The End Result

It’s early this morning. The sun is barely up. I can tell it will be a blue sky and the sunrise out my east window has all the colors of the rainbow. The birds are starting to sing. In fact, it was the constant call of the oriole right outside my bedroom window that woke me up at 5 am. But it’s hard to get angry with him when I get to hear the mourning doves and other birds waking up, and I get to see this beautiful sunrise. I’m going to miss this place.

My sunrise this morning. Wouldn’t this make nice colors for spinning?

Oh, I probably haven’t told you that I am heading back to western South Dakota. I will be working with one of my best friends (who happens to be my former supervisor) for the month of June. She called last week, and since it’s hard to turn down seeing family and friends while earning a little money, I will be leaving tomorrow morning.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about today. I want to show you my first hand made roving. I am so excited about doing this. A couple of months ago, I learned how to do drum carding. Although I was pleased with my black Icelandic, it was not quite what I expected. I wondered how everyone got the beautiful roving that they spin. Did everyone send them off for processing? Now I told you that I was new to world of wool processing and I had not even heard of Combs, or Viking Combs or English Combs. So I was excited to try something new. And I want to show you the results.

The locks ready to comb.

These are the colors that came out of the dye pot. The blue is called Hubby’s Blue. He didn’t like any of the pure Cushing colors, so I mixed this one up for him. I figured if he had a hand in the processing, he would be more understanding about all the various stages of fleece sitting in bags and boxes all over the house. I was right; there has been very little grumbling.

Connie (who has all the tools needed for processing wool) told me she didn’t really care about combing, and lent me her set of English combs. But she didn’t really explain how to do it, and there were no instructions. So I went to You Tube. Have you been to that site? Just about anything you want to learn is on a video now days. And I was not disappointed. I found the instructional video done by Amanda Hannaford from England. She is considered one of the premier spinner/dyers of that country. Her videos are very good and are easy to follow. And Amanda is so very nice. She really helped me. I had a question about the ratio of oil to water used in prepping the locks. After looking on the web everywhere, and not finding an answer, I sent her an email. She answered very quickly and even complimented my yellow locks in the last blog. Aren’t fiber people wonderful?

After I got my answer, I put her videos back on and did my first combing while watching her. And here is my first batch of yellow. Thank you Amanda, it worked.

The yellow slivers, ready for planking.

Then I combed some of the blue. Since I had to start getting things ready to leave, I did not do any white. I’ll do that when I come home. But I couldn’t wait to do some blending, so I made a small roving from the yellow and blue I had done. It’s my first, and certainly not perfect. But I think it’s beautiful. And I hope it will spin well. Since I’m taking my drop spindle to Rapid, I’ll wait and try it there.

My first roving.

I am really excited about these combs. I know some people think they are labor intensive. But I found it relaxing, like combing a small longhaired dog on my lap. So I will buy the combs from Connie for a very decent price. And when I get home, I will finish combing the Shalom Hills fleece. Once it is spun and knitted, I will be able to say, “I made that” and really mean it.

Well, the sun is up. Hubby and the dogs are still not stirring, but I’m ready for another cup of coffee. Then I need to start my day, cleaning and packing. Too bad I don’t have time to comb some more. Oh well, next month.