the connecticut blanket

The wool is collected in early June at UCONN where it is inspected for cleanliness, structure, length and more. Once packed away in large wool bags it is trucked to South Carolina where it is scoured (washed) and returned to New England for carding, spinning, weaving, fulling, napping and cutting into blankets. The blankets are available in King, Queen, Full, Twin, Long Throw, Throw, Baby and Scarf. Each year a new pattern is chosen but it is always a light and dark combination as we do not dye the wool.

The Connecticut Blanket is a cooperative project open to members of the Connecticut Sheep Breeders Association, Inc. which adds to the sustainability of member shepherds' farms by obtaining a value-added product from the wool of their sheep. Based on the amount of wool contributed the shepherds create an order for the sizes they want and when finished the blankets are sorted out into those orders and delivered to them to do with as they please. There is a list of farms that participated in the most recent blanket as well as information from farms that have asked to have their contact information for selling their Connecticut Blankets at the bottom of this page and also on the Marketplace Classifieds page If more information is needed please contact the Blanket Inventory Coordinator via email at smurray@ctsheep.com.

In a normal year we collect close to or just over 2,000 pounds of wool and there are about 325 blankets & scarves produced. In 2020 we only managed to collect 1557 pounds because of the logistics surrounding shearing, wool collection and several other complications that have set back the expected delivery time so there will only be196 blankets and 62 scarves produced.

See the slide show below for a few parts of the process.