Process

"How long did that take you to make?"

I've decided to stop answering that question because I find it has a touch of the passive/aggressive and the answer is kinda obvious.
First I have to shear the sheep. Well, I have to take care of the sheep which includes shearing every spring after the weather has warmed. My personal deadline is the first of May but there are a few ewes that don't get clipped until Mother's Day. Some years a few keep their coats until the Fourth of July if the garden keeps me too busy.

Since my electric clippers are aging and never seem to work as well as my old-fashioned spring-action hand-held type. The girls in the photo above are of the Corriedale breed, which includes a Merino bloodline and the wrinkled skin, especially in the neckline, that makes it so hard to shear.

I usually wait a few months after shearing to take the clipped wool to Allegan's Michigan Fiber Fest in August. To keep costs down I try to save money on shipping by dropping of to the visiting Zeilinger Woolen mill for washing/carding. Within a few weeks it's shipped back to me and I start spinning.
Sometimes I leave the yarn in singles like the photo above, but prefer the stability of a double-ply and run them through the spinning wheel again.

I'm usually not ready to knit after spinning (and washing and blocking) because each batch of yarn has a different weight and thickness. I run a few test swatches to determine the gauge and also design a knit pattern that best suits the fiber.
So do I keep a time clock? No. So I'm not going to answer "How long does that take you to make."