Sunday, September 9, 2012

Combing and Spinning

I spent several hours today on the back porch using these
mini-wool-combs, to turn this


 washed fleece from a Shetland sheep into this


 combed roving, with the parts that didn't comb well going here.
Then I used this
 Louet S10 spinning wheel, to turn it into this
 wool yarn. When I had the bobbin relatively full, I wound it into a center-pull ball and plied the two ends together to create a sport-weight, two-ply yarn that will be nice to knit with.

Then I used this


table-top drum carder to turn the parts that didn't comb nicely into this
a carded batt. Since I couldn't get a smooth preparation, the yarn I spin from it will not be as nice as that from the combed roving, but will be OK for some things.

The caution sign in the middle picture of the carder is serious. Those teeth on the 'licker in' are dangerous. The ones on the large drum are nothing to play with either.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

Not being a spinner, I am always awed by the transformation of fleece to yarn. Nice work.

Carmen said...

As a spinner's daughter, I love seeing the step by step pictures too. I wish I was there to do some hands on - I'll let you play with sugar and you can let me play with wool... for obvious reasons we can't do both as the same time :)