Yay! I have just rung the chap I buy my fibre in bulk from, and he has two bumps of the beautiful 19 micron Aussie merino that went so well last year. He'll deliver it one evening next week, and I have a handful of 100g balls left to dye before then.
This stuff is a dream - dyes beautifully, felts easily (something to be careful of when dyeing but useful if you want it for felt!), and spins like butter provided not felted. As I pride myself not dyeing very careful without felting, this is great.
He's also got some superwash merino - not as fine, but very popular with people who like to spin and make babies' machine-washable clothes or socks. This is a bit of a pain to dye - because the superwash treatment makes the fibre GRAB the dye out of the dye solution much quicker, I can't use the already hot water from the previous (exhausted) dye bath and have to heat each bath from fresh. So it uses lots more water and lots more energy. BAh!
And he has sparkley stuff too. As I have far too many fleeces at the moment, I think a few will be stuffed in the big dye pots and dyed randomly, and then carded with sparkly stuff. It will be very pretty. Let's hope lots of people buy them.
The Etsy shop's more or less wound down at the moment, though I did have a sale yesterday that will be on its way tomorrow morning. The odd colour/fibre may be put up there, but really I have to start seriously stockpiling for Wonderwool at the end of April. With me just bolting on the fibre stuff on to the day job I really can't do enough stuff to keep Etsy busy and have enough for a selling stall.
This stuff is a dream - dyes beautifully, felts easily (something to be careful of when dyeing but useful if you want it for felt!), and spins like butter provided not felted. As I pride myself not dyeing very careful without felting, this is great.
He's also got some superwash merino - not as fine, but very popular with people who like to spin and make babies' machine-washable clothes or socks. This is a bit of a pain to dye - because the superwash treatment makes the fibre GRAB the dye out of the dye solution much quicker, I can't use the already hot water from the previous (exhausted) dye bath and have to heat each bath from fresh. So it uses lots more water and lots more energy. BAh!
And he has sparkley stuff too. As I have far too many fleeces at the moment, I think a few will be stuffed in the big dye pots and dyed randomly, and then carded with sparkly stuff. It will be very pretty. Let's hope lots of people buy them.
The Etsy shop's more or less wound down at the moment, though I did have a sale yesterday that will be on its way tomorrow morning. The odd colour/fibre may be put up there, but really I have to start seriously stockpiling for Wonderwool at the end of April. With me just bolting on the fibre stuff on to the day job I really can't do enough stuff to keep Etsy busy and have enough for a selling stall.
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