Inverness

The Fibershed Wool Symposium was last weekend in Pt. Reyes Station. This is one of my favorite events of the year but this year it was more special because I spent the night in nearby Inverness with other Fibershed friends and we had our second Northern CA Fibershed Coop Board meeting on Sunday. Following the meeting four of us went on an impromptu hike on Inverness Ridge.             This local church was booked for any of the Fibershed group who wanted to spend the night after the long day at the Symposium.

                 It is a great place to stay for anyone traveling in that area.                        This was originally a house that was purchased from the Frick family in 1950 and turned into a church. There is a fascinating multi-level maze of rooms and halls and stairways. This view looks down from the third floor on what was originally the family's living room.

                  I love this dining area, partly because the table is of the same era (at least from looking at some of it's features) as the table that my mom bought and we still use, although this one is in much better shape than ours.

                  I stayed in this bedroom with five other women. There are several bedrooms with different numbers of beds. I think the place can accommodate 36 people.           When I got up on Sunday morning I decided to take a walk before our meeting and headed up a road I found behind the church.                  This is my kind of Sunday morning.

             The road I found led me back down to the main road and Tomales Bay.

It was after our meeting ended at about 1 that four of us set of for a hiking trail.

                                                     It is great when you find open space accessible to the public.

      Rebecca pointed out huckleberries which were still on the bushes, although the normal harvest season was over. I wouldn't have known and would have avoided these unknown berries.

  Stephanie (wearing her handknit Jacob sweater) ate her share as did the rest of us.

            This is a much wetter area than where I usually find myself and there were still signs of the previous night's rain.        Another testament to the dampness were the large slugs that we saw.             The view overlooking Tomales Bay. What a beautiful day we had!               As we were coming back down from the ridge that has a view of the ocean, another hiker   coming up the hill saw our silhouettes and offered to take our photo. This is the view that she saw.

What a great end to an inspiring weekend!

Fibershed Fashion Show

Saturday was the day of the long-awaited Climate Beneficial Fashion Gala presented by Fibershed. The first year there was a Fashion Show was in 2011. What a long way Fibershed has come since then. There was a second celebration in 2013 but I don't find a blog post about that one. The third fashion show in 2015, Grow Your Jeans, featured jeans grown and sewn in California accessorized with "grassfed" tops. I look forward to these celebrations. I only wish that my photos were better. Intense mid-day sun didn't help and once the event started I was too busy at my booth to take more photos.

This year's fashion show celebrated the production of the cloth grown by sheep on the Bare Ranch in northern California and sold by Lani's Lana.

I was there as a vendor and the first thing to do was to unload the truck and set up my booth.

Other than all the weaving I have been doing (to be seen later) my newest products are wool wreaths. After setting up I took a little time to wander around and see other vendors.

The event was held at Big Mesa Farm in Bolinas. They are an organic farm and also rent 4 "glamping" spaces on hipcamp.com .

While I was wandering around the rest of the venue was being arranged.

Seating for dinner. The tent on the right is where the models changed and the garments were displayed and sold in a silent auction.

Chefs worked in this outdoor kitchen.

Food was set out.

Tables and chairs were arranged in front of the stage.

Models listened to instructions and practiced.

This is where the public entered the venue.

Huston Textile Company in Rancho Cordova wove the cloth that was grown by Lani's sheep.

That's Carol peeking out from behind her leather and felt hats and bags.

Sheepskins.

Wool sponges.

Cotton goods.

There was a natural dyeing demonstration going on.

As the main event started Rebecca welcomed everyone and spoke about the Fibershed concepts.

Lani spoke about her part in this project.

It was getting late (low light) and I was standing in the back, so I did not get good photos of the show itself. This is an enlargement of part of an iPhone photo that shows the shawl that I wove for the show. That shawl features Anderson Ranch yarn dyed with coreopsis and dahlia.

The colors range from rust to gold, the wool is soft, and the piece has fabulous drape. It was sold in the silent auction but I have one that is similar that will be in my show at the Artery in November.

The next Fibershed event is the Wool Symposium in November. That is one of my favorite events each year. If you want to go get your tickets early as this event sells out.