At the end of March we picked up 160 pounds of Rambouillet yearling ewe fleeces in Laramie, Wyoming. Lambs being lambs, these girls had patches of vegetable matter here and there. Aside from these bits of VM, their fleeces are very clean and extremely soft with beautiful crimp. The staple length is just at 3" on average. Since our local mill is set up to process longer staples I began to experiment with processing the Rambouillet to find the best way to use this gorgeous wool.
Plan A
Originally I'd thought about making a tweed roving by blending the dyed wool with silk noil dyed in a contrasting color. I washed five pounds of the Rambouillet and was left with three pounds to play with. Step two in making roving is to open up the washed locks in preparation for carding.
My Patrick Green Triple Picker (above) does a wonderful job most of the time. However, these fibers were so fine that the picker ended up tearing them and after carding I could see neps and remaining VM everywhere. I was not altogether happy with this prep, as it is definitely more enjoyable to spin without stopping to pick out either neps or VM.
Plan B
There are two ways to prepare wool for spinning. The first is a woolen preparation, where the wool is carded before spinning. Individual fibers are not aligned in any way. This allows more air to be trapped in the yarn as it is spun, giving it loft and insulating properties. The second preparation method is combing the wool, rather than carding it, for a worsted preparation. The resulting yarn is smoother and allows for great stitch definition.
I already owned a pair of viking combs, but this wool required a finer tine spacing. So I purchased a hackle and comb set (pic below) from Bam Fiberworks. As soon as it arrived I had to try it out.
After a few minutes of practice I was able to diz off a tiny nest of super clean combed top. Here are the comparison photos left to right: washed, carded preparation (notice the VM and small neps top-right), and the combed top.
And the winning preparation is... combed top!
Plan C
There was just one issue. It takes about twenty minutes to process one ounce of fiber by hand. In order to pay for the labor I'd need to charge $100 for four ounces.
Not happening!
Fortunately, Mountain Meadow Wool Mill in Buffalo, Wyoming makes a beautiful combed top, and is only a few hours drive from us in Northern Colorado. In the next few days I'll be skirting fleeces to remove as much VM as possible. Then we'll be heading up to Buffalo with the skirted fleeces next Friday. The mill's lead time is 6 months at the moment, so patience is the word of the day.
In contrast to Jamieson and Smith, Mountain Meadow does not dye wool before spinning, so I needed to let go of my original idea of dyed-in-the-wool Rambouillet yarn. Instead, once the combed top arrives home I'll be dyeing it using the immersion method to be as gentle as possible. The finished product will be perfect for hand-spinning as is, or for use in combo spinning.
Moral of the story: the possibilities are endless! And I can't wait to put together some combo spin sets, so stay tuned for further fiber adventures.
Until next time, happy crafting!
