Riley Kleve
they/them
Spinning - Knitting - Natural Dyeing
Minneapolis, MN
Powderhorn Park neighborhood
Instagram: @betterdaysyarn
From Sheep to Shawl Project
I’m making the Hardly Harness by Lydia Morrow
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hardly-harness
I’m excited to show the whole process of taking raw wool and transforming it into a garment. By being part of this project, I hope to provide greater awareness of our local textile ecosystem to my audience and beyond.
Riley Kleve (they/them) is an artist and educator in Minneapolis. Their handspun and woven art mines archives searching for ways that textile practices of the past still resonate today. By reframing traditional techniques in a new light, their work envisions a queerer future for handcrafts.
Riley is a contributor to Spin Off Magazine, teaches at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, Textile Center, and American Swedish Institute, and they have created art for Northern Spark, MSP Airport, the 410 Project, and Fresh Eye Gallery.
the project
the fiber
Sheep Breed - Leicester Longwool
Sourced from - The Berryhill Farm outside of Rochester, MN
Leicester Longwool is exactly what it sounds like, it's long! I also love that it has such a nice luster and curl to it-- I'm going to incorporate some lace into the harness that I'm making so the curls will really help to keep the eyelets nice and open.
The fiber is a lovely white color.
Processing
Fiber was scoured, rinsed, and then combed and carded it into roving before being spun into yarn.
The naturally white fiber will be naturally dyed either with sumac or black walnut dyes which don't require mordanting the fiber first. Riley will explore dyeing with sumac then overdyeing with the exhaust of a black walnut dyebath to get the yarn just a little darker, but still with the pink undertones of sumac. Both sumac and black walnut will be foraged from plants around town!
The Pattern
Lydia Morrow's Hardly Harness pattern with some tweaks. Instead of the ribbing, Riley worked a scalloped edge around the arm and neck holes.
The Leicester Longwool that Riley spun for this project work really well. The top has so much luster even after dyeing it; it seems to catch the light no matter where it is. The long fiber and low amount of crimp made the yarn nice and sturdy without too much elasticity. Knit garments already tend to have a lot of stretch, so this fiber type made something that would give a bit more structure to the piece.
From Riley:
“Hardly Harness is a cheeky nod to gay leather subcultures. I was drawn to the way that it draws from the imagery of a sturdy chest harness but creates it in a soft, knit form. Adding scalloped edges was my way of making that tension even clearer, it sits right on the line between ornamental and practical, which is something I aim to achieve in a lot of my art.
