child of Catherine Knutsson, proprietress and purveyor of wool. Catherine is an experienced knitter, spinner, hand dyer, and a very new weaver. She loves sharing her love of fibre and wool with others, and is passionate about ethically-sourced fibre and wool. In her webshop you can find single flock Canadian-sourced and spun yarns and spinning fibre of exceptional quality and traceability.
Catherine sources fleeces from farmers from the Island and across Canada, looking for quality wool that needs a job. She then works with wool mills around Canada to design the right yarn structure for the qualities of that particular batch of fleeces. She has learned how to bring the best out of every breed - some wools shine as woolen-spun yarns and some are better with a more worsted spin. Each mill specializes in a different kind of yarn!
Catherine is a third-generation Vancouver Islander, and a member of both the Bradley Thursday Spinners and the Tzouhalem Spinners and Weavers Guild. Catherine is a registered member of the Métis Nation British Columbia and the Mid-Island Métis Nation.
Catherine also produces the Fibreworks Podcast, where she shares what's going on with her fibre practice, works in progress, designs in progress, shop talk, and interviews with fibre friends. It’s a fantastic source of information and gives you a great feeling of connection to the local fibre community (the Podcast is presently on hiatus, while Catherine works on other projects.)
Small Bird Workshop yarns can also be found at select brick-and-mortar yarn stores, including The Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria and Kelowna Yarn. Catherine will be a vendor at the 100 Mile Fleece and Fibre Fair in Coombs on May 28 and at Fibrations in Victoria on August 20.
 
https://linktr.ee/smallbirdworkshop
Instagram: @smallbirdworkshop
Email: smallbirdworkshop@gmail.com
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Member Profile: Alderley Grange
Alderley Grange is a smallholding nestled on a hillside overlooking the Hunt Valley and the Salish Sea on Vancouver Island. Using organic and permaculture practices, they seasonally grow their own pork, eggs, flowers and vegetables. As part of the Flax-to-Linen revival, Alderley Grange sells fibre flax Linore, which is a winter hardy variety hybridized with Agatha, a traditional textile flax from the Netherlands.
For more information about purchasing flax seed, contact carol@alderleygrange.com or visit https://alderleygrange.com. |
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