Trenchwork

Today is a day of rest for the Tour de France and the Tour de Fleece.  Want a report?

Day 1:

Three combed bird’s nests of Bond and half a bobbin of singles from the “Mad Hatter” batts from Enchanted Knoll Farm and which I’d cannibalized for the corset yarn in the last post.

Day 2:

The rest of that bobbin; no photos.

Day 3:

An entire bobbin of the same singles. That finishes the fiber.

Day 4:

Both bobbins plied.

Spinning a very lofty yarn does at least two things: It creates a wonderfully squishy yarn, and it makes you improvise. Because really, the bobbin isn’t intended to hold this much. When the bobbin is so full that it can’t turn, but you’re determined that if you just keep working at it, you’ll get those last few yards squeezed on there somehow, there’s only one solution: spin to add the necessary twist, then stop, and then manually turn the bobbin in order to wind the yarn onto the bobbin. Repeat. Endlessly. Or rather, seemingly endlessly. You do eventually reach the end, but not before you’ve questioned whether that determination is not really just a bit of plain, old-fashioned obstinacy. And of course, the answer to that question is inevitably that of course it is. Obstinacy. Stubbornness. Because, after all, yarn is a giving thing with very few rules, and of course you can squeeze an extra couple of yards onto the bobbin. Of course. Right?

Right. Only, then you find you can’t wind it off because, hello, you’ve filled the bobbin so full that it won’t budge. However, it’s amazing what you can do with a screwdriver, and it’s amazing how well a bobbin on a screwdriver can spin when you wedge the handle between a couple of sofa cushions.

There are roughly 167 yards at a bulky 8-11 wpi.  The sari silk and angelina really wanted the yarn to have texture, so I let it.  It turned out slubby, soft, and  very squishy.

Day 5:

A batch of combed Bond bird’s nests.

Day 6:

A bobbin of singles from the Spunky Eclectic “Oo-La-La-Tropi-Cal” colorway in superwash BFL.

Day 7:

The last of the Bond, combed. The big ball in the back is 2 ounces, the two in the front are an ounce each. And that makes 600 grams of combed Bond:

. . . ready to spin:

Day 8:

Finished the Spunky fiber, and plied.

This is the pre-wash shot, so ignore the curly bits and lack of fluff. The yarn is hanging to dry as we speak, and I’ll post a better shot after it finishes.

Day 9:

Exactly 4 ounces of Bond singles at about 40wpi. This yarn is destined to be a 3-ply, so there are 2 more to go.

The Bond is Thomas from Kate Lowder’s farm, and is a lovely fleece. The color is rich, and the sunbleached tips add warmth. It’s this fleece:

I’ve decided Bond is in my top fibers; it’s soft, bouncy, and resilient, and I simply love a soft fiber with good crimp. And, combing the fleece gave me the chance to really test the larger Valkyrie combs from this post. I also gave the combs a test on a bit of Romney, Cormo, Wensleydale, and CVM. Each of the Bond nests weigh between 8-10 grams, but Cormo nearly explodes on the combs, so I was only able to clear 6 grams from a full comb. The combs handled the fine wools as well as I’d hoped they would. They’re very sharp, have a good balance, fit my hand, and the fine tines and fine spacing handle the fine wool nicely. I would recommend using the pad to anchor the comb; it’s a simple affair but is nicely effective and adds no extra height to the stationary comb.

Similarly, the combs had no trouble with the Romney. However, they struggled a bit with the Wensleydale unless I flicked or teased open the locks. That wool is very strong, and I think the heavy curl is simply a bit too much for the fine tines; however, Chris’s heavier grade combs should have absolutely no trouble handling the curly longwools and coarser fibers.

On another note, I do know he’s working on making a full-sized set of combs in different weights or gauges, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

In NON-Tour news, there’s been a bit more fiber prOn. Meet Rifle, a CVM (California Variegated Mutant) ram with a lovely fleece:

CVM is a very spongy wool. It’s soft, with loads of crimp and an incredible degree of elasticity.

I’ve combed a nest to see how it behaved, and I can understand why a lot of folks instinctively lean toward lace with CVM. But I find I’m curious about a blend between CVM, Merino, and silk . . .

Morro Fleece Works washed the fleece, so there are now 4.5 pounds of fleece ready to be prepped and spun.  And yes, they did a lovely job and I would cheerfully use them again.  The fleece is soft, squeaky clean, and not scrambled.

And Humble Hills has some simply luscious Merino. There are a couple of pounds of silvery-taupe or champagne colored lamb . . .

and four of a beautiful adult moorit . . .

These, however, are not washed.  Can you guess what I’ll be doing in my free minutes over the next couple of weeks?