Yolo Wool Mill

I’ve saved our best adventure from my weekend in CA for last: a visit to and tour of the Yolo Wool Mill.

It was a really interesting visit.  The Mill processes wool for consumers at every stage: it’s situated on a farm that raises sheep, goats, llamas, and alpacas (although not many of the last two) …

… and has equipment for skirting, washing, drying, picking, carding, forming batting out of, spinning, and plying wool.  You can buy yarn they’ve made from from the farm’s animals’ fiber, or bring your own fleeces to be processed through as many steps as you don’t want to do yourself.

Best of all, for an interested traveller, is that they were willing last Monday to drop everything for an hour to give us a tour (although the sign’s a little faded).

 

We saw the skirting table, the industrial sized washers, the picking cage – which is probably not the right name for it, but that’s what it looked like – and then the super cool machines.  They had three different carders, which weigh out a certain amount of wool before rolling it over increasingly fine brushes until it’s smooth and clean.

Here, you’re looking at the scale (on the far left) that drops open when the specified weight is reached – and the bristle-covered rollers on the right, through which the wool proceeds before being extruded, nicely smooth, at the far end.

There are two other carders, in the second barn, one of which is set up to make batting – in other words, there’s a flat, smooth roller at the end that squishes the combed wool into a flat sheet, appropriate for inserting into quilts.  Here’s the second card, which was built in the 1920s …

… and the end piece that creates batting.

Sadly, the third carding machine (that would feed onto the batting roller from the opposite direction of #2 – on the right side of the above photo) cracked the concrete floor when it was delivered, and unless the mill finds a way to move such a huge machine, it’s just acting as a gigantic paper weight.  It’s a shame, although I can’t remember the particular reason they wanted that card.  Maybe it had something to do with the set up – having two facing each other?

Even if it can’t be used, it’s got some cool looking gears.

Back in the first  barn, we saw some machines for processing roving – one that stretched it out into thin coils, and another that processed the coils into “top roving,” which has only long, well-aligned fibers left in it.

We particularly liked the huge coils of roving snaking into the comb.

After the wool is washed, carded, and combed, it’s time for … spinning, of course!

Here’s the main machine that’s used for spinning; they use it exclusively for single plies (spun clockwise).

If you want your yarn plied, then after it comes off this first spinning machine in single ply, it moves back into the second barn to the ring spinning machine, which they usually keep set up for plying (counter-clockwise).

 

The end is open, showing exactly how to change the setup from spinning to plying and back again; as it shows on the little yellow sign, you just change which three gears each belt encloses, and voila – it’s switched direction.

 

Some pretty single ply behind the ring spinner, in place and waiting to be plied together….

 

After you have your yarn spun up – either single or multiple ply – the last step is to wind it into skeins for convenient dying, storage, and sale, which is the only machine that I got a shot of in action.

 

And of course the last step for the mill visitor is to stop by the tiny mill store and pick out a skein or two to bring home and knit into cozy mittens, which we each did – although somehow I’ve made it to the library this afternoon without a photo of my yarn.  I picked up a very pretty taupe and cream, alpaca/sheep 2-ply, which I’m triply excited to knit with, having seen where and how it came together.

Crafting Update

Mom and I visited several quilting shops over the weekend and came away with all sorts of goodies.  My favorite: roving!  It’s wool that’s been cleaned, combed, carded, dyed, and so on – it’s all prepared for being spun into yarn.  Now I know almost nothing about spinning, and have never tried it, but I have been really excited to give it a whirl, and have had an offer of using someone else’s spinning wheel – so when I saw these beautiful little tufts of wool (right) at 50% off, I had to go for them.

Of course, I’m not really sure if I hope I love it, or hope it’s just so-so.  I think it would be great fun to work with a wool from start to finished product … but I don’t exactly need another hobby right now.  Perhaps I can justify it, by saying it’s just an extension of my current (knitting) hobby?

