Processing Nettle & Other Foraged Fibre Workshop

Processing Nettle & Other Foraged Fibre 
with SimonE Leblanc

Date: Saturday, February 8, 2025
Time: 1:30 - 3:30pm
Location: Riverview Community Centre
(90 Ashland ave, Winipeg)
Cost: $45 (includes all materials and workbook)

Register here.

Summary: Learn the techniques to process stinging nettle and other foraged fibre into spinable fibre. In this workshop you will be introduced to the skills needed to process locally sourced bast fibres foraged from nature. Together we will discuss and practice the steps in processing stinging nettle, dogbane, milkweed, fireweed as well as flax and turning it into usable fibre for spinning or other fibre craft.

Through a combination of lecture, demonstrations and hands-on activities, each participant will have the opportunity to experience taking a retted nettle stock to ready to spin fibre.

Materials Provided

  • retted nettle stocks (1-2 per participant) as well as samples of dogbane, milkweed and fireweed

  • Information Booklet for each participant

Option tools for participants to bring:

  • Hand carders

  • Drop spindle  

Simone LeBlanc is a fibre artist living in Northwestern Ontario. Simone has an interest in natural and locally sourced fibres in her exploration of various fibre crafts. Inspired by the Fibreshed and Slow Fashion movements, Simone strives to use natural, biodegradable, sustainable materials in her fibre arts projects. Simone enjoys sharing heritage techniques and skills of fibre processing with others through workshops and demonstrations, to help keep this knowledge alive. These practices of processing and using materials sourced locally, ethically and sustainably are important lessons in today's world.

The Nettle Dress Screening

Film Screening
The Nettle Dress

We are excited to announce a screening of The Nettle Dress film!

Sunday, December 1st
7pm
Riverview Community Centre (90 Ashland Ave, Winnipeg)
Cost: $15
Tickets will be available online and at the door.

Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand just from the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles.

This is ‘hedgerow couture’, the greenest of slow fashion and also his medicine. It’s how he survives the death of his wife and finds a beautiful way to honour her.

A modern-day fairytale and hymn to the healing power of nature and slow craft.

Producer Profile - GRannie Rambouillets and Johnstone Farm Border Cheviots

Our farm is 16 km north-east of Binscarth and a similar distance south-east of Russell, MB. We own 320 acres though 100 acres are rented to a neighbour. The rest of the land is in pasture and hay.

My grandparents moved to this farm in 1919, receiving title to the vland in 1925. My father bought the land from his mother in 1952. I started buying it in 1984.

In 1968 my parents had a bumper crop of barley and there was no market for the grain. My mother and I persuaded Dad to buy some sheep. I bought my first purebred Suffolk ewes in the fall of 1969. I have been working with sheep ever since.

Graham and one of his coloured rambouillet lambs

When I graduated from high school I went to New Zealand. While there my first job was on a 1000-acre farm. We lambed 2000 ewes and calved 60 cows. The farm also had 1600 hoggets (yearling sheep) and 300 feeder cattle. Over the next 2 1⁄2 years I spent 5 mseasons in shearing gangs. Most of that time I worked as a roustabout (sweeping the shearing board, picking up fleeces and eventually working on the wool table) though I did some pressing on three stand gangs. In a normal day we handled 800 to 1200 fleeces. I then spent a year in Australia. Some of that time was spent in north central New South Wales working in shearing teams.

After returning to Canada, I went to university gaining a BScAg. I then worked at various jobs but spent 36 years working at a potash mine. Days off were often spent shearing small flocks between Ste. Genevieve, Mb in the east and Yorkton, Sk in the west. I often tried to persuade people to enter fleeces in wool shows.

Rambouillet Ram

In 1987 the Suffolks were dispersed. I kept a small flock of crossbreds until 1993. Then friends wanted to take a year away from their farm. They offered me the opportunity to lease their purebred Rambouillet sheep flock. The lease allowed me to select 1/3 of their lambs. Between then and 2000 I purchased the rest of their sheep and three other small flocks of Rambouillets. My flock has varied from 25 to 150 but is currently 85 ewes.

