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Visit to a woolen mill

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Sun, 2008-01-06 16:45 — PaxKnitter

Yesterday, Bill (WJBDineen) and I visited Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill outside of Mt. Horeb, WI (near Madison, WI). They do mostly custom batches. They gave us a tour of the place (attaching photos). I'm not going to pretend that I can name the machines. I was just in awe at the whole process. The wool on the first two machines was from Alaska. Of course, we visited their store. We were both like kids in a candy shop.

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first machine.jpg378.11 KB
wool feeding from 1st to 2nd machine.jpg361 KB
second machine.jpg404.19 KB
more of second machine.jpg426.12 KB
wool coming out of second machine.jpg444.66 KB
another machine.jpg434.63 KB
yet another machine.jpg439.12 KB
store pic1.jpg494.43 KB
store pic2.jpg460.21 KB

Comments

Mon, 2008-01-07 16:02 — Tortielover

What fun you both must have

What fun you both must have had. Lucky you!

Mon, 2008-01-07 14:32 — BuduR
BuduR's picture

Love thier yarn. Sounds

Love thier yarn. Sounds like a fun little trip :) thanks for sharing
MWK's Token Estrogen-American

Sun, 2008-01-06 22:40 — V
V's picture

I too have ordered a couple

I too have ordered a couple of kits from Blackberry. I love their yarn and it looks like you guys had a fun day of it!

Sun, 2008-01-06 18:45 — Thor
Thor's picture

The co-owner of Blackberry

The co-owner of Blackberry Farms, Anne, was very friendly and accomodating in letting Paul & I set up our visit. They usually don't have "regular" retail hours but since we e-mailed ahead, they were welcoming! What we did not get pictures of was the BALES of wool waiting to be processed!

Anne has a very unique perspective on the evolution of farm life in southern Wisconsin. The once thrifty and utilitarian sheep farmers have been replaced by more "boutique" farms that have "rare breed" sheep, and then usually only 4 to 6 of them. She offered up a great question... WHY do you think these breeds have become "rare"? Usually because they are not quality producers of milk or meat... and the wool is of inferior quality. So much for the glamour of "specialty" breeds!

And, yes, Paul & I put a hurting on our wallet but seriously beefed up our stashes with gorgeous, high quality yarn... we'll have to post some pics of the richly colored yarns we got!!! So excited to work with this stuff!!

Sun, 2008-01-06 18:25 — ksmarguy
ksmarguy's picture

oops, sorry, I duplicated...

oops, sorry, I duplicated...

Sun, 2008-01-06 18:22 — ksmarguy
ksmarguy's picture

Those were such cool

Those were such cool pics...would love to have a huge amount of money to spend there :)

Sun, 2008-01-06 17:11 — albert
albert's picture

Fascinating! Thanks for

Fascinating! Thanks for posting those pictures. How do people dream up these machines? We have a yarn mill in Maine, BartlettYarns- maybe I'll treat myself to a tour.

Sun, 2008-01-06 17:57 — Janice in GA

I've ordered from

I've ordered from Blackberry-Ridge in the past, and LOVE them! I wish I could visit their mill.

Cool pictures.