A Taste of What We Have to Offer!

Look at what I just got in the mail! Notice it came by courier into the USA before going into the mail? The wrapping is muslin cloth that has been sewn onto the box! How fun is that?!? My charka and punis came packaged like this. Makes you realize how inexpensive labor is in India.

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These takhlis will be going into our cotton kits. These fabulous kits have a variety of different cottons and cotton preparations for you to try with your lovely takhli or spin on your wheel. You will get to experience cotton in several different ways so you can pick your favorite preparation. We have two cotton kits: Cotton Sampler ($25) with a variety of fiber preparations and the Cotton Roving Sampler ($30) which has a variety of different rovings for the spinner to sample. Add a takhli and spinning cup to either sampler for only $15.

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The fiber shows start in September so we are busy dyeing fibers! Silk hankies are stacking up, waiting to be spun into fine threads and looking so luscious!

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We are introducing a new-for-us fiber blend, 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel. We think you are going to absolutely love it! It is shiny, oh so soft, and so easy to spin! We are putting this up in 4oz hanks and it will sell for $18. Ginger spun some of this fiber into a lace weight yarn and has been knitting a Pi Shawl. The yarn’s shine and depth of color make it hard to photograph, but the colors are rich with and have a lovely depth from the combination of wool and Tencel. Ginger’s shawl will be wonderful once it has been blocked so the pattern shows. Stay tuned for the final picture!

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Ewephoric Fibers is introducing our green cashmere for sale for the first time! This exquisite fiber was combed off goats living on the Patagonian Steppe. Ginger traveled to Argentina to work with the shepherds’ cooperative and to bring back cashmere. She purchased all the fiber the shepherds had — a very small amount! Be sure to read the previous post about these extraordinary people, their animals, and their lifestyle. This fiber is totally organic, renewable and has been purchased at a fair trade price. A percentage of the profit will go back to the cooperative to help the shepherds continue to improve their herds through replacement of livestock taken by predators, training and education. We think you will absolutely love the soft, buttery feel of this cashmere cloud and its amazing staple length which makes it a dream to spin! One ounce of beige or white Patagonian cashmere is $14 and the ultra-fine gray is $14.50. The quantities are very limited so don’t wait!

To purchase any of the above fibers, email ginger-at-ewephoricfibers-dot-com.

 

Patagonia 2013

Argentina is lovely in the fall! The days were unseasonably warm at the beginning of the trip, but the nights were cool and comfortable for sleeping. Here in Florida we are in late spring but below the equator, April is early fall. The shepherds had already moved their herds of cashmere goats to the winter feeding grounds. The area was still green due to the warm weather, but it is still not a very productive landscape.image001

I was able to travel down to Patagonia on a grant from Eileen Fisher given to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to continue work with the cashmere cooperative (Grupo Cost del Rio Colorado). It has been 1.5 years since I’ve been down there. I was greeted warmly, and the shepherds were anxious to see me and show what they had done, despite some significant setbacks. When I was in Patagonia the last time, a primary topic of conversation was when to comb the goats and whether or not the areas of the goat should be separated, ie, body fiber from leg fiber. The cooperative is still figuring out where the accessible points of added value are in the process of going from fluff on the goat to a finished garment. Some questions have an obvious answer. In this country, we wash fibers before processingimage003 them. However, if you do not have water readily available, washing is not a viable option. Potable water is delivered by the government to many of the families that live in very remote areas. If a family is fortunate enough to have a puesto close enough to a river then the animals have readily accessible water. If not, then the family needs to share some of their water to keep animals alive.

So where is their value-added point? The answer is combing the fibers earlier in the season and separating the fibers based on what part of the body it came from as well as the color. This time the cooperative separated the combing times, August and September, as well as the body parts, flank (body) from legs. They did this as a result of our discussions the last time I was down and out of curiosity as to whether or not it would really make a difference. This is a significant effort on their part. Unlike our spoiled dogs and cats, these goats do not want to stand still and be groomed; they want to get out onto the pasture to eat! So a few minutes a day per animal is all the shepherds get. Eventually the animal will be fully combed out, but it is labor intensive and the shepherds are very conscious of how much time they spend combing when the animal could be out eating. Food is a very precious commodity.

image005What a difference it made! Across the board, the quality of the fiber was better and there was much less guard hair which translates to a much smaller loss during dehairing for the combings done in August and from the flank. I purchased almost all they had! I also purchased some combed in September and some leg fiber from younger animals. Colors are separated into white, beige, and gray. The grays are by far much finer than the white or beige. I think that the opposite is true here and in Asia because people breed specifically for fine white, which can then be made any color, whereas on the Steppe, they simply separate the colors. Very interesting! By the way, dyeing beige and gray produces fabulous rich, complex colors that cannot be replicated with white fiber!