In 1997 I met Janice. Her family had started their sheep flock in 1970 in Port Coquitlam, BC. Her award-winning Border Cheviots had started from one ewe lamb she was given for helping fit a flock or shows. We married in 2004. She and her flock made the move to Manitoba. Her flock grew from 25 to the current number of 120 breeding ewes.

Border Cheviot sheep waiting to be sheared

In 2017 we purchased a half dozen, coloured ewes of mixed background. They came from a fibre flock that was sold to Tony and Simon Atkinson. They posses a dominant black gene, and a fading gene. I have been breeding them to Rambouillet rams and currently have 20 black or grey ewes.

I met Anna and other members of the Pembina Valley Fibreshed while exhibiting wool at the Blue Hills Fibre Festival and the Manitoba Fibre Festival. The enthusiasm for quality fibre drew me into wanting to be involved. The fibreshed has provided great opportunities to meet and share ideas with others.

People interested in our wool can contact us at:

ph (204)773-6322

grannie@inetlink.ca

or through facebook Messenger Graham Rannie Janice Johnstone

OYOO 2024 Cohort

The One Year One Outfit challenge has had such positive response in our community that we will be running a third cohort.

OVER 12 MONTHS, OYOO PARTICIPANTS WILL DESIGN, SOURCE AND CREATE AN “OUTFIT” OF 3 WEARABLE GARMENTS, ACCESSORIES OR ADORNMENTS MADE WITH FIBRE SOURCED FROM WITHIN THE PEMBINA FIBRESHED.

You can check out past years’ outfits here and here.

To learn more about the challenge, the timeline and the parameters for participation you can read the full document here.

Registration is now open for the third cohort and will be open until March 31st 2024. you can find the registration form here.

March 12th Info Session

Join us on Zoom to hear from past participants and have your questions answered. Tuesday, March 12th at 7pm. More details to come. 

Producer Profile - Modern Medieval Shop

Modern medieval shop

Nathalie has been working in the fiber arts since 2019 and prefers to work and process  local natural fibers. From washing,  carding,  dyeing,  and spinning, she thrives on a challenge and to experiment with diverse techniques in order to create unique pieces; including yarn, art yarn, nalbinding,  crochet, knitting and weaving. She grows dye plants in her urban garden.

She offers classes, local handspun yarn, and handmade nalbound,  knit and crochet items.

Contact: Nathalie Rivard

Email: modernmedievalshop@gmail.com

Instagram : @modern_medieval_shop

Producer Profile - Green Pastures

Green Pastures Farm


Hi, my name is Leah Bouchard and my husband and I operate Green Pastures Farm located in southeastern Manitoba.

Farming has been in both of our families for many generations and our farm is the farm that I grew up on. It was and is originally a turkey farm. We have added in a flock of 150 ewes as a way to regenerate the pastures and increase fertility of the land we manage.

When we got our current flock of sheep about fifteen years ago, I was drawn into using the wool. Wool blankets have been used in my family for generations - both my grandmothers stitched them by hand, and it was a skill passed down from generation to generation. I hand-stitched my first wool blanket in my grandma’s basement fifteen years ago and haven’t looked back. Now we make use about half of the wool our sheep produce in wool comforters that we sell locally through our website.

We are passionate about keeping old fashioned skills alive – not just hand stitching wool blankets, but we do a lot of food-related projects on our farm – from gardening and canning, to butchering, making sausage, crafting wines, breads, and foraging wild plants; we even milk some of our sheep and make cheese from the milk for our family.

Educating others and sharing skills and wisdom of the past are part of our farm values and in the last years, we’ve been adding that component into our farm business. We love hosting school groups, families, and in 2023, we launched an agri-tourism experience, called ‘Farm, Fibre, Food & Friends,’ where we welcome small groups of guests to the farm and they have the opportunity to experience some of our family traditions - creating a woolen quilt from start to finish, as well as enjoying delicious farm to table food.

