Combing with English wool combs (pic heavy)

Everyone has their own rhythm to combing fleece, and there are excellent youtube vids and blog posts and magazine articles already covering the subject. I just wanted to throw mine into the mix, not as much for technique but to show yall that the big English combs AREN'T SCARY. Totally accessible. Cheaper than a drumcarder. Make the most beautiful fiber prep. Easy to learn. And fun, fun, fun :)

Most of the technique and terminology I'm using comes from reading Peter Teal's Hand Woolcombing and Spinning-- it's a really excellent book on the history and technique of combing wool as well as techniques on spinning a 'true worsted' yarn. I've also learned a lot of great tips on Ravelry and across many, many blogs out there.

You may remember this heartstoppingly black fleece purchased at the Monterey Wool Auction, which actually probably wasn't the best choice for illustrative purposes but eh :)


"Kali", ramboullet x corriedale

I'm using my fine 4-pitch Craftsmith English wool combs-- aK(a) The Big Combs. The pitch is how many rows of tines/poky things there are. The more rows, the more chaff removed by the combs (and the more waste wool) and the more appropriate for fine fibers. The rows on my set are more closely spaced together than on the 'regular' wool combs made by Craftsmith, more closely spaced tines also being ideal for finer fleeces.



The combs are secured on the 'pad', locked in place with a removable pin. The combs can be held upright with the tines facing the ceiling, or on their side parallel to the worksurface (tines facing the walls).My combs didn't come with c-clamps, you'll need some sort of sturdy clamps to hold the pad onto the table/worksurface.

I still wash all of my fleeces in lock formation, so I lash the butt end (cut end) of my washed locks onto the first and maybe second row of tines of the stationary comb (the one locked to the pad), about 1/3 of the way up. It isn't necessary to arrange all of the cut ends together, but I choose to keep them flowing in the direction they grew off of the sheep when spinning (equivalent to spinning from the tip end). Some people prefer spinning from the butt end of the locks-- all personal preference (and easy to accomplish by just turning your top around after pulling it off of the combs).



Combing is going to add a lot of air and volume to the fibers, and more fiber on the combs can be exhausting/take more passes than if you split it into smaller amounts. The last row of tines on my combs only comes up halfway to the length of the first row of tines-- you need all of your fiber to remain across each row, so more than a third will usually lift up to about the top of the last row of tines when combing.

I use a 1-2% fabric softener (ultra concentrated brand) to water ratio in a spray bottle, and give the lashed-on locks a few squirts of this to control static a minute before combing. Too much liquid means combing becomes difficult and wet... Teal has you use an oil/water mixture applied to all of the fleece you'll be combing before lashing on, but this way has worked for me (I never know how much I'll be combing that day and the idea of oil is unappealing to me). It's important to only spray your fibers-- spraying the wood on your combs isn't a good idea, and if the tines of your combs *aren't* stainless steel, take caution to really clean and dry them thoroughly before putting away for the day (rust + fiber = not natural dyeing ;))

Lift the locks up about an inch or so from the bottom of the stationary comb and spread them out-- this will help as the bottom of the working comb (held in your hand) will not be able to get close enough to the tines as you work your way in. (See photo below-- the wooden head of the working comb would knock against the wooden head of the stationary comb otherwise). Spreading out the fibers will also help in transferring them.

Turn the stationary comb onto its side, and using your working comb, pass the tips of the comb thru the tips of the lashed on locks ('jigging'). You start gently in an arcing motion, the movement is from the elbow, not the wrist.



