Come to the City for a Taste of Fiber!

Some of the Farm & Fiber Knits team spent last weekend in New York City—Times Square, to be exact—mingling with other fiber lovers, offering hands-on spinning demos, and all around extolling the benefits of using natural fiber and locally grown wool.

It’s great to attend fiber fests like the Vogue Knitting Live event in Times Square because it’s an amazing opportunity for more people to have access to fiber from small farms and vendors. For knitters, it’s the prime opportunity to follow your yarn to the source.

Another such event is coming up on February 2nd in Boston: The New England Farm & Fiber Festival, held at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama building. Farmer and shepherdess Tammy White of Wing & A Prayer Farm has gathered a host of regional vendors and small farms that raise fiber animals for the seventh annual event, with hopes that they will inspire visitors to appreciate the animals, their caregivers, and the artists that celebrate the world of natural fibers. The festival’s mission is “to celebrate the land, the animals, and the people that work tirelessly to support sustainable fiber and a greener world.”

Get a closer look! Click on any of the images below to learn more about the vendors. (All photos courtesy of Tammy White.)

The day’s events will include:

• Lorna McCormack, founder and director of Wool in School based in County Meath, Ireland, will serve as the festival’s featured speaker
  
• On stage with Lorna will be a panel of fiber artists, farmers, and mill owners as moderators
  
• Aquinnah Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James-Perry will demonstrate spinning with milkweed and beadmaking with quahog shells
  
• Siri Swanson of Yankee Rock Farm will lecture on the qualities of various fleeces
  
• Liz Willis of Kingdom Fleece Fiber Mill will share her journey from dairy farmer to mill owner
  
• Kat Chang of Reed Farm will share her story as a production poultry farmer
  
• San Francisco artist Sonya Philip will discuss her background in textiles and fiber arts and talk about her project called 100 Acts of Sewing
  
• Blue Heron Farm will host a hands-on needlefelting table
  
• The Rhode Island Spinning Guild will display spinning wheels and offer ongoing demonstrations
  

Highlights from some of the vendors:

Click on the images below to get a closer look!

Yankee Rock Farm
Siri Swanson and Colin Siegmund are Vermont shepherds with a dual passion for raising sheep and the craft of shearing. In addition to raising Finn, Border Leicester, and Cheviot sheep, the couple travels around the Northeast shearing around 12,000 sheep and a few hundred goats each year. They enjoy sharing their commitment to livestock, the land, and the community, and are bringing their special-edition millspun and handspun yarns to the festival.

Read about Yankee Rock’s farm, flock, and shearing adventures.

Cashmere goats at Hulse Hill Farm in Fly Creek, New York. Photo by Gale Zucker

Clean Cashmere
The quintessential luxury fiber, American-grown cashmere is difficult to find as fiber, yarn, or clothing. But Clean Cashmere works directly with local farmers to create yarns that are manufactured entirely in the United States, creating a relationship where farmers can generate income from their herds by supplying high-quality cashmere. Clean Cashmere’s yarns include 100% cashmere plus blends of cashmere with tussah silk, Merino, and Cormo.

Read about Clean Cashmere’s efforts to connect small American cashmere farms with knitters.

If you’re in the New England area, you can visit the New England Farm & Fiber Festival on February 2, 2025.