Days 16 17 18 - Canadian Maritime 2026 - Prince Edward Island - MacAusland's Woolen Mill

As much as we didn't want to leave our beautiful spot at Loggieville Wharf, we knew it was time to move on because our next goal was to reach Prince Edward Island! 

This was going to be a whole new province for us, plus it was going to be kind of different because we were literally going to stay at a Provincial Park for 3 days while we explored the island. So far we've pretty much been boondocking most of the while for the first two and a half weeks of this trip. Usually just one night at a time in each place. It was time for a little down time and maybe catch up our laundry...

It had rained overnight, and the back roads were glistening in the sunlight. We were only going to go on back roads for a little while and then hit the main route down to Prince Edward Island. We really do like traveling on these back roads though. So much more picturesque, less stressful, and beautiful scenery. Especially now that the leaves were starting to turn color.

After all, that's what we came for...

We headed down the central part of New Brunswick and found our way to the Continental Bridge to get onto Prince Edward Island.  What is interesting is that you don't pay a toll to cross the bridge to go ONTO the island. But you DO pay a toll to come back OFF of the island. (Unless you decide to take the ferry over to Nova Scotia from there, which is what we did 3 days later). 

An interesting part of the popularity of Prince Edward Island it's the fictional location for a beloved novel, Anne of Green Gables. It was written back in the early 1900s. It essentially was a children's story about a young orphan who was adopted by an elderly brother and sister on a potato farm. They thought they were adopting a boy to help them with farm work. And instead, the orphanage mistakenly sent a girl. So she had to prove herself and get along and work hard and interact with the people of the community to find her place and to fit in. Not only was it a famous book, later it was made into a movie and eventually into a television series.

The house that inspired the book is still there. It was actually owned by relatives of the author. She used it as a basic idea of where her character would live, after experiencing visits to the farm house of Green Gables herself.

I do believe the television series or maybe the movie was filmed over in Nova Scotia with a more practical climate and location...

The Continental Bridge was quite long, I believe seven or eight miles. There was a little bit of road construction at the beginning. You can see our travels across the bridge on the video link down below. 

Once we made it over, we veered to the north and worked our way up to the Linkletter Provincial Park.  It was named after George Linkletter a very famous settler in the area who was a potato farmer. The main crop on Prince Edward Island appears to be potatoes. We saw plenty of them as it was prime Harvest Time in the Fall.

We arrived at the campground, and were given a list of a number of sites to choose from. It had recently been flooded out, and sections were closed off because they were still too mushy and wet to park any vehicles on. But we were able to get a nice little spot backed up to some pine trees. I will admit, the sites were very close together. The power post and water spigot and sewage dump hole for the next site were right next to our picnic table. And of course our power post, water spigot and sewage dump hole were right next to the neighbors on the other side. But all of the sites were that close together, so we didn't have much choice. It would be okay for a few days so we could catch up on laundry, as they had a very nice laundry room. We could also be hooked up to water at our campsite and take nice long showers in our own private bathroom. But I will mention that the showers for the park were also very nice and neat and clean.

Here is the link to the park information: 

https://www.tourismpei.com/what-to-do/beaches-parks/linkletter-provincial-park

After we were set up, we made our dinner and relaxed on our lawn chairs for a while. Some people were right next to us in a pickup camper and they chit-chatted with us for a bit too. 

Each day they would leave their pickup camper behind on its stand and then go to tour in their truck. That makes me so nervous. I would think that a wind could come along and knock it over. 

We were treated to a beautiful sunset and watched it sink slowly to the horizon. There were benches along the shoreline that we could sit on and relax for the evening show in the Western sky.  It did not disappoint us in the least.

Even Nickydoodle sat patiently while we oogled the sky with oohs and ahhs and I clicked away with the camera, frame after frame. 

After the sunset, we are also treated to the moon which was now completely full.  It was known as The Harvest Moon or also the Corn Moon.  What a treat to see it without any clouds in the way.  I had to take out my big camera just to get a shot like this.

