Climate Literacy in Education, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Special Issue) 
 
27 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hope is in Our Hands 

Higher Education 
Humanities 
Minnesota 

 
 
 
 

                                                                                                          
 
   
        

I grew up with my grandma, and she has 
always been a sewer. She makes quilts, 
primarily. I grew up hearing the whir of her 
sewing machine going on downstairs and 
sitting with her when she was hand stitching 
the binding. She is a big inspiration for why 
I love textile and fiber art. 
 
I am a crocheter. My grandma tried to 
teach me multiple times. At the beginning 
of my college career, it stuck. I’ve been 
crocheting for six years. 
 

T. knitting with mohair wool, on a quilt their 
grandma made for them. 



Higher Education Humanitiesú Minnesotaú  Hope is in Our Hands 
 
 

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More recently, I was gifted 
one of her old sewing 
machines, and so I've been 
starting to sew. I've been 
making clothes for myself, 
mostly.  
 
So much of fiber and textile 
methods are interconnected. 
My skills crocheting garments 
transferred into being able to 
sew clothes with fabric. 

The very act of making something by hand, particularly garments in a world full of fast fashion, is 
inherently related to the environment, consumption, and climate change. 
 
There is so much fast fashion in the world, and especially in the United States, that we're 
divorced from the construction of our garments. Most people don't know what it takes to make 
just a shirt. And often the shirt has been made from synthetic materials, which contributes a ton 
of carbon emissions. 
 
I think about my art as slow fashion, to go against consumerism, because it takes a long time to 
make one garment, especially if you're knitting or crocheting every stitch by hand. 
 
Each year, the fashion industry creates fourteen times as many garments as there are people in 
the world. That is mind-boggling to me. There's such a surplus of clothes in the world, and it's 
not stopping; from 1960 to 2019, textile waste has increased over eight times. It is just not an 
unsustainable industry, but yet it is one of the fastest growing consumer industries in the world 
and one of the top three consumer industries for producing carbon emissions. 

Two sewn dresses Checkered vest made  
with alpaca yarn 



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T.’s capstone project for an art  
and identity course 

In college, courses on environmental biology, 
social class, and pedagogy opened my eyes to 
environmental racism and environmental justice—
especially how certain groups are bearing the brunt 
of the climate monstrosities, including poor 
communities and communities with primarily 
Black and Brown folks. For a group project, we 
read Toxic Communities by Dorceta E. Taylor, 
which highlighted examples throughout the 
country. Communities don’t have any say in a 
factory being built, or they get money incentives to 
have this factory in their community. Years later, 
they notice various health effects, like higher rates 
of asthma and cancer. 

I work at an indie bookstore in my city, and it is 
very community-minded—not only regarding the 
people who work there, but for the greater 
community, too. This is a place for joy, love, 
books, and people who love books. In this age of 
book banning, we are wanting people to read 
whatever they want and feel supported and loved 
in those choices.  
 
The free little libraries are also giving me hope.  
I am so grateful to live in a city where literacy is 
valued. The little libraries are community-
centered, and a lot of times they're done with so 
much care.  
 

Fiber art T. created for bookstore catalogue 



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Daily squares 

I just read The Service Berry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. She wrote about gift and circular 
economies, where things go round and round, and it's not transactional, money changing hands 
and ownership but spreading the wealth in the community. For instance, my friend’s birthday is 
coming up soon, and every year she does a clothing swap. That is a beautiful example of how we 
do have resources that we can share. 
 
And making art with my friends, you know? 
 
Yeah, so this is what’s giving me a lot of hope.