Some people like to comb side-to-side (keeping their stationary comb upright/perpendicular to the worksurface, and swinging the comb from left to right or reverse). I understand the safety aspect of combing this way-- there's no way you'll stab yourself in the leg going side to side when combing. For me, I prefer turning the stationary comb to its side since I am putting gravity in my corner-- the weight of the pound and a half comb heading down and into the fiber helps my arm not get as tired in combing as it does when I have to use my own power to go side to side (and fight gravity's downward pull at the same time). Teal keeps the stationary comb in the sideways position, and lashes back on in the side to side motion. It is a personal preference, no right or wrong. :)



You'll want to choke up on the head of the comb, both to get better leverage/make it part of your arm and also to fight the temptation to swing with your wrist. One smooth motion, down and into the fibers into an arc, and pulling out-- all in the arcing motion. Start from the tips of the fiber to tips of your combs, and work your way slowly in repeating the arcing motion.

After transferring all of the fibers from the stationary comb to your working comb, and removing any waste left behind on the stationary comb (neps, jumbles of fibers caught between the tines, etc), turn the stationary comb upright/perpendicular to the worksurface. Again, turning the working comb in your hand perpendicular to the stationary comb (the combs will always work perpendicularly to one another), begin to transfer the fibers from the working comb to the stationary comb.



Once again, start from the tips of the fiber and work your way in and down with the arcing motion, transferring the fiber from the working to the stationary comb.



The fibers are already starting to really open up just in this first pass. Once all of the fibers have been transferred from working to stationary comb (and chaff left behind on working comb removed), turn the stationary comb to its side and again work your way in, moving fibers from the stationary to working comb.



Notice how I've moved the fibers upwards from the base of the tines? Still need to do that on every pass so that the wooden heads of the combs can pass close when combing.

After again moving fibers from stationary to working comb and removing chaff left behind, turn stationary comb upright and transfer fibers back to the stationary comb.



You can see that after working your way in to transfer the fibers, you'll move the combs/tines closer and closer together.



When moving fibers from working --> stationary, I'll often turn my wrist and comb from the opposite side to get all of the fibers from both sides of the comb intermixed. You can easily switch hands to accomplish the same effect.

Finally, once you've made 4 passes (stationary --> working, working --> stationary, stationary --> working, working --> stationary), gather the fibers on the stationary comb together into a cone shaped tip.



Working hand over hand, gently pull the fibers off together into a long strip. This is what Teal calls the 'straightening combing.'



Go slowly, and pull less than a staple's length at a time for an unbroken fiber mass. Don't pull too much without attenuating though, it won't come off at all and just bend your tines. Whenever you're pulling fibers from off the combs, try and alternate the pinching of your fingers so that one pull is from the sides and the next is from the top-bottom (see above)... this will help in pulling fibers from all places of the comb off evenly and together.

It is generally the case that the longer fibers will be pulled off into your rough/'straightening' combing first, and get shorter as you pull. Keep this in mind for blends; by pulling off the rough combing from alternate directions you can help make the rough combing homogeneous.

Pulling the rough combing from the combs in large pinches results in a thick mass. You can always pull off a smaller diameter mass, up to you. Teal's is definitely thinner :)



You can always use a diz, but since I'm not done I just go hand over hand like above.

When you've pulled off all the usable fiber, you're left with more chaff on your stationary combs.



Removing it, you can see what's left behind in the tines--



Small neps and short fibers. The "problem" with combing is the waste fiber* removed, you do lose a significant percentage weight-wise. Lots of people will say that you don't want this in your fiber anyways, but it's not always *just* neps, sometimes its unaligned fibers that get trapped in the tines, etc. The more you practice (and the sounder quality of the fleece to start with) the 'cleaner'/less wasteful your waste fiber will be. There are other options for waste fiber as well (recombing it, carding it, felting it...)



So now you're left with a thick rope of fiber, Teal's 'straightening' combing. Now, you can easily spin this! I continue on though... already come this far :)

Knowing that the first fibers pulled off of the combs will be the longest, and having a goal of evenly mixed lengths of fibers in the finished product, I split this in half at the middle of the rope, lining up the first pulled off tip (longest fibers) with the first torn bit of the second half (midlength/shorter fibers), 'planking' them. I hold these two lengths together on my hand, maintaining the direction by which the fiber grew off of the animal, and lash the ends onto the stationary comb's tines. It is ends of these lengths I'm lashing on first, ending with the tips (one of which was the first length I drew off in the rough combing.) The result is fiber flowing in the same direction as you lashed on and pulled off.