 

The next morning, it was time to go out and do a little exploring. We wanted to get away from our campsite a little bit anyhow. The new neighbors on the other side of us had a very sad distressed and not very happy beagle. It was inside of their trailer with open windows, howling and yelling and whining non-stop. They were gone off traveling in their truck, so they really didn't have to sit there and listen to their dog as miserable and stressed out as she was. We really felt sorry for her. 

I might add, if we ever leave Nick behind in our motorhome, we do the following: 

-Before we leave, we run Nick around to wear off his excess energy. 

-Then we put him inside the motorhome with all of the shades down so he can't see out.

-We have on the air conditioning in case it's needed.

-We turn up the TV to make enough noise to distract him from anything that might be happening outside. 

-We also have a Wi-Fi camera that hooks up and we can watch him at any time while we are gone from our cell phones. It can rotate back and forth and it can also tell us the temperature. We can set a warning limit for temperature and it will call us on our cell phone to tell us that something is wrong with either the heat or the air conditioning, whatever the circumstance may be. Kind of like a baby monitor! 

-Lastly, we hide little teeny tidbits of his treats all over inside of the rig in different places that he can spend time sniffing them out like a fun game. 

Anyhow, we were going to go sightseeing and get away from the campground but we would be going in the motorhome and taking Nicholas with us.  

We did unhook the cargo trailer and leave it at our campsite. It has a large cast iron hitch lock that completely surrounds the hitch, as well as a thick cable that we locked around the picnic table and post in the campsite. We also let the gate gal know that we were leaving for the day and would be back later and that we were leaving our cargo trailer behind. That way there was no mistaken question about our occupancy or if we left or if someone else wanted to take our site. 

I also thumbtack a plastic sign to the picnic table that says CAMPSITE OCCUPIED - WE WILL BE RIGHT BACK. I printed those up a few years ago and we have used them several times. 

The other set of signs we keep on hand is a sign that says PARKED WITH MANAGEMENT'S PERMISSION that we can set in the window near the door and another one up on the front dash. This works well if we've gained permission to stay at a business parking lot overnight. Saves getting that midnight knock on the door if some security guard is wondering why you are parked on their property.

Well, we rolled out of the campground and headed out to explore the island. Maybe being closer to the Atlantic Ocean is having an effect on the trees changing colors faster. Everything was becoming brilliant and we were enjoying the scenery as we rolled along.

The first stop, of course, was a bakery. Steve's new "hobby". The gal at the gatehouse had recommended one in town. So we drove over there first to check it out. It was more of a deli plus a bakery. We picked out a number of items and Steve was happy to try out some new baked goods. We were done with the ones from Shawville and he was hoping to replenish "his stash". 

After that we had a quick stop at the Walmart to pick up a few more items that we needed. Now it was time to head out of town and explore more of the countryside. 

We rolled along through some cute picturesque towns and little villages. Every now and then we would roll across a beautiful little church and accompanying graveyard. 

I think of the generations of families that came here to worship, married, baptized babies, and later held funerals as they were laid to rest. Decades after decades of families, all remaining in these little villages. All the stories that these churchyards could tell...

We drove on about 40 miles north and west of the campground. This was one of the places that I had wanted to tour. 

MacAusland's is located along Highway #2 close to Mill River Resort & Golf Course and

beautiful Red Cliffed beaches. 

https://www.macauslandswoollenmills.com/

Family owned and operated, the business began operations as a sawmill and rollmill in 1870. In 1902, the company began producing woolen yarn and in 1932 they began producing woollen blankets. Since then, this quaint and proud family business has become known as the producer of the MacAusland Blanket.

Located in the western part of Prince Edward Island, they operate the only mill in Atlantic Canada producing quality, 100% pure virgin wool blankets. The Mill has retained much of the charm and heritage of years past, together with the tradition of quality craftsmanship which characterized those years.

For those of you who don't know, I am a weaver, a spinner of wool to make yarn, a knitter, and also a quilter. So fiber production is highly interesting to me. I have done my own processing on small batches with sheep and alpaca fleeces.  I used to get them from a hobby farmer down the road. It's a lot of work to process wool. So I was really looking forward to this self-guided factory tour...