For more information on our farm, check out our website, and follow our social media.

www.farmgreenpastures.com

www.facebook.com/farmgreenpastures

www.instagram.com/greenpastures_manitoba





Fibershed Book Club

The book club is open to anyone in our community who would like to read and discuss books related to fibre, textiles, land regeneration and fibreshed.

The next book is The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair

You can purchase the book at your local bookstore, purchase it on audible.


Next meetup date for the book club is
Sunday, April 21
2pm
Via Zoom

Please sign up for the book club, so we can send updates and information!

Previous books in the book club:

The first book will be Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy by Rebecca Burgess


YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK:

Producer Profile - The Last Dance Ranch

Meet producer member LeVerne Tucker of The Last Dance Ranch

The Last Dance Ranch is a small farm located in the heart of Manitoba’s Interlake, just north of Teulon, and west of the beaches of Lake Winnipeg.  The landmark hip-roof barn was once the site of local barn dances, and now provides shelter for a flock of Icelandic sheep, two handsome quarter horses, some heritage hens, and Marigold, the donkey. 


How did you get started?
2024 is the 10 year anniversary of this farm, and the split decision I made at the end of a relationship to  purchase a smaller, 7 acre property and farm by myself in order to continue to provide a home for my animals and have the lifestyle that I had come to enjoy after spending the majority of my life in the city.  
 
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned?
Farming is a continual exercise in optimism - successes and failures  are determined by attention to detail, insight, and the determination to always do better next season.   My perseverance and patience  have certainly grown over the past decade! 
 
Why the fibreshed?
The Pembina Fibreshed is community that connects farmers, processors, and consumers, and actively provides an awareness of how to improve our “fibre footprint,” and step away from the production/consumption mode  of fast fashion.  I treasure the connections with my clients who value having “met” the sheep who grew the wool for their garment,  or appreciate a locally woven item.        
 
What do you raise/what do you sell/where do you sell?
I raise Icelandic sheep, as well as a few Icelandic/Arcott crosses that have come to the farm as lambs needing a soft place to land.   Presently their wool is sold in roving, batts, and handspun yarn.  A light lopi processed by Longway Homestead will be available in mid-summer.  I create woven textiles on a vintage 4 shaft Leclerc loom using yarn from my flock, as well as cotton, silk, and other natural fibres to produce a collection of  home goods, décor, and accessories.
 
Where to find me:
This anniversary year will mark the opening of the farm studio for events and classes.  There are four looms available for weaving lessons, as well as other textile workshops.   After a brief hiatus from the Wave Artist’s Tour the farm studio will again be open both Wave weekends, June and September.   I am looking forward to offering demonstrations again this year at the cultural pavilion of the Icelandic Festival in Gimli in August,  and hope to hold a fibre pop-up at the farm in mid-summer.  In September you’ll find me at the Fibre Festival, and as always throughout the year at St. Norbert Farmer’s Market where I have been a co-op member since 1997. 
 
You can find LeVerne and her products here:
Instagram:  @thelastdanceranch
Website: https://lastdanceranch.square.site/

OYOO 2022 - 2023 Cohort

The 2022 OYOO Cohort culminated in a beautiful display at the Manitoba Fibre Festival in September 2023, where over 2000 people could admire the creations, engage with the participants, and get inspired.

A huge thankyou to Danielle Unett who put together this fantastic BOOKLET that shows off all the work of the 2022 cohort. We will be launching the next round of OYOO in April 2024.

You can download the booklet or read it below.

Speaker Series - The Cowichan Sweater our Knitted Legacy with Film Director Mary Galloway

The Cowichan Sweater - Our Knitted Legacy is a documentary film directed and written by Mary Galloway and streaming for free on CBC Gem.

The film follows the history of the iconic sweater in the Saanich and Cowichan territories on Vancouver Island and the traditional knitters from these communities.

The Speaker Series is a FREE event, but we recommend a $10 donation. Please consider making a donation for the event. All profits from the event will be donated to an organization of the speakers choice. You can also send your donation by etransfer to connect@pembinafibreshed.com

Donate

Flax Update June 2023

Much has changed since our flax planting event 30 days ago. Since then, we've been watering and weeding, and now, mostly waiting. Figured it was also a good time to post.