Instead of lashing onto the first and second rows, you want to get the fibers across the back tines as well. Otherwise, they'll just sort of float away, as airy as they are now. Move back to front with the mass of fiber in your hand, twisting your wrist so you get an even distribution of fibers from both halves of your rough combing onto the stationary comb.

You could always split your straightening combing in half and place the first and last ends drawn off together for an even more homogenous mix of fiber lengths, but then the fibers won't flow in the same direction. Again, personal choice-- I prefer to start with staples that are similar in length to begin with and work as above.



Once again, turn the stationary comb to its side, pull the fibers up from the base and spread them out, and starting at the tips, begin to transfer the fibers onto the working comb with the arcing motion.



Once all the fibers have been transferred and the waste left behind removed, turn the stationary comb upright and begin to transfer the fibers from the working to the stationary comb.





Again, when I am transferring fiber from the working to the stationary comb, I turn my wrist to move fibers from both the left and right sides of the working comb. I will turn the stationary comb in the pad when transferring from the stationary to the working, but mainly to just get all of the fibers off of the comb (and not as much for trying for a homogeneous mix).

So, now that I've done two passes of the rough combed fiber (stationary --> working, working --> stationary) I am left with nicely combed, hopefully evenly dispersed lengths in the fiber on the stationary comb. Again, I draw the fiber into a cone shaped mass, but instead of pinching the mass and pulling off with my thumbs like the rough combing above, I draw a small amount of fibers from all over the tip of the 'cone,' twist them into a short length, and pull this fine gathering of fiber thru my diz.



Lately I use the 2mm hole on my diz (still love it); even though the hole is small, you can see how much fiber you can draw thru it. Again, I use the top/bottom and side/side pinching described above when drawing off fibers from the comb and thru the diz.



Since most of the chaff and vm in your fleece will fall to the floor when combing, I set out a chair or box to catch the fibers as I'm drawing them off to keep them clean.

At this point, Teal calls this fiber 'sliver'-- instead of 'top.' According to Teal, "[i]n the days of a the professional hand-spinner, the combed sliver was made first into a top and then into a roving." "Top is a collection of slivers wound into a convenient shape for storage and/or transportation," and "[a] roving is made by lightly twisting a sliver to form thick, soft rope." (p 72) I use one sliver at a time instead of several for fiber storage.



I locate the last bit of fiber pulled off of the combs (representing the butt end of the locks, the shorn end), lightly hold it in the palm of my hand and I twist it gently around my hand into a spiral nest. The wrapping motion adds a slight amount of twist to the sliver, helping it stay together. The last end of the sliver is the tip I first twisted together and pulled thru the diz-- I tuck this end into the center of the sliver, and when spinning look for this end to spin from (so, spinning from the tip of the fiber.) For those that prefer to spin from the butt end of a fiber, you can just reverse the order in which the sliver is balled into a nest.


easy to locate over-twisted tip that was used for initially drawing thru the diz

Combing is addicting. Lots and lots of slivers all ready to go!



There you have it! Not exactly like Teal, but even when you try it your method won't be exactly like mine either :)

I know this was long, but I just wanted to show yall the wonders of the big combs. I dig combing a lot-a lot, and cringe when I hear people talk about how scary English combs are and how it's an inaccessible thing to try just for their tine length and size. I was hoping that seeing the simple steps would help alleviate some of the unfounded fear surrounding these tools.

