English Wool Combing; Navajo 3-Plying On A Spindle; Leslie's Onion Skin Dyed Cardigan; Bobble-Cuff Socks; NYC Peace Of Mind

Arrived back the other night from a 2-day, New York City get-away that revived my spirits and soothed my soul. Trips to NYC have a way of doing this for me. I know for some, such sentiment may seem strange...after all, I live in Vermont and you'd think that I might be more at peace in our quiet, rural setting. And sometimes I am. I'd no doubt hanker for the mountains and my garden patches if I was away for too long at a time. But if truth be told, I'm a city-gal at heart and ache to be able to walk to a coffee shop, jump on the subway, take in a museum, stroll the busy streets with my man at any hour, and know that when I do go outside I'm going to encounter a diversity of peoples and their cultures. The vibes I'm sending out into the cosmos these days is to have the best of both worlds...city mouse AND country mouse...and our aim is to do what we can to make that happen. This seems almost an obnoxious statement from a Detroit born and raised kid who never thought she'd even own a home. But there it is...may the winds take my request and plant it so that the wish can grow and flourish. And from the blossoming of that request, may Chris and I be able to make the world a better place through our art, music and writing.

Chris (pianist/composer) and the oldest of the spider, David (jazz violinist), had two gigs this past weekend...one in Queens and one in Manhattan. In Queens, they played as members of the Oikos Ensemble, at St. Albans Congregational, UCC. If I lived in NYC, I'd be more than inclined to pay regular visits to this church. The members of the congregation were the warmest, most beautiful people I have been around in a long time. And the music was rocking!! After the service we jumped in the car and headed to the American Museum of Natural History, where Oikos would be performing at a reception at the Hayden Planetarium that evening. It was a long, but exciting, morning-into-evening that ended with a fabulous dinner at Ravagh Persian Restaurant, with dear friend and Oikos founder/co-leader, Cliff, and his talented, vocalist daughter, Arianna. From there, we headed back to David's apartment in Brooklyn, where none of us could keep our eyes open for very long, despite the lure of me actually getting to watch Bob Dylan on YouTube without the irritation of a dial-up connection.

The following Monday, Chris, David and I headed to Greenwich Village via the Q train. I can never seem to get enough of the Village. We've heard how it's changed over the years and is no doubt different from when Dylan played at the local clubs (many such clubs long gone...), but the Village somehow retains an air of the 60's...if only in my own mind. When asked where do I want to go when in NYC, I nearly always answer with "The Village."

David took this picture on a particularly pretty street, full of vines and interesting tree plantings, in the Village. The February sun was shining in a most welcome fashion and we relished our hours of walking hither and thither.

Chris took the pic this time...of the spider and her oldest, David. Always wonderful to hang with our David.

Now for a bit of this and that: I'm kinda proud of catching the February 2008 Lunar Eclipse as a pic with my little, digital camera. Chris and I froze outside as we took the spectacle in, but it was worth it. Hope you all had a chance to see this beauty of a veiled moon.

Above is a sweetheart of a gal named Janelle. We met when she was just a high schooler and we both were...dare I say...stuck working in the men's department of a Brattleboro outdoor outfitter establishment when Chris and I had just moved to Vermont from Toronto. Almost from the beginning of our friendship, I proclaimed that if I had a daughter, I'd want her to be like Janelle. She's witty beyond belief and oh-so-intelligent...a real "smart fart," as my Ma would have said. Now the cool thing is that Janelle is a wonderful artist. And she's now my illustrious illustrator for the BOOK! Woo-hoo!!

Here's a pair of Wensleydale wool "Bobble-cuffed" socks that I spun, naturally dyed, designed and knit to be worn with Birkenstocks. The white Wensleydale top was gifted to me by Karen, a fellow member of the Nutmeg Spinners, a guild I belonged to when living in Connecticut for a few years. Karen generously gave me the fiber right before we were to move to Toronto. She had purchased it on a trip to England. This was still at a time where Wensleydale wasn't easily found, if for sale at all, in the States. I naturally dyed the spun yarn with brazilwood dust after premordanting the skeins with alum and cream of tartar. The yarn was spun on a Louet S10 with a short backwards draw and was plain vanilla two-plied. The socks are knit from the top down, with a rolled edging, ribbed body (ribbing was staggered along the foot)...and of course, that snazzy cuff.

