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.