I am attaching an article someone brought to my attention. All I hear is Peru this and Peru that. Everyone trying to emulate the 100% alpaca products from Peru and South America and such low prices.
I hope more and more eyes are opened to this masquerade and maybe start buying from your next door neighbors, the fiber processors.
Let’s keep our money and pride where it belongs, at home.
Please send any comments to marcel@carolinaspecialtyinc.com
As you may know from my Photo Album on the website, I spend some time searching for prehistoric artifacts including arrowheads. This writing pertains to these amazing treasures. The words speak true for all those who have come before us that have created our textile processing system, and for that matter, all that comes from our past.
Marcel
So it is that you have now acquired me.
You have found me along with my brothers and sisters, in the midst of deep rest.
Among common cobbles, and beneath the roots of trees.
Along dry ruts, where mighty rivers once ran swift and magnificent, with
might and glory, you have found me.
Or perhaps you have acquired me without adventure at all, but simply
purchased me for a price.
By now, you have examined me for flaws, and measured the size of me.
Under something you call glass, you have placed me.
Others of your people race to build structures and roads over me for profit.
They gather together, uncaring of the past, or of existence.
But you, you are different. I am important to you.
And regardless of how you came by me, you looked for me,
you sought out my hiding place.
I matter to you.
And so because of this, My spirit now speaks to yours.
To share with you, and to ask that you grant me one simple request.
Here is my message to you from the stone:
Like you, I once breathed the air of the Earth.
I was a man, a woman, a child, an elder.
The Sun, and the stars of the sky knew me well, and I them.
Over rushing streams of clear white capped water I rode.
And through golden forests of great timber I passed.
My skin felt the warmth of the Sun,and the cold of the snow.
By great fires I sat close.
My ears heard the triumphant cries of souring hawks and eagles.
And my eyes saw every color of their sacred feathers.
My heart rejoiced at new birth, and wept at sudden death.
I bled, and caused others to bleed.
With fibers from plants I bound my own wounds.
And washed them clean in the pureness of the rain.
The wind was my friend.
Yes, I tasted all of Earth’s beauty.
And on every step of my paths, the Great Spirit held my hand in his.
In his goodness upon my last day, he led me to the top of a great mountain.
And allowed me to see one last vision.
The vision I saw was you.
With the stone I made in your hands…
And this was my simple request that I asked of you from the top of the mountain
With my last words spoken to you on that day, as all that was me faded away.
“As you look at the stone in your hands that I made with mine,
I ask you only to remember it’s true significance.
To know and remember always these two words of me”:
“I LIVED”
Thought to share with you some findings we have had with the carding of alpaca. We have found that in most cases, aside from Suri fleece, the necessity to use a machine picker is doing more damage than good to the fibers. Not only will you get a much better carded sliver(slubbing), you will reduce much of the damages done by the beater pins to the the fleece. Picking the alpaca can leave the processor with a “fluffy” mass to feed the carder. This reduces the cohesion and increases the static charge to the fibers.
It is important that there are no knots in the fibers or heavy trash in the fleece.
Try sorting the fleece by hand and see the difference. You will be very surprised at the outcome.
FYI: We are in the midst of building a new “opener” for alpaca and fine fibers that will gently open the fibers and remove the fleeces of dust and dirt.
Marcel
Several years ago, I hired someone to help me with the assembly of our Spin/Twist frames. I had known him for almost a decade and his experience in textiles went back some 40 years with a machine manufacturer(WR). I was building a frame one day, and I could tell he was getting impatient that I was taking so much time to be sure that the frame was level and that the fluted rolls were in line with the front of the machine. It was them I found out what made this guy tick.
“Why the heck do you take so much time and effort to build these machines with such high quality? These people your selling to don’t know a good frame from a piece of junk. We could build them with used parts and throw them together and they’d never know the difference”.
He was right about this, that most of those who are buying these Community Mill machines just plain don’t know good from bad with these machines. Most have little or no experience on these machines and place a lot of trust that whoever they buy from will take care of them and not take advantage of the situation. Needless to say, I never again allowed this guy to come back into our shop. I won’t tolerate this type of energy around the machines we build. Last I heard, he was spreading his negative attitude with another machine supplier in Michigan. I understand they make a good pair.
His statement, as devilish as it was, is somewhat why our country has gotten into the predicament it is in today. Give Americans cheap junk from Asia and other places, and it will fill the void. I think it is time to get us back on the track to a better life. I firmly believe we are starting the “full circle” cycle of textiles in America. It’s time we do things to the best of our abilities, regardless of what the next guy on the side of you thinks. It will become contagious and will help to bring back the “Good Olde America” we once had. We can’t please everyone, but you can bet we can sleep good knowing we build the best machine we can, regardless of where it is headed.
Good or bad, I really think I am a romantic when it comes to building these fiber processing machines. We build every machine the best of our ability with the idea they will produce the highest quality yarn available today. We also build them to be run in an industrial setting, should that be it’s destination. We build them to produce for the quality for the professional,and design them for the novice to operate. Just look at our Photo Gallery on our website’s main home page, and take a good look at our machines.
So, if you are thinking of starting your own processing business, be reassured that the machines we build for you are the same the professionals will get, at a very fair price. We will also train you in the proper techniques of processing, not the bad habits that happen from improper training. There is a good reason that the North Carolina Textile Technology Center trust our machines for their textile processing!
Always open to your comments,
Sincerely,
Marcel
I was driving into Charlotte this week and traveling north on Davidson Street. I just couldn’t resist to get a few pics of this concrete and wrought iron spinning wheel. A little research and voila.
The Mecklenburg Mill founded in 1903. Small world. Feb 3, 2010
We have spent over 3 years now looking for the final piece to the puzzle of a complete fiber processing package. It has paid off, and in a big way!
What you see pictured is the all new “KiwiScour” presented by yours truly. The dynamo scouring unit is the brainstorm of AgResearch of Christchurch New Zealand. New Zealand as you probably know is were sheep is a way of life. AgR has chosen Carolina Specialty to be their exclusive agent to promote and offer this simple yet effective scouring package.
Please peruse the flyer and shoot me your questions at marcel@carolinaspecialtyinc.com
Marcel
Clearers have been used on all types of fiber processing machines for over a century. They have many uses, however, the basic function is to keep rollers free from a build-up of fibers. This collection of fibers, known as “lap-ups”, can cause quality problems to your yarns. The build-up of these fibers create pressures on your drafting system components causing expensive repairs.
The pictures show an MJD front top roll. The first one is a normal yarn path and the second depicts the yarn has broken. Rather than the sliver building up on the steel bottom roller in between it an the rubber covered top roll and creating damaging pressures, the sliver is “picked-up” on the clearer and harmlessly gathered till you are ready to remove. If your sytem has a suction collection system as pictured, you can take the clearer off the holders and insert the sliver to be sucked in at the tube opening. Remove the access and reset the clearer back on the holder.
Let us know if you would like this system added to your machine.
Marcel
KNIT YOUR OWN SOCKS with the help of Carolina Specialty!
Pictured is one of our simple mechanical sock machines that almost anyone can learn to operate. This particular one makes a ‘true-rib” stitch. This machines is running on 110 volts, but we can accommodate any electrical set-up you desire. The pictured sock is 99.9% Yak fiber from Tibet. This is our Yock (r)! We run a few courses of covered rubber at the very top of the sock.
Contact us if you would like more information.
Marcel
This appeared in The Whitin Spindle
Here is chapter Vll , “FROM YARN TO PLIED YARN” from the series “Whenever Man Turns Fiber Into Yarn”
From the July 1958 Whitin Spindle.