There's a happy story and a sad story that goes with these socks. The sad part has to do with knitting them on a bus from Canada to Detroit, when my oldest brother, Jack, was in a hospice due to a brain tumor. I remember not being able to see too well on the bus and on one of the cuffs there's an error in the size of one of the bobbles. I remember consciously choosing to leave that bobble as is. This wasn't because I figured no one would notice...it's because I WOULD remember...I would remember to try to keep my priorities straight and not stress too much about the "small stuff" in life.

The happy ending had to do with the fact that this pair of socks was chosen as one of the winners in Spin-Off magazine's, "Save The Sheep Project." My socks toured around with 27 other handspun pieces and were shown in galleries, museums and other venues throughout the U.S. And if that weren't enough, the socks made it into the book, Handspun Treasures from Rare Wools, edited by Deborah Robson, Interweave Press, 2000. Cool beans.

A frontal view.

Hiccup and we're at friend, Leslie's, home for a Lunar Ladies get-together...as seen in pics below.

Leslie has a gorgeous 1700's style home. She and her husband, John, designed and built their wonderful, detail-rich, dwelling that's set on unspoiled, forested land. The above pic was taken after I tried to take a civilized photo in Leslie's living room but Jenna did her usual stick-her-finger-up-her-nose routine. I'll spare you that pic. E has got her hands on her face on the left and is shirreting (Is that even a real verb? Maybe it's just shirring...). Jenna is support spindle spinning and ever-so-gleeful in the middle. Leslie's cracking up at the whole scene and being a lovely hostess to boot (she made some homemade rye buns and chicken soup that would knock anyone's socks off). And speaking of socks, do please note the hand knit and/or hand dyed socks on all! Maureen had to leave early, but since she throws rags in front of her face in pics anyways, she no doubt would be relieved she missed the whole photo shoot thing. If I had asked someone to take a pic of me, you would have seen me so close to the fire in the fireplace you'd be afraid my hair was singeing. Nothing quite like a log fire on a blustery, snow falling evening.

Above is Jenna sporting a dashing basket-hat of Leslie's hand combed llama fiber. The llama nests were made from llamas residing at West Mountain Farm. That's Hoops and Yoyo peeking from the basket...never known to avoid any photo op.

Here's Leslie in her lovely hand spun, naturally dyed, hand knitted cardigan. The white wool fiber was purchased from a lady named Michelle and came from a "non-descript sheep." Leslie spun the singles and plain vanilla 3-plied the yarn on her Ashford Traditional. She dyed the main yarn with onion skins that she procured from a guy named John in the produce department of the Brattleboro Food Co-op. He would save them for her and Leslie would pick the skins up at regular intervals. So take Leslie's lead...don't be shy...ask YOUR local grocer to save skins for you, too!

Leslie solar dyed with the onion skins after letting them soak and ferment in buckets of water in her basement for a winter. I asked her, "Did they smell?" You bet!! But oh the color!!!! The yarn was solar premordanted with alum and cream of tartar. All premordanting and dyeing was done in a Terry's Tub. For more on Terry's Tubs, check the past posts, Solar Mordanting and Solar Dyed Silk.

The green yarn that was used for the color pattern was a superwash merino wool top that was naturally dyed in the fiber by a company I used to co-own, The Copper Moth. The green was dyed with Osage orange extract and Saxon blue indigo. Leslie picked the little color pattern from an old knitting book that featured ski sweaters.

The cardigan itself was knit from a Yankee Knitter Designs pattern. Leslie used pattern #8, Women's Mock Cable Sweater, but didn't include the mock cables. Nice!!!!

A close-up view.

On to a recent class I taught for the Green Mountain Weavers and Spinners in North Adams, MA. The workshop was my "Thick, Medium and Thin ~ Spinning to Specs" one-dayer and was well attended. Dear friend, Liz, was among the participants...

Liz (on the right, spider on the left)! I've known Liz back from when I was a member of the Berkshire Hills and Dales Spinners in western Massachusetts. Liz, wearing a turquoise spider pin no less, was a HUGE inspiration for me becoming a natural dyer. And...a beautifully embroidered, naturally and solar dyed, envelope purse of Liz's was featured in my article, "Sun-Kissed Dyeing," Spin-Off magazine, Summer 2005.

