Monday, October 10, 2011

Autumn should be a time of gathering in, harvesting, taking stock and building stores against the winter. For me though, autumn is a time of beginnings. It's finally cool enough out that I can switch to spinning and knitting big smooshy cozy piles of soft wool, after spending a summer where I could barely stand to handle cotton and linen. I finally get to haul out the bins of my favorite clothes, the fall colored lumpy and cozy handknits, the thick and textured handwoven scarves, and the piles of layers.

And really, I'd much rather rock the velvet than sweat in a t-shirt.

A friend of mine made an amazing New Year's resolution: she decided not to buy any clothes, but make her own for the year. Then I ran across this remarkable blog http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/grow-your-own-clothes-the-fibershed-project/
And heard the term "fibershed" for the first time. I'm also pretty smitten with the "Slow Cloth" movement. Obviously, I'm completely in love with textiles, and the idea of making my own things from local products is immensely appealing.

I really want to weave my own fabric from yarn that I've spun, preferably from local 'ingredients', and then sew it up into a wonderful piece of clothing. I'd also love to inspire more people to do the same!

Depending on the time of month and hormone levels, my tastes in clothing run from tight luxe velvet and sassy knit skirts to big caftan-y dresses of thick drape-y fabric. Mind you, I don't have any caftans yet, but I always want them! I also like structured flat-front palazzo pants with a tunic top, and that's usually my caftan substitute. So my plan at the moment is to weave a schmutz of a big caftan, or at least a tunic, from local goodies.

Now, to go convince local farmer to put in a few acres of line flax, and someone else to put together a flax processing house so I have local linen :)

Alright, I'm going to post this and come back to edit it, since I don't trust safari to save it one little bit!

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