So why Fibers 'n' Creations??
Hi, my name is Helen. I love to "create" items from fiber - particularly wool. I am from Great Britain and have been knitting and sewing since I was about 5 years old. The first item I knitted was a yellow cable sweater for teddy; this was the start of generating a pretty extensive wardrobe for Edward and my dolls.
Hi, my name is Helen. I love to "create" items from fiber - particularly wool. I am from Great Britain and have been knitting and sewing since I was about 5 years old. The first item I knitted was a yellow cable sweater for teddy; this was the start of generating a pretty extensive wardrobe for Edward and my dolls.
I have lived in North America for over 35 years and about 20 years ago I started to spin. I really enjoy working with my homespun yarns. Some of my favourite yarns I have made from dog and cat hair. Many dog breeds work very well and give a product almost like angora, and no you'll not smell like a dog when you wear it! Cat hair is much more difficult to handle, and has to be blended with sheep fiber to produce a satisfactory yarn. Harvesting and sorting the hair is time consuming, but important for the quality of the yarn.
After retiring from my research and extension work in plant pathology I started a small fiber business Fibers 'n' Creations. Initially I was going to focus on custom hand knits, however in the Spring of 2013, I took on the task of raising a bottle lamb. I got Elsie at a day old, her mother is a Barbados/Kathadin - hair sheep (usually produced for meat) and father a Finn. Elsie's mother was very young, and as someone said "was more interested in going to college than raising her youngster!" I had no experience with raising sheep- I spent my early years in Wales in a farming community, but we moved to a town of 62,000 people in the North of England when I was 11 years old. I had a fair amount of experiencing caring for dogs and cats, had worked a bit with pigs and dairy cows, but lamb raising was all new. I was however very fortunate to have access to great assistance from Cornell vet school, others at Cornell and in the local and not so local sheep community. Feeding occurred every few hours at the start so everywhere I went Elsie came and we became quite the pair! Initially I wasn't going to keep her when she was weaned but that soon changed! We have 7 acres fenced to 10 feet, but it was never intended for livestock; we wanted to keep deer out and thus allow us to garden on our rocky hilltop and to keep my dogs in. With some modifications there was enough space for a few sheep. As a spinner, my big question was would Elsie have a nice fleece? Her father's fleece was very nice, but everyone told me it would be very poor due to her mother's breeds. As Elsie grew, and we watched her fleece grow, I started to think that her fleece may be ok. It turned out that Elsie inherited her father's fleece genetics and has quite a nice fleece more akin to a Finn fleece, than her mother's hair fleece. As the general consensus was that Elsie would have a poor fleece for spinning I started to look into possible uses for her fleece. Wool dryer balls seemed like a possibility. I’d been a spinner for a number of years and had roving from a number of fleeces and also some raw fleece so started to work with these to see how the process would go. It became clear that raw fleece would not work, and that roving from some breeds of sheep worked better than others. This continues to be an education. I love biological variation, but when one is trying to make a consistent product it can be a challenge!!
May 2014 saw the sale of my first box of Elsie's wool dryer balls to Fiber Arts in the Glen, in Watkins Glen NY! They soon became a faithful vendor. GreenStar Co-op in Ithaca, were right behind and have sold consistently at flagship store now on Cascadilla St in Ithaca. My main product to date has been Elsie's wool dryer balls selling over 190 boxes in 2015. As one box of dryer balls takes 4 oz of wool roving, clearly they can't all be made from Elsie! Elsie is a small sheep and gives about a 6lb fleece which after washing and making into roving results in about 4 lb thus generating just 16 boxes of dryer balls! So where does all the fleece come from for making Elsie's wool dryer balls? I buy from small local producers of mainly Finn sheep as their fleeces work well for my needs. But please note that in every box of dryer balls there is some of Elsie's fleece!
Sheep are flock animals, and even though Elsie had been hand raised without other sheep, she did seem to need companionship. I did a lot of searching for suitable animals for my situation and needs and eventually chose bottle raised Clun Forest x Border Leicester twins, named Elwyn and Enid. Clun is a town in Shropshire, on the border of England and Wales and about 40 miles from my birth place in South Wales. Clun Forest sheep and the cross are not so common in North America. Unfortunately the fleeces from the twins did not prove suitable for dryer balls, but have formed the base of my needle felting products. Enid has a good fleece and it placed first in her class at the Finger Lakes Fiber festival.
Barnard and Bowes- Teeswater x Cotswold twins joined in 2016. Their fleeces again not suited for dryer balls have made a lovely addition to my spinning flock and also as locks for needle felting, particularly for the very popular wool sheep which are now rivaling Elsie's wool dryer balls for sales. Both fleeces have done well at the New York State Fair. Barnard's fleece was Reserve Grand Champion 2 years in a row.
