American Made Yarn Producers


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With the threat of tariffs against non-American made goods looming, it’s a great time to take a look at some American made yarn producers. Whether you want to buy American because it has a smaller environmental impact or because it might be less expensive in the future, these yarn makers are great ones to know.

Why is Yarn Expensive?

No matter where your yarn is manufactured, you may have noticed that yarn is getting more expensive lately. That can be because of lots of different factors, including the rising cost of raw materials and supply chain issues, tariffs and inflation, shipping costs and increasing demand.

Slip Stitch Tweed Top, designed by me, knit in Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted. Photo by Tiffany Blackstone. Ravelry pattern page.

If you want a deeper look at these issues, check out this post from Kehyo. This post is really more about companies that produce products with yarn at scale, but the same issues affect individuals buying yarn for knitting or crochet.

And whenever animals are involved, the cost of feeding and caring for those animals has probably increased. Companies that use sustainable, organic or fair trade practices also have increased cost, no matter where in the world they are located.

American yarn has been becoming more scarce for decades, with fewer producers and fewer companies that are able to do the work of producing yarn.

Clara Parkes, in her book Vanishing Fleece, documents the perils of the American wool industry in particular.

“The American wool industry is not growing,” she writes. “No significant new money is being invested. The infrastructure is aging, the workforce is retiring, university programs are being shuttered. Nobody will be there to train the next generation, and the next generation doesn’t seem to have any desire to be trained.”

So it’s clear its important to support American made yarn if we want to continue to have it.

And with the Trump administration pledging to place 25 percent tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico (though those threats are on hold for now) and 10 percent on products from China, that will likely further increase the cost of yarn and other products from those countries, as higher productions costs may be passed on to consumers.

Where Does Yarn Come From?

Yarn (as well as knitting and crochet supplies) can be made throughout the world. Looking at my yarn shelves I found a lot of yarn from Turkey, as well as Peru, China, Canada and American made yarn. If my shelves are any indication, a lot of acrylics come from China and Turkey. I have cotton from the EU, Canada and the United States and wool from Peru.

The tariffs post linked above mentions wool and animal hair products coming from Canada as potentially being subject to tariffs, but of course cotton yarn would be as well. The cotton yarn made by Yarnspirations, including Lily Sugar’n Cream and Bernat Handicrafter, are both made in Canada according to their ball bands, but the Yarnspirations website says the cotton is American.

Another thing that often comes from Canada and China are books, which are much less expensive to print in other countries, especially in full color as craft books often are. Knitting needles, crochet hooks and other supplies may also be made in these countries, but it’s not always easy to find where craft tools are manufactured from the company’s website. So bear in mind that rising prices may affect those products as well, not just yarn.

How Can I Find American Made Yarn?

There are many companies that offer American made yarn either exclusively or as part of their portfolio. Knit Picks, for example, has High Desert yarn, which is grown and spun in the United States, along with lots of other yarn lines that come from elsewhere.

Kelbourne Woolens has Germantown, a wool yarn spun and dyed in North Carolina. Other yarns made by the company are mostly manufactured in Peru. (We’ll talk more about these yarns below.)

Doing a search online will give you some general information about yarn companies with American made yarns, but you can also look when you’re in your favorite yarn shop, or check on the websites of companies you like to see if they offer yarn made in the USA. Again, the companies don’t always say where their yarn comes from, but as the desire for more American yarn increases, companies are likely to be more vocal about the products that are already being made here.

American Made Yarn: An Incomplete List

All that said, here are some manufacturers and yarn lines that I have confirmed are American made yarn, whether by the manufacturer’s website listings or checking the ball band myself.

This is a non-exhaustive list; if you know of any American made yarns I don’t have listed, or you want to leave a review of one you have tried, drop your report in the comments!

These yarn lines are also listed in alphabetical order for easy reference.

American Made Alpaca

American Made Alpaca sells a range of alpaca products including yarn and finished items. They sell 100 percent alpaca yarns in various weights, as well as pacarino, a blend of alpaca and merino wool.

Their yarn is dyed on the farm in New York.

Anzula Gerty

Anzula makes a variety of yarns and their Gerty is made with “ethically sourced” American Targhee wool that’s hand dyed in Fresno, Calif. It’s a sock weight yarn that comes in a variety of colors.

You can see all the colors and buy online from their Shopify store.

Appalachian Baby

While most American made yarn is wool and/or alpaca, Appalachian Baby focuses on organic cotton yarns made with fiber grown in the United States. They use a low impact dyeing process on their sport weight yarn that comes in a variety of colors as well as undyed.

They also have an American made washable wool.

