About Floof and Fiber
Who are we and how did we get here?
If you're a spinner or fiber artist (and as you're here reading this I'm going to assume that you are) then you know very well the deep rabbit hole that is the fiber arts world goes.
It all started way back when I first learned to crochet as a child, pre internet and pre YouTube! Then, I was happy as a clam if my mother would buy me a small book of crochet patterns from the craft store. I made a few items back then that I still have, such as crochet pillow and my one and only afghan.
Fast forward to the end of high school and I took a knitting class and learned to knit. I made a massive blue acrylic scarf, taught my brother how to knit and then left for university and promptly forgot about knitting and all things fiber for quite a while.
Skipping over a big chuck of my 'not related to fiber arts' life, we are now in 2023 living in a new town where I knew no one. In an effort to expand my social circle I started a local Stitch 'n Bitch club at the library. I met a lot of wonderful people there, and once I had my brother remind me how to cast on and watched a few YouTube videos on how to actually knit, I was off an running again!
This is getting long. I'm sure you're wondering - 'ok, but how does all this equal an online fiber shop with aspirations to become a full sized woolen mill?' We'll get there.
At this point, I've been knitting and crocheting various things for about a year or so when the stars aligned and I somehow managed to put together my PTO and office closure days into a continuos stretch that ended up with me having 4 solid weeks off work in December of 2024.
It started simply: I wanted to knit a pair of thrummed mittens. So, I needed some roving. Did I buy some pre-processed roving or combed top? Of course not, that would be too easy! No, I went and bought AN ENTIRE RAW FLEECE! Let me tell you, even the farmer I bought it from was questioning my sanity!
Here I am with a nice greasy merino fleece and no clue what I'm doing (do you see where this is going?). So, I learned to scour. Awesome, fleece is clean, wait, no, it just looks clean, it's still sticky. I go scour it again. Yay, finally clean.
Then, the fateful day.....I look around my house and what do I see? An antique Hungarian flax wheel that I purchased at a flea market in Hungary with my father over 20 years ago. Did it have all its parts? Who knows? I sure didn't.
Anyway, I clean it, I oil it, I put a drive band on it and I attempt to spin.
Reader: it DID NOT go well. AT ALL.
For the first week the wheel kept grabbing fiber out of my hands; the drive wheel went in different directions depending on its mood, and I considered it a success when I went more than 10 seconds with neither of those things happening.
Because of the massive success (sarcasm alert) I had with the spinning wheel I decided that perhaps a DIY drop spindle would be a better place to start. So, I scrounged around in the basement and cobbled together a drop spindle with a round plastic thingy (technical term), an old long wooden paintbrush and a little hook with a screw at the end. By some miracle it actually worked! My yarn still looked awful but at least I was kind of making yarn now.
Then I started looking for spinning guilds locally because even with YouTube I still really sucked at this. I found one an hour away from me and showed up to their ROC day and attended their 'beginner spinners' class. I was 20 mins late and everyone was practicing on drop spindles, but it was invaluable to actually see people spinning in person, and on that day something finally 'clicked'.
I went home and practiced on both my little flax wheel and my DIY drop spindle and something incredible happened: I made actual yarn that I could use for something! I was ecstatic. My husband was also very happy for me and complimented me by saying: 'wow, you're actually making yarn - before it looked like you were just mangling wool!'. I found that hilarious and am very thankful he saved the 'mangling wool' commentary for AFTER I figured out how to spin.
This brings us to January of 2025, or as I like to call it: Erica jumps down the rabbit hole with both feet.
What followed was the most incredible year long acquisition spree of spinning wheels and fiber equipment that you've ever seen. In order of acquisition these are the wheels I now have:
-Antique Hungarian flax wheel (already owned)
-EEW 6.1 electric wheel - March 2025
-Ashford Traditional Double Drive - April 2025
-Double flyer antique flax wheel - July 2025
-Antique CPW - October 2025
That's the stable I had at the end of 2025, not to mention the: drum carder, lazy kates, comb and hackle, loom, warping mill, English hand combs and probably some other stuff I have forgotten. Oh yeah, and somewhere in between learnign to spin and Rhinebeck 2025 I picked up a floor loom and taught myself to weave. Did I mention this was a really deep rabbit hole?
In October of 2025 I went to Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival and entered my handspun into a few categories, but specifically the 'Novice spinner' category for those who had been spinning for less than 1 year. To my absolute delight I won 1st place in that category and brought home a blue ribbon. From yarn mangler to blue ribbon winner in less than a year - so if you are new and looking at your first yarns take it from me - you can do this!
After Rhinebeck I continued to spin regularly and started to seriously consider where I was going with this hobby. I have land and about 50 or so chickens already and live in a rural community so of course my first thought was to get a flock of sheep. There are a few problems with that though:
1) I do not have fencing or a run in structure and both of those things are very expensive to set up.
2) I take animal care very seriously and although I have a lot of chickens, I've had chickens on and off since I was 16. I know what I'm doing. A new species that I have never had before is a big learning curve and a big responsibility.
So, I decided to forgo having sheep for the time being as I felt it would be too stressful for me personally. I'm not ruling them out in the future but for now I'm sticking with the chickens.
That chain of thoughts and decisions let me to conclude that it would be far less stressful to instead start a new business and open a wool processing mill!
So, here I am. Bringing to you some of the most beautiful fibers that I myself have had the pleasure of spinning as well as operating a hand processing mini mill at my home. I am currently accepting fleeces for processing and will process them up to hand combed roving or batts.
The plan is to grow and expand into bigger premises next year along with getting some more sophisticated mill machinery in. 2027 is going to be a big year for Floof and Fiber so stay tuned! And if you have a special fleece or even special cat or dog fur that you would like processed please reach out. I would be delighted to help.
Happy Spinning!