Our Mill
Created in Dec 08 we are proud to announce the addition of a full service mill to our farm
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Tumbler
The tumbler is located in a separate building and is used to shake, loose sand, dust, dirt and vegetable matter from incoming fleece. Alpacas love to roll and this machine helps clean the raw fleece.
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The Drying Room
This is the drying room we created to hold the newly washed fleece. It can take up to 48 hours for the fiber to be dry enough to process.
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Picker
This is a picker, this machine takes dry fleece and opens it up to the consistency of fluff. It is at this point the fleece is treated with conditioner to ensure proper processing and static control.
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De-Hairer / Separator
This is the de-hairer / separator, this machine helps remove guard hair, vegetable matter and some fleece shorter than 2 inches. The de-hairer makes the finished yarn much nicer.
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Carder
The carder is the heart of the operation. Without a good roving/sliver consistant yarn is impossible. The carder is also where the batts are produced. I use a scale that measures to .005 of an ounce so each container of fleece is as close to the same as I can get it. The carders intake belt is marked so each container goes between marks and the feed into the carder can be regulated.
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Draw Frame
The drawframe is used to further strengthen and align the fiber by combining roving slivers from the carder and lengthening them. This is done 2 to 4 times to insure a consistent sliver to send to the spinner.
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Spinner
The spinner is able to take 8 slivers stretched by the draw frame and further stretch and twist them to the specks requested and create 8 bobbins of single ply yarn. Using a mathmatical chart I can adjust the draw and twist to create bulky, sport and finger weight yarns.
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The Plyer / 4 spinner
The plyer takes the single ply yarns created on the spinner and by reverse spinning we can ply 2 to 5 threads together to make the yarn ply requested
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Steamer
The steamer is used to set the yarn so it is less likely to unravel. The plied yarn passes through the steam chamber and then a drying chamber.
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Cone Winder
The conewinder pulls the yarn through the steamer and winds it onto cones. If the user has a knitting machine this would be the last step and each cone can have a set amount of yards.
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Skein Winder
The skein winder is the last step. I can set the winder to stop at a pre-determined yard count and each skein will be the same length.
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Finished Yarn
Finally it's recognizable yarn, a quick rinse to insure machine oils are removed and the yarn is ready to ship off.
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