Summer 2025 - Northern New England Fibershed news & events in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont | | |
Summer is Upon Us!
Summer took a while to find us, but it's here with all of the festivals, workshops, retreats and lazy days creating with fiber that make our short season pure joy.
Read on to see what's happening in your neck of the woods!
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News from
Maine Fibershed
Maine Fibershed Festival at the Southport General Store
Gas/charge up the car, invite some friends, and join us at the Southport General Store for their first Maine Fiber Festival. The “famous” Maine Fibershed Prayer Flag will be on display so that you can pet swatches of Maine-grown fiber that range from Alpaca to Yak.
You’ll meet Jeff from Buckwheat Blossom Farm—one of Maine’s most skilled and trusted sheep shearers—as he demonstrates the shearing process with care and precision.
Along the way, you can learn what it takes to go from fleece-to-garment and then saunter down the road to ooh and aah over the alpaca who live on Cape Newagen Farm.
Thank you, Southport General Store, for celebrating the Maine Fibershed community in such a festive way!
When: Saturday, June 28, 1-4pm
Where: Southport General Store, 443 Hendricks Hill Road, Southport, ME
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Maine Fibershed Ravelry Group is Growing!
A big shout-out to our Maine Fibershed Ravelry Community! We love seeing what is on your needles, hooks and looms and how much it helps our farmers find homes for their lovely fiber. Thank you so much for the support.
More Maine Fibershed one-skein patterns will soon be published so that you can try out all the yarns. In the meantime, try out our Paddling Megunticook Hat. One skein of your favorite Maine-grown worsted will do the trick. Then post your creation on Ravelry!
Join this creative community and let us see your FOs. The work is inspirational!
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Announcing Maine's New Stone Coast Weaving School and Open House
This is such exciting news for all who wish to learn the art and science of hand weaving from Alice Seeger, one of Maine’s leaders in spinning and weaving.
Alice fell in love with weaving in 1975 when a Bicentennial exhibit floated down the Hudson River on a barge. The huge, old barn loom grabbed her heart and said, “THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING!” Alice found a second-hand floor loom, learned to warp it, and proceeded to weave a very ugly, scratchy, wool scarf.
From that first scratchy scarf to honing her technical and creative skils that ranged from 18 years as an haute couture production weaver to founding her own spinning and weaving business, studying with indigenous weavers, developing Arts-in-Education residencies, and settling on the coast of Maine where she has taught and inspired us for years.
Alice opened Belfast Fiberarts in 2019. With a focus on gathering fiber enthusiasts and imparting her knowledge: the Stone Coast Weaving School was born.
Meet Alice and the Stone Coast Weaving School team at their Open House, where you can see weaving and spinning demonstrations, view samples, ask questions, and get inspired for your next creative exploration.
When: Saturday and Sunday, June 28 and 29 from 9am-4pm
Where: 18 School Street, Belfast, Maine
*Biography edited from the Maine Creative Apprenticeship Program for which Alice participates as a mentor to Maine weavers.
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Maine Fibershed Recordings
We’ve been busy spreading the word and educating folks on “what’s a Fibershed” and how we can each take small steps to create a vibrant Soil-to-Soil network in Maine.
If you were not able to attend our events, grab your favorite beverage and and link in from our Resource Page.
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Maine Fibershed Community Meeting, July 23
We look forward to gathering at the Belfast Fiber Arts Community Room to update you on what we’ve been up to for the past year and what programs and opportunities the future year holds.
There will be time for your thoughtful input and, of course, we are always looking for volunteers to champion one of our causes!
Please RSVP to info@mainefibershed.com so that we can plan space accordingly.
What: Maine Fibershed Bi-Annual Update
When: July 23, 2025 from 4-7pm
Where: Belfast Fiberarts, 18 Central Street, Belfast, Maine
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Visit Us at Common Ground Fair
September seems like a long way out, but to vendors it’s very close.
Maine Fibershed will be speaking at the Fleece Tent on Friday, September 19 at 2pm.
A Maine Fibershed “You Can’t Get They’ah from He’ah” Common Ground Fair Passport Book will be available to download before the show. Visit all the booths and enter to win some Maine Fibershed fiber goodies! Details to come, once we figure them all out.
