Ashford

In Christchurch, New Zealand during the 1930s, Walter Ashford would go door to door selling his handmade fireside stools with woven seagrass seats. Soon after, his family moved to Rakaia, where he set up a small factory and started selling his stools by mail. He soon realized the stools were too big to send by mail and came up with the idea of selling the parts with instructions. In 1965 he started to regularly make spinning wheels and that was when his business started to grow even more.

Ashford makes spinning wheels, carders, weaving looms, fiber, yarn, dyes, books, kits for their respective categories, and accessories for their products. They make blending boards, hand carders, and drum carders. They also make dyeing, felting, and spinning kits.

The Woolery is an Ashford dealer so make sure to check out their products below.