The seed germinated at 5 days but not all seeds produced a plant. The older seed we planted appears to have been a factor in this. The Nathalie variety (middle row) gave us the best results followed by Linore (left) and Taproot (right). The Nathalie is also noticeably taller by approx one inch. Plant density was otherwise good in each row despite some bare patches due to less than ideal germination.

Over the next two months we'll continue to water as needed until the flowers bloom and expect to weed less as the plants mature. Hoping for stronger plants and no lodging this time around.

(Written by Randy Dyck of Hundredfold Farm)
____________________________

Dye Pot Mixer - Invitation

Calling all natural dye enthusiasts to join the first ever! Dye Pot Mixer at Big Oak Farm, Morden Manitoba, on July 15th from 1pm to 4pm.

Please rsvp by sending an email to jenniferdegroot@yahoo.ca OR by contacting us through our website  Come to meet other artists, crafters, producers and lovers of natural colour who live in Treaty 1 territory.

The gathering will include a fun dye garden scavenger hunt, an opportunity to share our passion and expertise with each other, and dream about the future as people who love natural dyeing, growing and foraging for natural dyes. The number one goal for this afternoon is to build community -all are welcomed. Please note this is NOT an instructional event.

Flax, Then and Now.

Flax, Then and Now

By Randy Dyck, Hundredfold Farm and Pembina Fibreshed producer member

Some of my earliest memories are of a sea of blue flowers swaying in the breeze as I rode my bicycle along the gravel road that bordered my father’s flax field. From the seat of my bike, and in my imagination, it appeared as if I was standing on the shore of a lake, looking out over the water. Growing up on a grain farm in the Manitoba prairies gave me hours of endless adventures as I wandered the interweaving roads that characterize the southern Manitoba landscape. The scope of our family farming operation was vast and rarely did I travel alone beyond its borders.

My dad, like many other grain farmers in Manitoba, grew flax for oilseed. It grew to an average height of 24 inches and the seed wasn’t harvested until the plant was completely brown. The waste was baled and used as feed or bedding for livestock. That was then.

These days, flax has taken on a whole new purpose for us on our farm. As an alpaca producer, the importance of using natural fibres in the production of goods we make ourselves has always been our goal. So, when the Pembina Fibreshed introduced the idea of plant based, flax fibres it seemed like the perfect fit. Linen yarn is soft, lustrous, and strong and like alpaca, it’s naturally hypoallergenic. The main difference is that it’s plant based and would require an entirely different approach to processing.

This past year was our second season of growing flax for linen. Armed with both knowledge and hindsight, we began the growing season optimistic about what might come. We increased the size of our planting area and experimented with four different flax varieties to see what grew best. Approximately one hundred days from planting, we harvested, dew retted and dried the flax, making it ready for processing. We were pleased to find that two of the four varieties grew tall and straight with minimal branching at the base of the plant. In some areas, lodging was observed which may have been due to some heavy rain and random denser plantings.

Plans for flax processing coincided with several events where we performed demonstrations using traditional handmade tools. These events also gave us the opportunity to educate, engage and hopefully inspire our community around the idea of local textile agriculture and the learning of new skills. Despite a few missteps along the way, the season was a success. We learned more about the process and continue to improve our tools and techniques to optimize that success.

As the son of a grain farmer, I grew up not knowing the full potential of the flax plant. With over 300,000 hectares of flax grown annually in Canada, my father’s focus was on farming what he could sell. We grew flax for consumption, not clothing and it has been that way for over a century in this country. Outside of wool, textile agriculture was greatly under-valued and fast fashion has damaged the industry by encouraging the frequent purchasing and discarding of clothes. Like alpaca, however, linen can transcend this thanks to its durability.

Now, as a producer of natural, protein fibre and maker of textile goods, flax fibre has a strong appeal to us. With an abundance of knowledge available online and through great local sources like the Pembina Fibreshed, flax can also be easily grown at home and processed with simple tools.

