We love Cestari yarns and love the story of their journey to the place they are now.

Cestari Sheep and Wool Company manufactures yarn using wool from the sheep on their farms and wool purchased in the United States. The wool is then spun and dyed in their Virginia wool mill.

Farming is a labor of love for Francis Chester, who, with his wife Diane, bought his sheep farm in Virginia in 1968. Since then they have expanded their flocks and built their mill, producing beautiful traditional yarns in 4 different weights.  

Cestari wool is washed using a scouring process instead of the more contemporary carbonizing process. Carbonizing is an acid bath that burns out the vegetable matter, making the wool very clean. It also removes the lanolin, leaving the wool with less bounce and with a change in texture. Scouring is a detergent bath that leaves some of the lanolin and sometimes specks of hay or straw, both of which are easy to remove. Owner Francis Chester likes to say that if you put his yarn to your ears, you can almost hear the sounds of life within it.