I haven’t gotten to the dying part of it, yet, but I hope to eventually. So far I’m trying to get a hang of the spinning. You can purchase wool in different stages from whole raw, unwashed fleeces, to whole washed fleeces, to plain roving, or dyed roving. There are also different types of fibers, some pure fibers and others that are blends and already dyed. So far I’ve only used various sheep fibers in their natural colors, which are from the whitish, to varying shades of browns and greys. I do have a pound of a silk blend that I haven’t tried yet. That should be interesting. And I also found a source for alpaca.

There are various suppliers who sell these fibers in various stages. Some are direct from farms, while others are just middle men. I did manage to get two whole, unwashed fleeces that I hope to spin up eventually. I don’t plan to dye these as I like their original color already. At this point I’m just learning and practicing with the spinning,, so no dying yet.. But when of if I ever do get into dying, I will hopefully only use natural dyes or at least non-toxic ones. A while back I did post some of my hand-spinning progress, including some of the yarn that I made with a hand spindle. I will say that I’m enjoying it more with the ladybug, than my hand spindle. Not to mention it is so much faster. What I’m trying to do at this point is just spin a little every day until I have enough to knit with. No marathon spinning as of yet, just a little here and there, which surprisingly amounts to something.

Marla

Have tons of fun!

patti