Seeing that it was a Friday, most of the machinery was shut down when we got there by the afternoon. One of the workers said they were being let off early by the owners. We also saw some other men working on a broken piece of machinery so that line was shut down. In a way, it was kind of nice that it was quiet, because we could walk around and videotape the entire process. And then I could narrate and explain what was going on in each section. If you go to the end of this blog you will see a separate video link of the entire time that we were touring the Woolen Mill if you find that interesting. I will include some still shots below with brief explanations. But the video goes into depth and shows a lot more. 

This is the first room where all the stinky sheep fleece comes in from various farmers around the island. Yep, it's full of sheep poop and lanolin and it is a very aromatic room. It is separate from the rest of the mill by some heavy doors.

First, the fleeces are "skirted" which means they separate the good sections of fleece from the matted poopy odd cut sections. Those are later pulled aside and used for making things like the felt that's used around windows and door insulation or in other industrial matters. 

The fleeces are run through what are called pickers that rip it apart and unclump it and make it easier to process and to release the clumps from where it grew on the sheep's body.

The good fleece is then run through various stages of machinery to remove the manure and the lanolin which is a waxy substance on the fleece. It takes just the right temperature of water, if it's too hot the wool will felt up and not be able to be spun. If it's too cold, the lanolin does not release and come out of the fibers and then it stays waxy and sticky. Just the right amount of a special soap needs to be added to help clean it. It's called Eucalan or Orvus. It has a distinct smell that I recognized as we were walking through these areas. To a spinner of wool, this is familiar and almost comforting to smell.

The fleeces go through a final rinsing and spinning. Then some of these vats are used to also dye the fleeces in various colors depending on what the customer wants. Also some batches are dyed for creating colored wool for weaving stripes in the blankets that they produce themselves at the Mill. These vats need to be spun at the right amount of movement without too much agitation, because that will also matt up the fibers. Friction and heat cause felting of the wool which is exactly what you do NOT want when you want the fibers to be free to spin into yarn.

Here are a couple of big bundles of dyed fleece in purple and rich green. In the background are big bag fulls of finished fleece that I think are headed back out to their original owners who brought them in for processing. The bags back there are tagged and it might be who's shipment is what?

Now these clumps of fleece are loaded over into the carding machines. These machines have rollers full of little pins that help rip the fibers apart from the clumps and align them into straight order so the hairs are all going in one direction. These machines rotate around and around and around until all of the clumps are broken up into nice straight smooth batts of perfect fiber ready to be spun into yarn.

I have done this myself with hand carders or with a drum carder. It takes a long time to get it just right, even a small batch at a time.  Then it's finally ready to be spun! 

I spin by hand on my little spinning wheel when I sit on the front porch at home: 

There is almost nothing more relaxing and comforting than sitting at the rhythmic treadling of the wheel and creating beautiful soft fibrous yarn....

Anyhow, back to the mill! 

Their huge machines are called Spinning Mules or Spinning Jenny's. They whirrrrr along at breakneck speed, collecting the carded fleece and splitting it up into tiny channels of roving, spinning it into single strands of threads. Of course, these are called "singles". But they are not finished yarn, they break easily when they are only a single ply.

The single wooden spools are moved further down and combined on other machinery to spin them together in multiple plied combinations to finally create yarn.

Just like a rope, multiple plies of the singles when twisted together become stronger and do not break. The finished yarns are then spun on to big cones. 

Now some of the cones are used to weave the blankets in a separate room called the "Loom Room".  The cones are all put onto warping creels so each thread can be fed through a series of channels to get ready to create a warp to put on the loom.

All of their looms here are computerized and super duper precise. All the yarns are threaded on and the machines run continuously to create huge rolls of blanket after blanket after blanket.

I did smile when I spotted this one cone hanging off the back end. That means either a yarn broke somewhere during the process or someone made a mistake in the threading. So they have to hang the extra cone to feed off a bit at a time as the woven blanket advances. It will have to hang off the back until that particular series of blankets are done. Then they can repair it and thread it correctly before the next batch coming on.  (I've done this mistake/correction method myself on my own looms!!).

