We support local shepherds

More and more each day I am made aware of the growing movement to go local, natural, and eco friendly. People are seeing the value of supporting small communities and businesses, sustaining the environment, and doing things as naturally as they can.

Since I began my spinning journey in 2015, I have watched the spinners supply market make a gradual change from mostly commercially combed top imported from other countries to now include local raw fleeces and mill produced roving. Why? Well, we as spinners love to know where our wool comes from, how the animals are treated, and what the animal's name is. This makes spinning a personal "get to know the animal" experience as well as a work of art. There is nothing quite as satisfying as turning a raw fleece, freshly shorn, into a finished garment (or a yarn to squish on regular basis for all eternity.)

My favorite hand knit sweater is from my first fleece that I processed with dog brushes, a child's spinning wheel, and dyed with food coloring. It's lumpy, bumpy, and terribly spun, but I made it from dirty, greasy, nasty, stinky wool! The process of scouring, carding, spinning, dyeing, and knitting is therapeutic and satisfying. No other yarn compares to handspun from raw wool. I still spin commercially combed top, but I will always prefer to work with raw wool from sheep I meet in person.

In early spring of 2018 I visited Sheep Cote Farm to see the heritage Tunis sheep they raised. It was an instant friendship and the farm animals got attention-spoiled by my children. We were taken to visit Hope Springs Farm a few miles down the road and met another heritage breed, the Gulf Coast Native sheep. Now, that is the breed of my first fleece which was not great quality, so I was hesitant. However, these GCN fleeces were magnificent! I wanted them all!!! So soft, so fine, so clean! I was hooked! 

Fast forward a few years and I am now partnering with local farmers to sell their fleeces. It's a journey, but it had to start somewhere and those first two farm visits morphed into the best friends and resources I've ever had. Now, more than ever, I see the need to support the small business, the individual, the small farm. Why limit myself and my customers to imported wool when there is so much lovely wool right here in my own state?

Many farmers are unaware that their wool has value. They are often told sheep must be shorn to stay healthy, but the wool is of no use. So there is this amazing resource that is not reaching the market, not because the market doesn't exist, but because it is not well known. This makes me sad. It's a problem that needs to be fixed. There are so many benefits to wool; it is a valuable commodity.

Wool is weather resistant, fire resistant, balances body temperature, insulates, protects from harmful UV rays, and it's biodegradable. You can put it in your garden as mulch, stuff pillows with it, use felted wool as quilt batting, make cute felted critters, spin yarn and knit warm garments or even cool summer garments (Yes, wool can help keep you cool in the summer,) a million other things you can make with wool, and wool dryer balls have a whole other ecosystem benefit we won't get into now, but my kids sure love playing with them! What can't wool do? Why don't more people use wool?

So yeah, I support the local farmers and I believe you should, too. That's why Fairily Fiber Fun sells raw wool from GA sheepherds along with some commercially combed top (hand dyed) and other fiber preps. The idea is to fully transition to all locally sourced, sustainable wool, but that's going to take a few years. So here we are... starting small, eager and ready to grow. Come support our local farmers and local makers! Eco friendly, sustainable, natural