Corespun Natural Stripes
Corespun yarn in natural colors (white, brown, grey) spun to create 6-8 stripes per 2 pound bump. Fiber content: 50% mohair - 50% Shetland wool
Fiber Farm Market at the Sheep Shack – Pittstown NJ
Thanks for a great 2023! Taking the winter off, back in March when it’s warmer!! Check back then for our 2024 schedule. Happy New Year !
Join us at the Windswept Acres Sheep Shack in Pittstown for your fiber fix. Monthly 1st Saturday of the month through the end of the year 10AM to 3PM. We’re doing demos/ talks which walk you through the fiber creation process from shearing to final products.
-August was shearing (Sue’s son Chris flew in from Montana to shear 4 sheep and explain the process as he worked, to the delight of visitors of all ages).
-September was skirting (the fleeces shorn in August) and washing.
–October was more skirting (by popular demand!) as well as hand carding and combing. Demos/ talks at 11AM and 1PM.
- Cornerstone farms vending and organizing guests, demos and classes are:
Windswept Acres – fleeces, roving, yarn & sheepskins from Sue’s flock of natural colored and white Romney and Dorset sheep, plus NJ Blankets. And meet the sheep!
Windswept Acres Sheep Shack Vendors
Dancing Waters Farm – natural colored and hand dyed mohair/ wool roving, tops & yarn from Andrea’s Angora goats and sheep, plus catnip and NJ Blankets.
- Other NJ Fibershed members vending include:
G.P.K Woodcrafts & Restorations – Gregg’s locally made cutting and charcutier boards as well as wooden vases (made from locally sourced hard woods -maple, ash, walnut)
Willow Pond Farm – Sue’s raw natural colored and white fleeces (Gotland, Jacob)
- Plus other local products (farm and artisans):
- Glass artist – Bonnie’s handcrafted, one-of-a-kind pressed glass sun-catchers
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- Honey
Guests, demos and classes will be announced via Instagram (@windsweptsheep) and on Dancing Waters Farm website (https://www.mohair-fiber.com) as they are scheduled.
Please stop by and come talk fiber! Our goal for opening the Sheep Shed is to connect local to local.
Address: 173 Whitebridge Road, Pittstown, NJ 08876
#localfibernj #localfiberarts #localfiberfarms -
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Livestock Veterinary Good News – Acupuncture and a NJ Vet School at Last
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is making it’s way into the tool set of livestock veterinarians! It’s especially useful for chronic conditions such as arthritis, disc disease, back pain and musculoskeletal injuries, gastrointestinal disorders, neurological problems, and respiratory issues. Check out the details in this May 2022 Lancaster Farming article.
At Last a NJ Vet School
It’s gotten increasingly difficult to find livestock veterinary services throughout NJ, so it was great to hear that Rowan University has announced the planned opening of the first school of Veterinary Medicine in NJ! It will be located in Sewell, NJ and plans an inaugural class of 60 students in Fall 2025 (pending approval by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education). Today there are only 33 USA accredited vet schools of which 5 are on the East Coast. With the addition of the new school, Rowan will become one of two universities in the nation to offer doctor of veterinary medicine, doctor of medicine and doctor of osteopathic medicine degrees. More details available in the January 2022 article listed below.
NJ Fibershed Blanket Project – Blankets For Sale
The background story below – to purchase go to my online store.
 The NJ Fibershed Blanket Project is a cooperative project between small farms raising fiber animals for their fleeces. This is one of their major initiatives to bring NJ fiber farmers together, and to highlight locally produced fiber products.Using wool collected from farms located within the NJ Fibershed region, the program provides a way for small-scale fiber producers to sell their fiber. Their wool was processed and made into items that can be marketed to customers seeking local products and who want to support small-scale, sustainable farms |
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| Over 400 lbs of wool was collected and sorted to meet criteria for quality to ensure a final product that is beautiful, warm, and enjoyable to own.
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| The NJ Fibershed Blanket measures 78″ x 58″ (2m x 1.47 m) and weighs 2.5 lb (1.13 kg). The blanket price is $325. Purchase in my online shop.
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The wool was washed in New Hampshire, spun in Maine, and handwoven by ComfortCloth Weaving in upstate New York.
Featuring a unique and modern design with three solid color sections representing the three regions of New Jersey: North, Central, and South Jersey. The gradual transition between color blocks is a playful nod to the fundamental New Jersey debate of where, exactly Central Jersey starts and ends. The nine lines in the transition represent the nine farms who contributed wool to the project. Two versions were woven – the one with a white background is sold out but the one with a grey background is still available (this is my favorite of the two).
Page Updated: Dec. 27, 2023
Rainbow Fiber Co-op
This fantastic group in their own words:
“is a Diné-led agricultural co-operative established to improve the financial sustainability and equitable market outcomes for the largest flocks of Dibé dits’ozí (Navajo-Churro sheep) remaining on the Navajo Nation. Our mission is to close the gap between rural Diné shepherds and an e-commerce driven marketplace for their wool. We are thrilled to announce that we have officially launched our online yarn shop!
