Wool warehouses and mills of North America:)

This is mostly a photo blog, but over the last 7 months I've had the chance to visit several wool warehouses/mills. For the most part they all look the same, a nondescript building in a shady area of town. Neatly stacked bales of wool lining the walls, usually a pile of loose wool in one corner. It's funny to think that large portions of the USA wool clip passes through these buildings on their way to being processed (mostly in china). But a small portion is lucky enough to stay in the country. 

The first warehouse was Roswell wool in New Mexico...fabulous folks.

Neatly stacked square bales, most of these weigh around 400 pounds. Notice the farm name initials on the front of each bale along with info on the wool that's inside.

These are New Mexico sheep...

Next up was Center of the Nation Wool in South Dakota. 

(Yeah, that's all I got on them!)

Last year I was able to visit Chargeurs in South Carolina as part of an ASI tour. That was eye opening!

Wool being washed

Wool roving going into super wash

Wool roving is carded numerous times...

Final tests to determine quality of roving (ie no black fibers, poly twine, hair)

Another warehouse I got to visit was Groenewold Fur and Wool.

There was wool everywhere, most of these bales weighed around 1000 pounds.

The wool sorting machine...

Setting the wires to make a bale. 

Up close look at a bale.

Big pile of sorted wool.

Sold the last of my spring wool here!

We also got to go see MacAuslands wool mill in Prince Edward Island Canada.

Unloading wool for processing.

Wool waiting to be washed...

The washing (scouring) equipment...

Inside the mill, this is all the equipment. Hard to believe so many blankets get made here every year.

Inside their store...we bought 2 blankets:)

Being able to visit all these wool buyers and processors really was a wonderful experience. I'm hoping to continue to visit other mills and buyers in the course of my travels and report back about all the great people that are involved in making every wool product. I always like to brag that sheep are the greatest job producers out there since they seem immune to automation. Even while visiting the mills it is people doing hands on work every step of the way. Wool is amazing:)