No one knows wool like the shearer who shears the sheep. David Hinman of Walpole, N.H., started his own flock of sheep as a boy in Holderness, N.H., and has been shearing sheep and alpacas throughout the Northeast for more than 40 years. His daughter Gwen and sons Thatcher and Peter have learned the art and the craft of shearing from their father, and often work alongside him. From the sheep he shears and from his own flock of Blue-faced Leicesters, David selects the best wool. Then he has it processed into fine-quality, 100% wool yarn and wool blankets at a mill in Canada. He sells these fine products through The Shearer's Yarn.

Why wool?

We appreciate wool and we hope you do, too. It's a natural fiber - nothing else but dye goes into its production, not petroleum or plastic nor any other synthetic ingredient.

Wool is one of the warmest fibers you'll find. And it's truly a renewable resource. Every year, every sheep produces a new crop of wool and at the same time helps keep fields and farmland, our working landscape, open.

Sheep help maintain another valuable Northeast resource - small-scale agriculture. Almost all sheep in this region are raised on small family farms, and are important in conserving New England's rural tradition and way of life.