Notes about fleeces and combs

came across this interesting video about wool and goat combing, it was made a while ago

It has several interesting points and tests

1) The spinner talks in Russian and in this video firstly she said she just got these new combs, so it's the new tool for her (about a year ago). Quite large combs too. Not medium and not mini I have (for Shetland wool for example or merino)
After that she tests couple of types of wool and she notes very carefully weighting the % of the useful combed rowing versus what is remaining.
These notes are very useful for spinners who start working with combs. These 2 comb sets are what most western spinners would be using because single triangular comb is not common

2) First white sheep wool type tested is wool with fiber and guard hair, some kind of local wool from southern Russia, the test described talks about trying to separate wool and guard hairs. I think I did see some videos on youtube about using combs to separate wool and guard hair if and only if these 2 parts had different length. It is not quite clear what was the length of the fiber and the guard hair in the white sample, kind of looks like guard hair might be slightly longer but it's very hard to see to tell.
Her wool also does not appear it was washed in uniform locks (like some would do that using mesh wash bags to preserve the locks better). Not quite clear what the rowing versus remaining % is, she mentions that it was too much remaining on the combs

2)
The second test starts about 5:20 and it's more gray sheep wool she describes as possibly a merino cross. She says she does prefer hand cards to produce combed rowing.
she said combed rowing for that sample was 7gr combed and 13 grams remaining
On hand cards she is mentioning she has 5 gr remaining and 15gr rowing and she believes 5rg could be still improved

3) 3-rd test starts at about 10:37 and is for hand carded goat down and she makes combed rowing from that using these combs and has very little waste. Results in nice combed sliver. That test is interesting. Take a look, I did not see that done before with the goat down. It looks more like what Shetland spinner does starting from the locks (on mini combs, they go for 3-4 locks or so, very small amounts).
The spinner is self taught and quite particular about the job she does, wants to get out of that rowing every imperfection

Here is the video about processing Shetland fleece locks by Sue Macniven

the combed sliver has little waste and another video below does explain why (about weak spot in that particular fleece type)

Here is the video demonstrating use of larger combs by Susan McFarland

+[Here is the video demonstrating use of larger combs by Susan McFarland][3]
about how not to end up with 50% of the fiber remaining on combs, also combing locks. If you see she barely catches the cut end by the tines, not too much (it is hard when it's too much),


This particular video shows the rise of Shetland fleece aka the weak spot

 (that's the thing where the waste comes from) and how to get uniform locks from the fleece.

I'm mentioning here wool longer as substitute for long goat down fiber is one can not get a hold of goat down, and Shetland as one of the substitutes for finer shawls.


When it comes to Orenburg triangular combs on this side of the pond Valkyrie Superfine Combs is still the closest thing in 2 combs sets. Like these in the video (processing paco-vicuna, it is closest thing to orenburg goat down at 14 micron, but... orenburg goat down is combed, so it's got no cut side, paco vicuna is sheered so it does have the cut side).

One of the reasons why triangular comb is used traditionally is the orenburg down is combed and this fiber is pulled from both sides of the comb (no cut side to lash on the comb so it is put in the middle so the waste sits in the middle nice and put). Here is a very good video regarding that.
Traditional orenburg triangle comb. Rosa Gumerova.

Video shows picking guard hair, then combing (down is combed trice, however when 100% goat down shawl was made for me and orenburg museum that down was combed 7-9 times), also at 10:46-ish they show that comb used to comb down from goats and one guy in the class said he uses that thing to pick gooseberries into a basket and that works real well.

Small shawl 1 is done and a little bit of the yarn talk

In this blog post small doll shawl yarn and the outfit was shown.
Since then I visited the vendor's store for the first time and found some useful hair care techniques. So couple dolls were set up like so. Water, shaping=synthetic material memory.

And the shawl was done. And I caved and picked a doll in rather nice condition out of a consignment store. I think I just happen to like the look of this particular one.
So, this is the gradient yarn on blue. The shawl is 2 piece, 3 looks.
Shawl alone pinned way

Hooded. the shawl top has small loops enough to put the ribbon through and the shawl can be styled as a cape in several ways, this is one of them

Now... The hair talks and the yarn talk.
Hair after several days in the shaping

I probably will do more curls on Samantha doll hair to have as it looked originally, maybe, I like this styling somewhat better, will see...


Other doll talk...

more little things storage that can go on a shelf... which is not done yet.

 
The yarn talk... Gossamer yarns versus lace weight. How do they look like.
Let's see in doll's hands, easier to take a picture of, does not require jumping around bogen tripod as something less havy I can just trip over and make a nasty equipment mess.

Here we have Felicity doll in the cape lilac-pink gradient wool plied with silk spun as a lace weight yarn. The small chest is used to keep some shoes and other small easy to loose and hard to keep the track of doll size things. The underskirt in the making will go under Victorian Samantha dress to have it shaped better (Felicity lilac dress has an underskirt).
And the dolls are holding yarns of Orenburg, the gossamer yarns. Can you see it?
Not yet. The yarns are 2-ply yarns. Maybe now it's better?

somewhat... how about closer

I do not know if I can get in my ligh in the middle of the night the actual 2-ply. more close up

here is gray 2-ply yarn next to lilac-pink gradient wool yarn. See the difference between gossamer Orenburg yarn and the lace weight?
The gray yarn is a wheel spun.
This wheel.

