Around the Farm Table

– Inga Witscher: Hey, everybody!

Welcome to the farm.

There's so many cool things happening around the state, and recently, I got to meet some folks who turn wool and fibers into yarn.

Dave and Roxy run the Mystic Water Fiber Mill just down the road from me in Mondovi, Wisconsin.

They showed me around their small farm where they raise llamas and alpacas.

And where they've set up a bustling fiber mill, processing wool and fiber that gets sent to them from all over the country.

I'm here at Mystic Water Fiber Mill with Roxy.

And Roxy, I want to know, what do you do at a fiber mill?

– Roxy Smith: Well, basically, we're taking fiber or wool from animals, and we are processing it into products that people use, such as yarn or rugs or rug yarn, roving for hand spinners or for needle felters.

- I'm not really a knitter, so tell me the process from turning the wool, say, into yarn.

- Okay, so basically what we do is once the wool is clean, we have several machines that it then goes through.

We have a picker, which opens up the fiber.

The picker opens it up and makes it so it's going to be easier on the carder.

And then the carder, which aligns the fiber and gives us the rovings.

Once we get it to the carder, then the fibers are organized together.

Then it goes through a draw frame.

As it goes through the draw frame, it helps to comb it and organize it even more.

So then we have a nice roving that is organized and it's going to spin well on the spinner.

So then it's taken on the spinner and drafted more, and spun into a nice, even ply.

Then we'll take two or three plies and we'll put it together, depending on what the client is asking for.

- On average, how much yarn could you get from, say, one sheep?

- That varies, depending on the sheep and depending on what they're looking for.

But say you take a fleece that's three pounds.

Out of that three pounds, you could get probably around 12 to 15 skeins of 200-yard yarn.

- So you could definitely make a sweater out of one sheep, probably.

- Oh, absolutely.

- Oh, how fun!

- Yeah.

- I love living in Wisconsin, where there's so many interesting people doing so many wonderful things with agriculture.

I hope you'll gather with us next time, Around the Farm Table.