And so we begin the tutorials for the comb and hackle set. This first one will cover the basics (set up, loading, combing, dizzing) and some information on the stationary hackle. In future Comb and Hackle tutorials I will go more in depth with each of the combs as well as the various things you can do with the comb and hackle set other than the obvious combing of fleece to remove VM, nepps, second cuts, and other undesirables in your fleece.

Eric's design of the Comb and Hackle sets is unique. After many prototypes and much testing he came up with a design that is efficient in combing, has minimal "catching of the tines", is extremely sturdy and functional, not to mention beautiful. The tines are set in the wooden base in such a way that they will not twist or come out even if you use plyers.....we tried. They will bend, that's just the nature of the beast but they are easily bent back into place with the tine straightener. The tips on all of our tines are slightly blunted for safety and we've found the slightly blunted tips work just as well as the needle sharp tips found on other manufacturer's tools. The tines can still poke and scrape so the tools should be respected and used with  safety in mind and covered when not in use. If my children at 10 years old could comb successfully with no injury any adult should be able to do it with no problem. For specific specs on the combs and hackles please see our Combs and Hackles shop page and the individual tool listings and for a bit more background on the design of the tools and their creation please see our Combs and Hackles Info page.

When I comb I prefer to get everything I will need ready so it is handy and I don't have to search all over the house for it and interrupt my combing. I choose which comb I will use according to the fleece I will be combing, this time I'm combing washed/scoured Rambouillet fleece with some VM and have chosen my favorite comb, the Hybrid. I would highly recommend only combing washed fleece....trying to get the lanolin off of the tines before you could comb clean fleece would not be fun.  I have my tine straightener handy just in case I bend tines on my comb, my diz, a wrench for getting the clamps tight, and a spray bottle of water for static. If you find when combing your wool does have static, lightly mist it and the tines.......don't worry, the tines will not rust, they're stainless steel. Now we're ready to set up!

 The optimum "hackle height" to make combing more comfortable will vary with each person. Basically, your stationary hackle should be at approx. the same height as your arm when your elbow is bent at a 90 degree angle. Make sure the table you will be clamping your hackle to is a good sturdy heavy one or you may find yourself dragging it across the floor while you comb.  To set the hackle up, the edge of the hackle should be either flush with the edge of your table or slightly over the lip of the table (for recessed clamps hackle as pictured). The regular clamps should be pushed as far back into the hackle as they can go and the recessed clamps should be flush with the hackle face. Tighten your clamps down and then gently holding on to the sides of the tines sort of shake/pull on the hackle. If the hackle moves you need to tighten the clamps, if the table moved but the hackle didn't then you're ready. If neither the table or the hackle moved then I'm jealous, you have a better table than I do!

When I wash fleece I just don't have the time or patience to wash it to maintain lock structure so my fleece is going in all directions. Oh well. This time I'm using a Rambouillet fleece that has a 3" to 3 1/2" staple, is very springy, and has some VM. I grab a handful..in this case about 0.6 oz and load it on the hackle mostly trying to get it on the first two rows though as you can see it migrates to the back two rows as well.  When the hackle is about half full when pressed down gently measuring by the back two rows of tines it's full. This rule of thumb works well for wool because it tends to be poofy and springy naturally. When loading Alpaca and less springy fibers you would not want to load on this much but we will get to that in another tutorial.  If you overload your hackle you will not be able to comb it all off efficiently and you will have more waste than you should. After the hackle is full, fluff the fiber up evenly......usually within 1 1/2" of the first two rows or level with the back to rows.  I find it is best to stand with my feet apart and the right foot  slightly in front of the left....this gives me better balance and mobility while combing. Yes, I live on the edge and comb in sock feet most of the time.

Once your fiber is loaded you want to start with small "bites"  catching the tips working from side to side while holding the comb with 2 hands. Due to the design of the handle, after awhile you should be able to flip the comb in your hands without even looking at it....you'll know which direction it's pointing in just by the feel.  When you catch the tips in the comb turn the comb slightly downward to help pull off the fiber. There are videos on our Video page that explain this better than I can explain it in written words. Once you've combed off most of what's on the hackle very carefully lean over and comb off the backside of the hackle a few times (picture #4 in the above collage). Combing off the backside will not only comb off usable fiber so it doesn't  go to waste, but will also help loosen up the fiber in the front of the hackle. Finish combing off the fiber in the front of the hackle and remove the waste on the hackle.

