Day 6: Italy – Online Fiber Festival

Welcome Video

It’s already day 6 of the festival! Where is the time going? Have a look at the morning video to meet our Italian Vendors and hear a break down of the day!

Join the discussion in the Online International Fiber Festival group on Ravelry or Facebook. And be sure to follow the festival on Instagram.

Vendors from Italy

All of these vendors can be found in the marketplace. (Click the link then scroll down to the marketplace section!)

Inspired by art, legends, and symbols, Simona Bonanni creates jewelry to enhance all the beauty and wonder that live in ourselves. Her aim is to create objects that underline the uniqueness of the person who chooses it.

Hand dyed wool and cotton in beautiful colorways from Natalia Pogrebnaya.

Recommended Classes

Choose one (or more!) of the following classes for your morning learning. You will need a subscription to Craftsy to take the classes. Please note: if you have a subscription, you do not need to purchase the class unless you want to. Simply click play on the video!

Modern Brioche Lace with Lesley Anne Robinson

Feminine Fit: Bust Shaping Techniques with Joan McGowan-Michael

New Directions in Lace with Romi Hill

Explore the Region

For an upgraded experience, subscribe to CuriosityStream! CuriosityStream is a streaming service like Netflix, but just for documentaries. Their videos are commercial free and available at a higher streaming quality than many of the options available through YouTube, and a portion of the cost of your membership will help defray the costs of running the festival. Once you have subscribed to CuriosityStream, click on the titles below to go directly to the recommended videos.

Wild Italy — A two part documentary about the wildlife of Italy.
Colosseum: The Whole Story — The Colosseum in Rome is undergoing a thorough cleaning and restoration. This documentary covers the process and conveys the history of this world-renown landmark. (Note: The Tracian people mentioned during the discussion of Gladiators were from present day Bulgaria, which we will be visiting tomorrow.)
The Renaissance Factor — Follow Michelangelo, crusaders, and more as Italy moves through the Renaissance.

The following videos are available for free on YouTube. Consider taking advantage of the free trial of a YouTube subscription, which will block the commercials YouTube usually adds to their videos. The trial lasts for one month and they will send you an email a week before you are charged, so be sure to cancel at the end of the festival or when you get the email, or stay subscribed if you find it worth your while.

Please note: There are tons of Rick Steves tour guides spotlighting various areas of Italy. I recommend you pick 2 or 3 and then head on to the other documentaries. Come back to the other episodes if you have time.

Italy’s Great Hill Towns
Tuscany’s Dolce Vita
Italy’s Amalfi Coast
Naples and Pompeii
Milan and Lake Como
Rome: Ancient Glory
Rome: Back-Street Riches
Rome: Baroque Brilliance
Italy’s Riviera: Cinque Terre
Florentine Delights and Tuscan Side-Trips
Florence: Heart of the Renaissance
Venice: City of Dreams
Venice and Its Lagoon
Italy’s Verona, Padova, and Ravenna
Siena and Tuscany’s Wine Country

So often, when we talk about Italy, we focus on the larger cities and a handful of hill towns. In this lovely video submitted by Natalia Pogrebnaya of Yes.IWool, we hear about about what makes life in the villages of Italy so unique and inviting.

This documentary talks about the birth of the Renaissance man.

The work of Raphael is often eclipsed by the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo, possibly because they lived so much longer than he did. But his influence on art and architecture has continued to the modern day.

Come along on the first archaeological dig at Pompeii since the 1950s. Please note that this one is not entirely family friendly. If you are participating in the festival with small children, you may want to watch this one without them.

This is a very brief overview of the Maremma-Abruzzi sheepdog, a dog that can trace it’s lineage back as far as Ancient Rome.

Visit the Lanificio Reda factory to watch wool move from cleaned fleeces to fabric!

Textile recycling is a growing market world wide. Prato, Italy, is one of the leaders in wool recycling. Watch the process in this brief video.

Have you heard of fiber made from milk? The process was invented in 1935 Antonio Ferretti. Yarns and fabrics made from milk fibers were popular for about 20 years before they were displaced in the market by acrylics, but there has been some interest in bringing them back for sale to create a market for milk that would be discarded and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

For a bit of fun, an Italian woman who now lives in the United States gives a tutorial on how to dress like an Italian woman. Despite the photo above, this is modestly presented and aimed at all ages, with examples of Italian woman of all ages.