CVM fiber study of two ways to comb

The fourth and final ravellenic project involved some CVM fiber I found at the very bottom of my downstairs stash basket. The fiber was unwashed and in two distinct forms, locks and not locks. Since I was now bored with carding/combing everything routine I thought I would try an experiment. What differences would I see if I washed the locks and combed them with a dog grooming comb, along with the washed non lock fiber combed with the typical wool combs. The processes should both be producing 'top' in the sense that it was creating straightened fibers to spin.

I went into great detail in episode 82 podcast about the process. What you get here that is not on the podcast is pictures!

The combed locks skein is 50 yards 2 ply 17 WPI. It weighed 3/4 oz.

The skein from the pulled top is 33 yards 2 ply 15 WPI and weighs 1/2 oz.

A quick math calculation shows both skeins are close to about 15 yards 2 ply per 1/4 oz. not exactly but close enough for me to say the skeins are very similar. Based on that the bottom line is it does not really matter, choose your method based on what you like to do best for processing.

Several comments about the photos. I have not been able to get the iPad app to let me arrange the photos, or label them so if you see this before I get on the real computer and do some editing, come back later for those as well as a link to the podcast. Meanwhile, enjoy the pretty pictures.

Non lock fiber hand combed top:

Locks combed with grooming comb:

Two unwashed skeins still with active twist, top skein combed with hand combs, bottom skein combed by lock:

Ashford lace flyer bobbin of CVM single:

Edited for links and photo descriptions 08/17/12