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Hi, this is Sugar Gay Isber and this is my podcast Jewelry as your side hustle, Jim's

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Great in Growth, but today we're not going to talk about jewelry.

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We're going to do something totally different.

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Another friend of mine from the Craft Alliance, I don't know what to say it wrong, CIA, Craft

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Industry Alliance, and we met on a Zoom call and it's just lovely to get to meet her.

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And so over the next hour, we're going to learn all about yarn, which is going to be

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my next, I guess, second passion.

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I don't know.

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So here we have Kim Langley from Preveyor of Fine Yards.

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And welcome to my podcast.

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Thank you.

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I'm so happy you're here.

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I'm excited.

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Where are you calling from?

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Where are you?

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I am in my, what I call my business room in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Oh, the beautiful Madison, Wisconsin.

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It's so gorgeous.

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And that's why you're wearing a beautiful sweater, because it's like cooler up there.

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Today it's going to be like 105 here in Texas.

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Yeah, it's not 105 here.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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It's still summer and it's still nice, but you know, it's not, we, we've passed our 100

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day, 100 degree days.

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Oh, so it's so nice to get that summer over with and then we go into those crisp fall days.

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So tell me about you, how, how long have you been in the yard purveyor business?

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Tell me this kind of story of how yarn became your thing because it's, it's a whole thing.

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It's different because it's not like I grew up wanting to start a yarn company.

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You know, I kind of fell into it.

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I, I'm an analyst by trade, a financial analyst.

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I used to work on budgets, different industries from television to state government to politics,

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but always doing the same thing, budgets, numbers, you know, fiscal analyst stuff, right?

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Different sectors, same thing.

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And I just decided at some point is like, oh, I know it was 2008 when everybody was

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getting laid off during the housing crisis.

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I remember.

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Oh yeah.

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So I was again, one of those people and I did a lot of interviews and I was living in

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Hawaii on Oahu and it became Hawaii got hit really bad.

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I mean, you would do interviews and instead of doing one, I would be doing two, three

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interviews for the same position, like with against 20 other people.

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You know, it was just like, it was really bad.

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So I decided, okay, I need to do something else.

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So I started a yarn store because I'd always been knitting and I looked at it from a business

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perspective, it's like, what are the things I know best?

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We looked at them, you know, looked at the market and I knew there was a yarn store closing

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and I knew it had been a pretty stable environment.

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You know, it's not a huge market, but it was stable and they'd always had a certain, they'd

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always had three yarn stores on the island.

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So I figured, okay.

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And I took a long time looking for space.

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A friend and I, we would drive every back road on Oahu.

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We drove all over Honolulu looking for space and I finally got a space and I was yarn story.

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And I was the yarn lady on Oahu for six, eight, seven years.

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And you know, just sold yarn and I really liked it.

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You know, it was fun.

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It was low key.

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And then for various reasons, I needed to move back to the mainland, you know, the continental

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United States.

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Not amazing move.

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Yeah, well, it was a, you know, it was interesting.

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And I originally thought, well, it's okay.

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I'll go back and I'm in the Midwest because I'm from the Midwest and it was like family

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type reasons.

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So it's like, that's how I ended up in Madison.

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And I was going to start a yarn store again, but you know, retail is really brutal.

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It's like you always on, you know, I was open six days a week.

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And even if I wasn't at the store, I was still working on things.

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So after I decided to take a break for a month or two, and then I said, yeah, I don't want

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to go back to retail.

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And I looked around at wholesale.

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I looked at some other, other sectors.

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I managed an organic farm for a while.

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Was a business manager on an organic tomato farm.

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That was a good time.

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That was great.

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Tomatoes.

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I'm tasting them right now.

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Yeah.

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And then I found out about this woolen mill and I decided, well, if I'm serious about

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wanting to understand the fiber industry and kind of see where I can go with that, I decided

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to work at this woolen mill because, you know, my theory is always be, if you want to learn

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something, just get a job somewhere in the industry, usually at the bottom and figure

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out how it works.

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Oh my gosh, that must have been so interesting.

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So I like probably like train loads.

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I know it comes in train loads sometimes the amount of wool that people get to go and do

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it.

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Well, yeah.

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The final type of woolen mill, it was, the equipment is over a hundred years old.

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Oh, I love it.

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Okay.

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So think, you know, that Lowell, Massachusetts, the mill drills, they would have been very

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familiar with these machines.

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Same machines.

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The technology for spinning yarn hasn't changed much since 1880.

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I mean, and this mill, I was going to say they have more safety precautions, but this

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mill, because it was very, you know, the owner had removed all the safety features because,

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you know, for one reason or another, it's like you need to check something, you'd have

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to remove the safety covers.

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So she just started leaving them off.

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Okay.

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So, yeah, it was like old style, but it was interesting and I was doing prep work.

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So before wool can go on a mill equipment, which is huge.

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I mean, we're talking a building the size, the length of a basketball court.

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Wow.

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You know, and the equipment, the carter, I can't even compare it.

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It'd be like, it would barely, if you were to put it on a basketball court, it would

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probably reach to the half court line.

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Wow.

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I mean, it's two machines.

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They're huge.

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They actually kind of built the building and left the end wall open in order to put these

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machines in.

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Wow.

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And she got the machines 30 years ago from Massachusetts.

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Yeah, they had built the building, left the wall open on the end, and then the semi, basically

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they had to get special equipment to get them off and into the building, and then they built

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the end wall.

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Wow.

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You know, it was like, and then eventually they built another, they needed more space,

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and then they built like a, another section onto that building.

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So now if they were to get them out, it would be really tricky.

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Yeah.

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So this is like a set thing.

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So carding wall, let's talk about that.

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So you get this big chunk of wool, you have to clean it somehow first, right?

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So that's what I did.

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I would clean wool because there's two ways of doing it.

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So if you're doing the carter, there's, it's really two things.

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So you have people that are selling wool by the bale, which is usually 500 pounds.

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Right.

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Okay.

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So the big wool is going to be 1000 pounds of wool can be washed in a scouring plant,

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of which there are only two in the United States.

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Wow.

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Okay.

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One is in North Carolina.

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One is in San Angelo, Texas.

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Yeah.

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I knew seeing, I was already thinking San Angelo's got a big wool.

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I've been to San Angelo.

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Yeah, a big wool industry down there, and that's where the big scouring plant is.

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So, but to go into that scouring plant, the minimum is 1000 pounds.

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Wow.

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So that's how it is.

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Well, basically you, oh, to wash wool on any level, it's, you need very hot water and

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soap, like dish soap, that kind of soap.

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The oils have to come off the lanol.

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Lanolin, which we call the grease.

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So this wool and mill had two distinct segments.

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They would process large quantities of wool for their own yarns.

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They would buy a clip and they'd have like maybe 2000 pounds of wool that they would

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process for their own brand.

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Then they did what's called custom spinning.

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And this means anybody who has a few sheep or is buying wool from various people and

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wants to make their own yarn, you can take it to a woolen mill who will do custom spinning.

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And that's what I did was I would go through that wall because often people bring in stuff

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that maybe is good, maybe is not, or it's got to be gone through because the mill equipment.

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So yeah, and you don't want crap in it.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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So I would, what's called skirt, which means I lay the wool out on a table, like a screen

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and that way any dirt falls through.

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And then you kind of look at it too to make sure it's like quality wise because the mill

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can't take, if wool is weak or has breaks, it will just break into the equipment and

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it's not going to do anything.

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And that's caused by various environmental factors.

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So one of the things I would do is I would look at that wool and I would pull it apart

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and check the fibers that they were strong.

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It's called grating.

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Yeah, that makes sense.

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And then I would also, skirting means basically you're going to go through that wool and you're

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going to look for thistles.

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Sticks.

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Sticks.

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Shit.

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Yeah.

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You know, crap.

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Hard pieces of what we call tags, which is grease that is the lanolin that has gotten

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a lot of dirt attached to it and it forms like clots.

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I mean, clots.

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Almost like a clod.

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Yeah.

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And it hangs in lumps.

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I've seen that on sheet before.

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Yeah.

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And that's the kind of stuff you have to remove.

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So all that has to be pulled off manually.

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Wow.

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And then we wash it.

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When we were washing it, we had, there are different ways to wash wool, but when you're

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doing these smaller quantities, the woman I worked for at that mill, she had developed

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a process using old Maytag washing machines.

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Oh, I love it.

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And these machines were like 20, 30 years old, right?

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Okay.

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But what she'd done is had the agitators disconnected.

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So basically you have tubs that spin.

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Right.

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And the thing is to wool, people think wool, oh, it's going to felt, it's going to, you

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know, get all messed up if you put it in anything, right?

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Hot water.

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Yeah.

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But it's not true.

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To felt wool, you need two things.

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You need agitation and hot water.

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So if I, and to clean wool, you need hot water that's at least 150 degrees.

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Get the oils out.

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Yeah.

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Because that lifts the lanolin off it.

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So what you do is you fill these washing machines up with 150 degree hot water, put your soap

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in, which is just basically it's similar to dish soap.

