July 16, 2019 – Mountain Meadows Wool Mill and The Fiber House, Wyoming

I think, technically, they’re called Bison!!!!

We pulled into the KOA in Buffalo, Wyoming late Sunday afternoon – it was a long drive but interesting to watch the landscape change again.  The mountains turned to rolling green hills with few trees.  It is very “empty” looking, there were few houses, cattle or civilization – just rolling green hills.

The KOA is a great park with pull through spots and trees (aspens!) at each place.  The bathrooms are the nicest I’ve seen and the showers in the back of the park are the BEST – nice and big 😊. (ED. NOTE – They fit 2 comfortably and allows visitors to conserve water!!)  All the staff has been very friendly and helpful.

 

It kinda feels like fall in the mornings!!!

The weather has been lovely and I was so happy to have a cool day on Tuesday, so I could wear my finished Boxy sweater!!  It fits just right and I’m quite happy with it!  I used a linen blend and am hoping it will get softer the more I wear it.  This time I followed the pattern exactly except added an inch to the length.

I got nothin’!!!!  (You should have come with me on the tour!)

I thought it was quite fitting to wear it to tour the Mountain Meadow Wool Mill here in Buffalo.  It is the largest wool mill west of the Mississippi.  That being said, it is not a huge operation and I was surprised to see two women sitting side by side putting the machine knit hoodie pieces together and another woman dying yarns in the kitchen section of the mill.  I had been able to see a demonstration in the kitchen of a Conway dyer and the wool mill dyeing area was just like that! 

And now for the rest of the story!!!

I’m getting ahead of myself, Mountain Meadow Wool is a family operated mill started in 2007.  They are dedicated to supporting local ranchers and revitalizing the wool industry through eco-friendly operations and premium prices to the ranchers.  They use environmentally friendly cleaners to help maintain the beauty of the natural fibers from Rambouillet, Cormo, Targhee, Merino and Columbia sheep breeds from Wyoming.  The mill also recycles 50% of the water used through the scouring process in compost.  Meadow Mountain offers custom blending and spinning and 23 different types of yarn.

Tours are offered through the summer twice a day and once a day in winter months.  There were about 8 of us on my tour.  We went directly into the mill and were shown the large bales of fiber marked with the specific ranch that it came from.  Each rancher’s fiber is tracked through the process and marked on the yarn label.  This is a point of pride for the ranchers.

(NOTE:  I’m dumbing this next part down because the editor hacked away at all my knitting terms that he didn’t understand the first time through!)

We started the tour by being shown raw fiber (straight off the sheep) full of vegetation, dirt and grease. (ED. NOTE – Isn’t that just like sheep – not really interested in bathing?!?!?!)  The fiber is then fed into the scouring machine which has several large sinks holding very hot water.  The fiber is fed into the water sink which loosens the dirt and grease and then goes through a section which squeezes the water out.  This is repeated 3 times in the different sinks.  Finally, it is then blown through a large tube into a small room made of plastic sheeting in the middle of the space.

The fiber is fed through another machine with large pins that continues to fluff and separate the fiber, further loosening any left-over vegetation.  It then goes into a machine that cards the wool which pulls the fibers all in the same direction and it comes out in long ropes of roving.

On the other side of the mill is the spinning machine.  The long ropes of roving are fed into the machine which has approximately 50 spinners gathering the single ply yarn onto bobbins.  The yarn can then be plied with another yarn to give it the twist desired.  Some of the yarn is then sold in its natural color, others are taken to the dye room (ED. NOTE – The kitchen area from before!) The dyer uses a recipe book with the measurements for each particular color.  (ED. NOTE – Well, they are in the kitchen, after all!!) The dyes are boiled in large pots and the yarn is either dipped or the dye is poured on.  After the yarn is dyed, it is wrapped in cellophane wrap and put in a large oven at a low temperature and “baked”. (ED. NOTE – I totally understand!!!)  When they are dry, the yarn is hung on a machine made out of ice cream parts (the mill foreman is apparently very creative with machinery) and twisted into a skein ready to be labeled and sold. (ED. NOTE – Man, I feel like I just sat through a class, hopefully there wont be a test!!!)

They also have knitting machines that are used to make their own knitted items – gloves, hats, hoodies, scarves and their yarn are for sale in the gift shop out front.  The knitting machines put out panels of knitted material and they have seamstresses who finish the pieces into products to be sold.  As I mentioned earlier, two women were putting together hoodies for the store.

It was a great, very personal tour and so interesting to learn how the yarn that I use on a daily basis is made.  It is commendable that Mountain Meadows works closely with the Wyoming ranchers to help keep sheep ranching viable.  If you come to this area, the tour should be on your list!

The Fiber House

After the mill tour, I headed to Sheridan, Wyoming about 30 miles north of Buffalo to The Fiber House.  I drove by the front of the house and realized there was no parking out front.  I went around the street behind and was able to pick out the blue house and saw parking in the back.  I went in the back which led directly into the kitchen and was a little concerned that I might be coming in the wrong way but quickly came into a room with a large table and wooden cubbies full of yarn. (ED. NOTE – For not cooking anymore, she certainly has spent a lot of time here in other folks kitchens!!!!)  There were two large rooms to cruise through plus the foyer area and a space near a beautiful, spiraling wooden staircase, so it took me a while 😊.  They offered a little section of local Wyoming yarn but with Mountain Meadows just down the way, I wasn’t surprised that the selection was small.  They had tons of needles, several different brands and many yarn options – Brown Sheep, Berroco, Ella Rae, Araucania, Lang, Noro, Universal, Mountain Color (Montana yarn) and many others.  They had books, knitting kits, felting tools and kits, back issues of magazines and yarn company pattern books.  While visiting, a woman came in with her lunch to sit and knit.  It seems like a great local shop to visit, knit and make new friends.