Shearing, roving, dying, spinning, knitting. All by myself. All from my own produce.
I (or someone I know) owns sheep, reared and sheared in the West Country (either Somerset or Dorset). I then condition those fleeces into roving. Which I then DYE… but get this… using natural dyes from specific plants that I have grown myself.
Then going on to spin the self-dyed wool into yarn and knitting gorgeous products with it.
If you’re anything like me, that will sound very, VERY exciting.
And I am making a start on this, including making my own drop spindle to hand spin roving from a dowel and 2 CDs.
I don’t know why but I love the beginning to end process and would absolutely love to make this work and own/sell garments for which I know:
- have been hand-knitted by myself
- the yarn for which has been hand-spun by myself
- the wool for which has been sheared from a sheep I’ve met in person (hello Sir Fleecealot)
- the colours on which have been hand-dyed myself
- aaand the dyes for which have been hand-grown by myself
And I’ll even know the names of the sheep!