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I mean, we just got it in 50 gallon tubs is all, you know what I mean?

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But yeah, I use dish soap to wash wool.

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Yeah.

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And it works really well.

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It's a decreaser.

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Yeah.

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It cuts the grease.

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You put your soap in, stick your hand in with a, on with a heavy rubber glove over it.

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Okay.

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The soap is all mixed in already because you're not going to move that wool.

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So you want to make sure your soap is all dissolved in throughout the water.

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And then I would just dump the wool in and let it settle into the water.

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And then you just press it in so that all the wool is under water and you let it sit.

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And then you're not, cause you're not agitating it.

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You're just putting it in the hot water, pushing it down to make sure it's all covered.

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Yeah.

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Put the lid down, let it sit for 20 minutes, hit the machine to spin.

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So you spin that water out.

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And that's just, you know, what do you call it, a certificate force?

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Yep.

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So all the wool ends up on the size of the machine.

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Yep.

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Again, as an agitation, it's just pushed back.

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Right.

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And then you can fill it up again with hot water.

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Oh, and do a rinse.

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Well, usually depending on the wool, we would do two washes and then three rinses.

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Wow.

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And if there were certain types of breeds, certain breeds have different levels of grease

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in their wool.

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Yeah.

246
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So most breeds of wool, we did two washes and washes are really just soaks with soap.

247
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:49,960
Right.

248
00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:50,960
Yeah.

249
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:54,440
And then three rinses, which is just using the clear water and spinning it out and filling

250
00:12:54,440 --> 00:13:01,320
it up, letting it sit, spin it out again, would generally get you very clean wool.

251
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:02,320
Okay.

252
00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,640
Now it's going to dry off this kind of stink.

253
00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:05,640
Yeah.

254
00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:11,760
And then actually you have this really beautiful, suddenly from being gray and dirty and all

255
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,120
this crap in it, you get this brilliantly white wool.

256
00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:17,840
It's amazing what water and soap can do.

257
00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:21,880
And then you have to dry it because it's got to be dry before it can touch the machines.

258
00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,400
And you dry it on racks that have to be able to have the water.

259
00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,480
Air has to circulate above and below the wool.

260
00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:29,480
Yeah.

261
00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:30,800
So it's a screen, like a screen.

262
00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:31,800
Yeah.

263
00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,760
The screen and we had the screens attached on racks going up the wall.

264
00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:37,080
And then you have a fan at one end.

265
00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:40,000
You have a couple, just a couple fans.

266
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:44,600
So the air circulates and then that's how you dry wool.

267
00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:49,800
And then once the wool is totally dry, you know, we bag it.

268
00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:55,840
We used to use these big heavy duty clear, but like just plus a bag to move wool from

269
00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:00,120
one, one piece of the thing to the next, right?

270
00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:03,040
You had stick it in a bag, move it over to the picker.

271
00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:08,560
And then the picker is a machine that goes, the wool goes through and it fluffs it up,

272
00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:12,040
separates the fibers, fluffs it up.

273
00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:18,560
And it also allows things to like fall, like any little sticks that are still in it or

274
00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:19,560
right.

275
00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:21,680
So we call VM vegetable matter.

276
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:22,680
Okay.

277
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:27,880
And then from the picker, it goes to the carter.

278
00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:33,360
So in the carter is this big machine and you put the wool in at one end and it goes over

279
00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:43,080
a series of drums with like a mesh, little wires sticking up from a mesh that hold it.

280
00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:44,640
I don't know how to describe it.

281
00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:45,640
It's like, it's a picker.

282
00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:46,640
So it's picking.

283
00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:49,520
So I'm kind of thinking about like when they do with cotton, they like comb it.

284
00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:50,520
Sort of.

285
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:51,520
It's like, yeah.

286
00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:54,440
Except that what it is, is it's big drums.

287
00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,720
If you can think of a big circular drum on it, like a 50 gallon drum, but these are like

288
00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:00,040
my size.

289
00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,720
They're massive.

290
00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:08,000
And then on the outside of the drum, there are all these little wires, one inch long that

291
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,400
are sticking out and pointy.

292
00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:16,400
And as the drums go around, the wool catches on the wires and then it catches on the next

293
00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:20,920
drum and there's a series of these drums, like four or five of them of different sizes

294
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:24,680
from very big ones at the bottom to smaller ones at the top.

295
00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:30,280
And as the drums go through, as everything is turning, the wool is getting pulled from

296
00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:35,240
the bigger drum up through the system till at the end, it's on a smaller drum and it's

297
00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,080
all coming being pulled off the drum in a sheet.

298
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:40,320
It's called a web.

299
00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:41,320
Wow.

300
00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:47,360
And that web then goes over a conveyor into the next machine where again, it goes through

301
00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:55,560
this process of being constantly pulled out and put into a web and pulled out and just,

302
00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:00,680
it's constantly being pulled and folded basically.

303
00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:08,080
So one machine is wheel, I mean, these drums that are pushing the fibers through and spinning.

304
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:13,200
And then on the other system, it's just that web is being pulled out and thinned and pulled

305
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:19,000
out and thinned so that at the end of it, you've got that web is in like a half inch

306
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:21,000
wide pencil roving.

307
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:22,000
Okay.

308
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:23,000
So still on the roll.

309
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,000
Yeah.

310
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:30,880
And it goes on this big roller that takes two people to lift and then that would go on

311
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,240
the spinning machine.

312
00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:35,280
And now it's going to become thinner.

313
00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:41,000
And then the spinning machine makes it has a bunch of, it's going to put it on cones,

314
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,760
not really, what are they called?

315
00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:46,120
They're wooden.

316
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:48,000
I'm blanking on the proper name for it.

317
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:49,640
Okay, but it's kind of like a pagan.

318
00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:51,640
It's like spinning it around.

319
00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:52,640
Right.

320
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:53,640
Exactly.

321
00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:57,240
And the thing is, yeah, I mean, if you, there's lots of places you can Google for that.

322
00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:01,920
In fact, I can give you a link that you can show people how to look at a spinning meal

323
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,480
and operation.

324
00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:07,920
But once it goes through that, so then you have this pencil roving that goes onto these

325
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:09,920
cones.

326
00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,400
And it's all, the whole thing is about being thinner, thinner, thinner, right?

327
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:14,400
Right.

328
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:15,400
So you get the single plies.

329
00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:20,840
And then the single plies, those cones are going to go on a different machine where all

330
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:23,800
the singles are put into two plies or three plies.

331
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,160
And that's when you actually have yarn.

332
00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:27,960
A single plie is not that great.

333
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:34,080
But you know, and you do these things, you know, by shifting the machine, the machine

334
00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:39,840
is run by, you know, the gears, you change the gears to make it either how thin you want

335
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:41,920
those singles to be.

336
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:47,040
And then again, on the plying machine, you can adjust the machine for how, you know,

337
00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:50,520
how you want to apply the, what we call the twist.

338
00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:53,200
I mean, that's a very, very short version.

339
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:55,840
But where does the color come in?

340
00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:57,880
Cause, Oh, but that's much later.

341
00:17:57,880 --> 00:17:58,880
Oh, really?

342
00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:01,960
After you have, there are two ways to do colors.

343
00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,760
So the most common way is that you dye the yarn.

344
00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:10,960
So after the yarn is applied and it's put into the length of the yarn, like if you want

345
00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:18,240
a skein, which could be any length, you know, maybe 250 yards or 400 yards or 100 yards.

346
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:19,240
Wow.

347
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:20,240
Okay.

348
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:25,200
So once you've got your skeins, that's generally when people are dying yarn.

349
00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:27,120
And then you have a, how you want to do it?

350
00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:35,120
We had a 30 gallon, what actually it looks like a, it was a restaurant piece of equipment

351
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:37,320
from a restaurant where they would make soups in.

352
00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:38,320
Oh, wow.

353
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:41,720
Cause it's a standalone, huge 30 gallon thing.

354
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:44,800
And that's what she dyed yarn in myself.

355
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:50,120
I don't have that luxury of having that standalone with its own gas source thing.

356
00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:56,680
And I dye yarn in smaller quantities and just use a stove top, you know, for my heat source.

357
00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:01,680
But the, you're not just sticking it down like spaghetti, like it's on, like it's not

358
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:03,880
a, yeah, but they don't make a mess.

359
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:04,880
No.

360
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:08,600
What you do is you have it, the yarn is, each skein is tied off.

361
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,800
So it's not going to tangle with very loose ties.

362
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:17,400
And then my system is similar to what was done at the woolen mill, cause I thought it

363
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:26,600
was very practical is that the skeins are then tied together on, she would use a twine.

364
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,520
Just regular twine, like bailing twine.

365
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,080
And you use these links of time because it's really rough.

366
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,480
So it's easy to find cause the yarn is not.

367
00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:35,480
So the twine is rough.

368
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:39,080
So you can reach in and feel the twine and find it.

369
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:44,120
And so you'd put like however many skeins of yarn you're dying, you would split them

370
00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:49,640
up into different bundles on the twine kind of evenly and then put them in your dipot.