Thanks to many generous donors we executed our first wool buy on the Navajo Nation in July 2021. We purchased approximately 3,200 pounds of Navajo-Churro wool from our shepherds. We paid a stipend for shearing help and a fair price for their wool by the pound. After skirting and sorting by color we transported the wool to Mora Valley Spinning Mill, a nonprofit community-based wool mill located in Mora, New Mexico, to produce an assortment of Navajo-style weaving yarns. In November of 2021 we began offering Diné-grown Navajo-Churro weaving yarns for sale online direct-to-customer. Sales dollars generated will be used to help fund the wool buy project again in 2022.
Most of the Navajo-Churro wool products available for sale online are from non-Diné shepherds. Diné shepherds are often told their wool is worthless or paid pennies per pound at mass wool buy events. Despite these challenges many shepherds create a market for themselves through hand spinning, weaving, and teaching weaving classes. This is difficult to do at scale and an unreliable source of income. In 2020 the pandemic brought marketing activities like farm visits, classes, art shows, and fiber events to a standstill. Several medium- to large-scale wool buys were completely canceled. These impacts have continued into 2021. We saw an opportunity to step up and do something to support these important flocks.”
Fibershed.org is helping them raise money to get their idea off the ground and their first run of yarn is now available on their website!
For more info: https://rainbowfibercoop.org/
Tops – Late Summer Garden – Hand Painted
| Description: | Combed semi-worsted fibers. Tops are the best fiber prep you can buy as the fibers are all the same length and extremely clean, no VM. Hand painted. 67% kid mohair, 33% wool. Pic shows the 4 bundles created. Color varies slightly between bundles as they are hand painted. |
| Color: | Late Summer Garden (Blues and purples, yellow, reds) |
| Fiber Content: | Mohair: DWF’s Rose, Jasmine, Thelma Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farms, WI |
| Type (Processor): | Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI) |
| Quantity (Pounds): | 3 – 2 oz. bundles (6 oz total created) |
| Price: | $10/2 ounce bundle plus shipping |
| Buy: |
Tops – Mid Summer Garden – Hand Painted
| Description: | Combed semi-worsted fibers. Tops are the best fiber prep you can buy as the fibers are all the same length and extremely clean, no VM. Hand painted. 67% kid mohair, 33% wool. Pic shows the 4 bundles created. Color varies slightly between bundles as they are hand painted. |
| Color: | Mid Summer Garden (Red, yellow, orange, green, blue, white) |
| Fiber Content: | Mohair: DWF’s Rose, Jasmine, Thelma Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farms, WI |
| Type (Processor): | Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI) |
| Quantity (Pounds): | 4 – 2 oz. bundles (8 oz total created) |
| Price: | $10/2 ounce bundle plus shipping |
| Buy: |
Tops – Descent into the Blues – Hand Painted
| Description: | Combed semi-worsted fibers. Tops are the best fiber prep you can buy as the fibers are all the same length and extremely clean, no VM. Hand painted. 67% kid mohair, 33% wool. Pic shows the 4 bundles created. Color varies slightly between bundles as they are hand painted. |
| Color: | Descent into the Blues (Blues and purples, some white) |
| Fiber Content: | Mohair: DWF’s Rose, Jasmine, Thelma Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farms, WI |
| Type (Processor): | Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI) |
| Quantity (Pounds): | 4 – 2 oz. bundles (8 oz total created) |
| Price: | $10/2 ounce bundle plus shipping |
| Buy: |
Tops – Hello Yellow – Hand Kettle Dyed
| Description: | Combed semi-worsted fibers. Tops are the best fiber prep you can buy as the fibers are all the same length and extremely clean, no VM. Hand kettle dyed. 67% kid mohair, 33% wool. Pic shows the 8 bundles created. |
| Color: | Hello Yellow (Bright yellow – green) |
| Fiber Content: | Mohair: DWF’s Rose, Jasmine, Thelma Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farms, WI |
| Type (Processor): | Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI) |
| Quantity (Pounds): | 8 – 2 oz. bundles (1# total created) |
| Price: | $8/2 ounce bundle plus shipping |
| Buy: |
Roving – Eat Your Greens – Lettuce – Hand Kettle Dyed
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 Kale rolled into a ball |
 Lettuce rolled into a ball |
 Celery rolled into a ball |
 Kale unrolled |
 Lettuce unrolled |
 Celery unrolled |
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Antique Amish Yarn Swift
I recently bought an antique Amish swift from my artist and fellow fiber friend Linda Czech. Sadly she is backing out of fiber pursuits because her cats are fixated on destroying anything fiber she creates.
I took it “for a spin” to skein a bobbin of 2 ply Jacob wool handspun I’d done for the Woolverton Inn. The swift works perfectly to wind directly from my spinning wheel without my having to lean over or stretch up and it also counts the yardage as it goes. Not to mention that it just looks really great sitting in the living room!