Kickstarter

Spinning is a passion of mine. I have always been amazed at how someone could take the hair from an animal, manupulate it, and create an article of clothing out it. Last year I was able to be on the cast of the Louisiana Renaissance Festival where I worked in the weaver shed. During this time I worked with several people who were taking the raw fleece from the sheep, carding the wool, spinning the wool into thread with both drop spindles and spinning wheels and then plying that thread into yarn, and  finally placing the yarn on a loom and creating cloth out of it. Then finally toward the end of the fair, and after several (okay it was way more than several) long hours of tutelage I was able to perform all these actions. I was even able to help demonstrate the process of weaving for kids during kids days at the faire. 

I was eventually able to teach both my children and my fiance' how to spin the wool on a drop spindle.  This caused me to realize that I enjoyed showing this process to others.  Between now and November, when our current Ren Fest starts, I will be teaching workshops in conjunction with another member that teaches this process.  While some of this can be done quickly, other portions of the process require plenty of time and requires base materials, mainly fiber.  I want to try to get many different fibers for those taking the workshop to try.  As of right now, I have some raw Gulf Coast wool, some merino roving and some Corriedale.  I would like to have a few others as well.  

After LARF was over,  I realized how much I enjoyed and missed taking the wool from the sheep and then making clothing out of it. Problem was I had none of the equipment. So I had to start small, I purchased my first drop spindle.  Not long after that purchase and after many hours of spinning I purchased a wheel.  I chose a lovely Kromski Prelude and a half pound of a lovely blue dyed wool and a half pound of a deep, dark black. I sat down and took the dyed wool and over the course of a month spun the wool into thread and then took the two different colored threads and plyed them into my first yarn and from this I started to make my first creation, a scarf for my loving fiance. 

Our hope for this Kickstarter project, is to purchase the supplies to create a new line of custom dyed fiber and thread.  This project will allow us to purchase the dyes and containers for the dye, as well as new fiber for dying. Different fibers take dyes differently so the dyes that work on one fiber don't necessarily work on another fiber.   Supplies required are a large dye pot, steamer, powder dyes in numerous colors, jars to hold dye stock, and the fiber.  Also needed are some consumable supplies such as plastic wrap, nitrile gloves, paint brushes and syringes.