Good folk gathered at the Community Hall in Roberts Creek, BC, to celebrate farming and to sell garden seeds and products made from the bounty of the earth. The Sunshine Coast Fibreshed was happy to welcome locals, visitors, friends, Fibreshed folk, and members of the Sunshine Coast Spinners and Weavers Guild to our colourful corner.

We featured the colours our local plants and mushrooms create naturally . . . dye garden starter kits were filled with seeds, mordants (alum and cream of tartar), and instructions so everyone could grow a dyer’s garden . . . a big hit for $10. Local Fibreshed Farmer Wendy Gilbertson took time from shoveling manure on her Wilson Creek sheep farm to promote local fibre.

Merrily, sporting her “flower cowl” and local-fibre, local-dyed funky hand warmers, is showing Deanna (our SCFS founding member) the needle-felted seed pots . . . just put in some soil, add a special indigo seed, and plant into the ground once the seedling is ready.

Ann Harmer, who specializes in mushroom dyeing, is wearing her hand-knit, mushroom-dyed sweater. Her book, Magic in the Dyepot, tells the story of dyeing with fungi.

Fibreshed folk were spinning, carding, needle-felting, and talking to everyone who dropped by, to show how we make the garments and natural, useful items for garden and everyday use.

Another Fibreshed member, Daphne Woo, held a workshop on making a bracelet using seeds and nuts, some natural, others colourfully dyed.

Story and photos by Lynda Daniells.