The Yarn Bomber Strikes

By Millie Hanson
Visual Arts Editor

It’s time again for the Fiber Arts Festival, happening the weekend of August 6th and 7th. Now in its fourth year, and with a new home at Rheault Farm on 25th Street in Fargo, this event is free to the public for the first time ever.

“My goal is to have fun, and we really do,” said Kim Baird, who organizes the festival each year with the help of her friends.

There will be all kinds of fun fiber art things going on that weekend: a contest between two groups of five will each compete in a contest called “Sheep to Shawl” that will demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to take raw wool and turn it into a piece of wearable clothing; yarn “bombings” will be fashioned into apparel for park flora; and there is even an exotic Bedouin tent where one can rest, created out of quilt tops and fashioned to look like stained glass.

While there won’t be sheep sheared on site for the “Sheep to Shawl” activity, the fun starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday and should finish around 4 or 5 p.m. Each team has five people spin the raw wool into yarn and one person weave the undyed yarn into a shawl. All in a few hours! Come back Sunday to see the woolly sheep being sheared.

The Fiber Arts Festival starts earlier for those interested in learning how to weave. Thursday night there will be a two hour tapestry weaving workshop taught by fiber artist Doris Florig, who says she has ”spent the last 30 years looking over shoulders, asking questions, reading and experimenting with weaving techniques.”

Those attending the class will need to call Kim Baird ASAP to reserve space to attend, and they can even keep the small Navajo-style loom for $50. Florig’s goal is to make it possible for weavers to work on their own by teaching them the basic techniques like weaving stripes and checkerboard patterns and changing colors in the middle of a row.

A wonderfully inventive patchwork tent will also be on the grounds. This rectangular square of cloth will be held up by two tall tent poles in the middle with two shorter poles near the ends. The tent will have unused quilt squares on the inside, called quilt tops, that Baird and fellow fiber enthusiasts have collected, saved from their own projects, or inherited from past generations of quilters in their families.

Go inside the tent and enjoy the breeze while watching the sun turn the squares into something very close to the beauty of stained glass. Take a moment to stand or sit on cushions and quietly appreciate a beautiful, functional art form that has bound women together in cooperative craft for generations and kept families warm for centuries by being handed down as an object of value and beauty.

Yarn will be bombed by people knitting things and putting them up as they go, and the public can learn how to knit as well. This new sort of urban yarn graffiti is catching on worldwide, from political protest to protection of plant life. It can be something as simple as making a tree cozy to keep deer from eating a young sapling to social commentary like dressing Wall Street’s Charging Bull in knitwear on Christmas Eve 2010 (done by a woman known as Olek).

The Charging Bull is significant to Wall Street, and by extension an American, as an icon symbolizing “aggressive financial optimism and prosperity.” (Wikipedia) It looked quite ridiculous clothed in bright pink, purple, and green. The crazily patterned yet well-fitted crocheted and knit panels made one consider this symbol in a new light and take away its original accepted meaning of sanctified fiscal agression. Perhaps that was Olek’s point, given the monetary hijinx of the last few years. But back to the festival:

Dozens of demonstrations, some hands-on, will occur over the weekend including embroidery, knitting, basket weaving, quilting, and felting (think of those wonderful beasts emerging three dimensionally from the mounds of wool in the Big Country show at the Plains Art Museum, or a really nice felt hat – now you can learn to make one!).

Additionally, there will be kumihimo braiding, wool carding, inkle loom weaving, needle felting, origami, and furoshiki (pronounced fur-owe-shkey) which is the Japanese art of wrapping gifts with a square of fabric - think of the cartoons with the hobo who has a bag tied around a stick but with even better and more inventive uses like gift wrap or back packs.

More things to learn include naalbinding, toothbrush rugs, tassel making, lacemaking or tatting as it’s known, embroidery, finger weaving, and rug hooking (Sunday only). Also marsue silk dying (a new instant strike dye), spinning wool using a drop spindle, treadle machine sewing, machine knitting, and basket making along with a Sprang demo (warp threads/yarn are twisted over each other and is how hammocks are made).

A new idea is being tried this year. Passports will be given for participation, with stickers earned as a reward for learning different fiber techniques. Attendees earning five stamps on their passports will receive a prize on their way out.

“Usually the kids love to try it all though sometimes the parents can be more hesitant, but none of the things they’re going to try are difficult,” said Baird.

Three classes are offered (pre-register at fiberartsfest.com by clicking the Classes tab to download and print forms) to make things such as lace (tatting), dying with natural dyes, and making a felt bag on Sunday. For those in need of any supplies, there will be yarn, looms, needles, and apparel.

The Fiber Arts Festival was previously held at Bonanzaville in West Fargo, a Pioneer Prairie Village and Museum that is operated by the Cass County Historical Society. This year, due to staffing and construction changes, Baird approached the Fargo Parks District, which was excited to use the Rheault Farm with its original farm house, barn, and other more modern buildings.

Rheault Farm was a working farm until 1979 when it acquired by the Fargo Park District from George Rheault who had farmed the land, taking over from his dad Ernest Rheault, who bought it in 1949. The park itself has a picnic shelter, playground, brick farmhouse, barn, granary, and Quonset. The park is open during the summer, has year round restrooms, and is wheelchair accessible.

The Quilter’s Guild of North Dakota and Sunmart Foods are this year’s sponsors, with Sunmart sponsoring the visiting fiber artist and teacher Doris Florig. For next year, Baird would like to have North Dakota alpacas on the grounds along with bison and even camels (!).

For more information, what supplies may be needed, and a daily schedule of classes plus teacher bios, visit http://www.fiberartsfest.com and click on the Classes tab at the top of the page. Call Kim Baird to pre-register for Thursday night’s Tapestry Weaving workshop at 701-293-7395.

To watch a video of the Wall Street Bull sculpture turned into another kind of art, visit http://qr.net/yarnbomb.

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IF YOU GO:
WHAT: Fiber Arts Festival
WHEN: August 6-7, 2011. Saturday, August 6 from 10am – 5pm, Sunday, August 7 from 12 – 5pm.
WHERE: Rheault Farm, 2902 25th St, Fargo, ND. Call to register and for the location of Thursday night’s tapestry weaving class with Doris Florig.
COST: FREE.