Above left: Karen Lohn, author of Peace Fibres: Stitching a Soulful World and resident of Grand Marais, led a gathering at East Bay Suites on September 21, 2012 in which small groups of community members created multi-strand scarves in the name of peace. She quoted Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, “It isn’t enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it, one must work for it.” Many colorful baskets of yarn and fiber had been donated for this event. The scarves will be sent to leaders around the world with statements of encouragement for peace written by participants. “Peace. How do we find peace, personally and politically?” Lohn says. “Peace requires respectful relationship…to self…to one another…to Earth and all her creatures…to the larger whole. What if simple fibres offer a very real avenue toward this peace?…Fibre work connects us across time, across space, within.” Above right: Jane Howard helps sort groups of fibre strands.
Left: Braiding sections of yarn that span the width of a room is much easier when people work together, and working together was part of the purpose of the event: to foster an understanding of the usefulness of cooperation and collaboration.
Right: This group had a lot of fun choosing strands of fibre to use in making this very long scarf and then working together to braid it. Braiding long groupings of fiber strands as a group becomes a rhythmic dance of sorts. (L-R) Mary Bebe, Linda Vanden Brook, Diane Pearson, Jane Howard, and Mary Sanders.
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