 

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I sorted raw combed fleece and determined what I was going to buy and why. I then lined up the bags of fibers from the worst (closest) to best so they could touch and look. I answered questions about the qualities and features I was looking for and how those would impact my final product.

Then they got to see the dehaired cashmere from the last 2 years for the first time. What you see on the table is all of the dehaired fiber from the last 2 years, about 5.5 kg! A fire on the steppe eliminated much of the graze and decimated the herds. The surviving animals had to be moved much longer distances for summer grazing and there was no fiber crop that year. As the coop members were beginning to recover, one of the oil extractive companies had a major spill in the grazing area and many hundreds of goats, sheep, cattle, and horses died from poisoning by the spill. There was a very limited amount of fiber harvested this August and September. It has been a very difficult 2 years for the shepherds.

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Some of the Grupo Cost del Rio Colorado cooperative members and Ginger holding dehaired cashmere. They are seeing for the first time the fruits of their labors and Ginger is very happy to purchase those fruits! As you can see this is a harsh, albeit beautiful, environment and it is amazing that the shepherds and their animals survive, even thrive, and are able to produce such a wonderful fiber!

 

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What is life really like on the Patagonian Steppe? It is a harsh existence for the shepherds and their animals. Many of the shepherds are Mapuche Indians or descendants of the Mapuche. The families live fairly solitary lives on their puestos (ranch homes) which are often many miles apart. A family with 500 goats may need 5000 hectares (12,400 acres) to successfully graze their sheep, goats, cows, and horses. The land is very sparse and yields its resources grudgingly.

image021Lolo and Susanna’s winter home sits about half a mile from the Colorado River so they have water for their animals. However, they are also in danger of their home being washed away if flooding occurs. This is their ‘new’ home as the previous home several miles further along the river was washed away 10 yrs prior.

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Their home is built on a concrete pad so the house has a concrete floor. Inside there are two rooms, one for cooking, eating, and living and one for sleeping. They have a gas stove with an oven in the house, which is not very common. Most have a cooking pit in a covered area near the house and an adobe oven for bread baking where they cook year round. The ‘barn’ houses the saddles for the horses and a cooking area. Their house is ‘upscale’ and has a baño behind a large bush not too far from the house. The bucket of water is for ‘flushing’ although there is no scoop other than cupped hands. Lolo and Susanna have raised seven children and now grandchildren here. Lolo jokes that he and his wife have been more productive than the goats!

 

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On our way to visit another family, we needed to make a pit stop. The vista is never ending! We were driving through an area that had volcanic activity only a few thousand years ago. As a result there are large black rocks produced by the lava flows that make walking more difficult and the shrubs are not as high, a bit of a problem if you are hoping for a bit of privacy when relieving yourself!

 

This bathroom comes with a view! A large bush is behind me and this is the view in front of me. What is not apparent is that the shadow at the bottom of the picture is a drop off of several hundred feet to the bottom of the canyon floor. That is the bottom of the cut through and not a level expanse between where I’m standing and the hills opposite! The black rocks in the foreground are lava. This is an area that was created by volcanic activity.

 

 

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At the next puesto we were greeted warmly, as usual. Lunch was on the spit and roasting.

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 They sacrificed a goat kid for us, an honor. Notice the little boy, about 5 yrs old, with his asado knife in his belt. He probably helped to slaughter and skin the goat. The young lady in the background is the thirteen-year-old daughter holding a platter receiving the chunks of goat meat. She will be finishing her middle school education this year. She and the family will then decide if she will continue with her education or if she will come back to the puesto to pitch in. Education is mandatory through middle school and then is voluntary. Children from the country are sent to the closest town where they spend the school year in a boarding school and return home for the summer when all hands are needed.

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Caro, a WCS veterinarian, is standing in front of a typical house. It is built of adobe type brick from mud and straw. The floors are dirt. To the far right is the ‘kitchen,’ the fire pit where the goat was cooked. The long area of the house with the green door, the only door in the house, is the sleeping area. The whole family sleeps and generally lives in that section. On the left is the eating and cooking area. You can see the table in the doorway. There is a cloth on the table in our honor. This is where the family gathers to prepare foods for cooking, eating and to greet visitors. There is a very small gas stove in the back corner of the room that is used to cook fried bread and boil water for mate. The baño is whatever bush you are comfortable using. There is no running water, electricity, or heat. This family has lived here for many years, perhaps multiple generations. The government has recently made small solar panels available to the country people. It is sufficient to power one light for several hours at night.

