Introducing our new Owners!
photo by Gale Zucker for the HVTP
Since Mary Jeanne Packer founded Battenkill Fibers Carding and Spinning Mill in 2009 the business has changed and grown, adapting to the needs of our fiber community and creating products that properly honor the work you put into raising and sourcing excellent fiber. The past decade has taught us that a plan for the future is just as important as one for the present, and over the past few years we’ve been looking ahead at what that future might look like for Battenkill Fibers.
Today, we’re excited to share with you that Angie Yanke and Tim Holt, who have both been major contributors to our success as a business, have become full owners, as business partners alongside Mary Jeanne! You may know Angie and Tim from interactions you’ve had with them over the years dropping off and processing your fiber, but they are long overdue for a more intimate introduction.
photo by Gale Zucker for HVTP
Angie Yanke joined the Battenkill Fibers team in 2016 as a machine operator. As a single mother, she came to the mill because our flexible scheduling gave her the time she needed at home with her son. With many years of past experience in manufacturing and production management, it wasn’t long before Angie could run every machine in the mill; and in 2021, she took over the position of operations manager.
Under Angie’s leadership, Battenkill Fibers instituted a rigorous quality control program to ensure that the finished products we deliver meet or exceed our customers’ expectations. Angie apprenticed with Lilly Marsh Studios in Glens Falls, learning all aspects of commission weaving. In her downtime, Angie enjoys reading and walking her dogs. As a family, Angie, fiance Johnny, and her son, spend their time hiking, playing on the trampoline, and relaxing at home together with video games.
Tim Holt came to Battenkill Fibers in 2017 to support a growth phase that included the addition of a second pin drafter and a second spinning frame, all needed to meet increased customer demand. Tim has grown with the mill into the position of maintenance manager with the responsibilities of assembling, maintaining, and operating the machines at Battenkill.
Prior to working at the mill, Tim’s involvement with fiber began with two sheep gifted to his wife Lynda in the early 1990’s. Although Lynda was a knitter and spinner, Tim never intended to raise fiber animals on their small Rensselaer Plateau homestead. However, not long after moving in, they found themselves in possession of the two gift sheep alongside their chickens, pigs, goats, bees, highland cattle and extensive gardens. By 2000, Tim and Lynda had two sons, a cottage scale fiber mill called Ancient Threads, and a flock of Shetland sheep on five acres. Ancient Threads is now primarily a yarn company that includes Shetland and Icelandic sheep on 200 acres. Outside of work, Tim is a great lover of the outdoors, botany, ecology, sustainability and is a Viking era historical re-creationist.
photo by Gale Zucker for the HVTP
This marks a new era for us at Battenkill, and sets a succession plan in place for when Mary Jeanne is ready to retire. For now, we’re excited to introduce this new generation of Battenkill owners to our customers at shows like Rhinebeck, which Angie is attending with us for the first time, and at events like the annual Washington County Fiber Tour, where you’ll have a chance to meet all the people who keep the mill running. We’re excited to see how our new owners begin to shape and adapt the mill to the future, welcoming in a new generation of fiber farmers and brands while still serving our day-one customers with the consistency and quality Battenkill is known for.
Say hello to Tim and Angie when you see them next, and please take the time to welcome them as new owners of Battenkill Fibers!
