Fiber arts enthusiasts gather at Old Alabama Town to spin, knit and crochet, but also to fellowship. PHOTO BY ALLISON GRIFFIN
Not your grandmother’s knitting Fiber guilds promote old crafts with a new twist By Lisa Harrison
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n cozy meeting and living rooms across Alabama, groups of women meet regularly to share their love of all things fiber. Knitting needles click, spinning wheels hum, weaving looms whoosh and clack. Tatting shuttles flash to and fro between chains of thread; crochet hooks inch along rows of stitches. In today’s era of laboratory-created and machine-manufactured fabric, a dedicated and growing number of artisans are reviving centuries-old techniques of handcrafting with wool, cotton, silk, angora and other natural fibers. Using the old methods, modern crafters now create “art yarn” that is a far cry from the yarn of yesterday. The new yarns are multi-textured, multicolored and may sport intricately spun loops and coils. Weavers, knitters, crocheters and other needleworkers use these yarns to create vibrant clothing and fabrics never imagined by the crafters who came before them. Recent decades have seen these crafters form themselves into numerous fiber guilds. Across Alabama, nearly a dozen fiber guilds with members both urban and rural, whose arts range from knitting and crocheting to 24 OCTOBER 2015
yarn spinning and weaving, meet regularly to share techniques and promote these venerable crafts. Betty Ann Lloyd founded the South Alabama Fiber Enthusiasts (SAFE) guild in 2009 when she discovered some equally fiberminded friends. The guild allows members who practice one fiber art to learn about other crafts. After seeing crafts they have not tried before demonstrated, people who were knitters or crocheters only have now become spinners and weavers as well, says Lloyd. The Montgomery guild began attracting many new members when it hosted a “Worldwide Knit in Public Day” in 2009. This event is the largest knitter-run event in the world, with local groups meeting on the same date all over the globe. Attendance grew in each subsequent year the guild hosted the local version. This year’s Knit in Public Day was June 13; 42 countries participated last year. Building on that success, the guild established its own larger local event, The Festival of Alabama Fiber Arts, in 2012. (There was no festival this year, but organizers hope to bring it back in 2016.) Guilds across the state participate in many such events. The festivals often include juried shows of spun, woven, and needle www.alabamaliving.coop