Here's the class at the end of the workshop, minus a few folks by the time the pic was taken...17 in all attended!!! Thank you, Gayle and Lars, for making that fun event possible.

Now for the spinning techie part of this post... Will begin with some basic English wool combing that allows one to make hand combed top. I do believe there's nothing as glorious to spin as hand combed top! Top is a fiber preparation that leaves only the longest fibers in a parallel configuration...and yet hand combed top isn't compacted like many of the commercially prepared tops on the market are (after all, how long was that commercial top sitting in airless, cramped packaging?) Combing removes all the shorter, tangled bits and any other garbage present in the fiber.

My English 5-pitch wool combs were made by John A. Meck. Mr. Meck passed away quite awhile ago, but I'll bet there are a lot of folks out there who own and cherish his fiber prep equipment.

"Pitch" is the number of rows of tines that are protruding from the wood base of each comb. Therefore, my combs have 5 rows. The more rows, the more thorough a job the combs do. The more rows, the finer the fiber you can card...tho' I've found my 5-pitch combs to be amazingly versatile in handling a wide range of fibers...from fine to quite coarse. However, the average staple length of the fibers you choose needs to be long enough to at least eventually be caught in all the rows and allow for combing itself.

The Meck combs, like other brands available, have a storage unit to house the dangerously SHARP combs when not in use. Please consider keeping kids, cats and parakeets out of the area you're doing your combing. Please make sure you're wide awake when using this equipment. There's also a c-clamping mounting device which holds one comb stationary, while you use the free, working comb to do the actual combing.

Above you'll see the mounting device in place, with the combs having been taken out of their holder.

The metal pin above is attached to the mounting device and is used to hold the mounted comb securely in place. Once you put the handle of one of the combs in the mounting device, the pin gets put into the hole, as shown above, and catches the hole in the handle of the comb, as well.

Here's some Coopworth wool that was dyed with black walnut hulls that I used for the combing demonstration below.

Before we even start putting fiber onto the stationary combs, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that some folks heat the tines of their combs by sticking them in a bucket of very hot water. Apparently this heating of tines helps distribute the oil (which will be discussed below) throughout the fibers as they're being combed. I did this once, based on an author's advice. Let's just say I never did so again. If heating your tines sets your bells 'a ringing, then please do try to keep the wooden section out of the water, lest you damage it.

Some directions for combing I've read have said to "lash" or "load" the locks onto the stationary comb just over the tallest, first row of tines. This is sound, sage advice, especially if you're having trouble transferring fibers from one comb to the other. But I have to admit I've never had any trouble transferring fibers from the stationary comb to the working comb by laying the locks over all the rows on the stationary comb, making sure there's only a taddy bit of fiber, if any, behind the last (shortest) row. I generally don't worry too much anymore about making sure it's the "tip" ends of the locks that are hanging off the front end of the comb or not. But if you're of a mind that you want to keep tips and butts separate and in their supposed proper place when spinning, then by all means do so.

Lashing on locks.

More lock lashing.

I generally fill the stationary comb with enough fibers so they're at the 1/3 to 1/2 way point up the shortest row of tines.


I like to lift these fibers off the bottom of the base a bit to ease transferring of fibers from the stationary comb to the working (swinging) comb, and repeat this lifting every now and again.

In the above pic, I'm spritzing the wool fibers on the stationary comb with warm water. Some folks like to use an oil/water emulsion and if there's a lot of static, I may spray on some 1/2 Avon's Skin-So-Soft and 1/2 water. Some folks even like to measure out a syringe-full of oil and water related to the weight of fiber they want to comb (doing so prior to lashing on the locks) and have a special, oil emulsion to fiber ratio formula to do so. Another alternative is to hydrate the fleece by spritzing just with a water bottle prior to loading the comb. To do this, I lay an amount of fleece that I know I want to comb on a lightly damp towel, spritz the fiber with water or oil/water, roll the fiber up in the towel and set it for a few hours (or even overnight) in a warm spot. 'course you could also just use freshly washed fiber that's still damp instead.

