Yarn made from combed top and worsted draw

I bought some wool combs a few weeks ago and I now have some of the best yarn I've ever made.

The black is some Zwartbles, the white is a cross owned by a friend. I thought that the wool combs would zip through some of the fleece I've had stashed for some time. In fact it's quite labour-intensive work, but the resulting 'top' is such good quality that spinning it is incredibly quick and makes really smooth consistent yarn. I found that I liked making a very fine single and then a true 3-ply for a nice dk yarn which I can use in a colour-work project maybe.

Despite the worsted preparation and worsted draw, these are also the lightest, squishiest, elastic skeins I've made. The black in particular stretches almost like a rubber band. I put that down to the crimp in these fibres. Making thin singles and the 3 plying may be the secret of the lightness. I used the same zwartbles fleece for this jumper which is very dense and heavy.

There's nothing in this picture for scale, but the combs are mahoosive; swinging one is like wielding Thor's hammer.

Next up - colour blending. I'm going to try mixing these locks to make a grey.

2 comments:

Freyalyn said...

OH yes, your own handspun from your own combed top is quite the best yarn ever.

Our Blissful Life said...

Apprecciate you blogging this