Stephany Wilkes, Shearer, Wool Classer & Author

Between the sheep in the field and the lovely yarn in your hands lies the complex network of the wool industry. Fiber must be scoured, spun, and maybe dyed, and it all starts with shearing.

Attending a Fibershed symposium in 2012, Stephany Wilkes was surprised to learn that one of the barriers to local fiber production was a lack of trained shearers. A knitter and software developer, she had no hands-on livestock experience when she signed up for a shearing class through an extension center and found herself up to her elbows in wool. Despite the grueling labor and intensely specialized learning process, she relished the work and the way it pushed her squarely into the world of American fiber production.

Ten years into her career as a sheep shearer and wool classer, Stephany has supported small flocks, a small mill, and her fibershed. Her 2018 book, Raw Material: Working Wool in the West, is a riveting chronicle of her immersion in the world of sheep and wool. As a shearing instructor and catalyst for transformation in the fiber community, she has made it her business to improve the conditions and the market for quality wool.

This episode is brought to you by:

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Links

Stephany Wilkes website

Raw Material book

Fibershed

Mendocino Wool & Fiber mill

Lani’s Lana

Stephany’s article “Lani’s Lana: Sheep, Landscape, and Western Wool” appeared in Spin Off Winter 2023.

Wild Oat Hollow

Happy Goat cashmere and contract grazing project

Kaos Sheep Outfit

Shave 'em to Save 'em