Now please note that many people at this point turn the stationary comb onto its side (with tine points facing right or left) in the mounting device. I'm generally not one of these folks because I like to begin to comb horizontally, not vertically...let's face it, I don't like those tines of the working comb swinging towards me (and my tender legs and side)!! Any of you other spinners out there work in this fashion? Plus, with my method I don't have to keep turning the stationary comb back and forth...no going from the tines pointing up for loading or drawing off the fiber and then back to the tines pointing right or left for combing, and so on. You see, combing begins by holding the working comb perpendicular to the stationary comb. If I turned the stationary comb onto its side, I'd have to begin by combing downwards in an arch towards me, which has proven awkward (and dangerous) for me, in order to keep to the perpendicular arrangement. Being left-handed, I often swing the working comb from left to right, but there's no reason you can't swing from right to left with this set-up of mine. No matter what, do what works for you. Long ago I stopped worrying what the "books" said and found a working style that suited ME.

Combing (also called jigging) begins by catching just the tips of the fleece hanging off the stationary comb. Be sure to make a complete pass...in my case, from left to right.

As I continue to comb, I catch fibers that are further in and closer to the front, tallest row of tines in the stationary comb. Each subsequent pass gets closer and closer to the front row, with fibers passing from the stationary comb to the swinging, working comb.

More combing...getting much of the last of the fibers on the stationary comb. What's left on the comb is short, tangled waste. If the fiber was full of chaff or seedy garbage (my fiber was not), even after one combing, that would have mostly fallen to the floor or be left in the remaining fibers on the stationary comb. Remove the waste from the stationary comb before continuing .

Here's the crud that was left in the stationary comb after my first comb-through...neps and noils. One can save this stuff for textured yarns...or not. If you have a toy animal to stuff, this waste may prove to be the stuffing you need.


To continue combing, I now have fibers on my working comb, and with the tines facing sideways (not towards my tender legs or side!), I begin to transfer these fibers onto the tines of the stationary comb, moving the working comb vertically from top to bottom (heading towards the floor).

Continued vertical combing. The fibers are now going from the working comb to the stationary comb.

More vertical combing.

Finishing up with vertical combing. You could continue alternating the horizontal and vertical combing above as needed, but I often find that I can pull off the top I want after even one round.

Here are two dizzes that I own. A diz is nothing other than a disc with a concave and convex side. The two dizzes above have just one hole each and are made from wood. The diz on the left is made from ebony wood and the diz on the right is maple (I think!). Note that the hole size in each diz differs from each other. Some dizzes have multiple holes of various sizes. I've seen dizzes made from horn, pvc tubing, a shell, the corner of a milk jug, and more. A diz is used to help remove the fiber from the comb in the form of "top"...a long strip of parallel, same-length, fibers.

Once, when I had taken a combing class from Rita, I used her diz that looks just like the one above on the left. I confess, in a quiet moment during the workshop, I used the hole in her diz as a stencil and when I returned home soon had a woodworker make me a diz just like her's...a prime example of fiber star adoration and emulation.

For how to use a diz with wool combs, see below...

First, grab the fiber coming off the stationary comb as if it was a goat's beard. Draft the fiber out to a point, twisting the point as you do so.

Twist the point enough to make a firm, little ply-back.


Stick the ply-back through the diz's hole, with the concave side of the diz away from you and conversely, the convex side towards you. Use a fine crochet hook to aid this job if needed.

Knowing the average staple length of your wool is helpful, so that you can draw out 1/4 to 1/2 a staple length's worth of wool with the back hand, while the other hand (the forward hand) gently nudges the diz a bit towards the stationary comb (away from you). Repeat this drafting and subsequent nudging forwards of the diz in order to create your top. Note that I chose the diz with the larger hole of the two dizzes picture previously. The size of the whole indicates how much fibers can be drawn out at a time...the bigger the hole, the more fibers that can come through.

In addition, as I pinch the fibers with my back hand to draft, I like to alternate these two moves: 1) my thumb on the top with my pointer on the bottom of the fiber; 2) my thumb on one side of the fiber and my pointer on the other side of the fiber. Alternating steps 1 and 2 helps to insure the fibers draft out evenly throughout the top.

When you draft, you'll want to consider grabbing the end of the entirety of the fibers coming off the comb. In other words, you'll be a happier camper if you avoid de-gutting the fibers.

The above pic shows the top as it's being made. Wonderful!!