371
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:55,480
So in the dipot is just hot water, water with your dye mix in it, whatever your dye mix

372
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:57,560
is.

373
00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:00,440
And then you let it soak as you increase the heat.

374
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:05,920
And then as it heats, there are a couple of different, this is where people get very

375
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,200
proprietary about how they do their dye process.

376
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:15,440
Like when they put in their mordant, some people put the citric acid in at the beginning

377
00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:19,720
of the process, which means your dye is going to strike very quickly.

378
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,840
Some people are vinegar cause you need an acid.

379
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,080
What is an acid?

380
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:30,480
And then, but other people are kind of proprietary because if you put the acid, your mordant

381
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:38,800
in it, different points in the process, it changes how your yarn, how it takes, right?

382
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:43,200
When the dye does its final stick, right?

383
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:44,200
Yeah.

384
00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:46,800
Is there a fixative or is the vinegar also the fixative?

385
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:47,800
No, that is.

386
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:48,800
That's what I mean by mordant.

387
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:54,600
Mordant is what causes those dye molecules, the chemistry to change, but it can't be just

388
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:55,600
the mordant.

389
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:56,600
You also need heat.

390
00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,080
So if you were to do, try to dye, acid dye in cold water.

391
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:02,080
When works?

392
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:06,560
Well, it might work eventually, but it would take a lot longer.

393
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:11,800
And to be honest, I've never tried it to say, I definitely say it doesn't work.

394
00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:17,800
But the idea is that you need heat because the heat with the acid, it causes those dye

395
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:23,320
molecules to bond with the wool molecules and that's what's the stick, right?

396
00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:31,200
And if you get the heat up and you have your right amount of acid, your dye is not going

397
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:32,200
to run.

398
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,200
It's going to stick.

399
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:34,200
It's permanent.

400
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:35,200
It's not going to do anything.

401
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:39,320
Like when I dye yarn, you look in my pots, you don't see any color.

402
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:40,960
The water is clear.

403
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,320
After you've rinsed it.

404
00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,640
No, before I've rinsed it.

405
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:51,960
When I dye yarn, my stick, I put my mordant in it and how I do my process, that means

406
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:56,600
that when I go to take the yarn out of that pot, the water is clear.

407
00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,080
I have almost what's called 99% take up.

408
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:01,640
There's no dye in the water.

409
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:02,640
Okay.

410
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,080
I've dyed things with writ dye like tons over my lifetime.

411
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:09,160
And there's always dye in the thing.

412
00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:16,440
I could explain why writ dye because writ dye is a, it's not just for acid.

413
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:21,520
What they do with writ dye is they put in dye for both cottons, which is a different

414
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,640
dye process and per acid.

415
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:29,800
So the idea with writ dye is it's going to the part of that dye powder that's meant for

416
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,080
acid will stick and the rest will wash out.

417
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:34,080
Okay.

418
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,880
So you're going to get a lot more rins with writ dye.

419
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:37,880
Yes.

420
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:38,880
Yes.

421
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:39,880
Yes.

422
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:40,880
Else it's going to come off in your washing machine.

423
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:41,880
Have you ever?

424
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:42,880
Yes.

425
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:43,880
I've done that a million times too.

426
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:44,880
Like, oh my God.

427
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:48,560
But most, you know, but my, one of my frustrations were when there was a time when it seems like

428
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:53,280
everybody was going, is going to be a hand dyer and people would be posting on boards

429
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:59,440
and stuff on Ravlery about, so is all the dye supposed to run out when you dye yarn?

430
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:01,320
And I'm like, yeah, no, no.

431
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:02,320
Whoa, whoa, whoa.

432
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:03,320
Yeah.

433
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,320
You don't want that.

434
00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,920
You're wearing a sliver and you get wet and all of a sudden you got a puddle of blue

435
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,320
at the bottom of your feet.

436
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:13,760
You know, and the thing is, like I said, my process is the water is clear.

437
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:19,920
So that usually I only have to rinse things once or twice and that is remarkable.

438
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,040
But it is between wool dye, wool dye.

439
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:28,040
Well, and this is dying wool, which is, or silks, which are acid dyes, right?

440
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:29,040
Right.

441
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:34,120
Um, cotton is a whole other process and I don't deal with cotton yarns anymore.

442
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:36,720
So I'm out of practice on that one.

443
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:40,320
And then what about like Angora wool and some of those more?

444
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:41,320
Well, it depends.

445
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:42,840
Angora can be two things.

446
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:48,720
It can be from a goat or from rabbits, but both of those are protein fibers and protein

447
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,000
fibers are acid dyes.

448
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:58,640
So any protein fibers, so that means wool, cashmere, Angora, mohair.

449
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:03,120
I've dyed mohair.

450
00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:07,760
I'm trying to think if I've dyed Angora.

451
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:08,760
Maybe a blend.

452
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:13,200
I don't think I've ever, I don't think I've ever dyed at 100% Angora, you know, from the

453
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,400
rabbits.

454
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:15,600
I don't think I've ever done that.

455
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:23,320
But in principle, because it's a protein fiber, it should have the same, it's the same process.

456
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:29,080
Protein fibers are acid is the more than you want an acid dye.

457
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,360
And so now you've dyed it in its wool.

458
00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:36,680
And now when you want to blend like two colors together or three colors, which I've seen

459
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:38,880
a beautiful wools and.

460
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:40,400
Oh yeah, there's all kinds of do wait.

461
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:41,800
I mean, indie dyers.

462
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,640
I mean, I'm talking about dying in a pot, right?

463
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:47,280
Where you're doing a solid or a semi-solid.

464
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:51,240
If you want to paint it, then that's a different process.

465
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:53,160
You know, you literally, you can paint the yarn.

466
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,560
There are so many different ways to dye yarn.

467
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:04,040
And there's another way to do it, which Mills can do, which is you dye the fiber before

468
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:06,440
it goes through the carter.

469
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:14,080
And then that cut that dry dyed fiber can be carted in a specific order to create a pencil

470
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:20,600
roving that is going to show up with long segments of color, right?

471
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,600
Because you're putting it and you do it by weight.

472
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:33,320
I'm like, for example, you may dye 40 pounds of wool blue and another 40 pounds gray red

473
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,400
and then another 20 pounds yellow, right?

474
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,720
And then you're going to decide you want, so you've got red, blue and yellow and you

475
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,480
can make now wool that is green, purple, orange.

476
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:49,840
You just have to put it in the carter in the percentages together and that carter is going

477
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,560
to mix that yarn.

478
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:58,040
So that visually when you look at it, it's going to look whatever color you want, right?

479
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:04,600
Or whatever color it is, but even if it looks, say, orange, if you look at it very closely,

480
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:10,680
you're going to see that the fibers are yellow and red, but together from a distance, they're

481
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:12,360
going to look more orange.

482
00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:17,960
Or you do an orange and you throw in some red to get you a heathered color or you do

483
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:24,520
a natural gray, but as you're putting it in the mill into the carter, say you put in that

484
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:30,240
gray wool, that natural gray, and then you throw in 20 pounds of that same wool that

485
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,840
has been dyed green.

486
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,280
This is going to give you a heathered yarn because those green fibers are going to be

487
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:42,240
mixed into it through the carding process and it's going to come out as a gray wool with

488
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,640
flecks of green.

489
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:50,840
Think tweed, heathered, and those kind of things have to be done at the mill level,

490
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:51,840
right?

491
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:56,480
Because you need that carter to mix the wool, which can be quite fascinating, but I'll tell

492
00:26:56,480 --> 00:27:01,600
you it's a pain to clean the carter afterwards because before you do the next job, you've

493
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,200
got to clean all that stuff off.

494
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,320
Perfectly, yes.

495
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,000
I prefer to dye personally.

496
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,240
This is just my personal preference.

497
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:16,560
I much prefer dyeing skeins to dyeing 30 pounds of loose wool.

498
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,800
The techniques are different.

499
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:24,400
How you corral it and what process you use to do it is a little different.

500
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:29,560
It must have been a wonderful job so that you really understood everything about the

501
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:36,400
product that you're going to be selling and you understand that it's a fine wool.

502
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,920
You understand the grading process.

503
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,600
How invaluable was this job to you?

504
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:47,240
Oh, this is how I fell into having this yarn business because as I'm learning to skirt

505
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:53,280
this wool, I'm realizing that I can tell what breed it is by the feel of the fleece and

506
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,080
looking at it.

507
00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:01,080
The woman I worked for was extremely knowledgeable about the fiber industry.

508
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,840
She'd been in the business for 30 years.

509
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:06,600
She knew all about it.

510
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:12,000
I kept learning more and more about the wool and I became fascinated about how the different

511
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:16,720
breeds presented.

512
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:20,320
Certain breeds are known for different qualities.

513
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,000
That got me really interested.

514
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:28,640
That's how I decided to start my own yarn brand because there wasn't a lot of…

515
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:32,480
There are very few people doing breed…

516
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:41,600
When I started this three years ago, in 2021, at that point, there were very few places doing

517
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,520
single breed yarns.

