About Us

All of Barbara's life she has had textile work around her. She does not remember learning to sew, or knit, or crochet - these were learned at a very young age. In 1985, she met a woman who had sheep and taught weaving and spinning in her home. Barbara quickly signed up for classes and has never looked back (it was fast forward from there). She then starting giving classes in weaving and joined the local spinning and weaving guild, where she learned about camelids. After meeting her first alpaca in early 2002, she was hooked!

Ken, on the other hand, is just learning about textiles (though he has always been understanding about the looms in the living room and hanging on walls, drying racks hanging from the ceiling, spinning wheels going on vacation with us, and all the other textile-related things in our home). When Ken first saw an alpaca in the Spring of 2002, he said they look like teddy bears with long necks and legs (he too was hooked). Now that our children are grown and moved out, we have new "children" to care for on our farm.

Both of us have mechanical aptitude and skills. Barbara's Dad always had a willing helper as he worked on cars, did woodworking, and did all the other house repair projects. Barbara learned well and even built her own 8-harness floor loom from scratch. Ken comes from a long line of "Yankee Inventors". Our combined skills have come in real handy in fixing machines and creating innovations to improve them, not to mention building our Mill ourselves.

Barbara also has leadership skills, having run her own Weekender's business, been Youth Ed director, and president of the Weavers and Spinners Guild. These have also been essential to the business aspects of the Mill. Ken's years as a computer programmer are also being put to good use in maintaining our web site. Ken's creativity also has a Bizarre aspect, involving parody and other word humor. He has created a CD and web page about Alpaca Humor.

The first Mill was located in Silverdale, Washington on or 2.3 acre "farm". Needing more space for mill and alpacas, and a lifelong desire to live near the ocean, in November 2007 we moved household, alpacas (six of them), mill machines, us plus daughter and dog to Coquille, Oregon. We now have a little bigger mill that we can expand over time, a beautiful home, and 6 acres in which to create pasture and our farm. We are also just 18 miles to the ocean (closer if I could fly). Click here to view pictures of our new home.

We love our new home and look forward to serving you from Oregon.

Ken and Barbara Simpson

For more information, contact us at: info@starcastlefarm.com or call (541) 396-6416