If you follow my sister organization, Southeast Ohio Fibershed, you'll know that I collect wool at spring shearing time, and I pay for shearing at some farms and get the fleece in return. A Washington County, Ohio farm has a very large flock of Jacob sheep, and, over the last two years, I've collected at least 500lbs of fleece from this flock, and it's about time to get some yarn made from it.
For almost two years, I have worked with business consultants through the Social Enterprise Ecosystem -- Appalachia, at Ohio University's Voinovich School for Leadership and Public Affairs, on developing a line of locally sourced yarn to sell to the public and rare breed yarn aficionados.
We approached Rural Action, a regional sustainable development organization, about applying for a Kiva loan with their endorsement. After weeks of preparing documentation and developing story material for the loan page, submitting the endorsed application, and finally, the loan request was accepted by Kiva and went live today!
We are so excited about this next phase in the development of Southeast Ohio Fiberworks as a regional fiber hub, and I invite you to consider contributing to my crowd sourced loan for $8,000 to have 200 pounds of Jacob fleece milled into a variety of yarn weights in two natural colors. Some will remain natural, others will be dyed as I usually do, some will be available for wholesale.
Are you as excited about this expansion of my business product line as I am? I hope so! If you are interested in helping to fund this loan, please go to the following link and read my story. Thank you!
Southeast Ohio Fiberworks Kiva Loan Page