that has some of the single I'm spinning on it.
the white yarn is spindle spun Orenburg yarn

it has tighter ply than I do and I'm quite impatient to see how this will be in the shawl. This is more about the experience exchange among Orenburg yarn spinners. This is from the lady taught by Olga Fedorova who is her successor at the school where she has taught. I'm now quite far from my home land, but we can do yarn talk. the yarns speak.
This is how the wheel spun yarn looks in the shawl

these are the yarns side by side

they are plied with same silk

What else did come from back home? 4-th Irina's book

And spindles

next to what is called here abroad student lace spindle size (10gr range student spindle i not quite common thing here.. all spindles are made in Russia, Orenburg region). Smaller spindle is not a maker's joke and not a shawl pin. It's a spinning spindle. something not quite common these days as this kind of work is not done these days on routine bases.

this photo is from Irina Bushuhina book

I'll show these things of old during my 2012 fall classes in Boulder, CO at Shuttles Spindles and Skeins.
They did exist, they are not quite lost, They are hard to restore, not impossible so. Did the shawl come from back home? Yes they did, just takes time to come buy with the funds :).
 Architect salary helps (nope I'm not a housewife :) , I'd love to be, but I'm not ).

Hand spun yarn and yarn winder

In this post there is some hand spun yarn
Here is the same yarn plied. With high speed yarn winder it turns out that the ball core (necessary for goat down yarn not only to the ball from collapsing, but to set the yarn also) should be different in comparison to smaller yarn winder (where paper towl roll core works if some elastic is added to the ball winder bobbin so the core does not slip when the yarn is wound)

the ball will be lover on the core. the core is constructed of 2 pieces of paper towel core cut in the middle (length wise) and taped a little at the top so it does not fall off.
When the ball is done I pulled the cut pieces back together and have moved the ball gently and carefully about  1.5cm from the core bottom.

this much. the core is positioned like it was wound.
Now, stabilizing the leader:

and the core of the ball close up

when all set and done, I moved the sides of the core wider so the ball is tighter from the inside and taped them carefully so I do not disturb the ball itself.
Ito the wet baby blanket it goes to set (I do not use wet hot set in our dry climate, my grandma did not use the hot set for goat down yarn either, we just used longer set time).
Traditionally a different kind of round bobbin is used to wind the yarn (basically a piece of carton, a circle and one will wind the yarn on it by hand, white or like above non colored paper or carton, ink is not your friend in the wet yarn set situation).
I did similar set with the ball winder, seems to work fine. however I do like nostepine (well... I just use that paper towel roll as is) type of winding somewhat better. This particular yarn winder does make not so tight ball on the edges, less tight that I like personaly.

It is about 1/2 of the spun yarn plied.

Just for dolls: simplicity. Pattern preview

The second shawl from Simplicity is done. The yarn spun and plied, the shawl is knit. Very simple warm kerchief, traditional. 2-color gray. Orenburg goat down hand spun yarn, light fingering weight (makes nice warm item).
Here are some photos. The second shawl in Simplicity duo is curved modern shape. It is a sampler for the adult shawl

The warm shawl goes to my kiddo to produce the halo. Yes, Orenburg warm shawls halo with wear. Will see it in a month or so :)

Spin, play dolls, try some shawls

I did spin some Orenburg goat down  for several projects.
And I also got a white dress for 18'' America girl and alike  like doll. Made in China, but surprisingly ok sewing job, seams are finished with the serger. It is bit tight fit on AG so, and I wonder if it will fit looser on a different 18'' doll, AG are somewhat wider.

So some of this yarn will become doll shawl sampler, and some will be Fleur de Grace series r another one... I'm still deciding, did not ply the yarn yet as you can see from the photos below.
so let us begin:

what do we have here from left to right... silk to ply with, plastic N6 container (not goot for cooking but good for spinning rig part), 2 holiday boxes, bottom row as 21cm Orenburg spindles with down singles, 2 30cm spindles have down single and silk (upper left corner) reeled, last spindle on the right also has Orenburg goat down single, but it spun thicker than the other fiber in the photos and the intention of this is thicker doll item, as you can see there is not a lot spun for this separate project. Lighter gray down - more than one project and I have more of this color to spin, so there is no shortage of yarn in the house if I need more, I'll spin more, that was my weekend work and some during the week.
Plying... one can ply directly single and silk on the wheel , there are tips and tricks to it to avoing the doawn single "runns" over silk and bacicaly creating not desirable art yarn type an effect, not desirable in the shawl that is, i would make not exactly desirable yarn for the particular application, for some other project that type of yarn is quite usable, but that's not what I'm making.
Rigs: want to avoid "running" over silk, reel the 2 together and make it nice and tight.
One can do it like so

that's wher first holiday container becomes useful. Another way of controlling the spindle with the singles is this

taller plastic container (or glass or ceramic)

if one decides to use wheel and ply of the spindle this way, positioning the spindle like so may help

that's where the second holiday container becomes useful, one can attach a small elastic band to keep the top from rolling around too much.

Now.. the yarn when it will become some shawls will add to this set. I did play with white dress and different shawls and different looks a little bit. Learning my doll model. I do not know what is this exact doll, but will find out some time, so she does not have a name yet

Doll shawls 2

So.. there was a question in one forum, do I have more doll shawls...
I suppose. Just can not decide which one do I like better at the moment...

or like this

Do I like it here

Or maybe this

Do I have doll shawls...  We used to call it 'пупсик" , this size doll, like mini american girl version.

Or maybe this is better

Nope, I can not decide :)

Do I have doll shawls? I suppose I do :). And I suppose I like it too :)