It is quite arid, so the skin from the goat that was slaughtered in the morning and eaten at lunch was already mostly dry. Flies are not a problem, as things dry so quickly they don’t get much of a chance to lay eggs on fresh meat. The black circular thing is the fire pit where the goat was roasted.

image031The little boys, about five and seven yrs old, entertained themselves riding their stick horses and practicing swinging and tossing their boleadoras. This will be a vital skill when they are older and riding out to wrangle cattle, sheep, and goats. In the meantime being able to take aim and ‘capture’ the post will have to do.

I returned with half of all the dehaired cashmere and about 3 kg of raw cashmere. I’ll combine the raw cashmere fluff from the first trip with the fluff from this trip for the dehairing process. I’ll get a much better yield than if I had processed them separately. Once back in the states, I was fortunate enough to be able to sell about half of the dehaired cashmere that I returned with before I even got home! I have made arrangements to get the rest of the dehaired fiber in September.

Ewephoric Fibers now has enough raw cashmere to be able to plan some unique blends with fine wool and silk. These will be proprietary blends that will be available only through the shop so stay tuned and be one of the first to buy some of this luxurious fiber! A portion of every sale will go into a fund that will go back to the cooperative to facilitate continued production of Patagonian cashmere.

“Green Cashmere” Field Work on the Patagonian Steppes

Many of you know that Ginger was headed to Argentina to interact with cashmere goat herders and the guanaco cooperative (www.payunmatru.com). After an overnight flight from Houston, TX to Buenos Aries, Argentina then an overnight bus ride to Junín de los Andes, the real adventure started! And yes, that is two days of travel to get to the beginning!

Grupo Costa del Rio Colorado cooperative
Ginger (far left) and the Grupo Costa del Rio Colorado Cooperative

Ginger writes:
Susan Walker, who works with the Wildlife Conservation Society (facebook.com/WCS.Patagonian.and.Andean.Steppe), and her husband, Andres Navarro, are long time friends and sponsored my visit to Argentina. They live in Junín and work in the Patagonian Steppe on habitat restoration for the benefit of threatened and endangered species such as the Andean cat, Darwin’s rhea, hairy armadillos and guanaco. As part of the effort to improve the habitat, WCS has been working with the local goat farmers to reduce over grazing of the fragile grasses allowing the return of the guanaco migrations and population expansion of animals that depend on the steppe for survival. Many of the local goats produce a cashmere undercoat, which increases the individual animal’s value. The herders are forming cooperatives, working with WCS veterinarians on better husbandry, and learning how to improve the quality of the cashmere through breeding management programs and by combing out the cashmere at the appropriate time.

Goats playing on the steppes
Goats playing on the steppes

I traveled to the Patagonian Steppe to observe the conditions of the farmers and animals, consult with the farmers to assist with improving the quality of the animals and fiber, and purchase raw cashmere. A day’s driving brought us to our first stop at the Grupo Costa del Río Colorado cooperative. This group is incorporating sustaining husbandry to reduce herd size and improve cashmere production. I was able to purchase a quantity of raw cashmere, which represented a 10% increase of their annual income. This was the first purchase of “green” cashmere: cashmere that was produced in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner! It was very exciting to be part of this momentous event!

Guard dogs in training
Guard dogs in training

We visited another group, the Carrizalito Cooperative, and I was able to purchase more cashmere. Members of this group are incorporating guard dogs into their herds to reduce loss of goats to predators, mostly the puma. Where the dogs have integrated, the program has been a success! Both of these groups are working toward or have applied for Wildlife Friendly Certification from WCS (www.wildlifefriendly.org).

Migrating Guanaco
Migrating Guanaco

We drove through the Payunia reserve on our way to El Aguita where we spent a couple of nights. Along the way we observed large herds of guanaco migrating from wintering feeding grounds to the summer grounds. We had a meeting with the cooperative (www.payunmatru.com) who are shearing the guanaco. We discussed marketing, fiber, processing, I was able to evaluate the handspun and mill spun yarns. I was not able to purchase any guanaco on this trip, but Ewephoric Fibers still has a quantity available through our Etsy shop.

First ever sale of Green Cashmere
First ever sale of Green Cashmere

I will work with these groups to assist them in producing the best possible, sustainable cashmere by consulting on breeding programs, fiber collection, and by introducing this luxurious fiber to hand spinners and fiber artists through Ewephoric Fibers! Be sure to keep checking back with us as we process the raw cashmere into exquisitely soft and luxurious spinning fibers! I will share more tales of travel and keep everyone informed of the progress!