Weaving with Levi Strauss and company

Bring us your tired, your faded, your frayed and worn... BLUE JEANS. And, learn how to use them in weaving at the March 5 meeting of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild.

The meeting program will be a hands-on workshop to make fleece throws, walker tote bags, and using blue jeans in weaving. Please bring scissors and old blue jeans to cut up to the meeting. The guild is also requesting the following for its community service project:

• bib overalls
• old trophies 
• silky rectangular scarves.

February 26 is the 182nd anniversary of Levi Strauss' birthday. A German immigrant and entrepreneur, Strauss was an American textile industry visionary who co-invented one of the most popular pieces of clothing in the world—blue jeans.

In addition to Levi... Lee, Liz Claiborne, GH Bass, Gap, Wrangler, Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren and your Calvin Kleins are all invited to attend Saturday's meeting.

image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Strauss

Southern Select Alpaca Show

In addition to seeing all the wonderful alpacas walking around in full fleece, you will see lots of end-products—clothes, art and furnishings—made from alpaca fibers, spinning and weaving demonstrations, seminars and a silent auction at the Southern Select Alpaca Show the weekend of March 5-6 in Shelbyville, TN.

On Saturday, there will be a team of fiber artists demonstrating the "Fleece-to-Shawl," taking raw, unprocessed fiber and making it into a beautiful woven shawl. The whole process should take around 5 hours to complete. And, the finished shawl will be auctioned off that evening to the highest bidder. This is really quite a fascinating demonstration! You can also check out the winners of the annual "Spin-Off" competition that reveals which alpaca fleece is best suited for a nice finished yarn.

Riverbend fiber artists, Susan Darling, Melissa McFail, Kathy Swift-Lawson and Marti Zoerb will be somewhere in the middle of all the commotion. So, head out to the show after the guild meeting on Saturday, March 5, or visit the show on Sunday, March 6.

—Susan Darling, Southern Select Chairman

Angora bunnies are great balls of fur

The Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild got up close and personal with two furry, four-legged visitors at the February guild meeting with a program on Angora rabbits and their fiber.

Angora rabbits, a variety of domestic rabbits, are bred for their long, soft, silky fur. The "fluffiness" of the Angora fiber creates a "halo" effect that can be seen on garments knit or crocheted from the fiber. Guild member, Martha Ooten, who presented the program, indicated that the fur of the Angora rabbit grows quickly. She harvests the fibers from her bunnies by plucking, combing and shearing every 3-4 months.

Upper left: fiber comparison display. Lower left: items made from angora and alpaca yarns. Right: collecting the Angora fibers.

Ms. Ooten, who is raising eight rabbits, talked about the care, feeding, grooming and breeding of Angora rabbits. Various characteristics of the Angora fibers were explained and a chart compared these fibers with alpaca, merino and bluefaced Leicester wool fibers. A hand-knit baby cap and booties illustrated the halo effect created by angora yarn in contrast with the smooth, but equally soft, alpaca yarn.

Guild members had an opportunity to hold and pet the bunnies, who were quite well-behaved (the bunnies, that is).

Batts made from Angora fibers can be dyed and spun into yarn. Ms. Ooten shared her experiences with spinning and dying the fiber and indicated that the fiber or yarn can also be felted. Examples of hand-dyed batts, hand-spun yarn from Angora fibers and blends with other fibers, and knit and crocheted items rounded out the presentation.

Show and Tell

Show and Tell by guild members consisted of hand-knit hats from alpaca yarn, a beaded scarf, a woven shawl, and hand spun yarns.