COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio is home to a number of wool-bearing animals and there is an abundance of fiber being produced in the state. However, there is not an abundance of mills for farmers to take the fiber to.

This need was the topic of discussion at Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ “Farm to Fashion: Natural fiber footprints and futures” event last spring where Ohio farmers and natural fiber advocates discussed the future of a natural fiber industry in the state. And they agreed on one thing: Ohio needs more mills to process the large amount of fiber from small producers across the state.

“Local mills are becoming harder to find,” said Laurel Shouvlin, an alpaca farmer and owner of Bluebird Hills Farm in Springfield, Ohio. “Many wool producers in Ohio used to send their fiber to Mid-States Wool Growers Cooperative, and then ship it off to be processed into yarn or fabric. But after more than a century of business, that company closed its doors in 2023, citing there was no market for wool.”

Shouvlin and Celeste Navarre Stewart, a fashion and fiber artist, are at the forefront of promoting this natural fiber. The pair began traveling across the country in 2018 to promote sustainable fibers for clothing at conferences and fiber events, looking for more mills willing to process their fiber as there are few options in Ohio.

 Shouvlin has been raising Huacaya and Suri alpacas on her farm since 1998. She sends her fine fiber, mostly made from Suri fleece, to a small local mill in Oxford, Ohio, to be made into yarn. When she gets the yarn back, she uses plants like goldenrod, ragweed, nettle and pokewood to naturally dye the yarn, in addition to other dyes, and weaves the yarn into products for sale. She also sells dyed yarn.

Shouvlin sells her products at fiber festivals and local stores, but like most wool producers and other natural fiber farmers, finding a local mill that will skirt, pick, card, dye, scour and blend is a needle in a haystack. Most fiber enthusiasts like Shouvlin will say that all this is time-consuming and shipping to out-of-state mills can be expensive.

Ohio does have a few mini mills still operating, however. Carrie Davis and her husband, Robbie, own and operate America’s Natural Fiberworks, a small mill in Somerville, Ohio, where they process fiber into yarn. Shouvlin often sends her raw fiber to this mill, which is inundated with work.

The Davises remain quite busy. Clear plastic bags and cardboard boxes of fiber are stacked against the wall of a room at their mini mill. They receive fiber from Colorado, Arkansas and other states in addition to Ohio.

“We get batches of fiber from a wide variety of animals,” Carrie said. “We have sheep, bunny, yak and even Persian cat.”

Since 2015, Ron and Dianne Ganslein have been operating Ohio Valley Farm & Fiber Mill in Peebles, Ohio. The couple utilizes refurbished, antique milling equipment, some dating back to the 19th century.

There’s enough mohair from Angora goats in the Buckeye State to produce things like sweaters, hats and even upholstery. And there are roughly 119,000 sheep and lambs raised annually in Ohio alone, indicating a significant presence of wool producers in the state.

The lack of mills in the state hasn’t put a dent in the fiber enthusiasm, however. There are many fleece and fiber shows across Ohio each year and more artisans and farmers are getting involved.