A Salute to Fred Gerber - 20th Anniversary

TVH members who attended this past January's Roc Day celebration may remember that Dale Liles gave a talk about Fred Gerber and brought up a Summer 1994 Spin-Off article she and her husband Jim co-wrote as a tribute to Fred after he passed away.

For those who aren't familiar with Fred, he was a TVH member who was regarded as a natural dyeing expert and had several pamphlets published on the subject. He is also the namesake of our Fred Gerber Memorial Spinning Wheel.

I've had an interest in adding information about Fred to our website after hearing Dale’s talk and wrote to Interweave requesting permission to reprint Dale’s article on our website hopeful we could secure it in time for the 20th anniversary of the tribute.

We are very happy to announce that we have been granted reprint permission by Interweave and been given Dale's thumbs up to share the article with our membership.


We were also fortunate to meet Lucinda Young at July's guild meeting this past Saturday.  Lucinda is Fred and Juanita Gerber's niece and a newer TVH member.  She brought some of Fred and Juanita's yarn and spindles from her family's stash to share with us at the meeting.  As you can see the yarn is still delightfully vivid! Some skeins even have the original dye recipe tags attached.

The guild library was also gifted a copy of a Brooklyn Botanical Publication that includes one of Fred's articles on natural dyeing by member Danielle Zimmerman.  Thank you, Danielle!

(Click to enlarge -- Copyright Interweave Press 1994. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted.)