Sheep & Shawl

06/06/2026

Tomorrow! Rain or shine - with the best teacher! Sign up below.

Have you been waiting until the last minute to sign up for the dye garden workshop at Fabric of Life? Wait no longer! It’s happening this Sunday June 7th, 2026.

You can register on the Fabric of Life website at https://www.fabric-of-life.org/

Registration is sliding scale $20-$50

The workshop is about planning and planting a dye garden. I'll talk about how to decide which plants to grow, how to plan out the space you'll need, whether seeds need to be started ahead or direct sown, and other considerations. Then we'll do some planting and sowing in the Fabric of Life dye garden to get it ready for the new season.

Wear gardening clothes and dress for the weather. This is a rain or shine event. There will be tents if it's raining! Oh, and wear your favorite bug spray!

Honestly, it rains every time I do one of these workshops but/and we still have a lovely time. Hope to see you there.

Sunday June 7th, 2026
10am-noon
80 Bassett Rd. Shelburne, MA

06/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D4jw8tAQK/

During the first half of 2026 I will be undertaking a project to r...

06/05/2026

I’ll be there! Hope to see you!

Our Community Crafting Nights are held on the second Monday of the month, which means that our June date is coming up soon!

Please note the new venue and time for our summer meet-ups:

Dates:
Monday June 8th, 2026
Monday July 13th, 2026 (This will also be our Summer Quarterly meeting! Stay tuned for more info)
Monday August 10th, 2026

Time:
6pm-7:45pm (the library closes at 8pm and staff need time to close up)

Location:
Sunderland Public Library
20 School St.
Sunderland, MA

The library is located very close to the intersection of Route 116 and Route 47 by the Sunderland bridge.

Bring a work in progress, be it spinning, hand-stitching, mending, knitting, crochet, or other portable project.

We hope you can come, and bring a friend, too!

06/03/2026

Western Mass Fibershed hosts Community Craft Nights this summer - Mondays, June 8th, July 13th, and August 10th from 6pm-7:45pm at the Sunderland Public Library, 20 School St, Sunderland, MA. The library is close to the intersection of Rtes 116 and 47 by the Sunderland bridge.
Bring any portable fiber craft you're working on - knitting, spinning, crocheting, mending, ... even better if you're using local yarns and supplies. Hope to see you at any or all of these gatherings! I'll be there! - Liz

06/01/2026

Always more to love about sheep! Western Mass Fibershed

In a surprising twist for regenerative medicine, the secret to healing broken bones might be found in your sweater. 🐑🦴
Scientists at King’s College London have successfully developed a bone-healing material made entirely from sheep wool. The breakthrough centers on keratin, the structural protein in wool, hair, and nails, which was used to create a scaffold that tricks the body into rebuilding bone tissue.
In recent animal and laboratory trials, this wool-derived material didn't just support bone growth; it produced tissue that more closely resembled healthy, natural bone than any current synthetic or collagen-based alternative. Because wool is naturally renewable and often discarded as waste by the farming industry, this provides a cheap, sustainable, and high-performance source for future medical implants and surgeries.
The most mind-blowing part? The body gradually absorbs the wool scaffold as the real bone takes its place, leaving no foreign hardware behind. This discovery marks a massive leap for orthopedic surgery, offering a future where complex fractures can be "knit" back together using the same biological building blocks as a sheep's coat.
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News Source:
Science Daily – "Scientists turn sheep wool into a bone-healing material in a major medical breakthrough" (May 22, 2026)
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05/19/2026

Hope to see you there!

🎉 Only 5 Days Until the Fair! 🎉
The countdown is on for the 50th Anniversary of the !
Join us for a weekend filled with:

🐑 Sheep shows & demonstrations
🧶 Fiber vendors & woolcraft exhibits
🎶 Music, dancing, and family activities
🍴 Great local food
💛 A celebration of New England fiber traditions and community

Whether you’re a lifelong fiber enthusiast or visiting for the very first time, we can’t wait to welcome you to beautiful .

📅 May 23–24
📍 Cummington, Massachusetts
🎟️ Details & schedule: https://masheepwool.org

05/14/2026

Tomorrow night (Friday) and Saturday morning - please come enjoy browsing the Hill Institute Annual Exhibition! I'll be upstairs with all the knit samples. So many other crafts to be inspired by! Hope to see you!

The 2026 Exhibition will be on Friday, May 15 from 5:30–8:00 p.m. & Saturday, May 16 from 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public. There will be light refreshments under the tent.

Students' projects from many different classes will be displayed throughout the building:
basketmaking, seat weaving including chair caning, knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, embroidery, wool applique, felting, rug hooking, rug braiding, spinning, weaving, painting, drawing, woodworking, furniture making, boat building, jewelry making, theorem painting, mosaic collage, block printing, nature photography, calligraphy, and illuminated letters.

We hope to see you at the exhibition!

05/12/2026

A great tutorial on German short rows!

A step-by-step tutorial on the German Short Row or "working the Double Stitch". Mimi uses this short row technique exclusively and in her pattern designs, mo...

05/11/2026

Come help pre-clean the fleeces before they go to the spinnery for washing and spinning! Outdoors or in an open barn. See details below.

This Saturday May 16th 2026 at 2pm we will be hosting another skirting party at 8 Martin Rd, Shelburne Falls MA.

If you haven't come to one of these events before, please wear comfortable shoes, clothes that can get dirty, and dress for the weather.

Many thanks to all the helpers who came out last time! We made a significant dent in our backlog of fleeces, and we couldn't have done it without you.

RSVP to [email protected] if you plan to come so we can anticipate how many tables to set up. Thanks!