Hands on learning at Blue Mountain Farm

Madelyn and her Nana teamed up this year for the fleece auction at the PA Farm Show and purchased several bags of raw wool. Nana decided that she would have the wool processed at a Mill rather than doing it herself as she did the year before. Processing your own fiber is not an easy task! The decision about where to have it processed was a no-brainer though. Friends of ours opened a Fiber Mill on their property, Blue Mountain Farms and Fiber Mill so that is where the bags of wool went. Madelyn was invited to help during the processing of her fiber.  She was so excited she had a difficult time falling asleep the night before going to the Mill. Ashley and Angie Shaw walked her through the process from start to finish while teaching each step of the way. Madelyn learned so much in only a few short hours and she had a sweet smile on her face all day long as she glanced over at the BIG bags of wool in our living room. I repeat, BIG bags of wool in our living room.

Cleaning, picking, carding and roving fiber by hand is a long and difficult endeavour.  Blue Mountain is equipped with fantastic equipment that helps each step of the way. However, there is still a lot of work involved and safety is always a priority. This is not a place to be if you were not being careful and taking precautions. As you can see here, Angie was teaching Madelyn where she was allowed to place her hands on the machine. It is important to pay attention and exercise caution during each stage of the process.

This is the smile that she had ALL day long! The fun doesn't end here though, she spent the next few days spinning during a recent snowstorm. She already has a project in mind for the fiber.  She will be knitting a cardigan for the Make it with wool competition and the 4-H Fashion Revue.

Angie and her Nana have been teaching Madelyn different knitting techniques that she will need to know for completing her project. Stay tuned, I will post pictures of her progress!



I wanted to include a fantastic news story that was recently published by PennLive about Blue Mountain Fiber Mill here.  

Here are a few pictures I took at a recent open house at the Fiber Mill.

Here, are a few of the friendly faces you will see at Blue Mountain Farm and Fiber Mill.

Such a sweet, hard working family

They also have a store on site at the farm.  How cool is it to go to the Knitters Dream Yarn Shop and see the animals on one side of the store and the Fiber Mill on the other!?

If you are local make sure you stop by the Knitters Dream Store for all that you could possibly need or want for your fiber projects. If you can't make it to the store, check out their website!

Oh and just the other day we dropped Madelyn off and we all had the opportunity to watch a little goat being born! How cool is that?!

Waiting and watching.....

Yay! Bubba is here!

Picture taken by Madi Shaw, how stinking adorable!