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You ever wonder how yarn is made? We're excited to tour the Coats and Cl
ark Mill in Albany, Georgia, where Red Heart, the number one selling yarn i
n America, is made. Hi, I'm Erica Simmons. I'm Monica Simmons. And we'r
e the double stitch twins crochet designers for red heart yarns. I'm
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already make dearest vice president of manufacturing It's nice to meet you
Ready to see how red heart yarn is made. Yes, what do we begin? It all star
ts with fiber Red Heart yarn is predominantly made from acrylic fiber made f
rom crude oil. Most fibers used here we purchase from
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acrylic manufacturers around the world and the fiber that we use mostly is p
re -dyed fiber. It's custom dyed to coat some part shades, so no other comp
any can sell our shades. We receive the fiber in a large bail form, kind of si
milar to a bail of cotton. And as
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the fiber comes in, it's in a solid filament state and each filament, each bund
le contains over 200 ,000 individual ends. And then we take that product thr
ough a series of operations and we'll show you how it begins. So the first st
ep in the process is called a stretch breaking
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process where we have to take a continuous toe form like this and we have
to break it into different fiber lengths so we can start the process of making
yarn. Some of the fibers as we stretch break them goes through a process
which we call steaming which means relaxing
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the fibers and some of it goes through does not go through the steam which
we call unrelaxed. Most coats and clark yarns are made from a combination
of relaxed and unrelaxed fibers. Most people call that high bulk yarns. And
high bulk yarns give yarn a characteristic which is kind
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of a more wool looking or a matte finish type looking but they're bulkier they'
re thicker and they're rounder in shape. Those yarns that are relaxed they'r
e more shiny they're softer but and they're a little
e bit thinner. After the stretch breaker process we go through a series of thr
ee pin
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drafters. The first stage of the process is the blender and normally at the ble
nder we will curl about 22 to 24 ends together because we're mixing the diff
erent fibers and the different bales together to make sure we get quality con
sistency, color, uniformity, and all that. The first part of
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the pen draft, basically what it does is it takes, this looks like fiber which ope
ns up the fiber so we can start
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pinning the fiber. And then through a series of three different pin drafters, w
e comb the fiber about 1200 times per minute at each process. The next sta
ge of the process basically does the same thing until we get to the finisher p
in drafter, which is we call it the finisher
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because we have pinned this fiber through different three different operation
s. The fiber has been mixed about 900 times and we have pinned the fiber
about 1200 times per minute at each phase of the operation. This is called
a finisher sliver because this says the sliver is finished and now
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we're ready to go to the spinning process. At the spinning process we will ta
ke this fiber and we will do the old hand spinning but we will do it much fast
er okay at the finisher pin drafter we take it through our spinning frames are
called double -drow spinning frames
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they're high -drow and we literally take this sliver and we stretch it out over
a hundred times. So it goes in a hundred times heavier than it comes out. N
ow in the spinning process all we're doing is taking the fibers and pulling the
m out and then we insert twist
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as it comes off the spinning frame and we do that by controlling the speed o
f the rolls with the speed of the spindle. After the spinning process, we basic
ally will take in most cases four plies, but then in some cases three plies, an
d we will ply three ends together
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on what's called a twister. In our case, it's a ring twister. After we go from th
e twisting process, now we're ready to go to the finishing operation, and that
's where you start to see the yarn take shape at the yarn fin at the yarn finis
hing operation we take the
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yarn that's been twisted and we'll say in this case it's four pliers like super s
aver or like with love and we will take it and we will transfer it through what
we call a bulking or a steaming line. And all of our lines are continuous, so a
s we are
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bulking the yarn through a steamer, we also are feeding it or winding it direc
tly to the pulse gain winder. But as the yarn is bulked and wound on our pul
se game winder, the yarn is through a conveyor, goes directly through a wei
ghing system. And these are weighing systems that
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weighs each pulse game to make sure it conforms to all federal weights and
measures standards. And if the yarn is
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to light, then our weight systems are programmed to eject or to discard that
product so that it does not go into our bander station, which is where we will
label the product, barcode, and put the color name and number onto the lab
el. We also have in -line, we print
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all of our barcodes and color names in line. After that stage, then the yarn is
essentially made so it goes into a packaging operation. And as the yarn, as
the carton goes through our taping machine. We also have a scanner on th
at carton label to again make sure that
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we're reading the right barcode and that the right that the barcode will actua
lly scan. At that stage then the yarn is essentially completed ready for stacki
ng and staging and then our product handlers will come by and carry the ya
rn to our trailers which then go to our Albany distribution
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center located about five miles from our plant. How many different kinds of
yarns are there for Red Heart? We do over 19 and we have over 400 colors
. Oh goodness, I love the colors, it's important. Well it's really, really interest
ing to see all the hard work that goes into
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making our favorite yarn. Thank you all for coming, it's been our pleasure. T
hank you. Thank you. And this is how you get Red Heart, y 'all! We do over
19 and we have over 400 colors. Oh goodness, I love the colors, it's importa
nt. Well it's really, really interesting to
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see all the hard work that goes into making our favorite yarn. Thank you all f
or coming, it's been our pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. And this is how yo
u get Red Heart, y 'all!