On the left in the photo is an array of fabric squares, fat 1/8ths, and fat quarters that Mom and I picked out to bring home and, first, use to choose colors for another possible quilt she’ll make for us (yay!) and second, stitch into some small projects of one kind or another.  I have to say, quilt shops are (to me) more overwhelming than yarn shops – there are so many beautiful fabrics in every direction – but the upside is you get to use a lot of them in a single project.  It’s fun having such a beautiful (mini-) collection on our dining table.

(Although I’m not sure John exactly agrees with that sentiment.)

 

I also wanted to show you my progress on my gray tweed hoodie sweater.  I don’t have a photo of the whole thing, but I have finished the hood, the edging, and most of the i-cord bind off and all of the i-cord buttonholes.  All that’s left is (1) knitting the front pocket squares (about 1/3rd done) and stitching them in place, (2) confirming that the current length of the sleeves is what I want and binding them off, and (3) sewing the buttons in place (1/4th done).

 

You can’t see much here, since it’s just the lower edge of the front of the sweater, but it does nicely show the icord bind off, the two buttons I’ve sewed on, and the very beginning of the pocket flaps.  They’re worked by picking up stitches along the bottom edging and knitting upward, then stitching the two sides in place; I’m doing them two-at-a-time, as you might not be surprised to hear.

I’m so close – and so excited!  This sweater has been two and a half years in the making, at least if you count planning and plotting.  And here it is, with only a couple of hours work remaining.  Hooray.

Knitterly Fun

Last Saturday, we drove down to Canby for the annual Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, featuring fibers of all sorts, and in all stages of usefulness – fiber animals were present in abundance, as well as fleeces in various stages of preparation, roving ready to be spin, wool for needle felting or rug hooking, yarn for knitting or crocheting – of course – and many handmade finished products.

We didn’t know what to expect, and the layout was overwhelming, with booths in every direction with wares for sale, but we had a great time looking around.  We’d brought Maxwell with us, in his travel crate – at one point he was asked if he was there as a fiber animal himself – so John and I didn’t spend much time near the live animals, although I wish we had.  We apparently missed the Llama barn entirely, in which there was a llama agility competition!  (*Sad* – although so you don’t miss out as well, you can head over to my friend Crystal’s blog.  She has some good photos of the Llamas In Action!)  If you want some more sedentary furry friends … stick around here.

White cashmere goats, preparing to be shown:

Colorful angora goats, during their show later in the day:

Sheep!

Alpacas – in the first photo, the one with its back to me is a Suri alpaca; the others are Huacayas.

 

 

And last but not least, rabbits:

 

The off-animal fiber was, as I said, everywhere in abundance.  Most of it was for sale, although many groups of people sat on the main lawn crafting – knitting or crocheting, or spinning …

… or making bobbin lace, which I wish I’d captured on camera, but sadly, didn’t.

Having sadly missed out on the llama agility course, the funniest thing we saw was a duck-herding demonstration – two dogs in training, practicing on some unfortunate, harried ducks.

We felt bad laughing so much, but it was quite hilarious.  Ducks are just so … waddle-y when they run.

 

My favorite part of the day was all the yarn.  The selection was overwhelmingly broad, and unending.  I’m quite sure we didn’t make it to all of the booths before reaching our (quite high) capacity for squeezing and petting and oohing over yarns and fibers.

 

You may think I’m speaking for myself only, and while I might have been the only one making actual noises of appreciation, John is himself a knitter (of sorts) and did enjoy looking at the yarns, also.

 

(I think.)

Yarn made from old Saris, torn up and spun into new life:

 

A beautiful knitted lace shawl:

 

 

A rainbow array of tufty balls of wool for needle felting:

 

(And the best part of the day: I got to bring some treats home!  Two skeins of a Blue-Faced Leicester/Alpaca DK weight, and three (large ones!) of a Merino/Silk worsted.  I have in mind exactly what I want to do with each one.  If only I didn’t have other projects lined up before them in the knitting queue… including finally attaching Bruno’s eyes.  He’s been languishing eyeless for several weeks now, even though I’ve embroidered the rest of his face on.)