Monday, January 10, 2011

Wrapping up - Cormo sample

Last Christmas I received a wonderful gift of a "Fine Wool Sampler" from The Spinning Loft. It came packed with two-ounce samples of raw wool from five breeds of sheep (CVM, Corridale, Cormo, Merino and Polwarth).

Here's the third sample: Cormo wool. I had put off finishing up spinning the samples because of the amount of work in processing them. But this time I decided to follow up on an offer from the owner of Dyelots to borrow her mini-combs (thank you, Janis!!).

While working with my hair-picks sufficed to get the job done, working with real combs was much more enjoyable and quite a bit faster. Still, I found I must have lightly felted the locks in washing, because they were quite a bit of work to comb!

The waste went in a box and I carded it up into rolags.

The fine lace-weight skein is the combed wool, spun worsted. The fluffy skein is the carded waste, spun woolen. Both skeins have a delightful "sproing!", and can easily be stretched several inches with a gentle tug. The elasticity is amazing.

Cormo is a beautiful wool. I can see how it would be difficult to process properly in a mill, but it is certainly worth it to find a good source.

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