I love the precise alignment of all of the warp threads. Each one of these harnesses raises and lowers according to the twill pattern that they are threaded up at. I am sure these machines just fly along and create their perfectly woven blankets with precision and automated perfection.

I do it the old fashioned way on my looms, one row at a time, slowly beating it into place and making sure it's not too tight, not too loose.  I have woven many blankets, shawls, towels and placemats. I have grown to where I mostly like to just weave rugs. The other items take a lot of precision and skill and time. I would prefer to weave where I can get lost in my work and enjoy the process and not stress so much anymore. 

Back to the "Loom Room". It would have been fun to see these machines running. I have seen them on television programs in progress. Powerful compressed bursts of air push the shuttles back and forth. Nobody is reaching and doing things manually. It's all automated.

I don't know how many blankets there are per roll before they unwind them off the looms. Blanket after blanket after blanket --- all connected together and not cut apart yet. Then they need to be wet finished which allows the yarn to bloom and get fluffy. They are draped along in continuous rolls over framework to help let them dry.

Big bundles of rolls of blankets are then moved over to quality control! There are probably 20 or 30 blankets there on that rack, each one retails between $100 and $200 depending on size.

This guy's job is to look over every single square inch of every single blanket and make sure that there are no flaws. If they are just a single mistake here or there, he can correct them with a needle and redo that section. But if it's a big problem, that blanket gets discarded into another pile. Then it's cut into smaller pieces and sold upstairs in the shop, sometimes as a dog bed or a chair pad.

Once they are inspected and dried, they need to be "fulled" or "teasled" to kind of bring out the fluffiness of the blanket and make it into a soft layer of felted woolen blanket fabric. In the old days of Ireland and Scotland, this process was done with prickly burrs called teasels that they would attach to handles and tap tap tap against the fabric to fluff it up.

Of course, they don't use teasels anymore. Instead they have this big machine with little prickly pins that they roll the finished blanket yardage over, back and forth and back and forth. This fluffs it up just right and kind of locks the yarns together in the woven structure

Now the blankets are cut apart and hung to dry completely before they are brought upstairs for a final sewing around all of the edges and attaching a tag to be put in the shop for sale. Their blankets are also available on the website at the link up above.

Now that our self guided tour was done, we headed upstairs to the shop to see what we could find for sale, and maybe bring home a couple souvenirs. 

My goodness, just look at all this beautiful yarn! The prices were extremely reasonable and the color selection was vast.

One of the clerks said that they have two little grandmothers who take the yarn and knit up socks that they sell in the shop. Well, of course we needed to help support them, and I chose a super soft pair of rich gray thick socks highlighted with Halloween orange. You may not know, but my birthday is on Halloween. Happy Birthday to me and this is an early present.

Steve also found a very nice wool hat that he will enjoy wearing this winter if we hang around in Wisconsin. 

Of course, some skeins had to come home with me, as well as a few for my friends who knit and appreciate good wool yarn. 

As we were getting ready to leave the mill, there was a large scrap bag hanging off a post in the corner. Leftover pieces of fleece were picked up here and there and tossed into the bag. I reached in and snitched one to take with me. Ahhhhh it smells just like the mill.

I promised Steve that I would not hop, skip or jump on my way out so I would not re-injure my knee. The last two times that I have hurt my meniscus in the past 2 months had to do with leaving quilting shops. So I was extra special careful walking down the creaky old steps of the mill to get back to the main floor. 

We meandered our way back to the campground and even though it really wasn't that cold out, I had to put on my nice warm socks for the evening. Super super soft... Isn't that cute?

Another beautiful day was finished on Prince Edward Island, and another beautiful sunset to gaze upon out on the shoreline.

I really appreciated having a day to tour something that really held my interest. I hope I didn't bore you with too many details about the process of what we saw. I find it fascinating. 

Here's the video that goes along with our visit at Prince Edward Island: 

And here's a much more in-depth video of our touring of the Woolen Mill: 

Stay tuned, 

next is a ferry to Nova Scotia 

and Cape Breton 

77 Miles traveled today 

2,207 Miles traveled so far