Ginger writes:
Did you join us at the Florida Fiber In? We had a wonderful time! We met old friends and made new ones. The demos were great! I learned Navajo 3 ply on the fly; a bit more practice and I’ll actually be good at it. Tacking down the loop was the aha-moment! I gave a demo on Taming the Wild Roving. We talked about how to get the yarn you want from multi colored roving that has all the colors you love, but not necessarily in a complimentary format. The notes from the demo will be available on this site after SAFF.
Ewephoric Fibers introduced Gotland at the Florida Fiber In. Gotland is an ancient breed of sheep developed by the Vikings on the Swedish island of Gotland. The base breeds were Karakul and Romanov sheep from Russia that were crossed with the native landrace sheep. Many of the short-tailed primitive breeds came from these early crosses as the Vikings wandered the world. Gotland became known as the fiber that was hand spun, hand woven, and sewn into the capes worn by the Elves in Lord of the Rings.
Gotland is a beautiful gray, lustrous fiber that is strong, durable, and has wonderful drape. As is true of many of the primitive breeds, the Gotland fleece is not the softest fiber. To give it a better hand, Ewephoric Fibers blended Gotland roving with soft, shiny Suri llama. What a terrific blend! The Suri softens the yarn, adds to the sheen, and deepens the colors.
SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair: www.saffsite.org), Fletcher, NC, takes place October 21-23, 2011. This fair is rapidly becoming one of the go to places for new spinning fibers, yarns, and all the new tools and toys available. Ewephoric Fibers will have a booth (#18) in the Sales Arena area. Since this is a pole barn, we are hoping for cool, crisp, fall weather, but not too cool! Ginger is going to be teaching a ½ day workshop on Taming the Wild Roving. We will be spinning multicolored roving and learning how to make the yarn of your dreams from that amazing roving that you just love.
Ewephoric Fibers will use SAFF to introduce some wonderful new exotic fibers! Guanaco is a CITES protected camelid from South America. The Patagonian Steppe in Argentina is home of the Cooperativa Payún Matrú (www.payunmatru.com) where this amazing fiber originates from. Guanaco is a down fiber, exquisitely soft, fine and rare. Only very limited amounts of it are available each year as the shepherds capture the migrating herds of guanaco, shear them, and then release them to finish their migration across the arid steppe to the summer feeding grounds.
Ask us about Green Cashmere: No, it is not actually green! The shepherds who shear the guanaco are goat shepherds, mostly indigenous, who are replacing their feral herds of goats with more profitable cashmere goats. Increased income is realized from cashmere goats as markets for fiber, meat, and hides are developed. Dogs used to guard the herds lead to a reduced loss of livestock to predators and less retaliatory killing of those predators. As the habitat of the steppe improves the world’s migratory populations of guanaco reclaim their ancestral routes with the Andean condors soaring overhead, Darwin’s Rheas racing along the steppe and Andean cats and pumas can return with plentiful native prey available.
Wildlife Friendly Certification (www.wildlifefriendly.org) for ‘green’ cashmere ensures that the environment is being used in a sustainable way through better use of the habitat, reduced killing of predators, improved husbandry, and fair market income from these rare and sustainable fibers to support and elevate the shepherds. Be part of the solution and acquire some of the first green cashmere and guanaco fibers to come out of the Patagonian Steppe for your finest handspinning endeavors! Ginger will be traveling to Patagonia in December and will be returning with fibers, just in time for Christmas! Do not miss out on this rare treat!