I find it easier and less tedious than carding (both on handcards and a drumcarder), and I like the prep more. I have but don't usually comb outdoors-- starting with superclean, mainly vm-free fleece means much of the combing is for pulling into sliver and not dropping dirt onto my floor, so even for apartment dwellers this is an accessible prep. I do have a young child and neither of us has ever been injured by these tools (but we do use caution and care when they're out)-- along with ALL of my fiber tools, we learn that they are not toys early on, and someday will enjoy them together :)

I'm not knocking carders or even the smaller mini-combs, all of which are great tools! I think that there is a misconception about the big English combs though-- that they're not for everybody. They can be!

Happy combing!


* More on waste fibers...


sliver, left and waste, right


same fiber rolled into a nest, same waste

These fibers were produced combing as described above (4 passes in straightening combing, 2 passes after planking and pulling off).

When I first started combing, I'd get a lot of waste and much of it looked useable, if it weren't jumbled in with the neps and the trash. Practice has really helped; I don't get as many tangled (usable) fibers caught in the tines as time goes on, but still there is the issue of loss. It isn't negligible... Teal says he has 5% waste loss (!! p 69) and I'm closer to 15-20%. Rita Buchanan in the Winter 1999 issue of Spin Off says "[i]n my experience, lossed between 10-20% count as normal." (p 26), while the roundtable discussion on "wool combs and combing" in Spin Off Summer 1991 ranged in answer from "should be less than ten percent" ,"...but most of the time I'd say it's more like 15 to 20%", "[w]ith a weak fleece, you might lose as much as one-third", "[w]ith English combs, I average about 15% waste" (p 58). Using carders you wouldn't see that kind of loss, and for fleeces you intend to comb it's important to remember not only to figure in the lanolin/vm loss when washing but combing loss when figuring how much raw fleece you'll need for a project.

June left a great tip in the comments-- "To really, truly minimize waste - try "precarding" before combing. Drag the butt and tip ends through a handcard (tines up) until the lock is open and airy, like flick carding but easier, it gets the crap out. It makes combing much easier, too."

Again, a personal choice of acceptable losses in fiber preparation-- but I will say that practice has really made a difference in the amount of waste fibers I'm left with after making piles of fiber nests :)

unicorn fiber power scour versus dawn in raw fleece washing

I know! Lots of fleece washing stuff round these parts lately. I can't help myself though-- it's new and I'm sure the sheen will rub off eventually, but bear with me :)

A few weeks ago I was reading anne's blog and she talked about her use of the new fiber wash on the market by Unicorn. She mentioned the fact they sell a scour just for raw fleece... I couldn't help myself and contacted Unicorn, asking for a sample of their Power Scour to put thru the paces. For honesty's sake, I did receive these at no cost but it hasn't affected my comparison in the least.



I wanted to compare it with the traditional "original scent Ultra Concentrated blue Dawn" I've been using and loving... and thought it was only fair to put them thru the same paces, only varying the detergent and heat used. Below is a step by step of how I wash small (1.5-2#) batches of fleece at home, in a sink with Dawn, to preserve lock formation. Nothing spectacular or new to many of yall-- but here we go :)

I'm starting with that amazing caramel colored Cormo fleece purchased at the Monterey Wool Auction a few weeks back. I separate the locks out from the greasy fleece (while watching some sort of dirty secret tv)...


(the towel is supergreasy when i'm done!)

...arranging the locks so that the tips and butts (cut ends) are all in the same direction. Since I'm planning to comb this, I like to make sure the fiber flows in all one direction, plus I have noticed that when washing raw fleece, it's the butt ends that tend to mat/felt (knowing that and keeping them together makes me feel I can control matting more... on one side is better than both).

I generally let the locks guide me in how thick they are, but too large of a clump seems not to get clean so I'll separate most down to this thickness. I'm not going for trying to keep all the locks the same length like before, these range from 3.5-4"+ (I am keeping 3" locks, unscoured, separate here for another project.)


