I got to see Vicki, Aubrey and Kristine, among many others who remain blogless. I also met some new people who have joined the old group, but they seem pretty okay, so I'll let them stay. (Hey guys, sorry I blogged your asses, but it was the only picture I had of the group.)
The place is in a rather scary looking warehouse in a cool part of the city. Their actual space looks like a nice place to work though. The entire dyeing operation is done there.
They showed us around, let us fondle all their yarns, and then the owner, Beth Casey, gave us a demo of how she dyes the yarn. It's pretty much the same as I saw a lot of when I worked at the shop that dyed Dream in Color. The biggest difference is that they apply the dye to dry wool, as opposed to wet, which I found pretty interesting.
This is certainly a familiar sight though, and often the most time-consuming part of the process.
And then, there was shopping.
They had about 5 big tables full of mill ends at discounted prices. There's nothing wrong with those yarns, just that maybe they didn't conform to a certain colorway, or they were experiment, or they were the odd one out. At any rate, I don't mind having something a little unique.
Despite the vast piles of mill ends, I only bought one gift for a swap partner, and enough for one pair of socks for myself:
It's very practical, and will make excellent dress socks, for when I have to look all grown up and professional. I'm not showing the other one in case said swap partner decides to read my blog. But it's also very pretty!
All in all, I'm glad I went. It was pretty hard to haul myself out of bed in the cold, with the schedule I'm working, but I'm definitely glad I did it. It was great to see everyone again, and pretty neat to see how a functioning small business operates.
5 comments:
Ha, Cool. :)
Hey, thanks for the "tour" via blogging! !! !
Very interesting to see how yarn is dyed, dryed and divided up for the decided -----darn---can;'t think of a word for a BUYER of this yarn.
Hm----a swap partner-----
Enjoy Carol down in Tenn where is is NICE AND COLD this morning.
It was great to see you again! I only wish it hadn't been so cold in Chicago... still, good times were had.
I wish I could have gone on that trip. But, as it was, I already had to be in two other places this past weekend, so adding a trip to Lorna's was out of the question. :(
Glad you all had fun, though!
I had no idea LL was in Chicago!
Whew...I'm having yarn dyeing flashbacks, here, a little...
VERY jealous that you got your pick of the mill ends and seconds, though!! Looks like fun!
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