EAST JORDAN, MI – When a clothes designer walked into Debbie McDermott's fiber mill and asked for samples for an upcoming project, McDermott thought little of it.

Months later, Stonehedge Fiber Mill got a phone call from Ralph Lauren requesting 4,000 pounds of yarn for use in the sweaters and caps for the United States 2014 Winter Olympic team.

"When I got off the phone, my mouth dropped open," she said. "It was a big surprise."

Based in the Lake Street Center industrial complex in East Jordan, Stonehedge specializes in custom processing of wool into yarn. The business' wholesale yarn also can be found in roughly 250 stores nationwide. Stonehedge employs 14 people, most of them family members.

The company typically produces 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of wholesale yarn monthly, as well as 1,000 pounds of custom yarn for customers across the nation. Aside from wool provided by customers, Stonehedge typically uses textiles produced by sheep and angora goats from McDermott's 157-year-old farm. The fiber mill even uses equipment created by McDermott's husband, Chuck.

McDermott said Stonehedge is used to customers visiting the farm after seeing a sign she had posted along M-32, so it was not abnormal for a visitor to come in and sample yarn.

"She looked around, said she worked for a designer and would like to take back some yarn to use for something," McDermott said. "She left with a skein of yarn, and we didn't think anything of it."

McDermott and Chuck had completely forgotten about it until they got a phone call from Ralph Lauren.

"It was very surprising that they would find us and use our yarn," McDermott said. "It just goes to show you how many people come to Michigan on vacation."

McDermott said she was informed that Ralph Lauren was impressed with the quality and softness of Stonehedge's yarn and was interested in using 4,000 pounds of it for Olympic sweaters and caps.

"Wool gets a bad reputation, and a lot of people think they're allergic, but they really just can't stand scratchy sweaters," she said. "Our yarn is very soft."

After Ralph Lauren approved additional samples, Stonehedge began work on the order. Employees packed yarn into 50-pound boxes, which were shipped to California and New York for production. The raw wool used for the sweaters was provided by North Carolina-based Burlington Industries, Petoskey News reported.

"We worked very hard to be perfect," McDermott said. "This was something all our employees were excited to do."

The last of the yarn was shipped in late summer, and McDermott said the sweaters and caps will be worn by American athletes and coaches during the Olympic Games closing ceremony. Roughly 40 other U.S.-based businesses provided supplies for the Olympic team's clothes.

As the owner of a farm and a family-run fiber mill, McDermott was pleased that Ralph Lauren was committed to purchasing American-made yarn.

"We used to have a very big textile business in the United States, but that is all but gone," she said. "All the wool we grow usually goes overseas, so buying it allows farmers to raise the animals they want to raise and gives back something to them.

"It is value-added agriculture."

Ralph Lauren was criticized for utilizing Chinese-produced clothing during the 2012 Summer Olympics, but has since increased attempts to eliminate foreign sourcing and use products created in the United States.

Jonathan Van Zytveld is a writer for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jvanzytv@mlive.com, and follow him on Twitter.