This is the little sample batt spun up. It's 72 yards, about worsted weight. Love how the colors came out, reminds me of iris.

The fleece is Friesan, Dorset and Tunis, I'm thinking crosses.

This is the yellow dye from yesterday. Lovely color!

I did a batt with the purple and the yellow. It's .75 oz, done on my vintage Clemes & Clemes narrow carder. Hope to spin it up tomorrow.

Long time no blog! Have just started a major new project. Bought a 40 lb bale of wool from the Vermont Shepherd to dye and card into batts for spinning. It's quite a fun process, so far. Most of today was spent washing and dyeing a small portion of the fleece.

That's the whole bale. What I did today barely made a dent in it. This wool is really clean, and very little VM. The shearer did a great job, there are few second cuts.

I set up a system of buckets. First I did a cold soak, which cleaned the wool really well. After I let that drain, I did a hot wash, using Dawn. Then there were 2 rinses, and into the dye pot it went.

On the right is in the cold soak.

Nest comes the wash, then 2 rinses.

After the rinses, the wool drains a bit. Next to the dye pot. I am

using some dye I got from Dori from the

Hand Prepared Fibers Yahoo Group.

First was purple. It came out a light purple.

Here is a batt that I made from it, almost

an ounce.

Later will come the other colors.