(the marks on my hand? quick ghetto ruler to estimate lock length. 3, 3.5 and 4". other applications unflickrable ;))

Locks ready, I load them tip to butt in mesh lingerie bags. The Cormo tends to felt/mat at the cut ends more readily than others I've washed, so I try and keep the layers of locks not too thick (the corriedale? I only used about 3 tuille sheets per bag since the locks didn't really want to felt. the cormo? closer to ten.) I layer about 3 rows and then lay on inexpensive bridal tuille (.99/yd), then add more layers.



The tuille also helps in washing/rinsing-- by grabbing opposite sides of the bag and the tuille between it when removing the bags for draining/refilling, the locks don't shift in the bags since the tuille helps the bag and locks inside keep their shape-- staying in place helps keep them from matting and retaining the lock formation.

I stack layers in the bags just by eye and not necessarily weight-- I want the bags to be almost firm and hold their shape well. The weight per 14x21" mesh bag of raw fleece is approx. .75-1 pound, but what I really want is almost a medium firm pillow feel to the bag til I zip it up. If I've kept the locks not too thick, and am washing a covered fleece, I haven't had problems getting dirt out.


They'll lose a *lot* of loft once wet

I get two bags ready and head on off to the sink. I place the scouring-only stopper at the bottom...



...to which I've tied a long length of brown sheep cotton fleece from the stash. This'll sit outside the water, so when it's time to drain I can just pull it instead of having to move the bags aside and try to get a good grip on the stopper. I fill the sink with the hottest water from the tap, plus a stockpot (5 qt) full of near boiling water until the sink is just shy of an inch full of water. The fleece will not cause overflow if you go slowly :)

Then I eyeball the Dawn. I had no idea how much I used before... general wisdom was "several long squirts," "til the water is tinted blue..."



It's worked for me so far :)

This batch I went ahead and weighed the bottle of Dawn to get an idea exactly how much I've been using. Between three washes (start, one, two, three... each getting successively less Dawn), I used 362mL. (!!!) I had no idea it would have been that much!

To the very, very hot water with detergent I add my mesh bags full of fleece, and they fit in the sink side by side, flush. Instead of using a gloved hand to push down the wool bags to get them submerged, I use a mesh plastic basket that is almost exactly the same dimensions as the lingerie bags.



One good, slow push down and letting them rise is as much as I do to cause water to flow thru the wool... my goal is to get the lanolin off; I'm not really dealing with lots of dirt (relative to an uncoated fleece) and I pick out almost all vm when bagging up before washing. I'm also concerned about felting, so I try and move the bags as little as possible-- one push with the basket versus at least two with a gloved hand to get the bag submerged.

There is a LOT of lanolin here. This is a picture of the first wash in Dawn. Can't even see thru the water to the bag beneath!



It'll get successively less til the water's clear. I wash with detergent for 15 minutes, drain the sink and most water from the bags, refill the sink for each wash, then repeat twice more. Most of the fleeces I've washed are super greasy, and I don't like leaving lanolin on at all (3x may be overkill, but I like the result.) The subsequent washings and even rinsings may have the bags balking at being submerged... there's a lot of detergent and bubbles trapped in the fleece. It'll go, but with a firm hand and slow movement. It's also my not too scientific method of figuring if the Dawn is completely out of the fleece... if the bags sink in the water with ease on your rinse like they do on your first submerging of dry wool, chances are the detergent and bubble buoyancy is gone.

After three washes I use the same superhot water to rinse-- three times in plain hothotwater. Sometimes I won't add near boiled water from the stove to the last 2 rinses. The rinses I let go for 20 min each, and the last one (of three) I add 15mL of kookaburra woolwash to the water. I like the smell and it doesn't have to be rinsed out-- it also is supposed to act as a moth deterrent and adds lanolin back to the wool.

After all that, drain, gently press bag in towels to remove excess water, and lay out on drying racks.



