Have begun to comb the Hampshire wool I carried home in triumph from Qualicum Bay Fibre Works this past fall.
Down breed wool holds on to chaff and tends to be short stapled. After a number of passes with Viking combs, I have the longest wool of the lot, all in the best shape and almost completely free of bits. Decided to do it right and use the diz to get the wool off the combs in a uniform arrangement.
Lots more left to comb. The little yarn samples I spun look promising. The wool was exceptionally easy to draft, because combing makes the wool evenly distributed, alined, and the opposite of compacted.
Nice that this bout of fibre processing fulfills a number of my goals; for example, use un-dyed fibre, comb more fibre, and use stash.
Reading about your combing experience makes me want to get mine out! I definitely don't comb fiber as much as I would like. I always think it will be time consuming and unwieldy, but once I get into it, it's not too bad!
ReplyDeleteI hear you, Gwen!
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