Linda brushes a muskox to glean the amazing qiviut, a fiber beyond compare.
Writer, publisher Linda Cortright is an uncommon human. Her commitment to her magazine, Wild Fibers, is vast. Equally vast is her commitment to the wild “fibers” that walk on four legs all across our spinning globe. In pursuit of her passion, Linda’s traveled from Kyrgyzstan to Tanzania to New Zealand and just about every place in between. Her writings have encompassed the sacred sheep of Chiapas, Mexico; Vermont’s Green Mountain Spinnery; and a 2,000-year-old Lakota legend. To say that her Wild Fibers‘ subject matter has breadth is an understatement.
I recently spent some time with Linda at her hilltop aerie in the semi-wilds of Maine. Her magic lies in the tales she tells, the exuberance she exhibits, and the smiles she wears talking about wild creatures in their natural habitats. Her chairs are comfortable, so is her demeanor. Make no mistake—it’s fun to spend a day with Linda.
Buffalo and calf
Below is a small excerpt from an interview with Linda on the International Year of Natural Fibers Web site:
What got you so deeply involved in animal fibres?
“Perhaps the fact that as a child I always preferred playing with stuffed animals over dolls may indicate an early ‘attraction’ to the fuzzier things in life. My passion for fibre animals began with my own herd of cashmere goats. However, I must confess that I was well into adulthood before I even knew that cashmere came from a goat. It’s too bad they don’t make stuffed animals out of cashmere – I would have started my herd earlier.”
What’s your favourite fibre and why?
“If you promise not to let my goats read this, my favorite fibre is probably qiviuk, which comes from the muskox. It is softer than cashmere (which is akin to saying that something tastes better than chocolate), but qiviuk really is the most exquisite fibre. And yet, I cannot deny that the cashmere industry is responsible for the livelihood’s of thousands of nomads and shepherds throughout the world, so it’s hard to argue against the ‘bigger’ picture of cashmere and its sustainability.”
Read the entire interview here.
Finally, one of Linda’s projects is Keep the Fleece, whose mission is to raise $250,000.00 that Heifer International will use to donate fleece-bearing animals of all kinds to needy families all around the world. An incredibly worthy cause. (More about this in a future post.) Just know, it’s easy as pie to donate.
