"You only sing when you're spinning" (or dyeing!)

I got a cd player for the workshop for my birthday back in June and it was only this week that I realised that I choose very different music depending on what I'm up to in there. For tidying up and washing fleece it's rock all the way, stock taking is quiet "AOR", and dyeing can be anything from folk to rock, calling at all points inbetween.

The workshop is also where I do my singing, usually at the top of my voice and more often than not, out of tune. I have even been known to do a spot of boogeying while the dyes are cooking up (I keep the windows shut so as not to scare anyone's pets or small children). This week's eclectic selection was (in no particular order), Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Cher, Jethro Tull, the Hoodoo Gurus and the Lost Prophets and I began to wonder whether music has an influence on my dyeing. I shall be testing this out, so see if you can tell whether I was on a Stairway to Heaven or the Last Train Home (I'll name that tune in two - eek, showing my age now)

Anyway, before I "Ramble On" (sorry), here's what I was doing this week:

Here's Freckles Junior (left), just as he arrived, straight from shearing. He's a shearling so the fleece is downy and soft. Call me weird but I love the feel of raw fleece - I think it's all that untapped potential waiting to be turned into something exciting.

Grotty bits removed, a good bath, and the first batch is washed and ready for dyeing.

Some singing and dancing later (Cher eat your heart out), and here is the dyed fleece....

ps. Used the new program ("Gimp" - why did they call it that?) for editing the pics so if they're not great, my apologies - I'm still learning!