Today I would like to introduce you to Heather, owner and operator of Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts and the creator of Envirobatts, an eco friendly fiber that is ready to spin.
Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts (OVFA) is located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Created in 2010 during a particularly difficult time in her day job, Heather found that building her passion in her spare time gave her more energy for everything else in her life. She started the Canadian Fiber Box project, which brings together different fiber producers and artists four times a year to subscribers across Canada. Canada has many fiber producers that range from sheep to llamas, alpacas to bison and even muskox. They also have many talented fiber artists who prepare and dye fiber for spinning. The Canadian Fiber Box lets folks “get to know Canadian fiber.”
In 2013, OVFA is working to start-up a new product line called Envirobatts. Envirobatts are spinning fiber that are 
handcrafted from perfectly good textile waste that would otherwise be thrown out. Large textile mills don’t have an incentive to reprocess this perfectly good fiber, but it is perfect for a small, artisan business like Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts. The mill ends are mostly wool, but also include alpaca, cashmere, silk, soy, bamboo, and nylon. A lot of mill ends are natural colored wool, so Heather dyes these with eco-friendly dyes by Greener Shades before carding them into envirobatts. Because Heather is on well water, it is very important to her that she doesn’t use dyes with heavy metals in them.
Right now Heather is running an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds to purchase a large, motorised drum carder, and to date, over 49 people have contributed to funding the project. If you want to support the Envirobatts campaign, you can choose from a variety of perks including your own Envirobatts or handspun yarn! The campaign runs until March 11. You can read more here at the Indiegogo site.
Stay up to date with Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts and Heather’s sheepy escapades at the OVFA blog or if you’d like to shop for a learn to spin kit, a spinning wheel or other fiber goodies, you can visit Heather’s online OVFA shop or her Etsy shop.
About: Heather is a mother of three, loves statistics and lives in a log house. She is crazy about sheep, her two cats and, of course, her husband. Owner of Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts and creator of Envirobatts, fibers arts are her passion. When she’s not playing with fiber, she’s baking bread, cookies, and making her own yogurt and sauerkraut.
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Heather was kind enough to send me 1.25 oz of her new Envirobatt for review and for giving away to one lucky blog reader. I can honestly say this sample of fiber is a beautiful blend of colors that includes, purple, blue and green, and is super squishy soft. While this sample is mostly wool, it may also contain Alpaca, silk, milk fiber, soy fiber, bamboo, nylon and other fibers.
To enter this giveaway, all you need to do is simply leave a comment on why you would be interested in spinning environmentally friendly fiber.
This giveaway is open now through Monday, February 25th and the winner will be announced on Tuesday, February 26th. This giveaway includes all US and Canadian residents.
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Thank you for entering, this giveaway is now closed!
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