The wool just slides out of the bags on the mesh sheets, which I turn over and get "sheets" of clean, wet locks. (Not jerky ;)) I can get a bag per drying rack-- this batch net 653g of clean, soft, lanolin-less locks (five times fast!) from 2 bags... about 2# of greasy wool to start with.

So, starting over with the Unicorn Power Scour-- I fill 2 mesh bags with the same Cormo, approx. 2# worth (860g). I then follow the Unicorn directions on their site for "commercial and minimill washing." Now, I'm not one of those :) but they recommend this set of directions (as opposed to their "washing raw fleece" directions) for extremely greasy wools like this one was.

Basically, the directions call for 140 degree water, an initial wash with Power Scour at 2-3% of the fiber weight and subsequent washes at 1-2% of raw wool weight. I filled my sink with the hottest water from the tap and measured its temp... 136 degrees. I could have heated water on the stove and topped it to 140 degrees, but part of the appeal of Unicorn to me that it has less impact environmentally since it uses less energy than traditional scouring methods so I went with the heat I could get.

I decided that since I wash 3x and rinse 3x with Dawn I'd do the same with Unicorn, so the first wash used 26g (about 3% of wool weight). I figured by weight (thanks AB), but I'm sure teaspoons/tablespoons would work as well.

The Unicorn Power Scour has this... viscous quality to it. The pharmgeek in me is reminded of lidocaine rinse.



Instead of "melting" into the water and dispersing on its own like Dawn does, it clings to itself (like hair conditioner in the bathtub does). I was able to easily break and mix it up with a wooden chopstick :) In doing so I noticed the UniScour has little sudsing action-- I have to be super gentle with the Dawn in order for a sinkful of bubbles to not appear, but with the UniScour it was easy to keep sudsing down. (cos of less product?)

The first wash actually looked quite a bit different than the first with Dawn-- the water didn't immediately cloud yellow like it does with Dawn (and the extra hot water) but instead started somewhat clear but with lots of dark, dark dirt coming off.



Later on in the first rinse the water turned lanolin yellow and in subsequent rinses the lanolin clouds appeared as they were lifted off of the fibers... I can't tell for certain if it was dirt that was being removed from the fibers in a way I hadn't seen before or not, but I think so.

After the first wash in 136ºF, the second wash was 2% UniScour (18g) and the third used 1% (8g) for a total of 52g. I then used the same 136ºF water from the tap to rinse the wool in, twice with plain hot water and the third and last time with 15g of Unicorn Fibre Rinse in the water.

Laid out to dry...



So... the difference?


Dawn on left, UniScour on right

There isn't really one, not that I'd expect there to be :) Like I've said before, I've been really pleased with the result of original blue Dawn, and the results of the Unicorn are similar. Clean wool, lanolin and dirt wise for both.

On a handful of the UniScoured locks (out of the 1.5 clean pounds) I did notice a slight... draggy feeling on a few locks. I don't think it was lanolin, more like something left behind from the detergent or the Fibre Rinse maybe? It really wasn't noticeable til I really started going over the wool very carefully and isn't something where I'll rewash it-- it's not that lanolin tack that I just really don't like during spinning. I want to say it was the Rinse, but Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review loved the Fibre Rinse and I'd trust her judgement further than I can throw myself :) I don't know-- I don't consider this a drawback, more likely my error in not dispersing the rinse evenly thru the water prior to submerging the bags for the final rinse, but wanted to share it.

The point of it all is to see if Unicorn Power Scour can clean wool as effectively as Dawn can, with less energy/heat and less product-- and yes, it can :) I can't tell the locks apart when side by side either by touch or feel.


mishmash of dawn and uniscour washed locks

The only real difference is the smell-- to me, wool that smells "clean" smells like blue Dawn. (So much so I only use it for fleece washing; dishwashing with it is a little weird!) I like that particular smell a lot, I sniff wool too ;) Unicorn Power Scour has a clean smell, but not that clean smell many of us are used to in our specialty woolwashing aids like Soak, Kookaburra, Eucalan... no lavender, no florals or sharp citrus, no tea tree (my fav). I can't place the smell or describe it, definitely clean but not the lingering boutiquish smell of major brand woolwashes. It pretty much rinses out with the last rinses as well (notwithstanding my use of Fiber Rinse-- that smells like Ivory to me, that type of clean)... in any case, not a perfume but just a clean smell.