518
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:50,560
There was only one other company I could find that was really focused on local, their fiber

519
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:51,560
shed.

520
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:59,040
I use fiber shed in the sense that it's fiber produced within, I consider it a day's drive.

521
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,680
It's a place that can reach in the day.

522
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:05,240
To me, that's local.

523
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,800
Part of my reason for this is also seeing that there are all these farmers out there

524
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:18,240
with wool and nowhere to sell it because they were too small to get into the larger markets.

525
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,320
They didn't have enough sheep.

526
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:23,240
A lot of farmers sell to the shearer.

527
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,800
This is a thing people don't understand about wool.

528
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:30,920
If you buy a commercial wool, just some common brand that Michaels…

529
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:36,240
Common commercial wool, that wool comes from what's called the wool pool.

530
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,680
The wool pool is…

531
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,960
There used to be three, now there are less.

532
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:48,200
There used to be four, but anyway, there are less buyers, big buyers that buy wool.

533
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:49,280
They're the big buyers.

534
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:53,960
The shearers generally have a contract with one of these big buyers that when they are

535
00:29:53,960 --> 00:30:01,480
done shearing, they will take their bags and a shearers bag carries 250 pounds of wool.

536
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,440
There's huge money sacks.

537
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,120
It's going to be wool from wherever he's been shearing.

538
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:08,120
It's not separated.

539
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,080
It's like whatever it is.

540
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:15,800
A lot of wool is crosses, cross-bred sheep.

541
00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:21,640
If he knows, he can sell it to the wool pool, these companies that buy large amounts of

542
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:26,960
wool for say 40 cents a pound, maybe 75 cents a pound.

543
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:28,400
The wool price has gone down.

544
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:32,880
It's only gone down in the last eight or 10 years.

545
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:37,720
It used to be 20 years ago, farmers could sell their wool and have enough money maybe

546
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,840
to buy the feed for the winter or something.

547
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,880
Now the wool, they sell their wool.

548
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:47,120
It doesn't even pay for the shearing.

549
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:52,040
Often the shearers, and they've got to carry this wool around, and they've got to then

550
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:56,680
meet up with the wool pool at some point to offload it.

551
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:02,680
If they're only going to get 40 cents a pound, they're only going to pay the farmer.

552
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:05,440
Farmers like if he gets five cents.

553
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,240
But the wool has to come off of the sheep every year.

554
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:09,240
Has to come off of the sheep.

555
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:14,080
So it's kind of like, okay, we're always going to like, never the pause.

556
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:15,080
Right.

557
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,160
And the farmers are making their money on the meat.

558
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,000
The meat production, right?

559
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,000
And that's what it is.

560
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,720
And like I said, there was a time when fleece was worth a lot more, so it was a dual market.

561
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:35,160
But the wool market has just plummeted to such a degree that that is no longer viable.

562
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:37,560
So they're making their money on the meat market.

563
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:42,760
The wool is just something they're trying to like offload.

564
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:46,840
And then you have me and I decided, well, there's so many of these small producers that

565
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:52,600
if I could provide a market for them and pay them a fair price, get held the whole industry.

566
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:58,320
A fair price in the wool pool, then, you know, that's good for them, good for me, right?

567
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:02,000
So I go in and offer them a dollar a pound.

568
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,440
Which is tremendous, but you only want one kind of sheep.

569
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:06,440
But I'm particular.

570
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:07,440
Yes.

571
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:12,200
I'm only looking for sheep that are 100%.

572
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:20,400
Usually they're registered with the breed associations or there are different ways of

573
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,840
knowing that they're 100%.

574
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,120
I always get affidavits from anybody I buy from because I figure if you're willing to

575
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,440
write down that it's 100%, then I believe you.

576
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,480
Because why would you sign that if it wasn't?

577
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:32,480
Right.

578
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,480
Right.

579
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:34,920
Because you would kind of know too by touching it.

580
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:39,200
And I kind of, you know, by looking at the lease, I can tell if it's too much.

581
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:40,200
Yeah.

582
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,000
But yes, but I only buy specific types of wool.

583
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,040
But there's quite a bit of that out there too.

584
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,000
It's just a matter of finding it.

585
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:48,000
Yeah.

586
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,400
So when you get it, it's like virgin, never been died before.

587
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:52,960
No, I get wool.

588
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:56,840
I mean, I drive county, I drive so many county roads, okay?

589
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,280
I think that's cool.

590
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:01,600
And I go out and they'll pull out bags.

591
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,800
If I don't get there on sharing day, which I try to go on sharing day sometimes, but

592
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:06,440
that's not always practical.

593
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:13,480
So let me tell you, so like the last time I go out to this place and he knows I'm coming,

594
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:18,800
I always try to, you know, I'm trying to give them, I'll be there between 10 and 11.

595
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:19,800
Right.

596
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,160
Because I've gotten lost a few times, okay?

597
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:23,160
Right.

598
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:27,880
But you know, I go out, they'll have bags of wool and I will pull from the bags and

599
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:29,560
I'll pull out segments of wool.

600
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,200
I'll check it for strength.

601
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:33,400
I'm going to look at it for color.

602
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,400
I'm going to paw through it and see how much shit is in it.

603
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:42,480
And I mean, I'm pooped literally, you know, it's like, how clean is this wool, right?

604
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,680
How much vegetable matter is in it?

605
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:46,800
And then, you know, if it's really bad, I may only,

606
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:48,360
If you're paying for that too, right?

607
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:50,160
Yeah, because I pay for weight.

608
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:56,000
And if the weight is a lot of heavy stuff, then I say, well, I'll offer you 85 cents

609
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:01,280
a pound because look, there's all this chunks, right?

610
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:05,400
If it's fairly clean, I'll offer them a dollar a pound.

611
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:09,600
If it's, and that's when I don't know them and I don't even know if this will make a

612
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:10,600
good yarn.

613
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:11,600
Right.

614
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:16,840
Because to be honest, I've been, I've had a few times when I have bought large quantities

615
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,840
of wool, got it to the mill and can't do anything with it.

616
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:22,800
It will not hold on the, you know what I mean?

617
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:26,840
It's like, once it's been washed and they try to put it through the equipment, it's

618
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,880
weak or there's, it just won't hold together.

619
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,320
Or I mean, I've, yeah, so I've lost money on these things a few times.

620
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,520
You have to just throw it away at that point.

621
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:38,000
There are different things we can do.

622
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,480
Like I could tell you about some stuff that I have in bags.

623
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:43,560
If you'd like to buy pillow bats.

624
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,000
Oh, that's interesting.

625
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,680
We'll pillow, we'll inserts for pillow.

626
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:49,680
Right.

627
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:51,080
And they make excellent pillows.

628
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:55,080
And it's just one of those things that I need to start marketing, but I've been so focused

629
00:34:55,080 --> 00:35:00,120
on just getting my supply line straight that it's just waiting for I have time to make

630
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:01,120
phone calls.

631
00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:05,920
But that was one of the things we did because the Suffolk would not stay on the Carter.

632
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:06,920
It, you know what I mean?

633
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:08,800
It has to get pulled through the Carter.

634
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:10,480
You know, it's going to be drafted.

635
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:11,480
Yeah.

636
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:16,800
And this, this wolf for whatever reason, she could only, it would go so far and then it

637
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:18,440
would literally drop.

638
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:20,640
It would just drop on the floor.

639
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,800
So, but bats is a little different because it's a machine where you're putting in a certain

640
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,680
amount and it just spreads it that far.

641
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:28,680
Right.

642
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:30,400
So we could make pillow bats out of it.

643
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:31,400
That worked.

644
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,760
So I have color bats and they'll sell.

645
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,840
It's just a matter of when I have time to like deal with it.

646
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:39,640
They're just bagged up right now.

647
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:45,760
I had, but I have put them in pillows and I use a pillow with wool bats and it's like

648
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:46,760
I love it.

649
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:49,920
It's like the most comfortable thing I've ever had.

650
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:54,680
And natural instead of, you know, just some, it's not polyester fill.

651
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:55,680
It's natural.

652
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:56,680
Right.

653
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,080
It holds up really well.

654
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:02,600
And that's a vintage kind of way of doing it.

655
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,080
So there's a whole nother level of that because.

656
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:06,080
Right.

657
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:10,200
But there have been times where it's like I've had to throw wool away because it's just,

658
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:11,200
it's not going to go anywhere.

659
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:15,800
So it's like compost, you know, it's like, okay, it composts really well.

660
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:16,800
Okay.

661
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,880
Well, hair has got a lot of nutrients in it.

662
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:24,280
So I, yeah, and wool is a nitrogen fixer.

663
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,640
So and now there's started to be this thing with pellets.

664
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:35,600
If you've caught into that, the wool pellet thing, somebody in the Midwest, out West basically

665
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:41,600
realized that a lot of people, farms and stuff have been using wool for compost and in mulch

666
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:44,280
and stuff because you have it and it's a good thing.

667
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:45,280
Right.

668
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:46,280
Yeah.

