North Light Fibers

For three months of the year an unrelenting march of tourists and sun-seekers storm Block Island. North Light Fibers, a micro yarn mill, now offers them a new treasure to take home, proudly made in the USA.

story and photos by linda cortright

Block Island is little more than a salty hiccup off the Rhode Island coast. Encompassing less than 10 square miles, it is smaller than O’Hare International Airport and decidedly less populated with roughly 1,000 year-round residents — about half as many as you would find standing just in the lost luggage queue.

Not quite 13 miles out to sea, the island is decorated with clapboard cottages, stately bluffs, and the scent of clam chowder steadily brewing in the fresh sea air. It is the quintessence of all things idyllic, joining Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in New England’s holy trinity of tony island retreats. But unlike its lofty neighbors perpetually impregnated with private jets and visits from POTUS, Block Island’s original residents, the Narragansett Indians, called the island Manisses: The Island of the Little God. And what better adornment for the “Island of the Little God” than a little fiber mill?

On a calm Sunday evening, the Block Island ferry steams into Port Judith, Rhode Island.

Sven and Laura Risom moved from Manhattan’s shadow in southern Connecticut and opened North Light Fibers in 2010. Dedicated to producing minimally processed worldclass yarn there was just one problem — it was against the law. In a town laden with fishing nets and frilly B&B’s, there was no zoning ordinance for manufacturing. Before the Risom’s could crank out their first batch of 3-ply Baby Alpaca, they embarked on the unenviable task of having the zoning code re-written.

“It sounds crazy, but it actually makes perfect sense,” says Sven. “Historically, this was a fishing and farming community. Nothing was commercially manufactured here. Everything was either made at home or shipped in. We couldn’t legally make yarn.”

Black market yarn?

How absurd.

They began talking with the neighbors, attending town meetings, and generating a stack of paperwork thicker than an old-fashioned phone book. But their tenacity paid off and they now take pride in the fact that the mill is the island’s first manufacturer, and unlike the majority of island businesses, theirs also provides year-round employment.

On a Sunday evening in late September, I drive to Narragansett, Rhode Island to catch the Block Island Ferry. Both sides of Main Street are lined with restaurants and snack shacks offering a banquet of fish ‘n chips and ice cream. There are no fast food chains in my immediate view. In fact, many of the buildings’ ocean-faded facades underscore a tourism trade that long predates free WiFi, back when the first steamship arrived on Block Island in 1873, disgorging a surge of ladies in cumbersome Victorian dress and men in stiff bowler hats.

Now, there is a high-speed ferry that goes from shore-to-shore in 30 minutes. It seems decidedly ironic (and American), that if you are embarking on a relaxing two-week vacation it’s best to get there in a hurry.

North Lights Fiber Mill

Laura and Sven Risom with "staff."