One last fiber washing plus... less heat generally means less propensity to felt. I didn't have any problem with either lot in felting (knock on wood!), but being able to use a less hot waterbath probably would translate to a better chance in not felting your beautiful fleeces on accident.

From an economy standpoint, a 28 oz bottle of Dawn at my local drugstore is $4.29, so for my use of 362mL the cost per 2# of raw fleece would be approx. $1.85. I always finish the Dawn up with 15mL of Kookaburra woolwash, just for the scent and 'finish' it gives... 36 cents :) There is also the cost of heating the water-- I have no idea how to wrap around the cost of heating 5qts of water 6x to nearboiling, but there is some cost there, however minor.

eta, 9/26:

Sarah has blown my mind on figuring this cost! Her comment:

"Prepare for ME to geek out, using my awesome engineering superpowers:

An estimate of the energy required to heat a volume of water = 4186 J/kg°C x weight x change in temperature (since you say, "near boiling", we thankfully don't have to think to hard about state changes)

5 quarts of water weighs about 4.7 kilograms

the change in temperature is the difference between hot tap water (say 57°C) to just below boiling(100°C), or 43°C.

That means your energy consumption is 845,990 Joules to heat one pot of water, or 5,075,943 Joules to heat 6 pots. You're charged by the kilowatt-hour, and that many Joules is about 1.5 kilowatt-hours. The average cost of electricity in the US is about 11 cents per KWh, so heating this much water costs you 16 cents!

(Ok, this is hugely simplified, as your stove isn't perfectly efficient, and you also lose some energy to steam, so add an "engineering safety factor" and call it 32 cents)"

RAD!!! Thanks Sarah, I loveLOVE stuff like this.

The 16 oz bottle of Unicorn Power Scour is $15.75, so for the 52mL it took to wash 2# of unwashed fleece the cost would be approx. $1.73. The 15mL of Unicorn Fibre Rinse would be approx (a whopping) 35 cents.

It seems silly to break the costs down like this, but it's not just the fact the two are similar pricewise that makes the UniScour stand out... I honestly had no idea how much Dawn I was using, and am shocked that I could use eighty five percent less product by weight when using the Unicorn, as well as less energy when doing so in not having to top off the sink with water from the stovetop. Packaging is also obvious-- I'd use what, almost 6 bottles of Dawn to one of Unicorn? Of course I usually buy a larger bottle of Dawn but there's also a large gallon size of UniScour, too :) Now, I may be using WAY more Dawn than necessary... but it is a fair example of how I've washed all the wool before and had excellent results. (Just wanted you to know 85% seems like an outrageous # to me, too ;))

In any case-- approx 2# of greasy wool taking 52g means you could wash about 18# of the same from one 16 oz bottle of Unicorn Power Scour. That's a LOT... especially when you consider you could probably get more washes if your wool wasn't as fine and greasy as the Cormo was (something that needed only two washes or needed less detergent, etc.) Even the sample size Unicorn offers for sale (4 oz) would wash 4.5# of fleece... a good way to sample without jumping in feetfirst.


(this is about 4 pounds of clean wool in locks.)

So what am I going to do? Well, I have a lot of blue Dawn stockpiled, but I'll definitely be using the Unicorn Power Scour again as well. For me, I'll finish my fleece in kookaburra wash but that's just because I really, really like that sharp tea tree smell (no offense, Fibre Rinse! you'll get a turn on some handknits soon enough!)-- but if you're looking for an efficient way to wash raw fleece that is also environmentally friendly *without* the usual financial premium, I'd definitely give UniScour a try.

