Yesterday I took a trip with some of my crochet friends to Stramba Mini Mill in Wampun PA. Terri Stramba just opened her mini mill and was kind enough to take us on a tour of how animal fiber goes from the animal to yarn.

There pictures are not in correct order, but this will give you an idea of the process.

The picture below is the machine that is spinning the roving into a strand of yarn. It runs really fast and sometimes you can't see the strand of yarn as it's running through the machine.


This machine is the carder. It separates the good fiber from the bad. The bad fiber would be coarse hair and any object that is attached to the fiber.

This is the yarn drying after being made into yarn.


This is the fiber being skirted. All the debris is picked out before being washed.

This is the fiber drying after being washed. It takes about 24 hours to dry. It all depends on the humidity. The fiber takes longer in high humidity.