Artyarns

Founded in 2002, Artyarns prides itself on locally sourcing materials and manufacturing their yarn in the United States. Their yarns include cashmere, silk, wool blends, silk and mohair blends and more, all of which can be dyed in a multitude of colors.

Pictured here is their silk mohair yarn in the natural color.

A Verb for Keeping Warm

Based in Oakland, A Verb for Keeping Warm uses natural dyes and organic, sustainably harvested plant extracts and nontoxic, food grade aluminum potassium sulfate (often used in pickling) as a mordant.

Its yarns that use American made fibers include Flock, Graze, Dawn and Horizon. Graze, shown here, is a California wool milled in Wyoming that’s rated a light worsted weight.

Catskill Merino

A follower on BlueSky tipped me off on Catskill Merino, a woman-owned farm and wool producer in New York. They sell a range of yarn weights, and the wool is spun at Green Mountain Spinnery in Vermont and dyed on the farm using natural, mostly citric dyes.

Shown here is Lamb’s Wool, a 3-ply aran weight yarn.

Bartlett Yarns

Maine-based Bartlett Yarns has been making American-made yarn since 1821, and their equipment dates to the 1940s and closely mimics the look of a handspun yarn. Their Fisherman’s 2-ply is a classic, spun with lanolin to improve weather resistance.

They produce and sell a variety of wool and alpaca yarns, including 2-ply, 3-ply, sport weight, bulky and rug yarns. You can even shop by color if you’re looking for a particular shade more than a certain weight of yarn.

Brown Sheep Company

One of my favorite American made yarn companies that I have worked with in the past is Brown Sheep. Based in Nebraska, they offer a full line of American made wool yarns with a lovely collection of colors.

Their Lamb’s Pride yarn is probably their most famous and largest yarn range. A mix of wool and mohair that’s available in worsted and bulky varieties, there are a dizzying number of color options (just picking the green color family, for example, gives you 15 choices).

One thing to note if you’re buying direct from their website is that the colors are not all shown. They suggest ordering a catalog if you want to see all the colors. You can also head to an online yarn store like Jimmy Beans Wool to see more of the color options, or look for a particular yarn on Ravelry, just know the colors might not look exactly the same in reality.

Other popular yarn lines from Brown Sheep include Nature Spun (100 percent wool available in fingering, sport or worsted weight), Cotton Fleece (an 80/20 cotton and wool blend in light and fingering weights) and Wildfoote sock yarn, a blend of wool and nylon.

Brooklyn Tweed

Brooklyn Tweed makes breed-specific yarns that are designed, sourced, dyed and spun in the United States. Their yarns are most two or three ply fingering, DK or worsted weight, with two chunky options as well.

Shown here is Shelter, a tweedy worsted weight two ply made from Targhee-Columbia wool from Wyoming.

Cestari Sheep

Cestari produces wool, cotton and blends all made from American produce. The cotton all comes from Virginia, and the wool is Virginian as well as coming from elsewhere in the country.

Check out their traditional 2-ply worsted weight yarn, which comes in 15 colors as of this writing, and their Old Dominion cotton, which comes in sock and DK weights.

Farmers Daughter Fibers

Based in Montana, Farmers Daughter Fibers combines American wool and other fibers with great color to make a range of yarns in all weights, with both superwash and non superwash options. They also collaborate with Spincycle (more on them below) on fibers like Spinsters Daughter, made with Spincycle’s Dyed in the Wool yarn and with exclusive colors from each dyer.

Shown above is Piskun, a DK weight, non-superwash wool made with Rambouillet fiber from animals raised in Montana and Wyoming. (Note that I’m not sure if all their yarns are fully American made as those with mohair, alpaca and silk don’t say where those fibers come from, but the wool yarns do state where the fiber is from).

They also sell some Spincycle Yarns and yarn from Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool yarn that comes from The Wool Mill in Belgrade, Mont., though it sounds like they are getting out of the yarn business so that yarn will not be available for long (they have more colors on their website as well).

Fiber Seed

Fiber Seed has an exclusive line of American made yarn called Sprout. It’s a superwash wool with a bit of nylon for extra durability. They offer sock, DK and worsted weights and the different dye treatments are what really makes them special.

You can find solid, semi-solid, speckled, half speckled, dipped, sprinkled and unplanned color options (though not all weights are available in all color options).

Freia Fibers

Freia Fine Handpaints has a lovely combination of American made yarn and beautiful colors that will make them your go-to for beautifully made and colorful yarn. Their philosophy includes using US raised fiber with minimal environmental impacts that supports small farmers and ethical treatment for the animals.

