Buffalo Wool Company
Today on the Yarnthing Podcast with Marly Bird: Ron Miskin of the Buffalo Wool Company!
The Buffalo Wool Company (formerly Buffalo Gold) is run by Theresa and Ron Miskin. They, like many of our fellow fiber folks, fell into working in the yarn industry, in this case, with the help of the family bison ranch. Ron’s father has raised buffalo for many years. While Ron was at loose ends after leaving the restaurant business, he had a chance encounter with bison hides his father asked him to lay out and became interested in what one does with the down/fluff that the bison shed. His father had been selling the hair (it’s not actually wool) on-line and soon after they started producing bison roving which lead to spinning yarn and making accessories. Check out all their cool stuff on their website. Listen below to hear all about this great company, Buffalo Wool!
So why should you try bison yarn? For one, because this fiber is made from hair, bison yarn does not felt. The hair doesn’t have the barbs that make sheep wool felt. This means that it is a naturally machine washable fiber! It is also durable, making it a great long wearing and hearty fiber. Bison fiber is also very soft, just as soft as cashmere, lightweight, and very warm. And if that wasn’t enough, it is hypoallergenic so even people with wool allergies can use it!
In addition to their pure bison yarn, Earth, Buffalo Wool does blends bison with other fibers such as wool and silk. These yarns come in a great array of colors so check them out to see them all! Wool and silk weren’t the only things they blended their bison with, earlier this year they produced a limited run of Buffalo Gold yarn. This luxury yarn blended bison fiber with actual gold filament. Special this week, use the coupon code Marly for 20% off any yarn from Buffalo Wool!!
Check out the patterns that Marly has done with Buffalo Wool yarn on Ravelry. These are great patterns (like Larissa at the left)!
Be on the lookout for their upcoming self-published book, Cowgirl Up! This e-book features 7 knitting patterns and 1 crochet pattern inspired by the women who tamed the wild west. As an added bonus, you also get a short story by Jeannie Eilerts and their Bison Chili recipe.
You can find Buffalo Wool Company: on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Ravelry.
And the GIVEAWAY for this podcast, leave a comment below with Ron’s keyword for your chance to win a copy of the Cowgirl Up! e-book!
Don’t forget the discount code, get 15% off All Needles and Yarn Bowls with the coupon code MBirdYarnT, for Indian Lake Artisans!
Let’s give some love to our sponsors!
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Indian Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet
Bijou Basin Ranch
Categories: Podcast
Enjoyed the podcast, Marly. I love that Buffalo Wool Co. supports the US textile industry by having their products made here.
The buffalo wool company looks and sounds great.
Enjoyed learning about the Buffalo Wool story, and love the father-son connection.
I loved listening to the podcast! I hated that I could not get the chat to work on blogtalkradio.com :/ trying to get the site to work is a bunch of Bu….ffalo . 🙂 It was very interesting to hear how their company came about… God always has a plan we just have tolet him work in our lives !
Ron from the Buffalo Wool Co was really interesting to listen to on the podcast!
I heard an interview a while back with a man who’s a lawyer, was raising buffalo, and getting into the fiber industry. As the interview began, I wondered if Ron knew of him. It turns out he does, it’s his dad. I loved hearing the story of the company. The yarn looks amazing and thanks for the coupon code too.
I hope they make the buffalo as our national animal! We have a buffalo farm near me. They use them to train quarter horses. I want to get over there to see if I can collect some down to play with.
What clever patterns in the Cowgirl Up book, It sounds like the buffalo wool company has a great mission. I hope one day that I get to see the mobile twinkie truck in person. That yarn looks more than luscious.
Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roams…so I can Cowgirl Up!
This book might give me the perfect pattern to use the one precious skein of wool/buffalo blend that I bought at Stitches Midwest last year. I think the indie dyer gets the base from Buffalo Wool Co.
Cowgirl UP! Buffalo UP! It’s all good I would say to be UP and happy.
I have never even touched buffalo yarn before so this podcast got me very excited about trying it! Thanks!
I had no idea that buffalo would be machine washable. Sturdy like a buffalo should be a saying? Is it? Let’s make it one 🙂
Next on my to-do list: Get some Buffalo yarn and try it out! Looking forward to it!
Buffalo is a yarn that I need to try out. It sounds great!
I’d LOVE to try out Buffalo yarn!!! There was a Bison ranch where I grew up and I loved watching their magnificence! Thank you for the chance!! Awesome podcast as always!
I’ve loved every interview I’ve heard heard from Ron and the Buffalo Wool company! It sounds like amazing yarn, I would love to try it 🙂
I loved this podcast. I really hope to have the chance to knit with buffalo and being a former cowgirl, I can’t wait to get this book! (Hopefully I will win it.)
During a trip to Alaska, I bought quivit yarn, oh, so delicious. After listening to Ron wax poetically about his yarn, I am eager to try buffalo fiber. If I don’t win, I’ll be on the lookout for it at my LYS.