We also believe many people are looking for greener and more sustainably produced home goods and clothing so why not linen?

Our experience with flax has taught us a few things. First, the humble flax plant can be finicky to work with and so the timing of each stage is important to master. Processing is also time-consuming and requires some physical effort. Secondly, working with plants is much easier than animals. They don’t kick, spit, or leave behind piles of poop for you to clean up, but they also don’t communicate with you in those special ways that attracted you to them in the first place. Lastly, this project has taught us to be patient with the process. In Canada, we only have one growing season, and one opportunity to get it right. Even though learning from our mistakes is often immediate, correcting them takes time.

Overall, it has been a challenging (and fun) experience. We’ve made great friends in the fibreshed community and enjoy every opportunity to gather together to learn. The 2023 planting season is nearly upon us, and we are excited to see where this season’s combination of experience, weather, new skills, and luck will take us. Will you join us?

*** Pembina Fibreshed community planting day will take place on Sunday, May 21st at Hundredfold Farm - watch for more details***

Community Mending Day - Report Back

We were delighted by the positive response to our first ever Community Mending Day. It was a jam-packed room with so many small and big repairs and inspiring conversations about our material culture and what clothing and mending mean to each of us.

A big thank you to those that attended the event and were willing to learn a new skill and try something new.

Thanks to our incredible 'mending help-desk’ volunteers who generously shared their knowledge and tools to help others mend, darn, fix and prolong the life of their clothing. Katherine and Jan of Winnipeg Sews, Andrea Mantler, Brenda Belmonte of Raiment Resource and Mallory from Reclaim Mending. A huge thank you as well to Helen Mawdsley for setting up her table of lovely hand-turned wooden tools and raffle prize, and to Marshall Fabric for the donation of three mending kits to our raffle.

We had some excellent media coverage in the lead up to the event - it sparked a conversation throughout our community on the importance of mending our clothes and limiting the textile waste that we produce.

If you would like to learn more about textile waste and recycling in Canada check out this report from Fashion Takes Action.

We are looking forward to more events like this - would you be interested in helping us organize future mending events? If yes shoot us an email at connect@pembinafibreshed.com

Speaker Series - Skins, Hides and Furs

Here is the video recording of the Speaker Series: Skins, Hides and Furs event presented by Christel Lanthier of Ferme Fiola Farm.

The speaker series is available free of charge for everyone. Consider making a donation so we can continue with our speaker series and bringing important voices to the fibreshed discussion.

Donate

We would like to offer more workshops and classes around tanning and also turning tanned items into clothing and accessories. Please fill out this short survey to help us better determine what our community is looking for.

Meet our New Producers - Hearts and Roots

Hearts & Roots is located just south of Elie, Mantioba on Treaty 1 territory. We raise registered Shetland and Icelandic sheep on 20 acres of forages that we’re slowly populating with hardy fruit and nut trees. We also grow certified organic garden plants in our greenhouse for sale every spring and our selection includes many plants used for natural dyes.

Our journey to shepherding was unusual. We started out as organic market gardeners and sheep were imported as a management tool. We used them to recycle the cover crops that preceded our vegetable production.

We planted 20 apple trees in 2019 in an unproductive yard and began to experiment with sheep grazing in and around them. With a little stucco wire around each tree, and good grass at their feet, the sheep were easily deterred. From that year forward, we’ve been slowly planting more and more trees out in the pasture.

The goal is a healthy orchard throughout our pastures of full sized trees spaced accordingly to maintain good grass production. Good grass we hope will allow us to continue to use sheep as a management tool, rather than mechanical or chemical interventions.

To maintain good grass we do a version of what is often referred to as rotational grazing. That said, we’re more likely in the ‘opportunistic grazing’ camp. Opportunistic grazing is just a way of saying we use the principles of rotational grazing as a guide without sacrificing flexibility in the plan. We graze small paddocks and move our sheep every few days. We make sure that not to overgraze and that forages get the opportunity to rest a regrow before we revisit. But outside of that, every potential move is fair game.

