Next out is the visit to Rauma Ullvarefabrikk, during our knitting trip to Rauma – where we stayed in nearby Åndalsnes. Our program for day 2 of the trip started at 10 am with a coach taking us the short distance to Rauma Ullvarefabrikk on the other side of the mountain. The group was divided into two to facilitate the tour of the factory. I was in the first tour group while the second group had plenty of time to browse their well stocked shop. I have never been to Rauma Ullvarefabrikk before, only to Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk outside of Bergen.There are two large differences; one is scale and the other is age of the machines at the mill. The Rauma mill is huge with new machinery, while Hillesvåg is small and with very old machinery nearly 200 years old; hence selected to be a Économusée. Both are family-run businesses and offer gorgeous yarn. I am sure it is no surprise to you, that my heart belongs to the Hillesvåg yarns.No mill in Norway, clean and wash their own wool, that is still done in the UK. Here you see the fleece washed and returned to Rauma. My husband has taken most of these brilliant photos. Here you see part of the group with Nina Hove Myhre, aka Ninas Syrom, wearing her newly finished red Izana. Both Nina and I made videos from the visit (and the knitting trip), Nina’s video is available on her YouTube channel while my video is only available for my paying Patrons here: www.patreon.com.It was fascinating to watch the progress from the fleece to unspun yarn to spun yarn to dying and to ball making. Above you see the dying in progress. I felt my jaw drop just seeing all the huge stacks of yarn in both skeins and cones. Or what about these?Yarn being moved from a large cone to a smaller cone.What is going on here? It took me a few seconds before I realised that this machine is making strips for each old fashioned shade card with small snippets of each yarn colour.Then from a cone into balls.Watching the process in this machine was addictive! Not only did it gently squeeze the balls into shape it also made a yarn label around its center.Here is the finished bag, a pack with 10 balls, each weighing 50 grams, hence a total of 500 grams.Michael always thought that I had a large yarn stash in my yarn bunker, but that was until he had visited the warehouse at Rauma. My immediate thought was “Ikea, go home” – as their’s is the largest warehouse I have seen until now.I don’t need a lift truck in my yarn bunker…Rauma also has a small production of machine knitted garments. Here are a number of the pullovers waiting for the final finishing.The tour ended in the shop, where all colours of all their yarn were displayed together with discounted yarn in discontinued shades or with minor discrepancies. Terje Tjelle, aka StrikkeTerje, who had organised the tour to his hometown of Åndalsnes, was working and looking after the winter jackets for most of the group. I will end this post with a photo of Nina (wearing Izana) and me, I am wearing my Juul Cardigan. Nina bought yarn for another of my designs, I am thrilled to reveal! You will be impressed but I did not do any yarn shopping! But it was a fantastic visit to Rauma Ullvarefabrikk!