They have four ranges of yarn in different weights: rustic wool blend, rustic merino, superwash wool and refined merino silk. All of these can be dyed in semi-solid, ombre, self-striping and gradient colorways and they’re so pretty I had a hard time deciding which to share. (This one is a wool sport weight in the ombre colorway Artist’s Palette.)

Germantown Yarn

Germantown Yarn is a product and trademark of Kelbourne Woolens, taking its name from the long yarn spinning tradition of Germantown, Penn. The Germantown Wool website says the wool fiber mostly comes from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, while the Kelbourne Woolens site notes that it is spun and dyed in North Carolina.

There are worsted and bulky options in this yarn line, and they come in a wide array of colors.

Green Mountain Spinnery

I mentioned Green Mountain Spinnery earlier because they do custom processing for farmers, but they also make their own signature yarns to help sustain regional and national sheep farming and fiber production.

They have a full line of various yarn weights, and I’m sure I’ve worked with some of their yarn in the past. I love how specific their listings often are, such as the worsted weight Mountain Mohair, which is sourced from fine Targhee wool from the Front Range of the Rockies; medium-grade wool of various breeds from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts; and mohair from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Vermont.

Their Yarn Over yarn also caught my eye. This bulky weight, limited edition tweedy yarn is 100 percent recycled from the leftovers from producing other yarns. The colorway above is called Fir.

Halcyon Yarn

Halcyon Yarn is a second generation family run fiber arts store in Maine (and I swear when I emailed them about yarn support for a book years ago, one of the company’s founders emailed me back).

They sell their own branded signature yarns, as well as yarn from other makers that’s made in America. Their Norumbega is a great classic worsted wool sold in a bunch of colors. They also have a lot of rug yarn and fiber for weaving (and they’re a great place to buy a loom if you’re in the market).

The American made yarn they sell as of this writing other than their own includes Bartlett Yarns, Brown Sheep, Harrisville and UKI Supreme (which sells cotton thread for weaving).

Harrisville Designs

Speaking of Harrisville, this New Hampshire town has been home to spinning mills since 1794, and Harrisville Designs has been spinning its yarn there for more than 50 years. Their Shear yarns are natural, undyed fibers from animals raised in the United States.

Daylights is a fun speckled yarn made with American Cormo and wool spun to a DK weight, while Nightshades is its darker cousin.

(Note that I can’ verify where all their fiber comes from, but their Shetland yarn is made with Australian and New Zealand wool.)

Hudson and West

Founded in 2019 by a former editor of Interweave Knits, Hudson and West aims to make fashion-forward yarn that’s traceable, sustainable and fair in its production.

They currently produce three yarns: Forge and Weld, both made from Corriedale and Merino sheep raised in Colorado and New Mexico, and Spark, a small-batch dyed mohair silk blend. Forge, shown here, is worsted weight and Weld is a fingering weight. They’re spun by Mountain Meadow Wool, who you’ll learn more about below.

Imperial Yarn

Imperial Yarn is a company that sells yarn and finished products made of American made yarn including alpaca, cotton, hemp and wool. As of this writing they have 16 yarn lines, including a sport weight alpaca called Our Back 40; Anna, a worsted weight wool with cotton wrap; and Broken Top, a chunky wool made with a combination of Rambouillet and Columbia sheep.

The company is based in Terrebonne, Oregon, and since 2017 they have been certified as selling Climate Beneficial Wool, which means that it is sustainably grown and ethically harvested, as well as being traceable to the ranch of origin.

They also use carbon farm practices such as mulching and composting, planting trees and shrubs and restoring vegetation to creeks, all with the aim of having climate beneficial, net-negative greenhouse gas operations on their farms. You can learn more about this on their page all about Climate Beneficial Wool.

Jagger Spun

The Jagger family moved to Maine in the 1880s and has been spinning yarn for commercial purposes ever since. The Jagger Spun brand for home makers started much later but now includes 14 lines made with fiber sourced from around the world.

It’s not super clear on their website which yarns are totally American made, but their Presque Island bulky superwash wool is grown and spun in the US. I think their Green Line organic wool, which is a sport weight, is also American fiber but again it’s not clear. (I guess I’ll just have to order some!)

Junction Fiber Mill

Junction Fiber Mill was founded in 2021 in Vermont by two friends who raise sheep and wanted to create a mill that supported local farmers and the fiber arts community.

They focus on breed-specific yarns for specific characteristics and made in small batches with fun colors. For example their Making Tracks is a blend of Merino, Targhee, and Corriedale sheep from flocks in Idaho and South Dakota, while their Farm Fresh line features single breed, mostly natural colored fibers.

