Discovering all the Fiber the World has to offer
Battenkill Textile Tours combines your love for fiber arts with
your yearning to discover the unknown.
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2026 Tours
Each of our trips is designed with knitters, spinners, and fiber artists in mind. Our destinations are carefully selected to marry a sense of adventure with a love of learning and hands-on experiences with textiles and local nature and culture.
New England - including Boston, New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, The Woolly Thistle, and Harrisville Designs spinning mill. May 8-17.
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Faroe Islands with three-day stopover in Iceland - farms, knitting, sea birds and spas .
May 28-June 5.
LIMITED SPACE. RESERVE NOW.
Scotland - including three-day Gansey and more intensive with Di Gilpin and followed by five-day Orkney Islands exploration. September 13-23
Northern Ireland - Including Donegal and Derry, National Parks, sheep farms, spa days, and knitting classes. October 5-14.
Looking for one of our past trips?
“I have made lifelong friends while learning about knitting and weaving
in beautiful places. What could be
better than that?"
— Laurel Q., Delaware
Meet your host
Mary Jeanne Packer, the founder of Battenkill Textile Tours LLC, has been leading groups of knitters and fiber enthusiasts on trips around the world (and around the corner) since 2006 when she put a small ad in the national knitting magazines to see if anyone might want to come and spend a few days knitting at her yarn shop, wine-tasting, and visiting fiber farms in the Finger Lakes; and 20 people signed up! Those first 20 said they would "like to go to Ireland sometime"; and the rest is history.
Mary Jeanne is the founder and co-owner of Battenkill Fibers Carding and Spinning Mill in Greenwich, NY. Before that, she worked for many years at the US Forest Service and then later as a nature tourism consultant and interpretative planner. Because of Mary Jeanne's background, all Battenkill Textile Tours' experiences focus on the ways in which local nature and history have informed culture and textile arts in a destination.
“I love going on these tours! Experiencing new places, sharing knitting techniques and projects with no judgements, laughing, eating and celebrating
our shared love of textiles."
— Lisa K., California
Previous Textile Destinations
Ireland
Scotland
Shetland
Estonia/Latvia
Norway
Nova Scotia
Paris
Iceland
Denmark
Seattle
New Mexico
Germany
Sweden/Finland
“The trip to Norway with fellow knitters was above and beyond my expectations. The hotels were beautiful and comfortable. Food was all amazing… especially the local delicacies. Absolutely nothing went wrong.
Thank you for the perfect vacation!”
Margaret N., North Carolina