Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › WAHM Well › Making and dyeing wool yarn. Worth it?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Making and dyeing wool yarn. Worth it?  

post #1 of 10
8/6/08 at 12:39am
Thread Starter 
In a couple months we're going to be moving and I'll be out of a job. Now DH is likely going to have a job making enough more than now that it will make up for my job loss, but I'd still like to bring in something. In the past I've tried sewing diapers, but I'm just not that good. I've tried a Cafepress shop and made a small amount, but not very much. So I was thinking about wool yarn.

Today at work I saw a women spinning yarn with a drop spindle and that got me thinking. It looked pretty easy, though I know it would take time to learn, and the spindles appear to be pretty cheap. I already know how to dye wool yarn and LOVE to do it (and am pretty good in my opion). So is this something that could legitimately be a side business for me from home? I figure if I can find someone local to get roving from it would be cheaper, but until then I'd be buying roving online and that's not terribly cheap, though not too expensive either.

I just think it would be fun and a nice way to bring in some extra money. But is the market to flooded with dyed wool yarn? How many wool yarn suppliers are really needed? And if this is a valid option, would you suggest selling on etsy, ebay, or somewhere else (even a private site maybe)?

I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts on this. Thanks!
post #2 of 10
8/8/08 at 1:22pm
The spinning wheel you would want for production is a Schacht - it costs $800++. I would be cautious about going into this for profit - sales are going to be most effective in person, as customers want to feel the product. Craft shows are expensive at $4 a gallon.

You can buy bulk machine spun wool for $24 a pound or so. Yarn dying is not expensive... it all comes down to color selection and successful marketing. My favorite is Koigo KPPM.
post #3 of 10
8/9/08 at 4:21am
Etsy is flooded with handspun, and I'm really not convinced that there is profit in it: most of the spinners I know do it for the love of spinning, and offload their excess product because they don't like knitting that much What might work would be diaper sets: 8oz of hand-dyed yarn for longies, with handspun for the cuffs. Nobody is currently selling coordinating roving/yarn sets either, and that could make a fortune because it takes so long to spin enough even for a kiddies jumper.

There are a few holes in the fibre market at the moment; batts for spinning is one of them. Value-added yarn (like the afore-mentioned sets) is another. The last is yarn with a long, long, long colour repeat (like Kauni, for example.) All of these are somewhat labour-intensive, and I don't honestly know if there's any profit in it.
post #4 of 10
8/9/08 at 2:16pm
Thread Starter 
Well I should be more specific. lol When I say profit, if I could bring in even $20 per month that's more than I'd be expecting. This is something I really want to do, regardless of profit, it just would be nice to finally have a hobby where I could, at the least, break even. (Though don't get me wrong... if I could make money too that would be even better.)
post #5 of 10
8/9/08 at 3:45pm
You might be able to buy fleeces locally, skirt, wash and gently process (pick apart) optionally dye - then sell at a profit. The wool growers of "standard" wool are getting $1-2 a pound (in bulk) - the specialty breeds $3-5 a pound, before carding. So there is lots of room to dye and resell.
post #6 of 10
8/9/08 at 4:22pm
Thread Starter 
That would be ideal. We're in the process of moving right now but when we get where we're going I plan to look into local farms. I read up on how to card wool and it looks like something I can do.
post #7 of 10
8/10/08 at 6:53am
Which leads back to my aforementioned point about batts This sounds workable.

If you look on etsy for hand-made wool felt, there's very few hits, and feltmaking will use a lot of the same supplies as spinning, and will utilise your skills as a dyer I can't believe that there isn't a market for handmade felt sheets for crafting, it's lovely to work with, especially with raw fleece as a starting product.
post #8 of 10
8/10/08 at 2:59pm
Thread Starter 
Hmm, definitely sounds like there are a lot more possibilities to this than just yarn. I like having options.
post #9 of 10
8/18/08 at 5:23pm
A friend of ours does it, and she makes a few hundred a month. They own the farm, and she shears the sheep herself, so I don't know what the profit would be were that not the case. It's not a full-time thing for her, though farming overall is FT for them. It's just part of the income they have coming in from various livestock and crops.

I know nothing about spinning; I've only watched people do it, so this may be completely ignorant, but...I once interviewed a woman who has an alpaca farm. She shears the alpaca and makes sweaters and scarves, and they are very, very expensive. A sweater was $75-100. (That's expensive for me, anyway.) They were so soft, though, I can see why people with a lot of disposable income would drop the money on them. I would think there'd have to a good profit margin in that.
post #10 of 10
8/18/08 at 10:34pm
Thread Starter 
My (current) dream is to own a small farm with some sheep so to take it from start to finish. That's not likely to happen though. LOL

Thanks for the info.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: WAHM Well
This thread is locked  
Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › WAHM Well › Making and dyeing wool yarn. Worth it?