669
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:50,640
But a lot of typical urban gardener, gardeners, they're going to look at that and say, yeah,

670
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,560
I know that looks funky and it smells and maybe not want it around.

671
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:55,560
Right.

672
00:36:55,560 --> 00:37:03,520
So somebody figured out a way to take that raw grease wool and make it into pellets.

673
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:10,120
So it looks like something that for like an urban gardener is a much more palatable.

674
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:14,200
It still has all that rich, but it has all the nutrients of that raw because it's raw

675
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:15,200
wool.

676
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:17,320
All they've done is they put it.

677
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:22,680
They also do a kind of a flash burn on it to get out any seeds that might be mixed into

678
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:23,680
it.

679
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:24,680
So they don't have to worry about.

680
00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:25,680
Yeah.

681
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:29,680
They heated up enough to kill any seeds because that is one of the problems with using raw

682
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,720
wool as mulch is that.

683
00:37:32,720 --> 00:37:34,720
Brass seeds are in there.

684
00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:35,840
All that kind of stuff.

685
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:39,200
So you're like, I use it in my garden because I know it.

686
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:40,920
So I just kind of watch for it.

687
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,240
You know, I think pops up, you pull it out.

688
00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:44,240
Not the worst thing.

689
00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:45,240
Yeah.

690
00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:46,240
Yeah.

691
00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:47,240
It's not the worst thing.

692
00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:48,760
Do you have any sheep?

693
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,680
No, I don't.

694
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:52,280
I live in Madison.

695
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:53,400
I have no sheep.

696
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,800
And the thing is I grew up on a farm, but we never had sheep.

697
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:59,800
We raised goats, beef cattle.

698
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:04,560
You know, I milked goats for years when I was growing up.

699
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:05,560
Wow.

700
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:06,560
Yeah.

701
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:08,640
I have what I would call a diverse background.

702
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:09,640
Yeah.

703
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:13,520
Well, I love me some good goats cheese, but I wouldn't know how to make it.

704
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:15,320
I mean, I've probably seen a YouTube video.

705
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:16,720
No, we never did the cheese.

706
00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:21,800
We just, my father decided at some point we drank too much milk.

707
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:26,160
So he got a goat and that's the milk we drank.

708
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,640
Does it taste that much different, tangier, like goat cheese?

709
00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:34,160
Well, supposedly, but you know, if that's all you drink, you don't know that.

710
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:35,160
Yeah.

711
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:36,160
You know that.

712
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:37,720
And we used to give it out.

713
00:38:37,720 --> 00:38:42,440
We used to tell people to give them tests and stuff to see if they could tell the difference.

714
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:43,520
Oh, right.

715
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:45,680
But nobody really ever did.

716
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:46,680
Oh, wow.

717
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:47,680
I didn't know.

718
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:50,360
I would have thought the flavor would have been really unique.

719
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:51,360
If it's cold.

720
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:52,360
It's still good.

721
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,560
I don't think it's, I mean, like I said, I haven't drank it for a long time, but there

722
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:01,480
were like three years there that that's all we drank was goat milk.

723
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:02,480
Wow.

724
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:04,120
Well, you can buy it in the store now.

725
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:10,400
So some people are allergic to goat, to cow milk, so they have to guess I have that.

726
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,800
So okay, so now tell me about your business.

727
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,360
Now, when did, so now you left that place?

728
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:16,360
Obviously at some point.

729
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:20,720
Well, I worked at the mill part time until a year ago.

730
00:39:20,720 --> 00:39:24,760
And I was there at the time because it was like, I would do, I was doing the wash for

731
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:25,760
custom jobs.

732
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:27,840
So that kind of business fluctuates a little bit.

733
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:33,040
So it's like, I would work two days a week doing, I would do prepping wool for custom

734
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:38,520
jobs and I would do her run the dye pot when I was there and dye yarn for her.

735
00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:43,320
And then, but you know, there'd be times when there wasn't any work.

736
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:44,640
So I'd be two days a week.

737
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:48,480
And maybe it would get busier and I'd be three or four days.

738
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:51,840
Then maybe there'd be times where it's like, you know, that kind of work does not pay very

739
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:53,000
well.

740
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:58,120
So in order for me to do, this sounds ridiculous, but in order for me to do that job, occasionally

741
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,280
I'd have to stop and take a temporary full time job for two months.

742
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,120
So I could make some money, catch up on my expenses, right?

743
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:07,760
Basically, so I could afford to work for her.

744
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:10,280
Like what it would have been.

745
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:11,280
You're very committed.

746
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:15,240
But what it did do is it gave you an education beyond an education.

747
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:16,240
Yes.

748
00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:17,320
I know a lot about wool.

749
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,760
I understand wool, how it works.

750
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,880
It taught me a lot about the fiber industry in general.

751
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:28,480
And then when I wanted to go out and make my own yarns, the first ones I did were spun

752
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:30,360
at the mill where I worked.

753
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:36,160
And then I started exploring and the woman who owns that mill, she wants to retire.

754
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:38,440
So she's been scaling back.

755
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:41,240
So I mean, there's been no work for, she stopped doing custom jobs.

756
00:40:41,240 --> 00:40:44,960
So basically she didn't need me anymore at all.

757
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:50,080
Because she's doing a lot less volume than she's done before.

758
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:54,520
So I haven't worked for a year, but my own business has picked up.

759
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,440
So it's like, I do that.

760
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:00,160
Where do people find your...

761
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:01,520
So where do you find me?

762
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:09,160
So I do fiber festivals because when I first started, fiber festivals get you seen.

763
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:14,840
You get hundreds or depending on the festival, thousands of people walk by your booth in

764
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:17,200
a day and see your yarns.

765
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:23,840
And it's great for me because it also helps me refine what I'm offering because as people

766
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:30,120
are going through your booth, you take notice of what they're picking up, what they pick

767
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:35,000
up, look at and put back on the shelf, which is almost more important than what sells.

768
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:39,760
It's like, why are things not selling?

769
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,600
What breeds are more familiar to people?

770
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:44,840
There's a lot of...

771
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:50,840
I do a lot of education because breed specific yarns are a niche, I would say, in the yarn

772
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:52,520
community.

773
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:57,680
Not everyone is aware of it or aware of the qualities and how it can benefit what you're

774
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:03,840
doing by knowing the different qualities of these different breeds.

775
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:09,520
A lot of people don't realize that there are breeds of sheep whose wool will not sell

776
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:11,000
no matter what you do to it.

777
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:12,000
It's not going to sell.

778
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,840
I would say then you can wash it and add to it.

779
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:17,920
You can wash it in the machine and it will work.

780
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:19,240
It won't shrink up.

781
00:42:19,240 --> 00:42:20,880
That's really the shrinkage.

782
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:25,680
And that's one people are always totally surprised about, that I have sock yarns that are natural

783
00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:26,680
wool.

784
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:31,000
They're not super washed so that weakens the fiber superwash process.

785
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:38,320
So these are natural wools, but they're from a breed of sheep that its wool will not sell.

786
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:45,160
And those are the down breeds like Suffolk, Corn Dorset, Oxford.

787
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:50,640
Chevyot is not a down breed, but it acts like a down breed.

788
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:54,120
And so those are some of the things I learned along the way.

789
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,520
And those yarns are interesting.

790
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:57,800
They're different.

791
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,280
So I do fiber festivals.

792
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,600
I do large fiber festivals and I have a website.

793
00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:08,840
During the summer I do fiber festivals in May and like right now I'm like frantically

794
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:12,600
in my countdown phase because my biggest shows are in the fall.

795
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:18,080
So I will be at Wisconsin sheep and wool, which is in Jefferson, Wisconsin, the second

796
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:20,080
weekend of September.

797
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:21,080
Okay.

798
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:22,080
And then I'll be there.

799
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:23,080
Yeah.

800
00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:25,400
And then I'm at New York sheep and wool in Rheinback.

801
00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:26,480
Oh, wow.

802
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:27,960
So you're traveling too.

803
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:29,640
That's quite a drive.

804
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:34,040
It's quite a drive, but it's also like I applied there.

805
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:39,040
I went once before I kind of started this business, the year before I started this business.

806
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:41,720
I went there because it was a bucket list thing to go to Rheinback.

807
00:43:41,720 --> 00:43:42,720
You know?

808
00:43:42,720 --> 00:43:43,720
Okay.

809
00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:44,720
Yeah.

810
00:43:44,720 --> 00:43:47,040
And I volunteered to work at their fleece show so I could study with the judges because

811
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:49,480
that's also one of my things is learning more about wool.

812
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:56,120
So I'll go to wool shows, sheep and wool shows and volunteer with the, there's almost always

813
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:57,720
a fleece contest.

814
00:43:57,720 --> 00:43:58,720
Okay.

815
00:43:58,720 --> 00:44:02,960
And I always volunteer so that I can be around when the judges are judging and can take notes

816
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:03,960
for the judge or something.

817
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:08,800
So I learned from the judges what they're looking for, how to judge the fleeces.

818
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:10,400
It's like an interest of mine.

