Join expert knitter, Gayle Ravenscroft, for a virtual class on knitting with farm yarns. Some of the topics Gayle will address are:
• Why knitters should consider farm yarns, and in particular, yarns from their Fibershed
• How to find farm yarns
• Projects that are particularly suitable and why
• Breed specificity (including heritage breeds) and why it can matter
• Local designers and the pleasure of introducing a unique and local ‘angle’ into your craft
• The creation of a monthly knitting circle at the Fibershed Learning Center (on Zoom until safe to gather in person) offering support and community, samples of projects/kits/swatches of farm yarns and projects and eventually more organized visits with individual farms and sheep

Yarns that Gayle is currently working with include Lani’s Lana, Meridian Jacobs, Heartfelt Fiber Farm, Ace in the Hole Romneys, Rhoby’s Ranch, Chico Flax (these represent a very wide spectrum!). There are quite a few more on Gayle’s list…

Participants will be invited to submit questions.

Register on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_J1ZU3qcmRm-65UYuvglWjQ

A video of the webinar will be made available to webinar registrants within approximately two weeks of the event.

Gayle Ravenscroft has been on a fiber adventure since she learned to knit from her grandmother when she was five years old. She is passionate about all aspects of the craft, as well as the cultivation of a mindfulness and appreciation for the history and labour represented by each piece of fabric a knitter creates. She is a teacher herself (on Zoom during the pandemic), and collaborates with other teachers, designers and yarn producers around the world to offer as many opportunities to grow as possible to the local knitting community through her tiny business, Pacific Knitting Retreats, LLC. Gayle is amazed by her Fibershed and truly grateful that they find chances for her to participate.

This webinar is part of a series that will be streaming live via Zoom from the Fibershed Learning Center, a multi-use space to demonstrate and provide hands-on connections to natural fiber and dye systems. The Learning Center will open later this year in Point Reyes Station, California, on the traditional and ancestral territory of the Coast Miwok and within the historic Black Mountain Ranch property.

Proceeds from each event support the class instructor and contribute to Fibershed for educational programming. A portion of the proceeds from each virtual event will also be shared with a local and mission-aligned non-profit organization, selected by the instructor. Currently scheduled online events are listed on our Learning Center page at fibershed.org/programs/education/learningcenter.

(Photos by Paige Green)