I love making handspun art yarn!

I taught myself spinning as a way to unwind, and to unplug from the stresses of living in a city.

Soon, it became much more than that, as I learned about different techniques, met local farmers, and conversed with other fiber artists. I became really serious about learning all I could about how clothing is made, how yarns can be constructed, and how fiber comes to be.

I'm fascinated not only with the actual spinning of the yarn, but by the potential of running a business that is ethical, kind to the environment and animals, and profoundly creative.

I love to make one of a kind art yarns!

My process (in case you're interested):
I buy my wool "in the grease" which means it's straight off the sheep's back.
I wash it many times, using a slow and deliberate process of soaking the wool carefully, so that it doesn't felt but comes up clean.
Then, I dye it, usually using acid dyes (the "acid" is vinegar - sounds scary but isn't). Sometimes I also use food coloring, but rest assure that the color of the yarn is permanent.
Once everything has dried (which takes a day or two), I "card" it - I feed it into a hand-cranked drum carder I own, which straightens out the fibers and lines them up to be spun.
Then, I spin the yarn on my little spinning wheel.
And then, I spin it again. Sometimes several times, to get the effects that I want.
Then, the finished yarn has to be soaked in water and a wool wash, then hung to dry without weighting or tension setting. (If you knit or crochet, you want yarn that is not tension set; if you weave, tension set yarn is something you might want to look into.)
Once it completely dries, I photograph it and list it here, and try to find it a good home!
It's a long process, but one that I love and cherish.

I try to get all of my fibers locally. I live in an urban area, and don't keep animals myself, so this limits my choices. But all of my animal fibers (wool, alpaca, etc) are from very small, independent family farms. As an example of one of my providers: much of the white/grey wool I use is from a small farm in NJ tended by a single mom.
I also recently ordered some Leicester Longwool from a farm in VA; these are an endangered breed, and the farm that sells their wool is trying to breed them back from the brink of disappearing. Selling their wool helps support this effort.

I can't be at all the places I get my fibers from all the time, but I try to insure that they are places that are kind to the animals they raise, and view them more as pets than as anything else. It's very important to me that the animals that provide my fibers be treated with respect and dignity.
I always give preference to my sourcing to places that are local to the east coast of the US (with special priority to NJ farmers!), but sometimes I buy fibers from farmers outside of my area for variety. But always, I only buy from small farms for animal fibers.