Behind the scenes

Today is re-skeining day.  This is tedious and time consuming work.  Some sellers don't re-skein at all but sell the yarn as it comes out of the dye pot.  That's OK of course, but I feel this looks very unfinished and unprofessional.  I choose to put in the extra time to finish the product.
I think there is a little bit of misconception about how much money indie dyers make doing this.  There is this idea that we get the yarn for pennies and throw it in some dye and BOOM, we make a ton of  profit on each skein. This is so far from reality that it is laughable.  Even wholesale the base yarn is expensive.  Then add hours of processing to each skein, plus re-skeining, labeling, packaging, shop maintenance and listing, hours on getting good photos, advertising, donations, teaching, etc and I am lucky if I turn a profit.  In fact, if I were to pay myself minimum wage I would be in the red.  Not complaining, just demystifying.  I love doing this!  It pays for my own hobby/habit and that was always the goal.  It is an artistic endeavor that I thrive on.  Profit?  No.  Fulfillment?  yes:)

Here are skeins waiting to be re-skeined and one on the swift tied to another swift.  It is just a transfer process.  The swifts are not electric.  I stand there and turn them by hand.

Some of the skeins ready for labeling.