For even more on UniScour, The Independent Stitch also has a review on using Power Scour for smaller woolwashing lots (as well as a cool scouring method with kitty litter pans!)


...and I swear, this is the last fleece washing thing for a while!! :)

honey, what the...

Early winter holiday party with my dad's family was great. Sherwood's neck was reknit on US 3's over 10 rows and taken in 8 sts at the sides of the neck...




(firelight photos)

and grandma was gifted her afghan (no pics), which she loved. These weren't the best part of the trip though, surprisingly. My dad, whom my son and I haven't seen in years, got to spend a good deal of time chasing my kid around... and kept calling him "honey." See, recently my son started calling me "honey" (and anyone he was asking a favor of), and I remarked that I had no idea where he had picked that word up from-- I'd never called him honey. I guess I did though... my mom never called me honey, nor did anyone else I could think of. I think I picked it up from my dad, a million years ago. When I realized this, I had to excuse myself to another room to not cry in front of them... for too many years unseen, so much I didn't know.

I didn't knit at all during my trip and little since returning. Partly it was the almost lukewarm reception my gifts received taking the wind/manic 25th deadline from my sails-- I'm not freaking out about finishing my aunt and uncle's gifts before the 25th after my aunt took a look at the afghan and remarked, "you've got too much time on your hands!" :) I'm also switching up what I was going to make her (not in a spiteful way... I was trying to knit Tamarah, but my goodness I'm not smart enough to understand the pattern so I've put it away for now and picked something else-- more on that later.) Since my uncle's gift will ship at the same time, I'm not stressed... even less by the fact my sister said she didn't want/wear socks (so of course I promptly swapped the yarn for A Gathering of Lace... I feel the pull, you enablers.) More time for other things... I actually tried to finish up my walkaround socks for a holiday gift but, well. Thousand words, take two--






Interlacements Tiny Toes yarn in Chairman of the Board

The second is a good inch wider than the first, with the same needles and CO #. I was going to chalk this up to a change in gauge even though "I've not had this happen before!" (said my ex ;))... but there was something wonky about the 2nd skein of yarn I was going to write about when done (didn't think it would make this much of a difference!)



The two plies of yarn, instead of being twisted around each other-- had one ply twisted around the other, making for a very "bumpy" hand. I know that 2 ply yarns are inherently "flat" as well, but this yarn was actually flat by my eye, as if it has been pressed down somehow. I didn't want to admit the problem, even when I noticed the striping/color was dramatically different at first... but the gauge changed from 8 sts/inch to 7 sts/inch on US 1 (2.25mm)! Ergh. So... yeah. I usually lose/gain .5 sts/inch per .25mm needle change at sock weight gauge-- I really don't want to knit these on US 00's.

With my head in the sand personality, I started my new design project instead of dealing with it.



Exciting! :) I hate that, seeing things I can't see. But I have a reason to share... This is my 1st time in a long time knitting on 2 circular needles-- and I realized how much I hate the caston part. I do prefer using 2 circs to magic loop, learned that way so I guess that's why. I always use this method, plus the crossover join, meaning its pretty fiddly and takes too much time to just cast on. So this time, I went with a different way, inspired by magic looping. (Take a look at this link if this is your first time with ML, I'm just showing basic basics.)

Cast on your total # of sts on one needle.


Count off half of the sts, and pinch/pull the cord thru as you do for magic loop.


Push stitches towards the end of the needles, and use a crossover join to join into a circle for knitting in the round. (Remember this is still just on one circular needle).


Using your 2nd circular needle, begin knitting the first set of stitches as you would for knitting on two circulars. When you reach the end, you will have 2 circular needles across the front and back of one circular surface. Begin knitting on 2 circs as you would normally.

Forgive me for not showing the rest of the project? No? Oh well... okay.



How about now?