Now your comb should look like Don Kings hair! Push the fiber further up the tines so it doesn't slide off the ends when you are transferring it back to the hackle. Again, catching the tips of the fiber on the first two rows of tines bring the comb down gently and pull toward you. If you try to reload the fiber by catching the fiber further in on the comb you will struggle to get it on the hackle so just catch the last 1" or so of the tips on the hackle tines. Repeat this flipping the comb each time so that you are transferring off both sides of the comb and don't forget to slide your fiber back up the tines occasionally so it doesn't come off the end of the comb. Comb and reload the hackle as many times as necessary to get out all the VM, nepps, second cuts, etc.........how many times you have to comb the fiber will greatly depend on the fleece and the comb you are using. I combed the rambouillet once and it was ready to diz off. After reloading your hackle fluff the fiber backup on the tines as you did when you loaded it for combing, clean the waste off of your comb, and comb again as many times as are necessary for your fiber. After you have combed your fiber to suit you, fluff the fiber up on the hackle and you're ready to diz.

For dizzing off of the stationary hackle I prefer to use the smaller 3/16" diz. Starting in the bottom right hand corner pull out a small bit of fiber, twist it gently on the end and thread it through the diz. Gently pull the fiber and push the diz toward the tines working your way across the bottom to the left hand side. Once you get to the left hand side continue dizzing back across to the right hand side. I find that the fiber will "walk" itself down the hackle when I diz the second half off. Dizzing does take practice! As you can see there is very little waste left on the hackle.

Occasionally when combing tines will get bent on either the hackle, the comb or both. It is very easy to bend them back into place. Simply take the tine straightener and put it over the bent tine and gently pull the tine back into place until it is aligned with the adjacent tines.

I originally loaded the hackle with 0.6 oz of fiber. Once combed and dizzed off I had 0.4 oz of gorgeous springy top with 0.2 oz of waste from both the hackle and the comb combined. If you find the waste from your combing is not suitable for your drum carder there are many things you can do with it. I prefer to save mine and make felted wool dryer balls while others like to use it as mulch, for stuffing toys etc, for needle felting, or even leaving it out for the birds to build nests with. Nothing goes to waste!

I had all the pictures taken for the tutorial using the art roving you see to the left. Really. Me, being the technologically advanced person that I am hit a button on my keyboard and my computer swallowed all but the 4 photos here. Did you hear me scream? That's alright though because I have a trick I discovered recently that I can share with you in this tutorial. I call it "The Ellis Technique"  also known as "Reloading". Don't ask unless you really want to know the story behind that, it'a a little weird.

There are many different ways you can prep your fiber and load it onto the hackle to achieve various effects for spinning. You can load locks, top, etc, directly onto the hackle much like we did in the 1st and 2nd ARH (Art Roving Hackle) tutorials. You can double layer your colors so that when you Part Don King's Hair your roving dizzed off the tophalf of the hackle will match the roving you diz off the bottom half. Again, many different ways to prep your fiber. I do, however, suggest you use at least one fluffy "grabby" fiber to help "glue" everything together. For instance, kid mohair locks are great in art roving but your roving would fall all to pieces if this were the only fiber you loaded on your hackle.

For this tutorial I chose to grab various types of fiber~~~silk, bamboo, firestar, sparkle, faux cashmere, kid mohair locks, romney, cormo, and merino fleeces...the latter 3 being my "glue".  I then talked Alex into running it through my Fancy Kitty bench picker twice for me. He's a sweetheart. This opened up locks , blended the fibers and colors some and got rid of a bit of the vegetable matter.

We're going to do something a little bit different this time. You can obviously load the hackle , Part Don King's Hair and diz as we did in previous tutorials but we're not this time. Grab a handful of your fiber and lash it onto the hackle........do not lash on more than 1.5oz total because we are going to diz across the whole face of the hackle!!! If you pack to much on you will get more waste. I've found that approx. 1.5 oz will give me enough dizzed fiber to make it worth going to the trouble and not so much waste that I want to grit my teeth.

THE ELLIS TECHNIQUE aka RELOADING
This is so simple you'll wonder why you didn't think of it.........or why I didn't think of it months ago. I still don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! Start dizzing across the whole face of the hackle from right to left. When you get to the end DON'T DIZ ALL THE FIBER OFF!!  Leave a little on the hackle and the diz in place. I found it very helpful to have a chair to catch all the dizzed roving.

Clean the waste off of the hackle and set aside being careful not to disturb the fiber your diz is on. Now, with approx. 1.5 oz of fiber,  RELOAD your hackle from the point you stopped dizzing down to the other end. To start dizzing again, pull your diz back toward you, grab a little bit of the reloaded fiber and tuck it into the hole of the diz along with the 1st load of fiber so it pulls through when you diz off the remainder of the first loading to start dizzing the second batch. Diz across and stop just before you get to the end. Continue to reload and diz back and forth across the face of the hackle until you've dizzed all your fiber. This will produce a continuous strand of roving provided you don't break it when dizzing. I suggest rolling it into a ball when you're done much like you would ball up yarn.

