Fiber Gathering: Knit, Crochet, Spin, and Dye More Than 20 Projects Inspired by America's Festivals - Hardcover

Throughout history, we've gathered together in the market square. We're there to buy and sell, to get good deals on fibers, fabrics, fruits, vegetables, and bread, but we're also there to see friends, gossip, trade recipes, and admire new clothes. We've got an eye on each other's animals, and we're going to keep them from getting into any trouble. It's our chance to hold someone else's baby or to congratulate a new grandmother. It's a chance to connect, to touch, and to bond with others.

These days, it's easy to feel like we live in scary times, and sometimes we're less neighborly than we used to be. Our lives are filled with long distances and technology. We're more likely to make cyberfriends than visit with someone down the street. Our lives are full of work, school, and caretaking, but how many of us still live near our families? Our hometowns? How do we reach out to one another?
—From the Introduction

For fiber lovers, a festival is more than a setting for buying and selling materials?it's a gathering place where artisans, designers, farmers, and friends come together to teach, learn, share, and celebrate this timeless art in a unique 21st-Century marketplace.

Join author Joanne Seiff as she details the rich heritage, sprawling agriculture, and unique flavor of eleven fiber events throughout the U.S. From the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival to Oregon's Black Sheep Gathering?and lots of others in between?you'll get a taste of what each festival has to offer through a rich mix of photography, essays, lore, and even a local recipe. Talented designers have contributed top-of-the-line patterns for you to knit, crochet, spin, felt, hook, and dye your own distinctive masterpieces using fibers that are ubiquitous to each festival. Whether you're working with a sophisticated mohair-silk blend or skirting a fleece on shearing day, the twenty-five projects in this book are representative of the best of America's fiber festivals.

Perfect for the armchair traveler and fiber enthusiast alike, Fiber Gathering lets you bring America's most celebrated festivals into your heart and home?and inspires you to create clothing, art, and meaning from these time-honored crafts.