819
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:11,400
Yeah.

820
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:12,400
You should be a judge.

821
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,160
I would love to be a judge, but you know, you're not known.

822
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:19,240
So part of being a judge is the fluke of being known, right?

823
00:44:19,240 --> 00:44:20,240
Right.

824
00:44:20,240 --> 00:44:25,160
But I have studied with some excellent judges like Judy Moore and Letty Kline by listening

825
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:29,120
to them, which is, you learn a lot.

826
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:31,280
I bet they could learn from you.

827
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:32,920
Oh, not these judges.

828
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:34,240
They are excellent.

829
00:44:34,240 --> 00:44:35,240
They are so good.

830
00:44:35,240 --> 00:44:41,200
They're so knowledgeable about the different fleeces and they've been doing this for decades.

831
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:45,600
You know, live sheep, live sheep judging and fleece judging, some of them.

832
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:50,640
So they're looking at the wool on the sheep to see the wool.

833
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:57,920
Well, some judges, like one judge that I learned from Judy Moore actually started judging live,

834
00:44:57,920 --> 00:44:59,560
you know, the live animal contest.

835
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:02,840
Because, you know, sheep will be, they have tons of contests at these things, you know?

836
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:03,840
Yeah.

837
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:04,840
Yeah.

838
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:05,840
Yeah.

839
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:09,200
And I'm not as conscious of the live animal ones, what they do, but she would judge those

840
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:13,680
and then she got pulled into judging fleeces because, you know, that's part of the live

841
00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:15,960
judging on sheep is the fleece, right?

842
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:18,440
But then she did fleece judging too.

843
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:23,600
So it was really educational for me to be able to be at these fleece shows.

844
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:27,600
And then she judged, she was one of the judges at New York sheep and wool.

845
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:31,240
And then I decided, well, I'm going to apply to be a vendor just on a fluke because I've

846
00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:37,360
been told numerous times that you have to apply many, many times before you get a spot

847
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:41,280
at New York sheep and wool because they are the penultimate fibercrestable.

848
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:42,280
Okay.

849
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:43,560
She's the wool show, right?

850
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:45,600
I got in on the first application.

851
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:46,600
Yay!

852
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:47,600
Shot.

853
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:54,720
But it's been a great experience because you see so many people go through there.

854
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:59,680
Like, I think last year they said on the Saturday they had over 30,000 people walk through

855
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:00,680
the gate.

856
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:01,680
Wow.

857
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:04,360
So do you need a trailer or because it all fit in your car?

858
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:11,680
No, I have a van, which is an old 15 passenger van, which has been stripped of the seat.

859
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:12,680
So it's all inside.

860
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:13,680
Yeah.

861
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:16,040
It's got all, it's lots of space.

862
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:21,600
So I can fit my display units, the yarn, and then my son built it out and he put a platform

863
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:27,040
in the back so we can actually put bins of yarn underneath the platform.

864
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:29,760
And then the platform has mattress and I can sleep in there.

865
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:30,760
Yes.

866
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:31,920
Once the place is cleared out, right?

867
00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:32,920
I understand that.

868
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:33,920
Yeah.

869
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:35,840
It's good to be on the road, but expensive.

870
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:36,840
So.

871
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:37,840
Yeah.

872
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:41,600
And this way at festivals you can often camp on the grounds and that meets life and also

873
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:46,880
easier because I'm not big on motels, so it's like I'd much rather stay in the van and have

874
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:51,040
my own stuff and it's like my own little house and it's fine.

875
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:52,040
I like that too.

876
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:53,680
I car camp tons.

877
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,840
Like people would think, did she just not like to fly?

878
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,880
It's like, no, it's like economical and I like it.

879
00:46:59,880 --> 00:47:00,880
I like it.

880
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:01,880
That's really what it comes down to.

881
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:03,120
It's like, I like it.

882
00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:08,560
I mean, there are always things like I did have a bad spring this year because it was

883
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:12,760
a lesson in I cannot control everything.

884
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:14,040
Yeah.

885
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:21,920
Because and a lesson in that, yeah, I'm making yarn, but at base at the lowest level, I'm

886
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:23,920
an agricultural based business.

887
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:24,920
Right.

888
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,720
And I just go, you know, and then there are things you can't control.

889
00:47:27,720 --> 00:47:33,720
Like there was drought and that affected some of my farmers so that you talk about fleece.

890
00:47:33,720 --> 00:47:36,280
One guy, he called me from the shearing floor.

891
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:39,640
He was shearing the sheep and I was supposed to meet with him the week after to pick up

892
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:40,640
the fleece.

893
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:41,640
He said, don't bother.

894
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:44,520
He called me from the shearing floor and says, I can't sell it to you.

895
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:46,040
He goes, it's the drought.

896
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:50,760
You know, it's weak and that means weak fiber means it won't hold up in the machines.

897
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:55,160
And he was a great guy, you know, and he's a student.

898
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:56,480
He was a veterinary student.

899
00:47:56,480 --> 00:48:01,160
I think he finally graduated last spring, but you know, he's a veterinary student and

900
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:05,320
he's honest enough to say that in his stuff was the best quality.

901
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,520
I mean, his wool was very good quality.

902
00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:11,320
His sheep were well cared for and that comes out in the wool.

903
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:13,080
And he called me and said, it's weak.

904
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:14,840
It's all breaking.

905
00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:20,440
So he had to compost all the wool from like 40, 50 sheep.

906
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:22,240
Oh my God.

907
00:48:22,240 --> 00:48:27,960
And that's a, it's a blow to him because, and I was paying him much more than a dollar

908
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:32,760
a pound because his wool was such high quality and I'd made yarn from it before and I knew

909
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,080
it would make a good yarn.

910
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,040
And I tell people that when I buy the first time, it's like, okay, I'm paying you a dollar

911
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:44,120
a pound now, but if I can get yarn from this, I'll be back next year and I'll pay you more

912
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:45,560
and mean what I can afford to you.

913
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,280
I'll pay you more.

914
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:51,160
And so I was paying him more than that.

915
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:58,320
And so it's a loss for him, but it was a big stunner for me too because I have to plan,

916
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,000
you know, 12 months out to get a yarn.

917
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:02,000
Right.

918
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:03,000
Yeah.

919
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:04,000
That's crazy.

920
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,280
I have to wait for mill time.

921
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:07,280
That's the biggest holdup.

922
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:14,800
There are only so many woolen mills in the United States and the big mills like the one

923
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:18,160
I worked at, those are becoming fewer and fewer.

924
00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:21,840
Like the, like I told you, I no longer work at the mill because she doesn't do custom

925
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:22,840
work anymore.

926
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:23,840
Right.

927
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:26,880
So she took herself out of the custom work job.

928
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:31,280
Well, that meant all those people that used to come to her because she had a huge client

929
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,720
list that kept her busy.

930
00:49:33,720 --> 00:49:36,360
They had to go somewhere else.

931
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:40,080
You know, so there are only so many mills and there are not many.

932
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:43,600
I mean, I could count them on my fingers.

933
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:48,720
The wills in the Midwest, the woolen mills in the Midwest, the larger ones that have

934
00:49:48,720 --> 00:49:52,760
the more stable equipment, they make the best yarn.

935
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:58,200
There's a proliferation of what's called mini mills, which are very small equipment wise.

936
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:06,400
And they really depend a lot on the proficiency of the operator to get a good yarn.

937
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:12,160
And so not just seeing anybody here, but the thing is, is if you just got that equipment,

938
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,000
you're not a proficient operator.

939
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:15,600
You know, it takes time.

940
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:18,320
Like anything else, you got to practice.

941
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:19,320
It takes time.

942
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:24,120
You'd be surprised when I met festivals, somebody will come up to me and say, I can milk your

943
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:25,120
yarn.

944
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:28,440
I just bought a mini mill, so send me your wool and I'll make yarn for you.

945
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:31,080
I'm like, how long have you had your mini mill?

946
00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:32,080
Yeah.

947
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:33,080
A month.

948
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:34,080
Yeah.

949
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:35,520
And I'm like, who taught you to make yarn?

950
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:38,400
Well, the guy who sold us the equipment showed us how it works.

951
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:40,600
I'm like, you know, two different questions.

952
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:41,600
Right.

953
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:46,800
You know, and I will tell people, come back to me in two years and show me some of your

954
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:47,800
yarn.

955
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:48,800
Yeah.

956
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:49,800
That makes sense.

957
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:55,360
Yeah, well, and look at all the information that you have gleaned over all these years.

958
00:50:55,360 --> 00:51:01,040
Like that's quite a degree of information that you're learning.

959
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:03,400
I do have a burning question.

960
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:09,440
What's the most sought out color when people, like what do you see as like the trend in

961
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:10,440
people buying?

962
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:15,400
That is really interesting because I've been always trying to, I keep track of what color

963
00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:20,440
I sell, you know, and it varies a lot because like I would say like, well, there's this

964
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:26,640
blue I do that sells really well at some shows and doesn't sell it all at other shows.

965
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:27,640
Wow.

966
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:30,360
So it's like demographically different.