I had 6.2 oz of fiber that I started with. After loading the hackle a total of 4 times I was able to diz off a 5.4 oz roving ball and had 0.8 oz of waste that I'll toss in my drum carder. Not bad!! Again, remember that the amount of waste you get will greatly be determined by the type of fiber you use, how the fiber is prepped, how much you load on the hackle, and your dizzing technique. Dizzing does take practice to get the best results.  That's it for the Art Roving Hackle Tutorials.
I'll be posting the first of the Comb and Hackle Tutorials sometime after the 1st of February.

Hello all! In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make smooth Art Roving on the Art Roving Hackle. It's one of the lovely things about this hackle....it will do textured/chunky roving as well as smooth and all points in between. Gotta love a versatile tool!
 
In this particular tutorial I have split the Art Roving Hackle into two sections with my high tech piece of cardboard. I want to demonstrate that the type of fiber you put on the hackle along with how much you pack it and how you diz it also effects how much fiber and waste you end up with. For this tutorial one half will be a mixture of mill combed top and add ins with the other half being hand combed top and add ins.  

I will not be repeating instructions that were previously explained in the Art Roving Hackle Part 1 so for attatching the hackle and basic loading and dizzing you will need to refer to that tutorial.  Alright, let's get started!

I have weighed out two batches of fiber with each weighing 2 oz. As I am only using half of the hackle for each batch of fiber I was not able to get all of the fiber on the hackle.
Mill Combed Batch 1: banana silk 6" staple, merino top 3 1/2 to 4" staple, crystal metallic/angelina 8" staple, faux cashmere 3" staple, silk top 4-5" staple, firestar 3 1/2" staple, 20/80 silk merino top 4" staple
Hand Combed Batch 2: rambouillet combed fleece 3 1/2" staple, silk top 4-5" staple, soy silk 3 1/2" staple, alpaca combed fleece 3 1/2" staple, banana silk 6" staple

I want to note here that there are many ways to load the hackle according to the fiber prep you are trying to accomplish. These tutorials are not intended to teach you "colorwork" to achieve various effects with color. There are many books and videos on the subject of colorwork so I do not intend to go into that aspect of hackling in depth.

We're going to start with fiber Batch #2 which is the hand combed top. The Rambouillet and Alpaca were combed on my comb and hackle set. First, I want to explain that hand combed top is not as dense as mill combed and, depending on the type of wool, tends to "poof" a bit more on the hackle than mill combed top. I didn't want to layer colors this time mostly because I'm lazy so I made fiber bundles. To make a fiber bundle I simply pulled my hand combed top into lengths of 12-14" and then drafted pieces of my add ins to about the same length and bundled them all together. I lashed the fiber on holding the bundle and turning it occasionally to mix up the fibers and colors. Once you've lashed all your fiber on if you have pieces that are significantly longer than the rest of your fiber on the back or the front of the hackle (silk is famous for doing this) you can pull it out and lash it back on.  When the hackle is filled (don't overload!!!) don't forget to fluff it up before dizzing.

With the mill combed top I made a fiber bundle just like I did for the hand combed top above. If you are using fibers like angelina/crystal metallic, firestar, etc. you can draft them out in the center of a fiber bundle and then lay some pieces of top on top of it to  sandwich the fibers in the center of the bundle. This will keep them in place.

So the hackle is all loaded and now we need to pick our diz. I'm going for the 3/16" fender washer again since this is a smooth roving and that's my favorite size. Now we need to prep the fiber for dizzing and since I packed the hackle I had to "Part Don King's Hair" in order to diz off the most fiber with the least waste.

Start your dizzing in the top right hand corner as explained in the Art Roving Hackle Part 1 tutorial. The closer you get to the tines the more fiber you will diz off. However, be prepared for a little bit of a fight if you choose to do this as the fiber is harder to diz the closer you get to the tines. You will also get a roving that is thicker in some places and thinner in others. Dizzing takes practice and the more you do it the better you'll get at it and understand all the little tricks to doing it that are impossible to tell you in words.

I was able to load 1.6 oz of the mill combed fiber bundle on half the hackle. Dizzed off I got 1.2 oz of gorgeous roving but as you can see, the mill combed top left behind alot of waste....0.4 oz. I find this to be the case every time and I believe it is because mill combed top has several different lengths of fibers in it (I've found within the same top staple lengths from 2-4" long) .

