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Historic Harrisville, Inc., which is dedicated
to preserving this National Landmark Village.
Many of us stayed in the Cheshire Mills
Boarding house, built in 1851 of bricks fired just
south of the village. Our rooms were virtually
unchanged from the mid-19th Century, when
they were home to up to 50 skilled itinerant
mill workers, although we were fortunate to
have baseboard heating rather than small
soapstone woodstoves.
The bell tower atop Cheshire Mill No.1 across
the street from the boarding house served as an
alarm clock and call to work after breakfast. As I
looked out the boarding house’s third floor window,
I imagined workers, including graders and sorters,
streaming across the way, many with long skirts
swishing in the chilly New Hampshire breeze.
Though Cheshire Mills closed in 1970 when
double-knit polyester became the fabric of choice
rather than wool, the tradition of woolen textile
spinning continues “down the road a piece” in
a smaller, unobtrusive woolen mill built in 1971
by the Colony Family. It may surprise many
alpaca owners to know that alpaca yarn is already
being spun on a commercial scale right here
in New Hampshire. The future is now!
We sorted fiber in one of the old mill buildings
next door to the original Harris Sorting and
Picking house. It gave me chills knowing we are
reviving skills that have been dormant for too
long in this country. When the wool industry
changed over to a meat industry, grading and
sorting lost its importance. All fiber processed in
commercial mills must be graded and sorted first
to ensure a uniform, non-prickly product.
As an alpaca breeder and apprentice fiber sorter,
I am encouraged by the increasing world-wide
appreciation of and demand for fine natural fiber
textiles. The U.S. has a rich tradition of commer-
cial textile production, much of which we are
close to losing forever as both the machines and
those who know how to run them age. As our
industry continues to broaden its focus on fiber,
we have an obligation to ourselves and to each
other to ensure the production of alpaca products
of the highest quality. The long-standing tradition
of grading and sorting fiber is a critical step in the
continued development of a commercial alpaca
fiber industry in North America.
Pam Harwood owns Longwoods Alpaca Farm
in Cumberland, Maine. She can be reached at
pdh@longwoodsalpacas.comor (207) 829-4159.
98
Alpacas
Magazine
Fiber sorting and grading has been
a long-standing tradition right here
in the U.S. It gave me chills knowing
we are reviving skills that have been
dormant for too long in this country.