[RUSTYME]

 Just read in ' spinning wool , help needed' ? that it can take a couple of hours for someone to spin 100g of wool .
Now different people will spin at different speeds i know , but that would mean 20 hours a week to do 1 kilo  ( i don't work in  kilos but can't bothered to convert) appx .
So that would seem to fit with a winters worth of evenings , to spin and knit or weave , 5-10 kilos of wool for jumpers fabric etc .
Just have to see how many jumpers i ( and the moths ) go through each year once everything is up and running .

[Fleecewife]

That calculation doesn't take into consideration the time taken to skirt, pick, wash and dry, card or comb the fleece before you even start to spin, then to ply, wash again and set the yarn, maybe even dye it, then ball it.  These things take far longer than the actual spinning time    Also, how long it takes to spin a given weight depends on your skill and the thickness of the yarn you are producing.

[RUSTYME]

Yep i know fw  , that's why i said a winters work  . I don't want to tie down to the nearest minute , but just have a rough idea how long it takes to get things done , very rough lol .
 I can't remember how long it took me , but i used to spin wool on my mums wheel , and she would knit it up into a jumper .
I was never an expert spinner , but it didn't take too long .
The processing was done here and there , as and when i had time etc .
I doubt i will do too much dying , i will breed pretty coloured sheep .

[Bionic]

I don't know what size you are Russ but my OH is a medium and it took about 1200 grams of wool to make him a jumper.
It's a very rough estimate but should give you a vague idea of how much you need.

[RUSTYME]

40"-42" chest , 34" waist , 12 1/2 stone , 5'9" tall  . I find medium size to be too short in the sleeves , but home knitting would sort that , just knit more rows .
So i usually get large or xlarge , but that may be due to sizes being wrong these days as most fit fine .
Looks like it would be about 1 1/2 weeks to spin a jumper .
Judging by the time it takes me to knit sections of rib and stocking stitch , i should be able to knit a plain ish , thick ish jumper in about the same amount of time .
Not worried about exact times to do these things , just an ish factor,  things take as long as they take . Thanks Sally and Fw .

[SallyintNorth]

We made a shawl in a day at Wool on the Wall

Between the carding, spinning, knitting (we used singles, so no plying) and stitching up, we reckon it took 140-150 hours work 'from sheep to shawl'.

That was at max speed, no plying, using large knitting needles so it knitted up fast.

One of the key things will be the kind of fleece you can get.  Some need very little prep, some need combing or carding, or more.  If you can find some that will spin directly from opened locks you will save a heck of a lot of time.

[Lesley Silvester]

I prefer to spin in the grease so that saves a bit of time. Of course it needs washing if you are going to dye it before spinning but you can go for coloured fleeces to save dying time (unless you want colours that sheep don't come in).

[RUSTYME]

I thought of having pink and lilac sheep , lol , no mainly natural colours and try some dying later when i have time to play . So mainly browns , blackish , greys and white  ish . Then when i have a go at dying mainly browns , greens , yellows etc just basics , although i will be growing woad , so blues are on the cards purple would be ok too .
Years ago when i did the spinning , i washed the sheep one day and sheard the sheep the next day  a few times . Sheep were nice and dry and the fleece very clean . Seemed to work ok if memory serves me right .
Back then i used fairy washing up liquid .

[SallyintNorth]

it needs washing if you are going to dye it before spinning

You can wash and dye in one process - the stove-top rainbow dyeing process.  This uses acid dyes in powder form, however; I don't know if you can do the same with natural dyes.

[Lesley Silvester]

Rainbow dyes sound interesting. I thought about spinning and plying some wool then dying it to get different colours or may be different shades of the same colour.

[SallyintNorth]

I wrote the rainbow-dyeing technique up on Ravelry.  This method works on unwashed fleece.

If you have washed fleece, or tops, batts, yarn or whatever, then a similar method using dye solutions will achieve similar effects and use less dye. 

When I do the first version, using powdered dye, I use up excess dye by doing one or even two more dyeing sessions using the same dyebath.  Occasionally this is a bit muddy and/or disappointing, but often, particularly if you have chosen colours within a colour range (eg reds and purples, or turquoise, green and yellow), then the exhaust bath colours are a softer version of some of the primary bath colours.  You always need to add more vinegar to fix the dyes.

If the water isn't clear after using the dye solutions version, you can equally use up excess dye by using the water again, and again would add more vinegar to aid the colour fixing to the fibre.

[RUSTYME]

Any dying i do will be from what grows in the herb bed , hedge , veg etc , while only parting with money for absolute unavoidables .
I did do a fair bit using plant material years ago , but mainly my jumpers were the colours of the sheep . I am not really a fashion icon , more a tramp !

[Bionic]

Russ, last week I dyed with Rosebay willowherb (a mucky pale lemon) and Himalayan balsam ( a camel/ginger). The later was by far the nicest and would look good blended with something else too.
Next week I am going to do some turmeric and might see if I can find something else too.
I would use blackberries but they are too good to eat to use for dyeing 

[Dogwalker]

Was the balsam the whole plant with ?alum mordant.

Something I've been reading up on but not had time to do recently.

[Bionic]

The balsam was about 8 to 12 inches long. I dyed 100 gr fleece and used 8% alum and 6% cream of tartar