Fleece of Many Colors

Remember this?Well I washed it (something I will never do again as it took hours, countless gallons of water, and a toll on my knees....and I can have it done at a fiber mill for $5/pound!) and it came out like this:
Then I spent over a week picking out hay and seeds and such. (Well, I've still got about a pound to go!) Here are a few picked locks:
Teased, you can see the nice crimp:By the way, this stuff feels like a cross b/w bunny fur and baby hair. It's very pleasant to work with.

Next step, dye the locks different colors:So far I have dyed the purple you see above, red, blue, green and yellow locks. To dye, I place the locks in mesh lingerie bags and immerse in my crockpots, just as when I dye roving and top.

So now what? Here's the really fun part....I've been combing the different colors together! Here is how it works....

First, combs are spiky, sharp things. If you note some small holes in my thumb and fingers, this is why. Combs work in sets of two. I'm using small combs I have borrowed from the spinning guild. One comb is clamped to the table (that's our kitchen table, which now serves as dye workbench, combing station, and, soon, carding station!) The free comb is used in a motion first perpendicular to the stationary comb, then parallel to it. In the process the fiber is transferred from the stationary comb, to the moving comb, and back again, as many times as necessary to blend the fibers sufficiently.

There is an excellent tutorial on combing here at Red Stone Yarns, and I couldn't explain it any better than that! But, just in case that's not enough for you, there are some pdf tutorials here on the Majacraft site. Oh, and I'll say one more time...combs are sharp things.

First the locks are "loaded" onto the stationary comb: (I doubt this is the origin of "locked and loaded" but it could be!)Combing purple locks:Comb is moving left to right. Note fiber beginning to accumulate on moving comb.

Once all fiber has transferred to moving comb, it is combed vertically (though the moving comb remains held with tines to the side), transferring all fiber back to the stationary comb. Below, see the nice, fluffy, combed purple fiber.
Now I repeated with yellow locks:And ended up with two fluffy piles....one purple, and one yellow:
They are both loaded together onto the stationary comb:
And repeat the combing process. Remember trolls?
With the fiber back on the stationary comb, it's time to pull it off into a sliver (sly-ver). The fiber is pulled through a diz, or, in my case, a button with large holes.Here's the nice, blended purple and yellow combed top, ready to spin:
Rolled into a nice ball of fluff:Now, I will note here that combing produces more waste than carding. What's left are short fibers that are picked off the combs after each step...here's my pile:My husband would like to save this to make a dog bed for Her Royal Majesty Seven of Nine. He's welcome to it. Some people use it for felting, or in their gardens as mulch. Who needs irises if the mulch is purple and yellow?

Anyway, here.....drum roll please....is the resulting 2-ply sport weight yarn created after spindling the above troll's hair:This is about 6 grams of yarn, 1/4 ounce, or, enough for a large sweater for a small rat.
One final note: Had I continued combing the yellow and purple together, eventually I would've had brown. Purple and yellow are complements. Complements make wonderful visual partners, but you have to be careful to keep them from blending too thoroughly! You will note that the finished yarn is much more subtle in color than the starting locks. The complementary colors have blended just enough to give it an overall more earthy look while still retaining some of the individual purple and yellow detail. That is the beauty of combining colors "dyed in the wool."