In Full Bloom: From Waste to Worsted

Pick up a skein of Bloom Woolen Yarn and you’ll swoon at its soft hand and gorgeous botanical colors. You’d never guess that much of the wool used to create these lovely skeins was originally considered waste. The owner of Bloom Woolen Yarns is building a business that produces gorgeous handknitting yarns from excess or unused wool often burned or left to compost.

The Seeds are Planted

Bloom Woolen Yarns is the brainchild of Lisa Fortin, who started knitting and fell so in love with wool that she created her own family flock. Fortin has been an artisan for many years, designing jewelry and costumes before discovering fiber arts. She founded her own farm, Growing a Bunch, several years ago with five Shetland sheep, some chickens, and a vegetable garden.

Fortin was inspired to start Bloom Woolen Yarns during the first winter of the COVID pandemic. “My love for fiber had grown in the . . . six years since starting our family flock,” she explains. “I wondered how I could bring more of this into my life while maintaining the delicate financial balance of being a single mom with four kids who was completely dedicated to homeschooling.”

Lisa Fortin began her wool journey with a small flock at her Growing a Bunch farm.

Up to that point, Fortin had been taking the wool from their small flock to a local mill for spinning. “I pretty much drove it there and said, ‘I’d like some yarn. Let’s do worsted weight,’ and left it to the mill to figure out the rest.” As Fortin moved deeper into the world of sheep farming, she realized that there was an untapped resource in the form of waste wool.

Making Waste Wool an Oxymoron

As fiberistas who adore wool’s unique qualities, we may find it odd to hear wool referred to as “waste.” So many wool breeds to try, with different qualities like fiber length, crimp, fineness, natural color and more: how could anyone view this bounty as waste?