Fiber Monday - New wool combs

As promised, I'm going to try to limit my fiber crafting posts to Mondays. It's Monday, so prepare yourselves because I've been in the studio a lot.

First off, I finished the table runner that I showed you the warp for. 

(Forgive the horrible picture.) I'm happy with how it turned out and it was a great first attempt at weaving. Watching all those videos for months did pay off. 

After finishing the table runner, I wanted to warp a new project using more yarn in my stash. This caused me to take a hard look at the amazing amount of yarn I had stashed in the closet. I realized that much of it I didn't actually buy and there was also a lot of it that I was probably never going to use due to size or color or fiber content. I spent one afternoon sorting through it all, getting rid (to give away) of the yarn I knew was never going to be used and actually organizing that yarn which would be useful. As a result, I found my next project.

This is a wool scarf that I am making for J. It is a houndstooth pattern that I wanted to try. Warping the second time was far easier than warping the first. It is a lot of fun to see the pattern develop. I'm probably about a third of the way done with this.

Also on my list of things I wanted to get to last week was scouring the raw fleece that B. had given me for Christmas. Here it is drying.

Now, this is another of those learning curve things. Next time, I'm going to be much more careful about separating the locks before scouring so they come out a little bit more organized. I'm making this work, but it seems I'm doing it the hard way. 

The staple length of this fleece is very long.

This means that using the cards was not really going to be an option as they are much better for shorter wool. I really needed a set of wool combs to do this right. So, on New Year's Day, I headed out to my somewhat local fiber store because they have an amazing New Year's Day sale every year. If was going to invest in combs, this would be the time to do it. It also happened to be the day of a big snow storm that was due to arrive. Since the storm was a little later in arriving, I decided to chance it and headed out; I just wouldn't spend as much time browsing as I normally would. 

I stocked up on some things for future projects while I was there. I do plan for this little trip in the budget a bit, so I should be supplied with projects for a good chunk of the year. The wool combs came home with me as well.

These aren't even the sharpest ones you can get. Wicked looking things, huh? 

After some video watching and trying my hand at wool combing, I did get a couple of little rounds of combed top which I will be able to spin with.

I am not fast or efficient at this process yet, so to process the entire fleece will take some time. But the yarn is so soft and bouncy, it's going to be worth it. I can spend the time as I comb it to try to figure out what I'm going to make with it. A lot will depend on exactly how much spinnable wool I end up with.

Through all of this, I'm still working on spinning the wool for the cardigan I want to knit. I'm almost ready to ply my next 100 yards or so. I still have a sock that I am knitting (I'm heading towards finishing the toe and than I'll be done), and as soon as I finish that, I have enough yarn that I can cast on the cardigan. I'm excited to do that.

Clearly, I have too many projects and not nearly enough time, but that is far better than the alternative, right?