There’s almost always something new going on at the Brown Sheep Co. mill.  I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged–finally our new site is up and running! It’s so great to have a website that can be edited again!

Not only do we have a new website, this summer we have a new piece of large machinery. Drumroll please… a new Pin Drafter! So, what does a Pin Drafter do?!

While giving tours of the mill, I’ve noticed people are fascinated to see how our Pin Drafters are able to mix colors. In this blog, I’m going to take you an a little “virtual tour” through the process of blending a color of yarn.

Pin Drafting is the first step of processing wool roving. We have 3 of these machines (the new one replaced the oldest of the three). They are used to blend different kinds of fibers (for example, wool and mohair in Lamb’s Pride), to draft the fiber to the proper thickness for spinning, and to blend different colors of fiber–this is how we create heathered colors. All of the roving we process will go one “pass” through each of the 3 drafters, 1-2-3.

Pass one: here you can see the three colors to be blended. In this case, we have dyed superwash wool roving in mint, teal, and blue shades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pass two: the colors have begun to blend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pass 3: all the fibers have completely blended and the wool is ready to be spun. At this stage, the wool looks delightfully like frosting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the yarn is spun and then packaged into skeins.

 

Here it is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a final closeup.  

This new color in Lamb’s Pride Superwash–called SW134 Precious Emerald–is available now at your local yarn shop. I think it would be beautiful for an afghan or sweater for a guy or girl. Enjoy!