She's not given up her request for a wheel

Although she has asked repeatedly for a Schacht Ladybug (spinning wheel for those who don't know) for her upcoming birthday, both my husband and I can not fathom giving our daughter a spinning wheel that is so expensive for her 4th birthday. She's hard on toys and clothes, and while she's mostly respectful of my spinning/fiber tools - I found my Drum Carder on the floor upside down yesterday, uncovered and bearing weight on the bristles. The drum carder was ok, but I still cringe over how we found it.


No way is she getting a $550 spinning wheel.

She has not given up the ghost however. So with that in mind, and between studying the Babes PVC wheels and my Ashford Kiwi, we think we might be able to make something for our daughter that by all rights IS a spinning wheel, but costs much less and has most parts we can fabricate on our own. Right now we're trying to sort out the basics of it, and figure out how to actually get the some of the mechanics worked out... but barring that, and with a little red spray paint, for our daughter's 4th birthday we will have a wheel for her.

BFL?

For those who've emailed me about Blue Faced Leicester, I contacted a shepard in Michigan who happens to have this lovely ewe recently sheared... If she'll ship to the processor for me then I'll have some BFL in stock in around 2 months vs the insanely long amounts of time it takes normally to get my fleeces back. I'm not sure on the cost per skein right now as this fleece is a little more than the normal cost I pay locally for the Romney, Tunis, Cheviot, and Southdown fleeces I get.

On the Dye front, as it's that time of year I'm keeping a pair of rubber coated gloves and a pair of scissors in my car with me at all times... if I see a plant growing wild in an area where I can harvest that I know will be perfect for dying with, I'm grabbing it, and hanging to dry so I can work with it later. I also happened to get in about 5# of Jaquard acid dyes via mail yesterday. I completely forgot I'd bought them when I saw the box on my porch. Needless to say I'm a very happy camper right now.

While I don't forsee getting to dye much before mid month (have a wedding reception in Mass next weekend and a bathtub to replace at home before then) I do think that before October I'll get a lot of the roving I do have in stock spun, dyed and listed in Etsy.