Fibershed Resources
Whose Land Are you on?
All of the US is built on stolen Native land. Support the Native communities who make NYC home. Begin repairing your relationship to the land and Native communities by learning about whose land you are on. A few resources to go deeper:
Listen to or Read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Identify as a white settler? Join our Indigenous Solidarity organizing group at SURJ NYC
Listen to this episode of the Weaving Voices podcast which digs into the intersection between the Fibershed movement and Indigenous Sovereignty
“an acknowledgment is not the same as a relationship. Land does not require that you confirm it exists or that it has been stolen, rather that you reciprocate the care that it has given you. The land and water and air, the territory, exists regardless of the acknowledgment, which is only ever a first step. Next steps involve treating territory as kin, building relationships with that land itself, as if it were your kin. Because it is.” - Joseph M. Pierce
“Because we have been disconnected from the impacts out clothes have on land, air, water, labor, and our own human health for such a long time, we’ve been lulled into a passive, non-questioning state of being as consumers. When we begin reconnecting these dots, however, we create opportunities to build new relationships that are rooted in sharing skills, physical labor, and creativity, all of which carry meaning, purpose, and a way to belong to one another and to the land.”
-Rebecca Burgess
Select listing of Local Fiber resources in a 100 mi radius of NYC’s fibershed. If you know a fiber farm, mill, or shop focused on local fiber in the 100 mi radius of NYC that’s missing from this list, let me know!
Fibersheds:
NYC
Queen’s County Farm Museum - visit with fiber animals, buy yarn from them (Alpaca + Sheep (Romney, Cotswolds, Cormo, Jacobs)
Brooklyn General Store - local farm yarns including in house yarn made from Hudson Valley wool
Catskill Merino Yarn at Union Square Market and Grand Army Plaza Market Saturday’s, online order 24/7
King’s County Fiber Festival, every October in Brooklyn, NY
NY
Sheep & Wool Festival - one of the most famous fiber festivals held in Rhinebeck every October. All the local Fibersheds will be tabling together this year! A great opportunity to meet them all
Wool & Folk Fiber Festival -Fiber Festival right before Sheep & Wool in October, hosted by Brooklyn General Store and String Thing Studio!
8 Hands Farm - Icelandic Sheep
Yarn Farm Kingston - yarn shop featuring local yarn
Point of View Farm - Finn Sheep
Cloverbrook Farm - Alpacas, Llamas, Pygora Goats and Shetland Sheep
Cornwall Yarn Shop - Yarn shop focusing on Hudson Valley local fibers
Alpacatrax Farm - Alpaca
Black Sheep Hill Farm - Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Dashing Star Farms - their own cross breeds of sheep
Little Creek Farm - Alpaca
Faraway Farm - Alpaca
White Barn Yarn- Cormo Sheep
Catskill Merino - Saxon Merino Sheep. Read about their extraordinary story in Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes
Sawkill Farm - Finn and Romney Sheep
NJ
Windswept Acres - Romney and Dorset Sheep
Dancing Waters Farm - Angora goats, Shetland sheep, and many other rescue animals
Duck Flats Farm - Finn Sheep, Alpaca, Angora and Cashgora goats
Hardscrabble Farm - Shetland Sheep
Jenny Jump Farm - Jacob’s Sheep
Miniature Menagerie - Alpaca
Moonlight Acres Fiber - German Angora rabbits
Windy Farm Alpacas - Alpaca
Smiling Dog Farm - Gotland Sheep
Silver Cuff Farm - Yaks
Pine Hill Farms - Cashmere Goats
Pine Barrens Yarn Company - yarn makers specializing in local NJ yarn
Middle Brook FIberworks - local NJ yarn and fiber shop
Hidden Pastures Luxury Fiber Farm - Alpaca, Angora and cashmere goats, llama, yak, Angora rabbits and Teeswater sheep
Forrest Bluff Farm - Finn Sheep
PA
Skirted Fleece Mill - Small processing mill that also raises Yaks, Angora rabbits, and CVM sheep
Red Rope Farm - Tunis and Jacob
Knee High Farm - Flax as part of the PA Flax Project to make Linen in PA!
Graceful Glen Farms - Alpaca
Bucks County Alpaca - Alpaca
Twist of Fate Spinnery - small fiber mill
CT
Cold Goats Farm - Angora goats, CVM, BFL, and FInn sheep
Henny Penny Farm - Romney sheep
Windover Farm & Mill - Wensleydale sheep
Clatter Ridge Farm - Shetland Sheep
Karen’s Lambs - sheep and goats, alpacas, llamas
Beaver Brook Farm - Romney Sheep
The Hickories - Finn-Merino Cross
Out of 100 mi radius, but process lot’s of our fiber
Clean Fleece NY - Brand new scouring facility opening soon!
Battenkill Fibers Carding and Spinning Mill - Mill that spin’s the Queen’s Farm Yarn
Read
Fibershed by Rebecca Burgess
Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes
Unraveling by Peggy Orenstein
Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism by Aja Barber
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Listen
Common Threads - HVTP Podcast
Check Your Thread - sustainable making podcast
All My Relations -podcast exploring relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. For Native folks to be joyous, think critically about issues facing our communities, hear new perspectives, look into a mirror of self, and for non-Native folks to listen and learn.
Natural Dye Resources
A guide to Sourcing Natural Dyes in NYC by Textile Arts Center
Make Thrift Mend by Katrina Rodabaugh
Botanical Dyes by Christi Johnson
The Yarn Tree (dye supplies)