No sir, No sir, No wool here!
So . . . it may be time to just accept it. That this whole combing wool thing just isn’t meant to happen. Or at least, not with me.
I’ve had this bag of Gotland (yes, Gotland) wool–slightly felted from my inept cleaning of it–sitting in the guest room since February. I’ve tried carding it with some [economical but small] dog brushes. I’ve tried combing it with these combs that I bought. And basically, I’m not really having any luck getting spinnable fiber.
Some of it, no doubt, is because I did accidentally felt some of it when I washed it last winter. (Yes, it’s been sitting, waiting for that long. February.) I am sure that my handling of it made all of this more difficult. So, I’m trying to teach myself–these things are bound to happen. The somewhat solid chunks of wool are entirely my own fault. Mea culpa.
However, I am having no luck whatsoever getting the non-felted parts combed. Nor, using those–admittedly small–dog brushes is the carding thing working very well. Maybe I bought the wrong kind of combs? But anyway you look at it, at this point, I can’t tell if it’s my amateurish skills (read as “no skills”), or if it’s that I’ve ruined the wool and it’s never going to be usable for yarn, or if it would be salvageable in expert hands. But either way, it’s kind of sad, don’t you think?
At this point, I’m almost willing to put the combs up for sale on Ebay, pass the dog brushes on to Chappy, and throw away the wool, with my apologies to the sheep that grew it. It’s lain around the guest room long enough.
I think, for the time being, I’m just going to stick with commercially prepared roving. (grin) Poor Gotland. It deserved a better home.
Just added: My best friend became an aunt to twin boys today: Alexander Keith (6.5 lbs) and Aidan Craig (5.8 lbs). Pretty big for twins–their Mom must be so relieved. She–and their new Dad (my friend’s brother)–are doing fine. I think my friend is anxious to see them–they’re here in New Jersey, she’s in California until August 8th, but I’m excited for her!
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Tannenbaum.
House Calls
What are you hoping to get for your combs?
I wish I knew more about combing, but I expect that our friends Risa and possibly Cassie will come to the rescue. My only suggestion, and take this is as the words of someone who has never done this, is maybe to spray some spinning oil on the fiber (and the combs). I think it’s equal parts of olive oil and water plus a dash of dawn, but I’m not sure–there’s a recipe in the back of the Alden Amos book. And yeah, I’d trash the felted stuff, or at least leave it for later. Get your chops before you attack the hard stuff. The sheep won’t mind if you don’t use every ounce.
Just don’t give up! 
PS from what little I know, I think your combs are just right for what you’re combing.
While the partial felting isn’t helping the combing fun any, it isn’t a terribly easy thing to pick up sight unseen. I’d be happy to help you with them. I have a pretty decent book on combs and there is a good online tutorial: http://www.the-wheel-thing.com/products/combs/CombingTips.html I think Cate is right, those combs look fine for the wool you’re trying to work with. The higher the pitch (more rows of tines) the finer to fiber. A four pitch, which is what I think you have, can’t tell for sure with the cruddy laptop resolution, would be good for a medium to fine fiber range. When I’m back on my feet again, I’ll be happy to show in person..
Whil
Good luck with it Deb! It’s nice that you have folks nearby to help! If I were closer I’d come over and work with you on it too!
It’s lovely fiber though.
I’d be happy to help with the combing, Chappysmom, but can you be a little more specific about just what problems you’re having? Meanwhile, don’t despair, and don’t sell those combs! It ain’t that hard.
perhaps you need to try some needle felting…since the wool is already, you know, felted….
Hooray for the twins!
What are you knitting for them???
Do not sell the combs. Get fresh wool. Get the Summer 2004 issue of Spin-Off, which has a good combing article. And if neither of those two things help, I’m willing to bet that Risa would love to roll in some fleece er…. I mean, help you out with it. I’m not an expert, I just played with it.
There’s also the Peter Teal book, which is highly technical but probably has everything you’d ever want to know in it.
http://www.woolery.com/Pages/coversspin/handwoolcombing.html
Thank you for the kind words on my blog about my uncle. I’ll try your tip for taking a pic of a digital as soon as I feel up to hunting through all my actual photographs for a picture of him. We were pretty close, as far as uncle and niece go– he was my godfather– him and his wife would have taken me and my sis and brother in if anything had happened to my parents. Thank you
Oh no…. don’t throw the Gotland away - much too rare. There must be a way to save it. Those are great combs. I have to agree that I would pick out the very felted stuff and give the finer stuff another try - in small batches.