Progress

I tried to spend much of today finishing up a few spinning projects. I actually finished more than the skeins in the photo but the rest are hanging in the bathroom drying after their final wash. The thing I realized after I laid out these skeins for the photo is that each was produced with a slightly different dyeing or spinning method. One skein was spun as white wool. The yarn was then wound into a ball, one half of the ball was dyed & then the other & the yarn was finished by plying the two ends of the ball together. One skein was started at Kyle's studio as I carded together about five colors of Coopworth wool locks that I'd dyed the week before. That was a filthy fleece that I forgot I had. It was so shiny & soft that I soaked it lots, washed it, picked lots of hay out & decided to throw it in the dye vat. That yarn was spun multicolored as I randomly carded handfuls & then plied back on itself. And the final yarn was spun of brightly dyed Merino wool that I spun in long segments of color then plied with a nice brown strand of alpaca.

Now that the work of spinning is done, I'll do the hard part which is to label & price the yarns for sale. I've had so many folks at the Saturday Market want to buy my handspun that I've decided I'd best start stocking up over the winter so I'm ready for May. And one of my biggest problems with doing a label is that rather than just putting on yardage & fiber content, I'd be happy to tell all about the particular sheep or goat that provided me with the fiber. I also have a hard time with pricing. I realize that there is great value in handcrafting, I am just so tickled at people's interest in my work (which hardly seems like "work" to me) that I tend to underprice it. But as long as the sheep are being fed, I guess it works out.

Mr. Potter stopped at the feed store on his way home from work today to pick up 50 pounds of pig starter. We're picking up two piglets tomorrow afternoon. Not only will they be a nice addition to the freezer in several months, we know from past experience that they should provide plenty of amusing stories. One of the funniest things we've discovered about pigs is that they are very conspiratorial (is that a word?). By that I mean that if one pig can figure out how to get a gate open, he will hold it open for everyone in the pen. So let the stories begin!