Spinning Mill Tour

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day after all the freezing temperatures we've had the past couple of weeks. I went, with members of the Austin Lace Guild, to a spinning mill (Sustainable Fibers) in Elgin, TX. It's about 25 miles out of Austin. We were given a 2 hour tour of the mill by 2 very knowledgeable people. Customers bring in all types of fleece from sheered animals to be processed. They also have a small shop with lots of delicious goodies and I, of course, came home with some of them. I've only posted some of the pictures I took but there is lots more information about the machines involved in processing at this link. 

skirting the fiber--removing vegetative matter

washing the fiber without agitation

the Picker opens up fiber for further processing; this is alpaca being processed; an alpaca produces about 3 lbs of fleece per year.

sharp teeth on the drum of the Picker

the empty closet that collects the throws from the Picker

the closet after the Picker has done its thing

the Carder opens and organizes the fibers

the Spinner adds twist to the prepared fibers

the spools on the Spinner collecting the twisted thread

the shop

my purchases

Click on the pictures for a closer view.