967
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:32,680
It's a demographic thing too.

968
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:37,400
Like greens, like I do a color that I call lime.

969
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:40,640
My colors are what you would call jewel toned.

970
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:41,920
That's my signature, right?

971
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:46,640
And I've had people tell me that it's like your colors are the best colors at this festival,

972
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:52,440
you know, because they're just, I do semi solids, they're jewel tones, generally speaking,

973
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:55,080
they're very bright, kind of in your face, right?

974
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:56,080
Yeah.

975
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:58,960
Kind of like the top that you're wearing right now would be like a lime color.

976
00:51:58,960 --> 00:51:59,960
Yeah.

977
00:51:59,960 --> 00:52:04,800
And lime has been selling very well for the past year or so.

978
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,240
Lime sells very well.

979
00:52:07,240 --> 00:52:08,800
Other greens sell well.

980
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:15,200
But that blue, which was the best seller for two years, it still sells very well at certain

981
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:20,600
places, but other places I find the lime goes much faster.

982
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:24,720
And the lime, I always kind of looked at it more as an accent color.

983
00:52:24,720 --> 00:52:25,720
Right.

984
00:52:25,720 --> 00:52:29,160
But yeah, it sells well.

985
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:32,360
It's kind of interesting because I, you never know.

986
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:36,480
And like I said, I'll do blue because blue sold really well at the last year's festivals,

987
00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:37,480
right?

988
00:52:37,480 --> 00:52:40,200
And I'm wondering, it's like, well, maybe blue is gone.

989
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:43,360
Maybe blue has become passe, right?

990
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:48,800
I have a color called blood, which usually reds don't sell as well as other colors, but

991
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:49,800
I had that color.

992
00:52:49,800 --> 00:52:53,480
Blood, it's a really very deep, intense red.

993
00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:58,040
And that was hopping off the shelves one year.

994
00:52:58,040 --> 00:52:59,400
But not all the time.

995
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:00,400
You know what I mean?

996
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,280
It was like, okay, that went for a while and now not.

997
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:07,640
So you're really only doing two shows a year and then everything.

998
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:09,840
No, I do six or seven.

999
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:10,840
Okay.

1000
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:11,840
It varies a lot.

1001
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:17,040
I don't do, I know people who do shows like every weekend through the summer season, the

1002
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:18,040
season, right?

1003
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:22,520
But I have found that my product is more of a niche product.

1004
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,960
So I do four or five shows in the spring.

1005
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:31,480
And then in the fall, I do these Wisconsin and New York.

1006
00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:35,600
Wisconsin is in September, New York is in October.

1007
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:40,400
And then I've done a couple other ones because I'm always kind of testing different places

1008
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:46,800
to see, but I've discovered that my yarns do better at sheep and wool shows.

1009
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:50,680
And I think that's just part of because they are more of a niche and they're more focused

1010
00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:54,080
on the breed, breed specific yarns.

1011
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:58,040
So they tend to do, I tend to do better at sheep and wool shows.

1012
00:53:58,040 --> 00:53:59,920
So who's your typical customer?

1013
00:53:59,920 --> 00:54:00,920
Let's talk about that.

1014
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:02,800
I think that we're moving up on the end of the hour.

1015
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:05,960
So yeah, I don't know who the typical customers.

1016
00:54:05,960 --> 00:54:07,200
That's a really good question.

1017
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:08,600
But it's generally a knitter.

1018
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:15,800
It's someone who is and tends to be someone who is serious as a serious knitter, you know,

1019
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:18,400
or a crocheter.

1020
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:27,320
And they are interested in the idea that like a Corrie Dale has really good stitch definition

1021
00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:29,720
and it makes excellent sweaters.

1022
00:54:29,720 --> 00:54:34,200
And it's still, for most people, it's soft enough to be next to the skin, but it's not

1023
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:37,880
going to pill as much because it's Corrie Dale.

1024
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:40,160
And it's just a more hearty fiber.

1025
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:43,680
You know, it's got more bounce to it.

1026
00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:45,040
It's a springy fiber.

1027
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:47,240
Some people call it crunchy.

1028
00:54:47,240 --> 00:54:52,800
And so these are the people that actually are interested in the idea that like Romney,

1029
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:58,280
I have Romney that is so soft next to the skin soft.

1030
00:54:58,280 --> 00:54:59,700
I mean, it's silky.

1031
00:54:59,700 --> 00:55:02,080
It's so soft.

1032
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:06,360
And but Romney has properties like Merino, which is everybody knows because Merino had

1033
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:09,640
great marketing people at some point.

1034
00:55:09,640 --> 00:55:12,880
And it's a very soft yarn, but Merino tends to pill very easy.

1035
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:16,800
So it's like, you don't want to use it for outer garments, but Romney doesn't pill quite

1036
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:19,000
as much, although it's still very soft.

1037
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,800
It has really good luster.

1038
00:55:21,800 --> 00:55:27,800
And these are the people, people who are a little bit more attuned into why there are

1039
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:32,800
different sheep or they're more wanting to learn more about that process and actually

1040
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:39,040
do comparisons and see what the difference is, if it makes a difference.

1041
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:43,680
Because when you're buying commercial wool off the wool pool, that is a blend of whatever's

1042
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,000
in that pot, right?

1043
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:47,360
And you don't know what that is.

1044
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:52,200
So that yarn has not got that predictability that if you buy a breed specific yarn, there's

1045
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:57,320
also a predictability factor in how it's going to act, right?

1046
00:55:57,320 --> 00:56:03,080
So I don't know if I would say, but I would say part of it is, and it's also people who

1047
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,600
want to support their local community.

1048
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:10,680
And that's one thing I like to emphasize is that when you buy yarn from me, it's going

1049
00:56:10,680 --> 00:56:13,360
to real people, you know?

1050
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:18,480
It's paying for, you know, that veterinary students expenses.

1051
00:56:18,480 --> 00:56:23,000
It's putting, I mean, the kids that wait for me on the steps when I'm looking for their

1052
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:26,720
house, you know, it's like, it's going to real people.

1053
00:56:26,720 --> 00:56:30,360
And I also use mills that are in the Midwest that are often smaller.

1054
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:31,560
I use mills right now.

1055
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:35,760
I have four mills that I use on a regular basis.

1056
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:36,920
And those are also local.

1057
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:41,520
So when you keep your money in your local economy, I mean, it benefits everybody, including

1058
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:49,680
yourself because you're keeping businesses going that a lot of people don't realize that

1059
00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:52,200
if you don't have woolen mills, you're going to have problems.

1060
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:53,200
Right.

1061
00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:56,360
It's really is the definition of sustainable.

1062
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:58,200
Now where can people find your wool?

1063
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,400
Because we're coming up at the end of the hour.

1064
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:02,720
I want people to know where to find you.

1065
00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:05,280
There'll be links in the description below.

1066
00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:07,760
So but let's just talk about where do they find.

1067
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:11,920
So I'm at the purveyor of fine yarns, which is a dot com website.

1068
00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:15,160
And you can find majority of my yarns on my website.

1069
00:57:15,160 --> 00:57:19,480
Although I always tell people because in the summer I'm doing so many festivals, the newer

1070
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:22,760
things are not on the website until after I finish the shows.

1071
00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:23,760
I agree with that.

1072
00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:24,760
Yeah.

1073
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:25,760
Yeah.

1074
00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:31,600
So you can always find out what I'm carrying in general and purchase yarn from the website.

1075
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:33,640
You can find me at Fiber shows.

1076
00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:37,960
Like I said, in September, I'm going to be at Wisconsin sheep and wool in the second

1077
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:38,960
weekend.

1078
00:57:38,960 --> 00:57:46,800
I'm doing a new show in Escanaba, Michigan called the North American Hill sheep show

1079
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:47,800
in Escanaba.

1080
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:51,280
And I think that's the third weekend in September.

1081
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,440
It's way down in the month.

1082
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:56,720
And then I'll be at New York sheep and wool.

1083
00:57:56,720 --> 00:58:02,280
And in New York sheep and wool, I'm in the building by the the old horse barn, the 4-H

1084
00:58:02,280 --> 00:58:05,840
horse barn, which is by the 4-H gate.

1085
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:07,560
The first building by the 4-H gate.

1086
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:11,160
So we're easy to find.

1087
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,840
But also I am trying to move into wholesale.

1088
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:21,360
So ask your local yarn store and see if they will be willing to try your wool.

1089
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:22,360
Try our yarns.

1090
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:24,720
Are you on Instagram too?

1091
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:27,800
Yeah, we are on Instagram.

1092
00:58:27,800 --> 00:58:34,000
We do have a Facebook page, but I always tell people it's like I don't check it very often.

1093
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:35,520
I'm not a Facebook fan.

1094
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:38,480
But there's always something we can do.

1095
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:39,480
Yeah.

1096
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:42,880
And I post on Instagram and then it also reposts that onto Facebook.

1097
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:44,680
So it has the same things.

1098
00:58:44,680 --> 00:58:48,080
Yes, which is so now confusing because now I have like double posts everywhere.

