Revisiting Nundle

The last time we were at Nundle was for Girls Day in the Country 2017, so it was about time we visited again, while travelling home from Baradine.

We stayed at the caravan park, as usual, and had a bit of a wander around.  Not a lot has changed.  

The main reason we were there this time was to visit the Nundle Woollen Mill.  Despite having been to Nundle several times, I had not seen the mill running, so we did the guided tour.  We actually timed it well, as all the machinery was running on that day, which isn’t always the case.

The Mill was only constructed in the early 2000s, but uses redundant vintage equipment, sourced from mills that have closed down.

Their wool is all sourced from a property in Tasmania and scoured in Geelong.  All the processes from then on are carried out at Nundle.

First, the fibres are separated into a lovely, light fluff, using an “Opener” or ‘Picker” dating back to 1916.

The next stage is the carder, which transforms that fluff into 100 strands of very fine fibre, which are all rolled onto a large tube. The machine dates from 1914 and is believed to be the only surviving example of this model left in the world.  This machine is only run on two days a week, so we were very lucky to see it in action.

Those long tubes are then loaded onto a spinning frame, which draws out the fibres further and gives them a twist to form single threads.  The machine dates from the early 1950s.  

The thread is wound onto bobbins.

The bobbins are then loaded onto a Dandy Rover, which plies three threads together to make 8 ply yarn.  It is wound onto larger bobbins.

Then the wool is made into shanks to go to the dye house.  Here the dyes are made up using tiny, exact amounts of dye and the wool immersed in the baths before then air drying.  They also have a small section for hand dyes, which are made using a bae marie found second hand on Facebook marketplace.

Once dyed, the hanks are loaded onto another machine (this one is a new to the mill modern machine) and wound onto cones.

Those cones are then loaded on yet another modern machine and the yarn wound into the balls that you purchase.  Each ball is individually weighed and then labelled, ready to sell.

In the mean time, they also well 24 ply wool, which is three 8 ply yarns plied together.

If you want really chunky yarn to make a blanket, you can buy 72 ply yarn, which is three 24 ply yarns plied together, using another smaller machine.

It is all fascinating to see in action.

Of course, there is a large retail section to the business, selling the wool that they process, as well as many other woollen items and other bits and bobs.  Did we make a purchase?  Of course we did.  I had purchased a long line cardy back in Girls Day in the Country days that has just about worn out, so I did find something to replace it, which has already seen quite a bit of wear.

The other purchase I made was some baby alpaca yarn.  Yes, I know, not their wool, but just what I wanted on this occasion.  I love the colour and can’t wait to start knitting it up.