We are always on the hunt for local open houses and events, to learn more about small-scale agriculture in the Driftless Area. I recently finished reading a book entitled "Adventures in Yarn Farming: Four Seasons on a New England Fiber Farm", by Barbara Parry. The author describes the shearing of her sheep and production of yarn to sell online and at fiber fairs. After reading the book, I was curious if there is a mill in Wisconsin that makes yarn from local sheep. Google indicated there was a mill in La Farge, charmingly named Ewetopia, which is only about 30 minutes from our farm. As luck would have it, they had an open house scheduled for mid-April.
After finishing a morning of fence-building, Maggie and I traveled to Ewetopia for the open house. We recognized the name because there is a fiber store in Viroqua that we had visited. The mill and a small retail store were located in a converted feed mill. One of the owners, Katherine, gave a tour each hour. She co-owns the mill and the Viroqua retail store with her mother; her mother runs the retail store while Katherine runs the mill. She walked through the process, from skirting the fleeces, to washing, carding, and other steps, to the creating of yarn. At each step, she started up a machine to show how it worked.
It was all fascinating to watch. I love small-scale industrial machinery. It was a reminder that we used to actually make things in this country, and people are still keeping that spirit. About 60% of the mill's business is processing wool from customer's sheep. The tour ended with a machine that takes wool that would otherwise be wasted, and converts it into wool pellets for use in gardens for compost and water retention.
A few years ago, I tried my hand at knitting. I made a hat and mitten set, and got partway through one sock before moving on to other projects. After the tour and seeing the colorful yarn, it may be time to try and finish that sock.
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