This crafter is handmaking her Christmas gifts — with help from 15 alpacas and 26 sheep
Rachel Dalton of Hoyt makes hats, mittens, shawls, scarves and more out of alpaca, sheep fibre
Rachel Dalton has always been the type of person to start Christmas shopping on Dec. 26, giving herself a full year to complete the momentous task.
But this year, instead of hitting Walmart or the mall, she decided to make as many gifts by hand as she possibly could.
"I just was getting really frustrated, I guess, with all of the commercialness … of Christmas," said Dalton, who has been knitting gifts for friends and family since January.
"My kids always get a brand new hand-knit sweater every year.… And for the last couple years, some of our friends have kind of been hinting that their kids don't have hats from us.
"So I figured this should be the year that I'll just do that."
Dalton, who has nearly completed a five-year master weaver course, owns Brigadoon Fiber Farm in Hoyt, outside of Fredericton, with her husband Jason.
The eco-friendly farm raises sheep and alpacas for their fibre, and when they shear the animals in April, Dalton knits and weaves the yarn into items such as blankets, shawls and ponchos.
The Daltons bought the farm in 2015, but she said it was originally deeded to the Hoyt family in 1820. The family home and the old ice shack, which now serves as Dalton's shop, are original to the 1860s.
Currently, Dalton has 15 alpacas and 26 sheep on the farm, as well as cows, one goat, some dogs and cats.
The process of making an item from fibre starts at the very beginning with breeding and birthing the animals. After they're sheared, vegetation and dirt is removed from the fibre by hand.
Dalton said the fibre is then sent off to one of the mini mills in the Maritimes, where it is spun into yarn. But the majority of hand-dyeing is done in-house, she said, where it's later woven into products using a loom.
While the process is long and Dalton usually sells what she makes in her shop and at artisan markets, the idea behind making her Christmas gifts this year came out of the affordability crisis and a desire to do right by the environment.
"Supporting local is great," she said. "Not only does it not influence global warming with shipping and everything else, but our products are also completely eco-friendly, so we don't use any harsh chemicals or pesticides on our farm.
"If you were to bury it in, say, your garden and come back a year later, it's going to be completely gone. So we don't contribute to micro-plastics or any kind of environmental damage."
But people can practise being environmentally friendly around the holidays even if they're not crafters, says Bailey Saunders with UNB Sustainability.
There is a lot of mass production and consumption that occurs around the holidays, Saunders said — not only with the presents themselves, but also with wrapping supplies such as ribbons and gift bags.
"I think with the holiday culture now, it's kind of shifted to where we feel like we need to buy a lot of things for people, and it's creating a sense of mindless consumption," she said.
"We're not thinking about the behind the scenes, or the foundation of how this product was made, how far it came to be to come to us, if they're using ethical sources to source their materials."
That often leads to household clutter, she said, which eventually becomes waste in landfills.
Luckily, Saunders said she believes that handmade gifts such as Dalton's are catching on among people who have the time, resources and skill to do so.
But for non-crafters, experience gifts such as concert or movie tickets are a great middle ground, she said. Gift cards can also help avoid clutter and help people cope with growing affordability challenges.
And while there is a stigma around handmade or thrifted gifts, Saunders said, she thinks people are becoming more open to the idea of environmentally friendly gift giving.
Dalton agrees. She said there's a term in the fibre-arts community called "knit-worthy," which refers to someone who would appreciate a handmade gift even though it may require more care, such as washing an item by hand.
"The majority of my friends are also crafters of some kind, so they understand the time and effort that goes into a product like what we make," said Dalton.
"We also call on them relentlessly when we need help doing hay or when things are happening on the farm, so they've definitely spent time here and understand our process and what goes into it.
"So the folks that we've chosen to make things for this year are definitely, definitely knit-worthy."
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