Our Story

Laura and I are proud to introduce North Light Handcrafted, an expansion of our original company North Light Fibers which was focused on yarn manufacturing and finished knit and woven garments and home decor. Now, North Light Handcrafted includes pottery (made by Leah, our daughter) which many of you may have seen in our store on Block Island; quilted finished goods and metal/wood sculptures in the future. 

North Light Handcrafted is located in Afton and on Lake Vermilion, Minnesota as well as Block Island, RI. While we are no longer making yarn, we produced a lot of yarn in our mill and have significant inventory of artisanal yarns so we can design and produce new garments and home decor items along with the new pottery, etc.

We are looking forward to the future and integrating new artisanal crafts into North Light Handcrafted but we are very proud to have been the first manufacturer and "light industry" on Block Island as we demonstrated that a year round business could be successful on Block Island. Now we are excited to focus on a wider range of finished crafts. We love working with raw materials and designing/creating new ready to use and ready to wear items. We are very excited about the future. 

Please let us know if you have any questions, we can be reached via e-mail at sven@northlightfibers.com or by text or phone at 401-932-8510. Please sign-up for our newsletter. We do not send a lot of newsletters as we value your time and hate junk mail but we will let you know as new items or new shows are introduced.

For the past 14 years, we started and operated a Micro Yarn Mill that produced artisanal handcrafted minimally processed yarns made 100% on Block Island! The primary lines of yarn range from Water Street (Cashmere/Merino), Atlantic (100% Falklands merino), Spring Street (100% Merino), Forever lAce (alpaca/bamboo lace weight yarn) and Seaside (50% Supima cotton/50% merino wool). We were always excited to develop new yarns from exotic fibers such as yak, camel, mohair, qiviut, etc and plant fibers!

While Laura and I are now leading the company, we had a great team that included Karyn Logan who truly made North Light Fibers the great success it has become. We would like to thank everyone who worked with us and are excited for the next adventure.

North Light Fibers has been highlighted in many publications over the past few years including: Vogue Knitting, Knits, Piecework, Knitters Review, Cast-On, Hand Woven, Shuttle Spin & Dye Pot, Yankee Magazine, Providence Journal, Providence Business News, Block Island Times and many national Blogs and Newsletters. 

Now that our portfolio has expanded, we are very excited about the future and sharing our new designs and creations with you.

 

In order to items that Laura, Leah and I design and create, we work very closely with the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center that is comprised of blind, visually impaired and senior citizen weavers and we work with Stitch 22 (Women for Women) which is a non-profit organization that helps women in war torn countries such as Bosnia. These socially responsible organizations are great partners and are philosophically aligned with North Light Fibers’ beliefs and principles.

While our artisanal designs and products are central to our vision, we are also very focused on supporting local/rural economies. For example, we are very proud to have demonstrated that a year round textile mill can be viable in a small remote community like Block Island. Given the seasonal nature of the island, the economy is based on summer tourism. Unfortunately, year round employment has been limited to government, education (The Block Island School), construction and service businesses like the grocery store and bank. Now there is manufacturing and the potential to create items on the island that are exported off island for sale. North Light Fibers is working hard to strengthen the foundation and diversity of the island’s economic base.

In order to run North Light Fibers, we had to actually re-write the zoning regulations to establish a permitted use called “light assembly.” In fact, manufacturing or “Light Industry” was not a “permitted use” on the island but after 12 public hearings and a lot of work, we were able to apply for a building permit. Justin Abrams has truly helped our cause as he built and is leasing the mill building here on the farm. Justin, his daughter Rita and so many others have been helping us create commerce on the Block Island – evidence the island’s true character.