Nettles, Treadles and Love

 

So Sean and I got married this year (well, twice,actually.)  We had an intimate City Hall wedding in January, and in May had a small ceremony at the Fort Funston cliffs overlooking the ocean with family and friends, and then a party at our house.

We did things very simply, just the way we wanted.  The love and support from friends and family was AMAZING to experience, as is the daily building of the loving container of our relationship with each other.

We are in our mid to late thirties.  I think we are both still so in awe that we actually found each other and get to keep each other.  We are so excited about all the things we get to do together over the rest of our lives.

Truly in love.  Truly inspired.

 

At the end of January, in preparation for Fort Funston, I began knitting a shawl to wear at the cliffs.  A beautiful light brown Mohair knitted with large needles for an open airy knit.  I know the basics of knitting and not much more.  I can do simple hats and scarves.  For 3 months I worked on this shawl every night for 30 min. to an hour. The day was approaching and I still wasn’t done.  I kept making mistakes and I didn’t have the time to get help to fix them so I would just keep going right over them.  I was still working on that thing at midnight the night before the ceremony.  I finished it, but it was nothing like I had imagined.  It is kind of funky and chunky and totally the wrong shape.  It is kind of a big square – not ideal for wrapping.

It is nowhere near the perfect wedding shawl, but it is oh so perfect.  I love it dearly.  It holds within it’s fibers all the anticipation and dreaming and love that filled me in those days.  It holds the imprint of that amazingly perfect sunny day – so warm and breeze-less that  I didn’t even need to use the shawl standing on that cliff over the ocean on the San Francisco coast.  The feel of those fibers on my skin is the feeling of love.

I also had the intention of making these handmade flowers to wear in my hair – but that project never even got started before the big day.  I found the tutorial to make them on this blog.  I finally got around to making them in August, and they are truly lovely.

However, the project uses synthetic material that you cut and then hold over a flame to melt the fabric so it curls up and looks scrunchy.  This is a cool effect, but it was so disgusting to smell the toxic materials burning.  I probably wont ever do this project again.  If I do make more flowers to finish up the fabric I will wear a mask.

 

I love the color of the blue fabric, but it was so sheer and lightweight that it literally instantly caught on fire.  So warning to you if you try this project.  Get a sturdier fabric.  And wear a mask.

 

By the way, the City Hall dress is so awesome.  I love love love it.  I got it on Haight St., but you can also find it online.  The brand is Stop Staring!   They make brand new remakes of old styles.

 

the Fort Funston dress is from Anthropologie.

and the shoes are Naot (super comfy.  well, at least for about 3 hrs.)

I’ve never been a big dress or shoe girl, but I must say that it was very fun and even healing to really indulge my girly side through this process.

Somewhere in late winter/early Spring this year one of my house-cleaning clients gifted me with a treadle powered sewing machine – a Wheeler & Wilson (L-12-3-1).  I had been telling him about the dream Sean and I have of living energy independently – our desires to disconnect from the corporate energy giants, and our appreciation for human powered tools.  The treadle was something he had used and had for many years but now wanted to find a good home for.  He surprised me by asking with great enthusiasm if I would like it.  Are you kidding?

It is beautiful.

There is a good back story too.  Carol Brown, the woman who gave it to him back in the 70s when she was in her 80’s, was kind of a radical organizer and was instrumental in starting up cooperatives and being a galvanizing force in Putney, Vermont.  She was an early importer of natural fiber fabrics – Irish woolens and others.  It is a great machine – an industrial version with a knee-needle lift and a long body length.  And it actually has a reverse lever, which apparently is rare.

It is the Fall now and I am finally getting around to figuring out how to use it.  (I had a little wedding in the meantime.  It was a little distracting.)  During the Summer I fell so deeply in love with the idea of sewing with treadle power that I found a serger that I could also convert to treadle power- an old industrial Merrow serger (style A-3DRW-3) – USA made by the company that invented sergers.

It is tiny, but cast iron, so incredibly heavy.  Now I need to find a treadle table for it.  And someone who can show me how to use it.

Keep your ears open and let me know if you come across such a thing.

Coincidentally, in the book I talked about in the previous post – Through the Eye of a Needle, John-Paul also finds a treadle sewing machine that he uses.  I can’t wait to read this book.

Creative inspiration has been pouring down in bucket-loads.  Something is turning on inside, lighting me up and clearing my head.  Things seem possible that did not before.

At the beginning of the summer I learned about the Fibershed project.  It is one woman’s commitment, with the larger communities’ involvement, to source all of her clothing (from raw material to processing to piecing) from within 150 miles of her front door for the length of a year.   A fibershed is equivalent to a foodshed or a watershed – it is the local fiber resources available to you.  The year is just now up and it seems it is more a beginning than an end of something.   Fibershed challenges may start sprouting up elsewhere.  This project has posed so many important questions around supporting local industry, artisans, farmers, etc.  Creating more than just beautiful clothes, it seems to be at root about building healthy communities, respecting natures’ processes and appreciating the abundance of what we already have.  As well as pointedly creating an alternative to toxic and dehumanizing industrial clothing manufacturing.

The Fibershed blog is the first blog I have ever read from start to finish.  A textural story with beautiful photos.  It encompasses so many strands of interest and passion for me.  It has planted so many seeds of possibility, and has made me feel that I am not alone.

You can check out the blog here, read a short article here, or see an 11 min. video about the wardrobe here.

Rebecca Burgess, the Fibershed woman, also wrote a book, Harvesting Color, about the art and craft of natural plant dyes.  It is a visually beautiful book with practical instructions and thoughtful historical perspective. It is organized by seasons, and at the end of each season is a knit project instruction.  Now I want to make some room in my neglected garden for some dye plants.

Nettles…

Nettles has come to be one of my favorite foods and medicines.  It’s green leafy goodness can be added to just about anything.   And as a tonic tea it is rich in vitamins and minerals – highly nutrient dense.

And on top of all that I just learned recently that the fibers from the long tough stems have been used in the past to make fabrics – on par with cotton, hemp and linen.  I heard about this from a link on the Fibershed Facebook page.  John-Paul Flintoff wrote a book, Through the Eye of a Needle, about his desire to take control of his life by making his own clothes, and in the process uncovers a fascinating history of fiber – and particularly the nettle.  It sounds humorous and inspiring.  I just ordered it from Chelsea Green Publishing.  But here is a link to a short article about it as well as a 4 minute video of him talking about it.

This is so exciting because, like hemp, it is a healthy renewable resource that is easily grown many places with little to no external inputs necessary, and unlike hemp, it is actually legal to grow here.  It comes back each year and all parts can be useful.  This is the essence of self-sufficiency and sustainability.

This is a blog about craft.  About making things with our hands.  About the ripple effects of that process of making.

It is about what inspires me.

It is also about moving toward energy independence.  At this moment these two are intimately linked for me.

Recipe for Nettles Tonic Tea

(I like to use a combo of equal parts Nettle, Oatstraw and Red Clover, but you can also just use Nettle.)

I put a healthy handful of dried plant material into the bottom of a quart jar. I pour boiled water to fill the jar.  I let that sit over night.  In the morning, strain out the herbs.  I drink the tea frequently throughout the day.  Tonifying and full of nutrients.  Drink your vitamins. 🙂

 

p.s.  I am not affiliated with any of the items or things or people I linked to.  They are just my inspiration, and I want to acknowledge and share.