While we continue to learn, the simplest way to ensure good grass is to understock. Less sheep is less pressure and our primary goal is plant food first. We’ve taken a step back from that since jettisoning the market garden, but each year with each tree, we get a little closer.

Icelandic wool from Hearts & Roots

Having access to annual forages also helps. Each year we grow cover crops between our rows of asparagus which the sheep recycle at the end of the season. There are more animal days per acre on annual cover, but we’re still partial to the low-input, slow work of perennial crops.

We’re lucky our farm has plenty of shelterbelts. They run east to west every 250 feet. This gives our sheep plenty of shade in the hot summer months and provides a great template for fencing. Each of our five wire, high tensile, electrified paddocks is approximately 1000’ by 250’ and we can split that into even smaller paddocks with a gallagher smart fence.

Beautiful icelandic and shetland wool from Hearts & Roots

There’s still so much to learn, but integrating sheep into our farm has been a joy. Without the opportunity to scale, the sheep will never be an economic engine. But, there’s plenty of creative ways to work with these small hardy breeds as effective land management providers.

To order dye plant starts check it out here - dye plant starts should be ordered by March 31st!

Learn more about Hearts and Roots on their Website.

Fibre Art Equipment Rental Program - Producer Highlight

Because sometimes you want just a nibble to see whether you need to bite.
Wool Mountain offers fibre equipment rentals: tools for handspinners, feltmakers and beginner weavers.
- By Producer Member Maureen Winnicki-Lyons of Wool Mountain


Aligning Winnipeg (and surrounding area) with the same sort of rental services offered in larger urban centres, Wool Mountain opted to get into the sideline of equipment rentals because when we began our journey down the rabbit hole of textile arts, it struck us there was need. How does one know they’ll find value in purchasing a brand-new 1K drum carder if they’ve never used a drum carder before? How does one justify investing thousands of dollars on a spinning wheel without seeing first-hand what wheel fits their body and/or lifestyle? Would I purchase a $600 loom if I’ve never woven before? What size is too big? The smallest might be too small. Does it fit in my lap or on my coffee table? Then, having acquired the coveted tool, how will I learn to use it? What if I find hand-spinning or weaving or carding batts is not, in fact, to my liking…. and I’m left finding a way to resell or recover the cost of that short-lived experiment. What then? ‘Too bad I can’t just try a rental and have first a taste of the textile art I hope to master,’ a person is left to ponder. Now, people CAN try various tools through equipment rentals. We offer it. 

Equipment for rent by day or week includes delivery and pickup plus a crash-course on how-to operate. Find spinning wheels from most manufacturers, hand-turned drum carders, large frame looms, rigid heddle looms in various sizes, and more:

Wheels

Ashford Joy (Double Treadle)
Louet S10 (Single Treadle)
Kromski Minstrel (Double Treadle)
Kromski Fantasia (Double Treadle)
Ashford Traditional (Single Treadle)
Louet Hatbox (Limited Edition)
Lendrum (Double Treadle)
Schacht Matchless (Single Treadle)
Various flyer sizes


Drum Carders
Ashford 125 (superfine) 
Louet 75 (coarse)


Rigid Heddle Looms

10 12 24 32 widths
Various Reeds 

Equipment is subject to availability. Rates on request. Comprehensive lessons are also available through our educational component, MWLminiMakers. We teach handspinning, skirting and scouring, fibre preparation, hand-dyeing, botanical print, natural dyeing, feltmaking, tapestry weaving, rigid heddle weaving, and work with hand-painting acrylic inks, fabric paint, and mixed media.


MWL Wool Mountain is where you find Mindfulness is in The Making. Our specialty is 200+ unique breeds of wool from near and far but we also offer a variety of hand-crafted and hand-dyed goods, and weaving, felting and handspinning kits, as well as all manners of workshops and equipment rentals. Plus Handspun Sugar Batts for Your Belly otherwise known as cotton candy! 

Learn more at MWL Wool Mountain