The Fiber Mill is one-of-a-kind in Nebraska | Rural Life

The only custom fiber mill in Nebraska, The Fiber Mill can transform wool and other fibers into yarn, felt, roving, quilt batting and loose picked wool.

“We’re like turning a custom meat locker into a wool instead of an animal in cuts of meat,” Patton explained.

Patton’s adventure started with $ 500 and a website. She sold yarn online from a small inventory of boxes stored under her dorm bed at college.

In April 2011, she opened her yarn shop: Spindle, Needle and Shuttle.

The milling part of his company was born later out of necessity for additional income. Patton consulted the Nebraska Business Development Center to formulate a business plan in 2017. When applying for loans, she was denied on the basis that “Nebraska is not a center of the textile industry.”

Determined, she and her husband took a leap of faith, purchased an older building in Stromsburg and began fixing.

Not until 2020 was she able to secure the loan to purchase milling equipment. The equipment was delivered Aug. 26, 2020.

That’s when she faced yet another setback. During the first week, the carder machine broke down on the motor. Built in 1929, it weighs a whopping 3 tons and requires 250 pounds of torque to operate.

“The carder is the lynch pin in the entire operation,” Patton said. “We can’t make anything without it.”

After an expensive motor overhaul and a month of no production, the mill was fully operational.

The three-woman crew consists of Patton, her mother and her sister-in-law, with a little extra help from Patton’s toddler son.

With the shortage of fiber mills, Patton keeps quite busy. Patton said there is enough demand for wool processing to support five mills per state. Because they are a new mill, her company has only booked three to four months compared to a year like the longer-established mills in other states.

Most customers are from Nebraska and surrounding states, but orders also come from Washington, Oregon, Texas, Arizona and Alaska.

She has milled fiber from sheep, alpaca, llama, buffalo, mohair goats, Angora goats, Pygora goats, Angora rabbits, and muskox.

Wool is graded on a scale from 0 (thin) to six (course). Finer wool typically takes longer to run through the machines.

“My equipment can handle grades two and three best, which is convenient because it’s the grade of sheep breeds popular in Nebraska like Columbia and Suffolk,” Patton said.

The average sheep fleece weighs 7 pounds prior to processing. This in turn produces an average of 3 ½ pounds of fiber. One pound of wool yields about four skeins of yarn.

Patton hand-dyes wool and can twist colors for a kaleidoscope skein.

With Patton’s available equipment, the entire process from wool to skeleton is nine steps. The work is not all clean and fluffy as one might assume.

“Growing up as I did on a farm really helped prepare me. A lot of people think this is textiles. This is way more ag and dirty jobs, “Patton said. “The first step with a fleece before you can process it is skirting, which basically means you’re sorting out the dung tags. That is definitely a farm girl, get down and dirty thing. “

Skirting is required to remove particles that could clog the machines. Typically, this involves bits of hooves and feathers, though a “dried and petrified toad” was quite a surprise.

Secondly, each fleece is washed. Her washing system includes a bath tub and two laundry sinks. Soaking the fleece in hot, 180 degree water followed by two washes in detergent and two rinses is necessary to remove the lanolin, a natural oil secreted by the sheep.

After spinning and drying overnight, the matted wool is picked to fluff the fibers. At this point, wool with guard hair, such as llama and alpaca, must be dehaired.

All wool is processed in the carder machine. From there, the next step depends on the end product.

The spinning drum meshes felt into the fibers, whereas the fiber intended to become yarn must be combed into the pin drafter. Sliver, or wool of strips, are sent through the roving attachment of the pin drafter.

The spinning frame twists wool into single-ply yarn, then the plying frame twists two or more strands together in the opposite direction to add strength and balance to the yarn. Finally, the yarn is wrapped on the skein winder.

From start to finish, making a batch of yarn takes four days, versus the eight hours of active work.

Prices vary depending on the product. The most popular size of yarn Patton is two-ply dk, costing $ 36 per pound.

The inventory sold in Patton’s storefront is made both in-house and commercially.

Her own line of yarn products are derived from her mother’s Icelandic sheep herd. Patton also buys fleece from her sheep shearer. Patton said that on the commodities market, the price is 25 cents per pound for white wool and nothing for colored wool. She pays $ 1.50 per pound for good fleece.

In addition to yarn and quilt batting, Patton sells greeting cards, textile arts, knitting and crocheting accessories, instructional books, sheets of felt, roving and spinning wheels.

A wide selection is available on her website at spindleshuttleandneedle.com. However, not all items are listed online. She encourages people to visit her store in Stromsburg to see the full inventory.

Both businesses are housed under the same roof, with the mill in the back of the storefront building. Currently, Patton is in the process of transitioning under both one name, The Fiber Mill.