So today I dyed a whole fricking bunch of roving. This stuff is a pain as the particular breed of sheep’s wool seems to be resistant to normal dye processing. Or maybe I’m spoiled…

Southdown* is a rather fine fiber, with a pretty short staple. I’ve been told it’s good for sock making, and I certainly hope so. It’s a smaller breed and is often kept for Mutton. I personally don’t have too much to share on the wool right now – other than it’s a pain in the arse to dye. Last night I set about 200 yards of roving to soak overnight in a bin of rain water. Yesterday (with the Diva’s assistance) I dyed it up.

Speaking of the Diva’s assistance… guess who my camera woman was today for that picture there on the left… She took a pic of me with the Southdown Roving that had set out to soak overnight. We dyed a bunch of Yellow and shades of Yellow.

I will be setting up my drying rack inside the house today – but for now I have the dye pot cooling, several bundles worth waiting to be put up correctly and I may take a break on the dyeing and get back to spinning – which yes I have been doing, in and amongst the custom orders…

The lovely turquoise that I listed yesterday (and have mentioned in the side bar) has been ready to list for a while (and appears to be getting a lot of attention,) but as my swift is out of commission (thanks kids…) and I only recently found my yarn meter, as well as my Ashford Niddy Noddy, (again thanks kids) I had to double check the measurements of my PVC niddy noddy that I use for steam setting the twist on yarn. That done, I needed to add to the stock in the shop. I have had some response to my “Keep Comcast Happy” sale, and later todday I’ll be advertising on some of the lists that I’m on as well. I am very fond/proud of that particular skein – it’s a beautiful skein of Tunis and was pretty fun to spin. The Plying on it was simple, easy and came together better than I have ever had a 2 ply come together.

I really like working with it as a fiber and am hoping that all that Texel I have in a big Rubbermaid bin at Sunny’s is as nice a fiber to work with as the Tunis is. As much as I love working with the Tunis, I tend to feel obligated to working with a particular mill when I pick it up from the present Shepard that I pick it up from. This results in a 6+ month wait on getting my Tunis back. Blech.

I’m harboring delusions dreams about some day owning my own micro-mill. I have the location I’d like to set it up in too – but to do all this I would have to win the Power Ball, and I need to actually start buying a lottery ticket to do that. I would need about a half a million to do the set up I want to do, and who knows how long it would take for me to break even.

At least 3 years on the equipment alone I believe, and I have no idea about the old building I want so badly – if you are familiar with the area, it’s in Collinsville CT, and it used to be part of a plant that generated power for the town and local businesses. Now abandoned is rests aside the dam and spillover of the Farmington River. Part of my estimation on it costing so much to get the set up would be in restoring that building… if the historical society doesn’t already have it swallowed up in a trust some where…

I figure however that the region could support a fourth mill in the state – with the other three being on the East side of the state, and all having a 6+ month back up for wool processing. Oh well – one of these day’s I’ll start buying a lottery ticket on a weekly basis.

It’s not like I don’t presently have enough wool to dye and spin… I really do. And a couple of Alpaca fleeces, some Llama Fleece too and I think even some Bison Down… really I have enough to keep going and don’t need to pick up any more Tunis right now, but seriously – look at it there… isn’t if lovely?

So for my Thursday, I popped back and forth from cooking our meals from scratch, working with my sourdough starter, twittering, spinning and resting the ankle. Yep – not sure if I mentioned it, but during the Dress Rehearsal for the Diva’s first Recital I fell and re-injured the ankle I broke in December. I’ve been in a brace for it and on massive amounts of Ibuprophen, but also making sure that I get moderate exercise to help the muscles affected. I have way too much experience with ankle injuries. That said – I may want to invest in a balance ball once I’m back to work, so I can put aside what I need for physical therapy for ankle rehab. I already have an air cast, crutches, a cane, and should consider investing in the pharmaceutical co that makes Advil…

So the spinning I’ve been doing for my Thursday? Well at left are some lovely Merino Batts that are being spun into a beautiful Butterscotch washable yarn for that custom order I’ve been working on.

This coincidentally is also the order that has me thinking when I can afford it I am motorizing my drum carder. I have a fair amount of fiber dyed that needs to be placed on the carder and then carded into batts. The labor on this one is a lot more compared to the usual amounts in working with roving that has come to me ready to spin and all I have to do is decide when I’m dyeing it – before or after it’s spun.

Babes Fibergarden makes an add on that works with my drum carder, and I’ve looked about and found that I can’t make the parts to do it as cost efficiently as they have. I just don’t have access to the tools needed for that, nor the engineering know how. Days and projects like that make me wish my Daddy hadn’t passed away 2 years ago and my brother didn’t live so far away/and wasn’t about to go off to Afghanistan until next mid-spring. I almost have the know-how, but time is money and time spent figuring out how to make it would be better spent in using one pre-made, and spinning.

Same goes for the wool picker. It’s a lovely contraption – allowing for an individual to loosen the fibers up and it makes scouring the wool easier, as well as carding it easier. I have plans for a wool picker that I bought, but it does involve working with a machine shop to have custom parts made, and I’m going to hold off on that until I buy that afore mentioned building on the Farmington River. Ahhhh Dreams. It’s nice to have them.

In the mean time – I have a picker selected that will run me a little less than the motorized add on for my drum carder. I am hoping I can afford it soon, as tools to increase productivity also mean an increase in quantity carried in my shop online.

So on that custom Butterscotch – I have one bobbin done and need to fill another before I can ply it for the buyer, and then of course I need to repeat this in order to finish the Butterscotches tomorrow.

Mind you I am NOT complaining about the custom order, it is a lovely thing to know that I am working on yarn that will go into a beautiful little girl’s heirloom. The yarn is coming out beautifully – and is a pleasure to work on. I am also pretty pleased with the quality of my work these days. I am not over spinning like I did in my first year as a spinner. This is the beginning of year three for me now however, and I’m finding that it’s something I love more and more each time I create something new.

For my Friday, I may take a brief break and spin up some other roving I have in my pending que before I start on the Orange in the next phase of the order. It won’t take long, and I think that having a few cakes of yarn setting up in prep for plying is a good thing.

I then have Red, Blue and two shades of Green for this order to do. This is the order I mentioned I misquoted and undercharged for. I forgot one of the greens or maybe it was the orange – it’s all ok, I know that the gal will love what I send her way. I have part of the darker green spun up already too, and will start skeining soon after it hits it’s last plunking into the dye pot.

Alright – it’s 3am. I need to approve some comments here, and then get my self to sleep. I’ve been spinning for the last couple of hours and took a break from writing this as we had a cable outage and have just gotten the ability to come back to this post.