More top!!


The last of the fibers becoming top.

Ta da...finished top. Note that you can make several of these lengths, hold them together and lash on the tips until your stationary comb is filled again. Re-comb these for homogenous color distribution (or homogenous fiber distribution if your using more than one fiber), if homogeneity is what you're looking for. Repeat until you re-comb all of the fiber.

If you do choose to use more than one fiber to comb (you can indeed comb fibers other than wool fleece!), it's best to make sure the fiber lengths of each type are the same. If you comb diverse fiber lengths, the shorter fibers will be separated from the longer ones and will be left in the stationary comb when you draft out the fiber into top.

Would you like to see a post featuring and demonstrating striated colors and/or various fiber types via combing in the future?

And yes, you absolutely can use commercially prepared carded fibers and/or combed top in your hand combed creations...I've heard this questioned many a time!

How would I spin the above top? Well, if you've been reading the spider for awhile, you'll know that I don't feel inclined to HAVE to use any particular drafting technique over another unless I choose to for my own, personal reasons. You can join me in this act of utter spinnerly rebellion if you want...or not. I do like to carefully consider my end product and try out a few drafts or so to see what works best and most importantly...what works in a comfortable manner with the fiber(s) at hand...to give me the yarn that pleases me. I do a lot of mixing and matching of techniques in my fiber prepping and spinning...worrying not if any of the techniques are in the extreme worsted or extreme woolen camp. I'll leave that worry to folks who like to codify and teach/spin with industrial-founded spinning extremes. No thanks.

A HUGE hiccup and on to another techie spinning topic...this time, Navajo 3-plying using a spindle. It was Leslie's request for this subject that made me remember it has been asked for before. Thank you, Leslie!! Here goes....

Navajo 3-plying is started using a spindle in the same way you would begin doing so at a wheel. See the past posts Navajo 3-Plying, A Look At Ingeo & More and Joining Unspun Fiber To Spun Yarn; Navajo 3-Plying Revisited; Drea and The Knittingsmith; Plus Another Visit To NYC for more on general Navajo 3-plying techniques. Because I've already written up the structure of this style of yarn, I won't repeat myself here. BUT, the pics below will show an easy-peasy way to Navajo 3-ply that you may or may not have thought of. Basically, it calls for parking the spindle while you do the chaining of the singles and spinning the spindle once you've chained a length. What's great about Navajo 3-plying this way, is that you can more easily control how much ply twist is going into the chained yarn, avoiding that overtwist so prevalent amongst spinners trying to treadle and, at the same time, manipulate the singles with their hands at their wheels.

The above pic shows the singles, which have been steamed on a felted cat ball in a veggie steamer (devoted for this purpose) to make the twist temporarily go to sleep and behave without the singles twisting mercilessly on itself. The cat ball with the singles wrapped around it is then placed under a flower pot, with the end of the singles brought through the hole of the pot. If you'd like to make a cat ball or two, head to the past post, Storing Takli-Spun Singles For Plying, for directions.

To begin, make a long, limp, loopy ply-back with the singles. Continue folding the singles again, as if you're going to make a 3-ply-back, as above.

Take the end of this 3-ply-back as shown...

and poke it through the doubled leader on your spindle.

Fold the 3-ply-back in half and pinch the halves together, awaiting for twist that will secure the singles to the leader.


I'm doing all the above with my Mielke bird's eye maple high whorl (remember? I can't resist bird's eye spinning tools!!!) shoved in my armpit. Good thing I wore black so you can see the loop and 3rd ply (all attached to the cat ball in the upturned flower pot below).

Now I'm adding some twist into the attached singles and leader.

And winding on the join so that it won't come apart when I chain the singles for Navajo 3-plying.

Where do I park the high whorl while I'm chaining the singles? Between my legs so that I can chain a longish length before adding twist to it.

Reaching in the loop to snag the 3rd ply and make it into a new loop.

A close-up of reaching through the loop. It's wise to make each loop big enough so that your hand doesn't feel noosed by too small a space to get into.

Chaining a length of singles for Navajo 3-plying.

Adding plying twist (in my case, S or counter-clockwise twist) to the length of chained singles.