Sheep are flock animals, and even though Elsie had been hand raised without other sheep, she did seem to need companionship. I did a lot of searching for suitable animals for my situation and needs and eventually chose bottle raised Clun Forest x Border Leicester twins, named Elwyn and Enid. Clun is a town in Shropshire, on the border of England and Wales and about 40 miles from my birth place in South Wales. Clun Forest sheep and the cross are not so common in North America. Unfortunately the fleeces from the twins did not prove suitable for dryer balls, but have formed the base of my needle felting products. Enid has a good fleece and it placed first in her class at the Finger Lakes Fiber festival.
Barnard and Bowes- Teeswater x Cotswold twins joined in 2016. Their fleeces again not suited for dryer balls have made a lovely addition to my spinning flock and also as locks for needle felting, particularly for the very popular wool sheep which are now rivaling Elsie's wool dryer balls for sales. Both fleeces have done well at the New York State Fair. Barnard's fleece was Reserve Grand Champion 2 years in a row.
I have great fun making natural plant dyes. The majority of the plants growing wild that are suitable for making dyes give shades of yellow. I recently ventured in to the more challenging dyes by growing Persicaria tinctoria (Japanese indigo) and making various shades of blue dyes. Just before the pandemic I started growing Rubia tinctorum (madder), these plants need to be at least 3 years old before the roots are sufficiently mature to yield the famous historic red and hence I shall soon have sufficient root material to work with this dye too.
I very much enjoy using my peg loom which was made locally. I found that raw washed fleece gives a delightful rugs and seat pads. Art yarn also lends itself well to this type of weaving. I am constantly experimenting with other ways of working with the different fleeces to make functional art. For example, I am currently learning how to use a fleece to make a rug that looks like a sheepskin but without the skin, know by some as 'vegetarian' sheepskins!
I am not a farm and will not be breeding my sheep, and I am not planning to make this a big business. I want to use Fibers ‘n’ Creations as a vehicle to promote the use of wool as a sustainable fiber with use in many areas of our lives- ie: not just for clothing where at least in North America people think of its main application.
I very much enjoy using my peg loom which was made locally. I found that raw washed fleece gives a delightful rugs and seat pads. Art yarn also lends itself well to this type of weaving. I am constantly experimenting with other ways of working with the different fleeces to make functional art. For example, I am currently learning how to use a fleece to make a rug that looks like a sheepskin but without the skin, know by some as 'vegetarian' sheepskins!
I am not a farm and will not be breeding my sheep, and I am not planning to make this a big business. I want to use Fibers ‘n’ Creations as a vehicle to promote the use of wool as a sustainable fiber with use in many areas of our lives- ie: not just for clothing where at least in North America people think of its main application.
Through a Google search I was thrilled to find the Campaign for Wool which featured the use of wool in some many applications, with the All Wool Bed and Breakfast in London being particularly intriguing. There was an option to apply to be a supporter of the Campaign for wool. Although there appeared to be some small business listed as supporters many of the names were companies like Liberty of London however I decided to apply-‘nothing venture nothing gain’ though in all honesty I didn't really expect to be accepted. In early January 2017 to my absolute delight- I learned I was accepted!
I have an Etsy shop www.fibersncreations.etsy.com and sell at a few locations in Central NY, listed below. If you'd like something specific please contact me. |
I will be adding more information as time allows. If you have any questions please contact me. I hope you will check back from time to time as my website is a work in progress. Thanks for visiting.
As of 2023 Elsie's wool dryer balls are for sale at:
GreenStar Co-operative Market, West-End Store, Ithaca, NY
Wooly Minded, Corning, NY
Fiber Arts in The Glen, Watkins Glen, NY
Abundance Food Co-op, Rochester, NY
Brookton's Market, Brooktondale, NY
A selection of my other handmade items are for sale at:
Fiber Arts in The Glen, Watkins Glen, NY
Potential 2023 shows:
Little Red Wagon market.
When: Saturday December 2023 from 10 am-5pm
Where: The Triphammer Market Place, Ithaca, NY
GreenStar Co-operative Market, West-End Store, Ithaca, NY
Wooly Minded, Corning, NY
Fiber Arts in The Glen, Watkins Glen, NY
Abundance Food Co-op, Rochester, NY
Brookton's Market, Brooktondale, NY
A selection of my other handmade items are for sale at:
Fiber Arts in The Glen, Watkins Glen, NY
Potential 2023 shows:
Little Red Wagon market.
When: Saturday December 2023 from 10 am-5pm
Where: The Triphammer Market Place, Ithaca, NY