Sustain

Young people saw its value first, says Diana Blair of Kalispell’s Going to the Sun Fiber Mill. “Hey, look at the dreads,” they said, reaching for the llama fiber that hung like ropes from her vendor booth. “I’m going to use this to drape my purse.”  

“I’m going to make a scarf. Won’t it be wonderfully warm? It’s so soft,” said another. 

The next year, her Mammoth Dreads yarn sold out. So did her handmade Avalanche Hats and other products spun from the fleece of llamas and alpacas, fiber once worn only by royalty and considered by Americans as exotic. Today, camelids are as integral to Montana’s natural fiber industry as sheep and goats and hardworking people.

“The thing that people started learning,” says Ed James, owner of the Sugarloaf Wool Carding Mill near Phillipsburg, “natural fiber — it doesn’t matter what it is — it’s...