A pic of sticking my thumb in the loop prior to putting twist into the chained length of singles. My thumb keeps the loop from collapsing and getting caught in the twist, which if collapsed, would make it difficult to continue chaining the next length after I store what was just twisted.

Another pic showing my thumb stuck in the upper loop while I'm rolling the spindle on my leg to put twist into the chained length of singles. Note how I like to keep the singles that's coming from the flower pot behind my shoulder for tensioning purposes and to keep it out of the way while plying twist is inserted into the chained portion of the yarn.

With high whorl spindles, I often like to hold the yarn that's to be stored on the spindle shaft (below the whorl) horizontally. I wind on with the yarn straightened but not stretched, never letting go of the yarn before it's stored. I mention this because many times beginner's with spindling don't realize that the twist hasn't been set yet and will come untwisted if you let go of the twisted chained section before winding on for storage.

Ready to catch the yarn in the hook again for further chaining and insertion of plying twist.

Now please understand that you CAN Navajo 3-ply while the spindle is turning...in other words, no park and chain. But this is such a foolproof way to Navajo 3-ply on a spindle, I often choose to keep the steps separated...chain, twist, store...repeat...

For a last beginner's techie topic, I've included a few pics of some fiber I've been dealing with of late. Now understand that the sample I spun prior to ordering the entirety of this fiber was pristine...lovely stuff. But once I had enough fiber sent to me for my project, and I dug into the bag, the fiber was anything BUT pristine. No, I won't tell you where I got this fiber from or even what it is. I could have sent it back, after all and maybe it was a fluke that it was sooo bad. But time was/is running out for this project and I chose to slog through what I ordered, because in the end, it'll give me what I want. Just know that spinning it has been an awful drag. And while I could have combed it to remove the crud, I wouldn't have had enough fiber left without ordering more...and that would NOT be happening anytime in this lifetime I can tell ya. Plus combing would have probably separated the two different fibers in the blend and recarding only would have distributed the crud more thoroughly...eeesh.

Anyways, I tell you this 'cause it can happen to ANY of us, especially when we buy lbs via mail, sight unseen...based on an earlier sent sample. Soooo, might as well turn this into a teaching moment for beginners, eh?

Here's what a length of my poor singles looks like. To the left is a pile of crud already pulled off.

Crud!


To pull off crud, use a quick, perpendicular motion with your thumb nail.

Crud removed. ad nauseum, in my case....

A few random pics... Geezo! This pic was taken when we lived in Canada more than 10 years ago. If ever I wonder if our Toronto stay was THAT long ago, I need only look at how bloody young I look from that time period!! Have included the photo to show an oddly-staged spider spinning with her T-notched, Lee Raven low whorl spindle (as featured in last month's post), with a wrist distaff holding the fiber. Take a look at the cop, please...it's a beehive-ish-style.

And speaking of young, I found this pic in the china cabinet that we keep our ridiculously abundant, stray pics inside of. With all the snow we've had here in VT, albeit beautiful, and with yet more snow in the forcast tonight and tomorrow...well, somehow this pic seemed indicative that winter will turn to spring and spring will turn to summer...someday. Goin' fishin' sounds good to me about now. The pic shows me on a dock in the 60's near my uncle and aunt's home in northern Minnesota, just waiting for a bite. BTW, most of my relatives are from Minnesota. My Ma, Dad and two brothers were all born in St. Paul. I, on the other hand, am a Detroiter through and through.

Oh, and before I end this post, a request for fibery prize donations came in from Ted (KnitterguyTed on Ravelry). Ted and a friend are hosting an all-men's knitting retreat and are looking for businesses, indie or otherwise, to donate some prizes in exchange for promotion of their businesses. If interested in donating, you can find more about this neat event on Ted's post, And the Winner is….

I'll also answer a question Ted asked me here. He wondered why I considered my drinking of Red Rose tea to be rot-gut tea drinking at its best? Well, I like my tea strong and no nonsense and Red Rose fits that description, but if truth be told, I'm not sure I'd have been so devoted to this brand over the years if you didn't get a little porcelain animal made in England in each box. How about you tea drinkers, rot-gut or connoisseur? What's your fave brand? Like those little Red Rose animals, too? I probably have something like ten turtles from the recent Red Rose series...and still I like seeing what animal is in the new box...it's like a Cracker Jack prize.

'til next month! Ta ra!!!