LLOYDMINSTER – Nancy Labold recently watched an eager student weave long strands of green and beige wool onto a loom.
“I am a fibre snob; I like natural fibres,” Labold said, taking a break from her weaving workshop at the Canadian Natural Fibre Fair in Lloydminster Oct 14.
Labold runs Misty Glen Farm Creations near Ardrossan, Alta., along with her mother. She offered the four-harness table loom class as one of nine craft seminars at the sixth annual fibre fair.
“You can do anything from funky scarves to basic towels or coverlets (on the loom),” she said. “Anything your imagination can come up with, you can create.”
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This is the fourth year Labold has participated in the fair. She said it is a great place to share her passion for natural fibres with other like-minded people.
Fair chair Cathy Merkley said the three-day event gives producers, processors and retailers of natural fibres the opportunity to network. Approximately 10 businesses displayed items created from sheep, llama and angora goat fibres as part of a trade show. Alpaca was a main attraction.
“The thing about alpaca fleece is that it is very fine and very soft,” Merkley said. ” It’s considered a rare luxury fibre in the world textile market.”
Alpaca fleece has many benefits, Merkley said. The fibres are not itchy and can be worn directly against skin. She said people who are allergic to wool would not have a reaction to alpaca because there is no lanolin or grease in the fibres like there is in wool.
“It comes in a range of natural colours but it also dyes very well,” Merkley said. “So it’s a very versatile, very high quality fibre that has had big demand in the world textile market for a long time.”
Merkley added alpaca is a rare natural fibre because the animal population is sparse throughout the world.
“Because our production numbers are small, a lot of the Canadian natural fibre product is handmade, so it’s at the cottage industry level,” she said.
The natural fibre trade show and workshops help create awareness of the fibre industry, Merkley said. She estimated up to 2,000 people attend the fair each year.
“The fibre industry is an important little part of agriculture that is quite often overlooked,” she said.”The more exposure we give to people regarding the fibre industry, the more awareness there is, the more it will help our industry grow.”
Bob Howard and his wife Carrol were so confident in the industry that they created Canadian Fine Fibre Works Ltd., a small natural fibre custom processing mill in Peers, Alta.
“We knew that a weak point in the whole fibre industry in North America was the processing end,” Howard said.
Customers have sent their fleeces to the Howards’ mill for four years, where they are processed and made into yarn and fabric. Howard said the mill accepts any natural fibre, including hair from llamas, alpacas, musk oxen, camels and dogs.
“We have customers shipping raw fleece to us anywhere from Texas to Alaska and from the eastern sea coast to the western sea coast,” he said.
“The whole outlook of the fibre industry is really quite good.”
Merkley said the fair’s judged contests, such as the fleece show and fibre challenge, had entries from across the country this year. Natural fibre sweaters and blankets came from as far as Nova Scotia and alpaca fleece from British Columbia.
“We’re broadening our scope every year and that’s what we try to do,” Merkley said.
“Always make it a little bit bigger, a little more diversified.”
Saskatoon spinner Judy Haraldson said spinning, weaving, knitting and crochet are popular pastimes again. She said people should consider using natural fibres in their crafts.
“It allows you an extra degree of creativity,” Haraldson said. She is also the exhibition co-ordinator for the Saskatchewan Crafts Council’s gallery in Saskatoon.
Haraldson said the spinner decides the consistency of the yarn and the colour.
“I know a lot of craftspeople who have spent hours and hours and hours knitting just beautiful stuff from acrylic and you know, it’s disappointing,” Merkley said with a laugh.
Labold agreed: “Try as they do, the synthetic, man-made fibres just don’t compete with the qualities of natural fibres.”