Knit Picks High Desert

The High Desert line from Knit Picks features 100 percent American merino wool that comes from the Shaniko Wool Company in Oregon. It is processed in South Carolina and dyed and milled in North Carolina.

There are several different styles of this yarn available:

The colors are inspired by the high desert landscape and include jewel tones and heathers. I’ve actually used this yarn in both weights and I really liked it.

Kraemer Yarns

Based in Nazareth, Penn., Kraemer Yarns makes a variety of yarns for knitting, crochet and felting.

Their Perfection line comes in a variety of weights in solid colors, as well as one called Tapas that’s worsted weight with a solid color plied with a multicolored yarn.

They also make a cotton, acrylic and nylon sock yarn called Saucon that is great for people who can’t wear wool but still want to make socks.

Lion Brand Local Grown

I need to head to a yarn store to verify that Lion Brand Homespun is still made in the USA, but I can tell you that Local Grown is a worsted weight wool that is made in America from American sheep. It has a nice range of colors for all your wooly projects.

They also have Local Grown Cotton, which is also worsted weight and made in America from fiber grown here.

Made in America Yarns

The appropriately named Made in America Yarns is the online home of Huntington Yarn Mill, which is based in Philadelphia. They are actually located in the same place so it’s easy for them to make yarns on demand based on what their customers are looking for.

They sell some yarns by the cone, such as their worsted cotton (they have a multitude of different cotton yarns sold by the cone) or by the skein, like their American lamb yarn, a 100 percent wool bulky weight yarn sold in hanks.

The company seems to focus on cotton yarn and chenille and textured yarns, which can be fun for a variety of projects. I’ve got my eye on their Trillion yarn, a rayon, textured DK weight yarn that comes in cones in white but can also be dyed.

Mountain Meadow Wool

Mountain Meadow is based in Wyoming and produces 100 percent wool yarn, apparel and products that are 100 percent ranch traceable.

Their yarn comes in a variety of weights and a ton of colors. Cody caught my eye, which is a sport weight, 2-ply wool that comes in more than 30 colors.

Organic Cotton Plus

Organic Cotton Plus got its start as one of the first organic cotton farms in the country that became the first fabric retailer in the US to be certified under the Global Organic Textile Standard. They’ve since expanded beyond cotton and beyond fabric.

They sell worsted and sport weight organic cotton yarn, and sport weight merino as well as wool for weaving.

Peace Fleece

Based in New Hampshire, Peace Fleece sells DK and worsted weight yarn in a lovely array of colors. I used some of their worsted yarn a long time ago and I still remember it being lovely to work with.

The story of Peace Fleece is great, too. Originally made with a mix of Russian and American fibers to promote world peace, it’s now made with Native American Rambouillet wool as well as other wool and mohair, which helps to support the tribes while providing an American made product.

Quince & Co.

Quince & Co has a nice collection of yarns made in the United States, though not all of their products are American made yarn (indeed not everything on that page is totally American made).

A popular choice of theirs that is made in the US is Owl, a wool and alpaca yarn that’s worsted weight and comes in a nice range of colors.

Spincycle Yarns

Spincycle is known for its colorful yarns, but you might not know they’re committed to producing American made yarn. The company began with dyeing and spinning yarn by hand, selling at the farmer’s market in Bellingham, Wash. They’re still based there but now do all their dyeing and spinning at their own mill and dye house.

Their first and maybe most popular yarn is Dyed in the Wool, a sportweight, sueprwash wool that’s a mix of Rambouillet, Targhee and Merino fleece grown mostly in South Dakota and Wyoming.

Upland Fiber Co.

Supporting farmers and making their yarn in the Northeastern United States, Upland Fiber Co. offers 100 percent American made non superwash wool yarns.

The yarn line they currently have is called Cor, and is made with a 50/50 blend of Cormo and Corriedale fleece from New York and Pennsylvania. It’s available in fingering and worsted weights.

Smaller American Made Yarn Makers

Depending on where you live, you may also be able to find very local yarn sold at your farmer’s market or other fiber-related events. I have local yarn makers where I am in Arkansas, and if you ask around you may be able to find some of your own where you live.

If you can’t find local producers but would still like to help small farmers, check out the many farms that sell yarn on Etsy. To name just a few:

american made yarn producers

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2 Comments

  1. Crocheting huge amounts of wrist warmers, lapghans and baby caps requires me to use easy to care for acrylic yarn…mainly Red Heart because affordable for the quality. I didn’t mind it being sourced to Turkey as they have a great history of textile work. But, the Red Heart coming from India lately, splits and the colors are way off. Ordered bright yellow and it was closed to a chartreuse green ?

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