What's gray and white and warm all over?
Wool blankets made of locally grown, natural wool!

2009 Orders Now Being Accepted
ORDER YOUR RHODY WARM BLANKET TODAY!

The Rhode Island Resource Conservation & Development Area Council,
the RIDEM  Division of Agriculture, and the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative
are working  together to create a market for wool blankets
made with Rhode Island wool.

Background

Rhode Island sheep farmers are having difficulty selling their wool. The decline of wool textile mills in New England and low wool prices have turned much raw wool into a nuisance rather than a product. As a result, excess raw wool is often stored on the farm, used as compost, buried, or disposed of at local landfills. Rhode Island sheep producers approached RI RC&D with a request to investigate options for the local use of their raw wool.

RI RC&D facilitated the formation of a project steering committee to move the project forward. Committee members include representatives from the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative, RI RC&D, URI, USDA-NRCS and private citizens. The Committees short-term project goal was to produce wool blankets by fall of 2006 for sale during the holiday season.

Members of the RI Sheep Cooperative gathered at the Urban Edge Farm in Cranston, RI for the 1st Rhody Warm Wool Collection

Wool collection day was held on June 17, 2006. Producers collected over 1,400 pounds of wool at the Southside Community Land Trusts Urban Edge Farm in Cranston, Rhode Island. The group then collaborated with the Connecticut Sheep Breeders Association to ship the wool to Faribault Mills in Minnesota for cleaning and processing before returning to southern New England for blanket production.

Clean wool arrived back in New England for processing into a finished blanket in late August 2006. The blankets were completed in early December 2006.

The long term goal of this project is to develop a process to produce quality wool blankets to bring more income to farmers. Ultimately, we hope that more wool producers will participate in the project and serve to promote the sustainability of local agriculture and agricultural products.

The Process

Shearing	Raw Wool Collection	S&D Spinning, Millbury, MA
Spinning Yarn	Finished Yarn	Napping
	Finished Blanket

Participating Sheep Growers

• Seldom Seen Farm, Glocester
• Experience Acres, North Smithfield
• Watson Farm, Jamestown
• Bally Duff Farm, Glocester
• Stonebridge Farm, Glocester
• Cedar Knoll Farm, North Scituate
• Christine Sederback, Glocester
• 2 Sheep Farm, South Kingstown
• Kate Malmborg, Glocester
• Woodland Farm, Glocester
• Douglas Langdon, West Kingston
• William Conoyer
• Shirley Moniz
• Maybe Tomorrow Farm, Glocester
• Fred Andrews, Cranston
• Dakota Livestock, Wakefield
• Seth Bowerman, East Greenwich

Current Partners

• Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative
• RIDEM  Division of Agriculture
• USDA-NRCS
• USDA-Rural Development
• University of Rhode Island-Department of Textiles & Fashion Merchandising
• Connecticut Sheep Breeders Association
• RI Rural Development Council

How To Order

100% wool blankets and wool throws made of sheep's wool from local farms.

Rhody Warm wool blankets and wool throws are available in the following sizes:

• Lap Throw  45" x 60"
• Long throw  45" x 72"
• Full  80" x 90"
• Queen  90" x 90"
• King  90" x 106"

To order a Rhody Warm product, please complete the form below and click on the "Submit Order" button.