Thursday 12 August 2010

Techniques- Fibre combing

This is not really a how to, more of a what I did next. The fibre I washed last week was nice and dry by the weekend, I decided that the washing had not been too much of a fail after all and to get on with making the fleecy pile into something I could spin with. The first technique on my list was combing.
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Since I am skint I found these in the local pound shop- £1 each. They are reasonably strong as well.
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I did try a comb/carder like thingy combo, but it was not overly successful (pictures may follow at some point). So the rest was done with just the two sided dog comb.
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First a lock was pulled off the fleecy mass
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Then combed, towards the tip first, then towards the cut end (the butt? giggles immaturely). The more tangly ones I used the wider teeth first then turned the comb over and gave it a go with the finer side.
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Mmmmm, fluffy
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Mmmmmm, lots of fluffiness
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The locks came up beautifully fluffy, there was quite a bit of rubbishy stuff, mostly shorter hairs and the like that got binned.
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The main downside to combing it lock by lock is that it takes ages, I haven't weighed the box of fluff yet, but there will not be a lot in there. Next week I will be giving hand carders a go.




4 comments:

  1. Hand-prepping does take ages - but it can also be sort of relaxing. I've tried both combing and carding and have found I prefer carding. However, I'm also looking into getting a drum carder, because it takes ages to get even an ounce of carded fleece from the hand carders.

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  2. Doing everything by hand does seem to take forever but the reward when you finish and are wearing your new item is worth every bit.

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  3. I know people who will purposely comb out every lock. Argh! As a person who sells my product, I can't handle it. I want it done! But, if you can't afford a drum carder or hand carders then this is an option. Thanks for sharing this.

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  4. This is how I prep fiber when I start with raw fleece, too. What a pain, but it's cheap, which I like!!!

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