1099
00:58:48,080 --> 00:58:49,960
I'm like, oh my God, like just stop.

1100
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:50,960
I know.

1101
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:54,600
And then the next figure is like I do Instagram and that's what I can keep up with.

1102
00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:55,600
And that's about it.

1103
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:58,480
So that that is Preveyor of Fine Yarns.

1104
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:03,320
Yes, just all written down, Preveyor of Fine Yarns.com and then Preveyor of Fine Yarns

1105
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:06,480
on Instagram, Facebook.

1106
00:59:06,480 --> 00:59:07,480
And your website.

1107
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:08,480
And my website.

1108
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:10,760
So it's pretty consistent, if nothing else.

1109
00:59:10,760 --> 00:59:11,760
You've done a great job.

1110
00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:18,120
It has really been an amazing education on a product that I do not know that much about

1111
00:59:18,120 --> 00:59:22,160
like just this much, but now I feel like I know that much.

1112
00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:26,000
And I love it that we got to like meet and now we're friends.

1113
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:30,600
So if you ever need anything from me, I always tell everybody I'm your friend for life.

1114
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:36,680
So please always just contact me and say, hey, it's Kim from Preveyor of Fine Yarns.

1115
00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:41,400
And I want to talk to you about this because we all do need to support each other.

1116
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:44,040
And I always tell everybody, you don't have to cry by yourself.

1117
00:59:44,040 --> 00:59:45,040
Just reach out.

1118
00:59:45,040 --> 00:59:46,040
I'm a friend.

1119
00:59:46,040 --> 00:59:47,040
Sorry.

1120
00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:48,040
I'm just going to say that yes.

1121
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:50,040
Yes, it's very hard.

1122
00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:51,040
Yeah.

1123
00:59:51,040 --> 00:59:56,840
It's very hard, but I'm proud of you and you're doing, you are on your right path and you're

1124
00:59:56,840 --> 00:59:59,240
doing exactly what you need to be doing.

1125
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:02,880
And there's plenty of accountants in the world, but there's not a lot of Preveyor's

1126
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:04,040
of Fine Yarns.

1127
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:07,080
So that just seems to be a perfect niche for you.

1128
01:00:07,080 --> 01:00:08,080
And I'm very proud of you.

1129
01:00:08,080 --> 01:00:12,800
And I hope that I can like send you business one day because I know your heart is really

1130
01:00:12,800 --> 01:00:20,080
in your product and having handmade, sustainable wool to make hats and sweaters and heirloom

1131
01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:21,080
pieces.

1132
01:00:21,080 --> 01:00:24,680
Like if someone's going to knit something, that takes a lot of time.

1133
01:00:24,680 --> 01:00:27,360
So you better use the best stuff that you can.

1134
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:32,040
And that really makes, then it all comes like full circle because you're using the best.

1135
01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:34,080
And that has a story.

1136
01:00:34,080 --> 01:00:35,080
It has a story.

1137
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:37,520
And to me, that's what's important is knowing.

1138
01:00:37,520 --> 01:00:39,480
And I think when you see my ideal client, that's it.

1139
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:45,960
Like I had a woman come to me recently in Green Castle and she was, she's purchased for

1140
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:50,560
me past years and she comes in, she's looking at the Shetland and she's like, I'm going

1141
01:00:50,560 --> 01:00:52,280
to try Shetland this time.

1142
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:55,280
And then she turns and she's like, wait, you didn't tell me the story.

1143
01:00:55,280 --> 01:00:57,480
And I'm like, oh, the story.

1144
01:00:57,480 --> 01:00:58,480
Okay.

1145
01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:02,600
That yarn was raised by a retired math teacher in Northern Wisconsin.

1146
01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:07,280
And she came where Bessie Belly and I'm like, you even know that.

1147
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:10,680
That part I don't remember, but I do know.

1148
01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:13,960
I mean, I can tell you exactly where that wool came from.

1149
01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:17,200
What was the process of getting it, where it was milled.

1150
01:01:17,200 --> 01:01:19,080
And I tried very hard to be local.

1151
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:23,440
I mean, it's very important to me to support all the other people out there.

1152
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:25,080
Because then we all rise.

1153
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:26,840
I'm a big believer in it.

1154
01:01:26,840 --> 01:01:28,520
You know, we all rise.

1155
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:30,760
Yeah, we all rise.

1156
01:01:30,760 --> 01:01:35,400
Well thank you, Kim, for this amazing education and being my friend.

1157
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:37,720
I want only the best for you.

1158
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:44,040
And I look forward to seeing you on more Craft Alliance Industries roundtables.

1159
01:01:44,040 --> 01:01:45,680
Because it's really a great group.

1160
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:50,120
And I have to give a shout out to Abby there, who's really been wonderful to me and all

1161
01:01:50,120 --> 01:01:52,280
the things that she does for us.

1162
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:55,640
So I will definitely, we'll definitely let her know.

1163
01:01:55,640 --> 01:01:59,800
I think she needs to be on my show too, just to really talk about the craft industry and

1164
01:01:59,800 --> 01:02:01,840
how we're going and where we're going.

1165
01:02:01,840 --> 01:02:05,800
But it's people like you that make a difference in the craft industry.

1166
01:02:05,800 --> 01:02:09,600
So thank you for sharing your time with us.

1167
01:02:09,600 --> 01:02:10,680
Thank you for having me.

1168
01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:12,000
This has been very fun.

1169
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:13,000
I loved it.

1170
01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:15,400
I seriously, I learned so much.

1171
01:02:15,400 --> 01:02:18,560
I can see you doing that whole jobs.

1172
01:02:18,560 --> 01:02:21,240
Every one of those jobs, I can visualize it.

1173
01:02:21,240 --> 01:02:22,240
Hard work.

1174
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:24,600
Like seriously, girl, you win.

1175
01:02:24,600 --> 01:02:26,640
It's a hard thing that what you were doing.

1176
01:02:26,640 --> 01:02:28,760
But it was really for a reason.

1177
01:02:28,760 --> 01:02:33,800
Now you can speak very clearly on your craft, and that's not very, very many people can

1178
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:34,800
do that.

1179
01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:36,520
Like you have a unique story.

1180
01:02:36,520 --> 01:02:40,800
So I hope that this podcast will help you get that story out there and you can put it

1181
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:45,520
on your website and have people then understand your process a little bit more.

1182
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:47,280
So we have come to the end of the hour.

1183
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:49,440
I've gone over a little bit, but thank you.

1184
01:02:49,440 --> 01:02:50,440
Thank you.

1185
01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:51,440
Thank you.

1186
01:02:51,440 --> 01:02:52,440
And do good.

1187
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:54,440
Go and do good things.

1188
01:02:54,440 --> 01:02:56,880
And wait, one more question.

1189
01:02:56,880 --> 01:02:59,320
What time of the year does sheep get sheared?

1190
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:00,560
What's that time?

1191
01:03:00,560 --> 01:03:07,360
Well, usually they get sheared in the spring, but that gets spread out a bit because some

1192
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:13,040
people like to shear before they lamb and lambing varies by breed.

1193
01:03:13,040 --> 01:03:18,000
Some most, there are a few breeds that lamb in like October.

1194
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:22,160
Then there are most of them lamb in the spring, but spring can be anywhere from January to

1195
01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:24,240
June, right?

1196
01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:26,600
So it varies a lot.

1197
01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:32,240
The guy of people that are shearing in December and in January, and then I'm picking up a

1198
01:03:32,240 --> 01:03:35,600
bunch of wool in May when she finishes her shearing.

1199
01:03:35,600 --> 01:03:36,600
Wow.

1200
01:03:36,600 --> 01:03:38,800
It's kind of a year round process.

1201
01:03:38,800 --> 01:03:39,800
Yeah.

1202
01:03:39,800 --> 01:03:41,800
It's out there.

1203
01:03:41,800 --> 01:03:42,800
Yeah.

1204
01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:45,280
It's wonderful.

1205
01:03:45,280 --> 01:03:48,760
I can visualize that shearing because I've watched a little shows on that, how they can

1206
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:50,600
do it in like one huge pass.

1207
01:03:50,600 --> 01:03:51,600
Oh, yeah.

1208
01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:54,040
The breed, the skin is like crazy.

1209
01:03:54,040 --> 01:04:01,120
So thank you again, Kim Langley from Preveyor of Fine Yarns.

1210
01:04:01,120 --> 01:04:05,680
And you can find her on Instagram and her Facebook page, Preveyor of Fine Yarns, and

1211
01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:07,480
support her business.

1212
01:04:07,480 --> 01:04:12,360
Tell everybody and get out there and buy some yarn and learn how to knit if you don't know

1213
01:04:12,360 --> 01:04:16,200
because I think it's going to be something I'm going to have to do and I'll retire in

1214
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:17,200
a few years.

1215
01:04:17,200 --> 01:04:18,200
Maybe that's what I'll take up.

1216
01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:19,960
But thank you again.

1217
01:04:19,960 --> 01:04:26,960
Have a great rest of your day.