A Fiber Mill Tour - Turning Alpaca Fleece to Felt, Yarn, & More!
Journal Entry, Week-16, 3/10/2022
Why
I was asked why growing local alpaca fleece & local mills matter. Since last fall, I've been researching & exploring the nascent Fibershed movement. The Fibershed movement is global & focuses on growing, processing, manufacturing, & using local plant & animal-based fiber sources for clothing & household fabrics. Why? Because 70%-90% of our clothing & household fabrics are petroleum based & produced elsewhere! Using local natural fibers is another way to get off petroleum & grow local economies, one fibershed at a time. I invite you to follow this adventure & learn along with me. Enjoy!
This Week’s Adventure
Cindy, owner of Alpacas at Windy Hills, & I took a road trip to A Simpler Time Alpacas & Mill (owned by Barbara & Dave Davies) in southeast San Deigo County to pick up several large bags of felt pads produced by the mill. We had talked about going to the mill since I started volunteering last fall. I was very excited to tour the mill. The mill is about 135 miles from where I live (Playa Del Rey, near LAX) & 180+ miles from where Cindy lives (Somis, CA, near Ventura). Due to logistics coordination challenges, we drove separately & met at the mill just as it was opening for the day.
All alpaca (& sheep) fibers need to be tumbled, washed, dried, picked, carded, & moved through a draw frame before the actual fiber processing starts (i.e., turned into yarn, felt, or woven).
The Simpler Time mill is comprised of two buildings. The smaller building is where the initial fiber preparation completes (tumbled, washed, dried).
The larger mill building houses the remaining stations needed to complete the fiber preparation processes (picker, carding, draw frame iterations). Barbara described & demonstrated the picker (used to pick apart the natural strands), the carding machines (used to align the fiber lengths & direction), and the draw frame (used to further clean & improve uniformity & strength of the fibers). The end result of these processes is creation of the fiber roving (rolls of loose fiber used to create felt pads & single-ply yarn).
Jeffrey (the mill & ranch hand who works for A Simpler Time) walked me through the fiber processing stations & patiently explained what happens at each & why. First stop was the spinner - used to create the 1-ply yarn from the roving - can process up to eight bobbins of single-ply yarn at a time.
Cones & skeins of natural yarns, dyed yarns & felt pads are the main end-products of the mill. The mill’s main customers are regional alpaca owners using their own fleeces & A Simpler Time’s yarns & hand-made products created from its own alpaca fleeces. Other customers purchase yarns created at the mill to create pinned, knit, crocheted, & woven fabrics, products, & art pieces. A Simpler Time's store sells their own hand-made products as well as those from PAKA Apparel, another San Deigo-based company making remarkable contributions & informational outreach to the local-global Fibershed movement. The store’s products are well designed, high-quality, reasonably priced alpaca products.
Loading Fiber for the Trek Home
In addition to loading up several bags of completed felts in Cindy's SUV, we loaded each of our SUVs with at least 500 pounds each of Cindy’s raw fiber that had been stored at the mill for the past several months. Good thing we drove separately!