100% American made

 One of the few 100% American made companies left in the USA, from sheep to finish!
The bales of wool arrive at the plant  some are dyed in the fleece then the natural wool and dyed wool are weighed and mixed together in very specific proportions.  The scale on the left, there is a mark for how much natural wool a mark for black then more natural and black again to make a medium grey.
The wool ready to be carded on the right.

We toured the mill on Saturday so none of the machines were working. Some are 100 years old and still working!!  The men were told not to touch anything because sometimes around mechanical stuff men turn into 10 year olds and start taking things apart just to see how they work.  They were told repeatedly to keep their hands in their pockets.

The carded fibers come off the machine and are pleated into layers ready to be spun into a single ply yarn.

 Fairbault has had the contract since WW1 to make wool blankets for our troops, why wool? its a natural fire retardant. If your house is on fire you want to grab the wool blanket and cover yourself to run to safety. They have been using the same color recipes since the beginning.  The current West Point cadets will have exactly the same color blanket as great grandpa's.  In the 70's they bought a wider loom to weave queen and king size blankets.  Prior to that all beds were twin or full size. Threading the loom is done by hand and takes 2 days, each of those yarns is threaded through 2 eyes, the heddles and the reed which lift and lower the threads.

 

West Point Blanket

U.S. military blankets

The blankets are very stiff and scratchy coming off the loom but then are fulled  meaning they are shrunk a little bit to make them fuller and softer.  That is such an oxymoron. Shrink to make fuller don't you wish dieting worked that way.
These blankets are also 100% virgin wool.  First time through the mill is virgin wool.  The scraps below are saved and go through the grinder which weakens the fibers because they have been broken, nylon is added then the wool goes through the same process again to make more wool blankets.  With the added nylon they are superwash machine wash and dry.

As tempting as it was I did not buy a wool blanket because as you know I have stacks of quilts in the house and a few heirloom wool blankets that my mother wove and a couple wool blankets from Ireland.  But if I do ever need a new wool blanket I know a place in Faribault, Minnesota.  The guys even enjoyed the tour, there was so much history and humor, hubby was telling another nephew about the tour and his new appreciation for cost of wool garments and blankets.
 --Ann--