Roving on Sale

I've just put this roving on sale in my fiber etsy shop in the Sale section of the shop.  It's Superwash Blue Face Leicester. I don't know why it doesn't sell well - it takes dye beautifully and is a dream to spin. Is there a stigma because it's a superwash fiber? I don't know. I just know I've spun quite a bit of it and love it. It's regularly $14.60 for 8oz - it's on sale for $10.95. I have seven 8oz bags left, sale price will be in effect until it's gone.

Hand-dyed BFL

Quite a bit of the hand-dyed BFL that I dyed last week is already sold - a big thanks to my very own spinning group for putting a big dent in it. Two of the colorways - pinks and reds are totally sold out. These are going up in my etsy shop over the next several days....there are several braids of each colorway at this point.

Sampling........

Handspun samples from the latest BFL dyeing.......it's looking like fall is coming....

Another day of dyeing......

It was another day at the dyepots. Today my fibery friend Pat came over to help, I really enjoyed having company for the day and she was a huge help. She was doing everything from mixing dye colors to painting it on and rinsing it out....and then there's all the washing of tools. The heat is returning so dyeing will be put on hold for a bit, as soon as it cools back down to at least 80 I'll be back at it - have 6 more dye days to get under my belt......if I wore a belt........

New handpainted roving for sale

Here are some pix of the roving dyed at the end of last week - some colors are limited, others I have up to 4 pounds of at the moment. Above are pictures of the blue face leicester. Below are pictures of wensleydale. Worked on cleaning up the loom room, piles were everywhere...roving and such. After clearing some floor space I warped up the loom with 8 yards of rayon chenille for three scarves in teal and olive, first scarf woven, hopefully will get loom time tomorrow to finish up that warp so another can go right on.

Finally finished plying

I finally finished plying the blue faced leicester I had been spinning - took the better part of two evenings to do it - plying is so very boring. This was roving I bought on sale last fall at OFFF from Dicentra Designs........I know, I know, I have no business buying any roving - I have a walk-in closet full of fiber to spin plus I dye my own, but I couldn't resist this at 50% off. It turned out more grass green than I was expecting but I like it.....no clue as to what it will be knit/woven in to yet.......it will sit on the shelf and marinate for a bit. There are 860 yards in a size similar to fingerweight commercial yarn.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time shooting and editing pix of 20 scarves that will be up for sale, some locally, some on etsy. I was also doing research on surface design for a guild presentation in May. Need to start working on a presentation for the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild - they will be coming here to my studio in late April to learn about weaving/spinning - from what I understand these two arts/crafts are new to them. Hmm, I'm an expert at enabling I wonder who I can lure over to the fiber side.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching another drop spindle class at Llamas & Llambs in Jackonsville. These classes are always fun - it's so gratifying to see someone learn how to spin and really enjoy it. I'd say the majority of my students have kept with it - many buying wheels and for those that decided it's not the craft for them they didn't have to invest a lot of money to find that out....and they had fun in the class.