About

Our Story

After visiting New Zealand Patrizia and her late partner Rod decided to make New Zealand their permanent home in 2011. Rod an Englishman had some farming experience in the UK, whereas Patrizia an Italian interior designer had none. Owning a hill country farm in NZ was going to be a steep learning curve, especially for Patrizia.

Rewa Rewa Station is a working hill country farm spread over 1000 hectares (650 Ha effective). The farm business is run as a breeding operation holding around 4000 Romney Sheep and 150 Angus cattle in the system.

About Patrizia

Her passion for natural fibre has led to the creation of a coloured sheep flock numbering at around 50 sheep, and comprised of Romney X Corriedale, Polwarth and Gotland Pelts. To create new fibre sources, and interest, Cashmere goats and Alpacas were added to the menagerie. These fibres can be purchased individually, or as blends with wool.

All the above animals were specifically bred for their wool and fibre which is then sold in the on-farm Craft Studio, at markets, or used by Patrizia herself to create woollen goods. Spinning, knitting, felting, carding, natural dyeing and weaving are all part of Patrizia’s crafting wheelhouse.

To compliment her range, you can also purchase our professionally produced Romney yarn for knitters. The Romney fibre was shorn from the Rewa Rewa Station Romney flock then sent for processing.

Provenance and Traceability are the cornerstones of Patrizia’s fibre business model, and why all the fibre producing animals have an individual identification number. When harvesting (clipping or shearing) the fleeces remain separate throughout, labelled with their ID number. They are then processed individually, then labelled for sale. Samples are kept of each fleece as it is clipped, and again after the fibre returns from processing. This catalogue proves invaluable when Patrizia is trying to find a suitable match for returning customers.

Some of the groups she is member of are the Black & Coloured Sheep Breeders Association, Wairarapa Spinners & Weavers Guild Association, Creative Fibre, Rare Breeds Association, Highland Cattle Society and Shire Horse Society.

Patrizia started building a flock of coloured sheep soon after arriving at Rewa Rewa Station. Her dream when coming to NZ was to learn to spin, which she started initially as a tourist. Once they had their home at Rewa Rewa Station it became apparent that not only did she want to spin, but more importantly Patrizia wanted to involved in the whole fibre production process to create quality fibre and products for crafters to use and enjoy.

The first coloured sheep (Corriedale X Romney) came from a friend of Patrizia’s, who also taught to spin, and had been involved in breeding coloured sheep for nearly 40 years. Next a Polwarth ram was introduced into the flock to try and produce a finer wool. Then one day Rod came home with a little flock of Gotland Pelt sheep as a gift. Patrizia’s fibre journey was now well and truly underway!

Patrizia focuses on producing quality natural coloured wool with good colour variation for crafters. Wanting to experiment with other fibres Patrizia then invested in Cashmere Goats and Alpacas to complete the fibre story. With the exception of Gotland Pelt which only produces grey shades, the natural colour range produced varies from pale moorit (very light brown) to nearly black.

The Romney sheep flock became an obvious source to create yarn, so Patrizia gathered approx. 300kg of wool and had it commercially spun. This yarn was used to make Romney woollen blankets & knee rugs with Patrizias’ own design, yarn for knitting and natural dyeing. Natural colour dyed skeins have now become another wonderful product produced on-farm at Rewa Rewa Station.

Not wanting to waste anything Patrizia also now sells Sheepskins which are professionally tanned from any humanely culled sheep. The meat is used for private consumption, and not able to be sold.

Patrizia’s fibre ethos and future plans are based around Traceability, Provenance and promotion of NZ natural wool. NZ wool is an incredible product that deserves to be recognised for its immense list of valuable traits along with a myriad of uses.

Support NZ farmers, support local, and buy NZ Made!