Before the first lot

entry one. before the first lot.

We are keeping this journal for the things that do not fit on a tone page: the lots that came back wrong, the vendors who understood, the mornings the cotton finally agreed. It will be irregular, because dye lots are irregular. Expect a note whenever something worth writing down happens at the mill, and a shorter one for the weeks when nothing does. Those weeks are most of it, and they deserve a line too.

Where we are

Five tones matched for Saebom. One lot of Underwing dyed, counted and relabeled. Sunday Butter, Peach, Faded, Ember Rose and Washed Chambray each sitting on a reference card with a vendor name we will never print on a label. Quiet Orchid still going back and forth with the mill, which is exactly where a lilac should be in June.

The next entry will be about the first box that arrives. We will photograph it before we open it, the way you photograph a butterfly before it leaves.