Thursday, August 23, 2007

Kraemer tour!

Wow - hard to believe it crept up so fast!
We had a great time yesterday as the knitting guild took a trip to Kraemer Textile Mill in Nazareth Pa. There were 10 of us that went- to the Mill. Wow is all I can say!
This is the Lab- where the magic begins- the Gentleman in the picture has been there for over 50 yrs! He is in charge of making the yarn blends that the customer wants.
Raw materials from Alpaca farmers---- wonder if one of those will fit in the van?
Bales of color- they do alot of blending with colors to get the final color needed.
As I debate on that we move to another wonderful machine-- the Carder! Okay- so I doupt that will fit into my van - but a couple of those bins would - I just know it - do you think they would notice??Where the yarn becomes a reality - the yarn comes to life here...

Then they are sent to be plyed or a Twister as they call it in the Mill.Then it gets wound from the bobbins to cones.....

Its an amazing tour- I highly recommend anyone who can make the drive to go! Gives us a much better understanding on how big of a process it is to make the yarn we all love to use!

Did I mention - that the Mill has been in operation for 100 yrs this year?!! WOW --- and they hope to stay in operation for next 100 too. If you haven't tried Kraemer yarns--- you need to! We left at 7 am and arrived back at about 7:30- tired and happy with lots of new yarns and ideas to work on! Although I didn't return with any of the roving - they do sell it, and I have used it in past to make some great yarns!
So ask your LYS to get some of the great yarns from them in - its one of the last mills left in USA and we need to keep it here!

1 comment:

Opal said...

very cool!