Tour of a Fibre Mill

Last week I went with my friend Deb from Ziraldo Farms (http://www.zalpacas.com/) to Oil Springs.

She was going to this little village because they have a great mill operation.

I blogged about the alpaca shearing that I went to in April 2009.


After the shearing, Deb drove out to Oil springs to drop off the alpaca fibre for washing, combing, carding and creating yarn and rovings for spinning.

I remember seeing many mills when in England and Scotland as a child.



They were always housed in large warehouses with machines that went very fast.





And always at the end was a lovely gift shop full of the cloth that they had produced.

I especially enjoyed seeing the Scottish tartan cloth they produced.

This mill is much smaller in scale but the machinery is still the same today. In fact, the way that fibre is processined is still pretty much the same today as years and years ago.

The Edy's have a large alpaca farm with about 75 alpacas.

They have every colour in the alpaca rainbow and it was a real thrill to see them.

They run the mill alongside their own large alpaca operation.





They offer lovely yarns, roving and knitted garments that are inventive and absolutely lovely. You can check them out at http://www.alpacascanada.com/.

They had baby alpacas everywhere. Of course, it's spring and the babies have been popping out of mommy's since early spring. In fact, one little dark baby was born just a couple hours before we arrived.





All the alpacas have been sheared so they were ready for the heat of summer. Some enjoyed the shade indoors while others wanted to romp outside or nibble on some grasses.

Oil Springs is not far from Sarnia, Ontario and is actually a pleasant back roads drive. It's a nice time to relax and visit while driving.

I even saw beehives at an intersection of two country roads so we stopped for photos.





I think these hives may belong to Munro Honey in Alvinson, not very far away from Oil Springs.

There were more than two machines but the first photo is the machine that takes the roving and makes it into yarn.





The second photo is the machine that cards and combs the fibre.





Their mill processes all types of fibre, even dog hair!


(Pictured is the carding machine).