Fibershed?
I was blown away today when I received a post from Joybilee Farm on one of my Yahoo Groups. She wrote about sustainable clothing, locally sourced no more than 150 miles away. What would this mean?
"The Fibershed project is inspired by the need to swing the pendulum of our production- and our consumption to a more balanced state, that supports the health of all humans and the greater ecological system of which we are apart; through the re-integration of organic fibers, natural dyes, and a regional base that supports local communities and economies."
I was led to the originator blog of the Fibershed project and read
"The fibershed challenge is to live for one year, in clothes made from fibers that are solely sourced within a geographical region no larger than 150 miles from my front door; this includes the natural dye colors as well!"
What would it mean to create bioregional clothing in Minneapolis? What are our native fibers, our native dyes, our climactic needs?
Many are talking about the Transition Town movement that aims to create a more sustainable lifestyle with a small carbon footprint and far less reliance on oil. By local-sourcing our clothing, we can contribute to this.
I don't know that I have the will or the knowledge to do this, local source all my clothing within 150 miles, for a year. But it bears thinking about. It bears talking about.
What do you think?
BFL/silk hand dyed roving!
Ashland Bay merino Silk roving: these are the samples spun up!
Baby Llama roving
Alpaca silk roving
alpaca, baby llama all spun up!
And boxes of handspun, hand dyed yarn!
