Discover our process
From raw wool sheared from Wyoming sheep, llamas, and alpacas, to lovingly hand-crafted finished products, discover the processes used to make our one-of-a-kind pieces.
Shearing
Using wool sourced straight from happy Wyoming sheep, llamas, and alpacas from local farmers and ranchers, the wool is cut from the animal in large fleeces.
Once cut, the fleece is washed several times to condition and de-grease the fibers. The wool is then laid out to air dry.
Washing
Once thoroughly cleaned, the fibers are carded manually or fed though barrels with rotating teeth to align the fibers to be easily spun.
PICKING
Carding
The cleaned wool is then fed through a picking machine to separate the fibers and allow dirt, leaves, and vegetable particulate to fall out.
Spinning
The aligned fibers are pulled and twisted into one continuous strand of single-ply yarn. The strand is plied with a second strand for strength.
The plied yarn is wound into skeins and immersed into one or more dye baths using natural or synthetic dyes to achieve the desired color or effect. The yarn is then allowed to soak until the dye is exhausted after which it is washed one more time to eliminate all traces of the dye materials.
Dyeing
After the skein is dry from the dye and final wash, the yarn is wound into a "center-pull" ball on the winder and is ready to be knitted or woven.
winding
Knitting
The yarn is knit into large, over-sized bags, hats, clogs, etc to account for the shrinkage that occurs during felting.
With a hot bath, and lots of soap and agitation, the fibers tighten and intertwine to create a thick, felted product, ready for finishing touches.
Felting
