Comb and Hackle Set Part 3: Blending

In the final tutorial for the Comb and Hackle set we are going to blend various fibers....fleece, locks, and "add ins". I have chosen some gorgeous cormo lambs fleece, kid mohair locks, firestar, crystal metallic, bamboo, and silk in spring colors. 

The cormo lambs fleece and the kid mohair locks each have a little vegetable matter in them so to begin I'm loading some of each onto the hackle so it's just a tad less than full to save room for the add ins we'll be adding later. I combed the cormo and kid mohair out twice (2 passes) to remove all of the VM. The more you comb the fibers the more blended they will become.

When reloading the hackle for the last step of the second pass I only loaded a small amount from the comb and then added one of my "add in" fibers. I continued this layering process until all of the wool had been transferred from the comb back to the hackle.

After all of the fiber was transferred and my layers in place I combed the fiber out one more time blending all of the add ins with the blended cormo and kid mohair and transferred it back to the hackle. One could continue to comb and blend until the fiber was all one color. I preferred the subtle hints of pastel against the white and so only combed once to blend in the colored add ins just a little. After blending simply diz off as instructed in our previous tutorials. 

There are almost countless ways to blend fibers on the comb and hackle set depending on what type of preparation for spinning you want. I do suggest combing any fiber that contains VM separately to remove the VM before adding other fibers as I did above. If your fleece/locks have no VM go ahead and load your add ins with the fleece and blend it. If you'd like streaks of a definite color running through the fiber you could layer and load your hackle and then diz skipping the pass that blends the colors. Play with with, be creative, and have fun!

Yarn spun from top combed and blended in this tutorial and plyed with cormo.