Tracing Yarn Back to the Farm

Red Heart Yarn  (http://auntbens.com/zen/images)

Nearly everything in this world can be traced back to coming from a farm.  It could have come from an animal, a farmer's field or the ground itself.  One thing I use frequently is yarn.  Yes, yarn.  I am very young, but I love the hobby of crocheting!  I buy, on average, 20$ of yarn a month.  I have always wondered where most of the yarn I use came from.  There are many different colors of yarn and many different types of yarn.  I knew that yarn would have to trace back to a farm eventually, but I didn't know the process it goes through.  While I use different types of yarn, I picked both Red Heart yarn and Brown Sheep yarn to trace back.  Red Heart is made with many different fibers.  These fibers all came from farms or were found in the ground.  After being processed, these fibers are imported to America.  Once imported here, the yarn is sent to Greenville, South Carolina.  In 1995, South Carolina spun nearly 40% of the 3.6 billion kg spun in America that year.  Red Heart yarn isn't the only yarn sent to South Carolina.

Brown Sheep Yarn (http://liscrafts.com)

Brown Sheep yarn also finds its way to South Carolina.  Brown Sheep yarn started out on a ranch in Colorado.  This ranch is home to over 80,000 sheep.  They are raised with the purpose of being sheered for wool.   The wool is sent to South Carolina to be processed into yarn.  Both the Red Heart yarn and the Brown Sheep yarn are processed in South Carolina.  The process, whether the material is fibers or wool, has 6 steps: Preparing the fibers, carding, coming, drawing out, twisting and spinning.  After doing each step, the wool, fibers, or cotton is turned into long yarn strands. Once being processed, the yarn is sent to the company building (Red Heart yarn stays in South Carolina.  Brown Sheep yarn is sent to Nebraska.)  After being received by the company, the yarn is put into huge dye buckets to stain the yarn the many different colors.  Once the yarn is dried after being dyed, the company puts the labels around the yarn and ships the yarn to the individual stores where you can buy them.  All that's left to do is put the yarn to good use!

Homemade Boots, Hat, & Diaper Cover

Sources: 
"How Yarn is Made." How yarn is made. How Products are Made, n.d. Web. 12 July 2014. <http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Yarn.html>.

"Where Did Your Yarn Come From?." Where did your yarn come from? -. Brown Sheep Yarn, n.d. Web. 12 July 2014. <http://www.brownsheep.com/blog/where-did-your-yarn-come-from>.

Homemade Dress