When: September 19-21
Maine Fibershed Talk: September 19, 2pm at the Fleece Tent
Where: Common Ground Fair, Unity, Maine
Common Ground Fair artwork by Katherine Noble Churchill and available for purchase here.
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Maine Fibershed at
NY Sheep and Wool Festival!
We bit the bullet and will be at The New York Sheep and Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck) this year in the 4H barn with other Fibershed affiliates.
Many, many thanks to Carol Frechette of 2nFrom for helping lead this effort.
As we work through the logistics of setting up for education, demos and vendor space, here are three ways that the Maine Fibershed Community can be present at this epic event:
1: The Maine Fibershed Rhinebeck Passport Book
If you’ll be at Rhinebeck as either a vendor or shopper and wish to participate in our “You Can’t Get They’ah from He’ah” Rhinebeck Passport Book, send us an email with Rhinebeck Passport in the Subject Line. We’ll fill you in on the easy details and add you to the dance card.
2: Hand Spinners Competition
Every year a seasoned group of judges chooses winners in the handspun yarn competition (yes, we don’t like the word competition either, but there it is). We know that Northern New England has some of the best handspun yarn in the nation. Let’s show them what we have!
Whether you spin from the comfort of your home or belong to one of the many spinning groups and guilds in Maine, it’s time to shine.
Rhinebeck hasn’t updated their website with this year’s submission dates. As soon as we get them, they'll be passed along. An early start gives you time to spin with joy not deadline pressure.
If you're interested, send an email to us with the Subject Line Hand Spinners Competition. As soon as we know, we'll send the info along.
3: Maine Fleece-to-Fabric Team
If you want to go all-in, we are looking for a Fleece to Shawl team or two from Maine to enter this competition. We’ve seen some of the posts around the state of teams who take on this amazing challenge. The 2025 dates haven't been set yet. You can keep an eye on this space for updates.
Maine Fibershed will cheer on your teams both onsite and online.
| | A newly sown flax patch in at Stonewall Farm in Keene NH. | | |
Flax is Taking Root
in the Monadnock Region
by Phyllis Marinoff
Through word-of-mouth and community-based connections like Monadnock Food Coop’s Earth Day Festival and a Nelson Ag Committee presentation, the cultivation of fiber flax this spring has literally been growing throughout the area.
Now a new learning opportunity for the community has been added at the Stonewall Farm in Keene, NH. Stonewall Farm is a non-profit community hub, living classroom, and a working example of what a regenerative future can look like. It connects people of all ages with the land through hands-on education, sustainable farming, and food system innovation.
In addition to their new flock of Dorset sheep, a small patch of flax has been planted in the children’s garden. The seeds are a variety of flax called Aramis. The Earth Day Festival allowed me to connect with Sam Healey, Education Director for the farm, who was excited to learn about and promote the cultivation of flax.
The flax was sown by a school children’s group in mid-May. If all goes well, we expect to have the kids pull in about 85 days! Then on to the rest of the processing of rippling, retting, breaking, scutching, hackling, spinning, scouring, whew! Which I will be happy to show the “how-to’s.”
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Fourth Annual
Gilmanton Farm & Flax Day
Explore the beauty of the Tom Howe Conservation Area and experience Gilmanton’s agricultural heritage. During colonial times, flax was grown, retted and processed at this site. Members of the Flax and Linen Community will be on hand to demonstrate the processing of flax to linen as it was done 200 years ago.
You'll have a chance to tour the historic Tom Howe Barn, and see the flax retting pond, with a guide on site to explain how this unique landscape feature was used in the process of turning flax straw into linen. A variety of demonstrations related to flax processing, spinning, and weaving will take place during the day. The event is free and open to the public.
When: Saturday, July 26, 10am-3pm
Where: The Gilmanton Farm Museum, 245 Meeting House Road, Gilmanton, NH
| | Bast Fiber Update from Vermont | | |
The bast fiber program at University of Vermont Extension’s research farm is growing! This year, in addition to the farm’s seven hemp trials, a fiber flax trial is underway.
This trial features eight varieties from Europe and North America. The plants are still small, having only been planted on May 7th , but the stands are mighty. We are wishing them well on their growing season. Visit them for yourself at the annual Borderview Research Farm Field Day and see the team’s new mechanical hackler in action.
Where: University of Vermont Extension, Alburgh, VT
When: Thursday July 24, 2025
See below for more details!
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