I am ever so glad to be home after the long weekend. Visiting my parents is usually a good thing, and this was, in it’s way, but everyone at home seems to be in a mad panic about my move and none of them are willing to talk about it. As if it’s not hard enough as it is without this weird unspoken angst thing going on. I’m not dying for crapsake. Just going to law school. And it’s not like I’d see them much more if I were going to school here.
Anyhow, it is a fairly uneventful trip home. I got to visit my new alpaca fleeces, which are huge and lovely! I have enough fleece there to make several large projects. No idea yet what I’m going to do with it all though. It’s got a nice long staple, so I should be able to make a real worsted yarn, assuming I get this wool combing business figured out. I’ve tried carding alpaca and llama in the past and it was a huge mess. Fiber flying all over the place, VM and little noils getting impossibly stuck in the cards. So I visited my favorite spinning supplier, Village Spinning and Weaving (www.villagespinweave.com) and picked up some big scary wool combs to make proper sliver out of the alpaca with.
Holy crap, these are truly frightening looking things. You could down a bear with these things. It turns out there was an early bishop martyred with wool combs, who is now the patron saint or what have you of the wool combers guild. Go figure. These buggers are seriously lethal. I live in terror of actually trying to use them, but I’m sure if I can get over the giant meat hook I use to doff batts off the drum carder I can get over these monster claw things. Once I have a better understanding of how to use them that is. It’s all a bit mystifying. Given the high likelihood of sustaining a major injury of you make a mistake, it’s also a little intimidating. Any tips? I did pick up on the one book in print on wool combing and worsted spinning, but it doesn’t really address the style of combs I have (I got 2-row valkry hand combs with a holder thing that can be attached to a work bench).
Wireless is sucking on the bus this morning too. Too many dipshits trying to access yahoo or some other crappy ad intensive site hogging the meager bandwidth to let of us with actual work to do make use of the system. Not that I’m bitter, just generally opposed to the worthless masses of humanity who keep getting in my way. Hmmm…if only I had my new wool combs to wave around…
Pictures of cute alpacas and my scary wool combs are coming as soon as I can find the cable for my camera. Eep.
1 comment:
Ooooo. I had to go look that one up!
Blasius is sometimes known as Saint Blaise. He was an Armenian physician who, when drowned, walked on water, and convinced his tormentors to follow him -- they fell into the water and drowned themselves. But when he walked back to shore, he was beaten, his flesh torn with wool combs, and then beheaded. He is the patron saint of goiters, whooping cough, wool-combers, construction workers, and against wild beats.
Post a Comment