Summer Road Trip 2008 - Part 3
It was grey and drizzling when we arrived at Belfast Mini Mills on Monday July 21. The animals in the pasture next to the parking area were looking unamused as they peered at us from their shelter.
There were bunnies of various sizes everywhere, unconcerned by the wet weather. They were a bit tricky to photograph though.
We went into the shop (pictures next time) and there we found Sheila Sutherland who, upon hearing that I was interested in owning a mill of my own some day, took me over to the mill building and introduced us to her daughter Linda Nobles. It wasn't long before we also met Hazel Spencer, Linda's sister. They, together with another woman,Terry, were operating all the machines in the mill and giving tours to all the visitors that happened by. And since it was a rainy day there were LOTS of visitors. They are some busy, busy gals!
Linda said that the best thing would be for me to spend some time in the mill and get some hands-on experience with some of the machines, so we pushed up our sleeves and got to work.
There were bunnies of various sizes everywhere, unconcerned by the wet weather. They were a bit tricky to photograph though.
We went into the shop (pictures next time) and there we found Sheila Sutherland who, upon hearing that I was interested in owning a mill of my own some day, took me over to the mill building and introduced us to her daughter Linda Nobles. It wasn't long before we also met Hazel Spencer, Linda's sister. They, together with another woman,Terry, were operating all the machines in the mill and giving tours to all the visitors that happened by. And since it was a rainy day there were LOTS of visitors. They are some busy, busy gals!
Linda said that the best thing would be for me to spend some time in the mill and get some hands-on experience with some of the machines, so we pushed up our sleeves and got to work.
We didn't do any washing, but here is a picture of the washing system.
The round tank behind the washer is for recirculating the clean rinse water. Once washed, the fleece is laid out on racks to dry. This picture just shows half of the racks.
Cleaned fleece would go first to the picker, but it wasn't running at the time, there already being plenty of picked fleece to process. After picking, the fibre goes through the de-hairer. They process a lot of luxury fibres at the mill, including alpaca, llama, cashmere, buffalo, angora, and quiviut. All of these have guard hairs that are removed by one or more passes through this machine. If you look carefully at the first picture below (click for bigger) you can see it has been labeled "4th pass".
There were two of these machines and Youngest and I spent some time feeding them handfuls and handfuls of ... qiviut! So. Soft. See behind me? Big plastic bags full of qiviut fluff. Mmm.
Next, it was off to the carder where Terry had me weigh out some commercial merino sliver which was then run through the carder and turned into roving. Alternatively, the carder also produces batts.
The rovings are collected in tall cans.
Next the roving went twice through the draw frame.
This draws the fibre out into thinner rovings, in my case two of them, ready to spin a 2-ply yarn.
And here (on the left) is the final yarn, with some Patons Classic beside it for comparison.
A number of steps in the process didn't get photographed because I was busy doing them, including: plying, steaming, coning, and skeining.
The finished yarn amounted to 225 yards (176 metres) and weighs 78 grams (2.8 oz). It is enough to do something with and a wonderful souvenir until I figure out what.
While all that was going on, Youngest was making felt. I only helped with making the foundation piece and then she did all the artistic embellishment.
The felt maker looks like a giant waffle iron. It makes a 3' x 4' sheet of felt.
First, thin layers of batting were laid down, alternating the direction of the layers. Then it was sprinkled with hot water, clamped down, and set to agitate for about five minutes.
Now it was up to the artiste to do her thing. This kept her busy the whole time I was making yarn.
I can't show you the finished piece because I haven't photographed it since we got home and anyway, it isn't really finished yet as there is some needle felting to be done. It will be a very cool wall hanging when it is finished though.
So I hope you can see what a great day we had at Belfast Mini Mills. They provided me with all kinds of useful information, hands-on experience, and even gave us lunch - yummy homemade soup and cheese biscuits. It was awesome. Thanks so much, Sheila, Linda, Hazel, Terry, Doug, and Richard. I want more than ever to have a mill of my own.
Anyone out there in blogland know a fibre fanatic venture capitalist?
Next episode:
The round tank behind the washer is for recirculating the clean rinse water. Once washed, the fleece is laid out on racks to dry. This picture just shows half of the racks.
Cleaned fleece would go first to the picker, but it wasn't running at the time, there already being plenty of picked fleece to process. After picking, the fibre goes through the de-hairer. They process a lot of luxury fibres at the mill, including alpaca, llama, cashmere, buffalo, angora, and quiviut. All of these have guard hairs that are removed by one or more passes through this machine. If you look carefully at the first picture below (click for bigger) you can see it has been labeled "4th pass".
There were two of these machines and Youngest and I spent some time feeding them handfuls and handfuls of ... qiviut! So. Soft. See behind me? Big plastic bags full of qiviut fluff. Mmm.
Next, it was off to the carder where Terry had me weigh out some commercial merino sliver which was then run through the carder and turned into roving. Alternatively, the carder also produces batts.
The rovings are collected in tall cans.
Next the roving went twice through the draw frame.
This draws the fibre out into thinner rovings, in my case two of them, ready to spin a 2-ply yarn.
And here (on the left) is the final yarn, with some Patons Classic beside it for comparison.
A number of steps in the process didn't get photographed because I was busy doing them, including: plying, steaming, coning, and skeining.
The finished yarn amounted to 225 yards (176 metres) and weighs 78 grams (2.8 oz). It is enough to do something with and a wonderful souvenir until I figure out what.
While all that was going on, Youngest was making felt. I only helped with making the foundation piece and then she did all the artistic embellishment.
The felt maker looks like a giant waffle iron. It makes a 3' x 4' sheet of felt.
First, thin layers of batting were laid down, alternating the direction of the layers. Then it was sprinkled with hot water, clamped down, and set to agitate for about five minutes.
Now it was up to the artiste to do her thing. This kept her busy the whole time I was making yarn.
I can't show you the finished piece because I haven't photographed it since we got home and anyway, it isn't really finished yet as there is some needle felting to be done. It will be a very cool wall hanging when it is finished though.
So I hope you can see what a great day we had at Belfast Mini Mills. They provided me with all kinds of useful information, hands-on experience, and even gave us lunch - yummy homemade soup and cheese biscuits. It was awesome. Thanks so much, Sheila, Linda, Hazel, Terry, Doug, and Richard. I want more than ever to have a mill of my own.
Anyone out there in blogland know a fibre fanatic venture capitalist?
Next episode:
Love that goose picture! Good luck with your dreams coming true. Fiber is sooo much fun to 'work' with. Endless possibilties.
WOW! Too bad I can't reapply for that grant for 5 more years. Qiviut (drool). Sounds like you had a great time -- looking forward to seeing youngest's finished felt.
Oooh, very cool. I can't even begin to imagine just how soft that qivuit fibre must have felt! What a fantastic time!!!!!
Neat story. Lots of luck!
That is SO COOL. I love the behind the scenes look. I've been trying to figure out a field trip up there for awhile. This whets my appetite. (Yeah, like I need yarn and fiber, but that stuff is SO yummy.)