It's time to admit it, I haven't used the wool combs my MWAS (Man With A Shed) made me. I'm intimidated by their sheer weight. I don't have his upper body strength, and it's hard work for me to stand and swing a kilo or so of wood and ironware about. I'm not Peter Teal. I'm probably not even Mrs Teal.
But fortunately MWAS had another brilliant, and far more girl-friendly, idea. He went round the hairdressers in town and returned with a selection of Afro combs. Afro hair, I presume, needs careful handling to tame the crimp with the minimum of tangling, much like Romney fleece.
I use these combs the way my good friend Linda taught me to use her Viking minicombs. You load a half-dozen locks, butt end nearest the comb, on the spikes and push them down. Then you hold this in one hand, gently swinging at the tips with the other comb held at 90 degrees. Almost all of the fleece will transfer from one comb to the other over in five or 6 swings. What doesn't transfer over is tangled or too short: pull it off the comb and bin it. Repeat about four times, until what is left on the combs looks fine and even. Now pull that off into roving (through a diz if you feel like it) and wind the roving round your hand into a nest.
The only downside (well, apart from possible RSI) is that these combs don't fit a lot on them. They make 5g "mini-nests" whereas with proper woolcombs, I read, 10g nests are possible. Still, it's a good low-cost option, that I can let my kids use without fearing that they will stab themselves or each other with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment