It all started with Chops and Porky. When Carolee Kogut bought those two sheep 17 years ago, little did she know that her hobby would turn into a multi-faceted business, encompassing spinning and making yarn, knitting and selling the homemade products through craft shows and a web site.
Carolee, a Physical Plant office assistant, grew up on a dairy farm on Tibbitts Road in New Hartford, surrounded by family and animals. One day when she was in high school she told her grandfather, "I want something of my own to raise," and so she bought a sheep, named Chops. Soon after she got the second sheep – Porky – she had to figure out what to do with their wool after they were sheared each spring.
(Click image for larger version.) Carolee and her mother, Barbara Couture, drove to Blue Mountain Lake where a woman sold modern spinning wheels. Carolee took a 10-minute lesson, bought a spinning wheel and a black sheep named Cecile. The ride home was an adventure, in which Carolee held Cecile on her lap while her mother drove. They stopped at a McDonald's in Old Forge where Cecile skipped the Big Mac and snacked on grass outside the restaurant, to the delight of many passers-by. And so Carolee's wool-spinning hobby began.
By 1991 she had a dozen sheep and had started a business with her mother, where she spun the yarn and her mother knitted socks, hats and mittens and custom-made sweaters. "The next thing we knew we were going to craft fairs and selling it," Carolee said. "In the beginning we made it for ourselves, but for 10 years now we've been doing craft shows all over New York. This year we finally got the recognition and we're where we want to be," she said. She said her success is due to persistence. "I'm determined to make my dream come true."
Carolee's husband, Tim, is also involved in the sheep business. When the couple got engaged he purchased 12 Polled Dorset sheep to raise for meat. They started that enterprise on her grandparents' farm, then purchased their current 15-acre property on College Hill Road in Vernon Center called StoneView Farms. As the business has expanded, Tim has built feeders and constructed a superstructure for the sheep, and now rents an additional 10 acres of land from a neighbor. "He took my sheep business to a whole other level," Carolee said.
At last count the Koguts had 70 sheep, but that number is increasing daily and could more than triple over the next three months, as "lambing season" gets underway. Lambing season marks the busy time on Stone View Farms. It begins around Christmas and continues through March. Mother sheep have two, three or four lambs, and Carolee often finds herself helping with labor and delivery, then bottle feeding any that are part of a litter of three or more. The lambs have to be fed four times a day, and the convenient Physical Plant location on Miller Road enables Carolee to run home during her lunch hour to feed the lambs.
(Click image for larger version.) When Spring arrives, it's shearing season and the wool business kicks into high gear. Because they have so many sheep, the Koguts hire a professional shearer from New Hampshire. After the wool is sheared it's washed two or three times, then carded, (a combing process). Next Carolee spins it to make yarn. Then the yarn is dyed – with professional dyes or Koolaid! - or knit in its natural color. No chemicals are used on the yarn. The wool from each sheep provides 2-3 pounds of wool, after washing. The yarn is sold in 4-ounce skeins, which is enough to make a hat or mittens; about 2 pounds are required for a sweater. Carolee taught her mother how to spin, so the two women divide the work, with Carolee spinning 2-ply yarn, while her mother does the single chunky yarn.
Carolee's dream is to have her own store at Stone View Farms, but she adds that she'd miss meeting the wonderful people she encounters at craft shows. In the meantime she's already planning for next Thanksgiving's open houses at her home and her mother's, and is also learning how to weave. "I love being creative and making something that keeps an old tradition going," she said.
If you are interested in visiting Carolee's Web site, please e-mail her at Ckogut@hamilton.edu for the web address.