The same procedure is used for the fiber Batch #2 Hand Combed Top. I was able to load 1.4 oz of the fiber on the hackle. Hand combed top is much "poofier" than mill combed and tends to "climb" the tines on it's own. You can press it down but it will spring right back up and so you don't want to over fill your hackle or your fiber could very well poof itself right off the hackle. Don't ask me how I know this! After dizzing, I was able to get 1.2 oz of lovely top leaving 0.2 oz of waste. As you can see there is quite a difference in the amount of waste between the two batches of fiber with the mill combed top having twice as much waste as the hand combed. I'm not saying you shouldn't use mill combed top. I love using mill combed top BUT you do need to be aware that there will more than likely be more waste....also known as drum carder fodder because it makes lovely batts!

Slight change of plans...we are going to start the tutorials with the Art Roving Hackle. The Art Roving Hackle was designed to make textured/chunky rovings for spinning art yarns BUT will also do smooth rovings as well. The hackle has an 18" working face with 5" tines in a 1 pitch setting to allow chunkier items such as whole locks, novelty yarn, etc. to be dizzed more easily through the tines. All of the specs on the Art Roving Hackle can be found here. In this tutorial we will go over the basics and create a "semi-smooth" art roving.........smooth with texture.....with tutorials on making more textured/chunky art rovings and smooth ones as well to follow in the next few weeks.~~~Beth

When setting up your Art Roving Hackle you want to make sure you have a good heavy sturdy table with a 2" or so lip to attatch it to. I'm dead serious about the table being heavy and sturdy, it's a must!  Make sure the clamps are pushed as far in the hackle as they will go and the metal bar of the clamps should be right up against the table edge. The hackle edge should be even or a smidge over the lip of the table. Once everything is lined up tighten down the clamps. You think you have the clamps tight but do you really?? It's time to test them before you start playing. Grab the base of the hackle on either end or the base that the tines set in and push it back and forth, put some effort into it! If the hackle moves it's not tight enough, if you move the heavy table and the hackle stays put you're good to go!

So we're ready to start playing! Get your fiber together that you intend to play with. Picture #4 is what I chose to play with:
20/80 silk merino top--3-3 1/2" staple, novelty yarn cut into 4ish" lengths, silk top--5 1/2" to 6" staple, firestar--4" staple, angelina/crystal metallic--8" staple, kid mohair locks--4" staple, romney fleece --5 1/2" staple, merino fleece --4 1/2"-5" staple, alpaca top-- 3 1/2" -4" staple, faux cashmere--3 1/2" staple, bamboo--3-3 1/2" staple
All of the fleece I'm using has been washed/scoured to remove any lanolin. You DO NOT want to use raw fleece as it will leave grease on your tines that will be difficult to remove. The romney fleece has been run through the picker to remove vegetable matter and the merino fleece was coated so it's pretty clean. You will want to remove as much VM (vegetable matter) as possible before loading your fiber onto the hackle.

I started with approx. 2.2 oz. total of fiber layering it on the hackle. When lashing the fiber on I generally get a handful and catch about 1" of the ends onto the top of the tines and gently pull the fiber down onto the tines and back toward me. You don't want huge gobs of fiber going on the hackle at once as they will be extremely difficult to diz off. Things work much better if you do thinnish layers. As you can see above I have chosen fibers that vary from 8" in staple length to 3". As a rule, the longer fibers will diz off and leave the short ones behind so to mitigate this after loading a layer of a shorter fiber I gently grab the ends and tug them side to side pulling them through the hackle just a little so they will diz off with the longer fibers. For some fibers such as angelina/crystal metallic, novelty yarn, whole curly locks, etc. I find actually laying them between the tines works better than trying to lash them on and they diz off easier as well. The last thing concerning loading is to NOT OVER LOAD your hackle. An over loaded is extremely hard to diz off of AND you have a very high "waste factor". Nobody likes wasting fiber! I suggest that the Art Roving Hackle not be loaded more than 2" to 2 1/2" when gently packed down.......meaning press it down gently to compact it and see where you are on the tines. I will show you the wisdom of this when we diz. 

PREPARING FOR DIZZING:
Once the hackle is loaded fluff up your fibers to within the top 1/2" of the tines. Check the back side and make sure the fiber looks as evenly distributed as you can make it. Sometimes the front side will look fluffed and even but upon inspection in the back you can see where there are still compacted areas. My example isn't the best for showing this since I used fleece with whole locks...it looks like it's really packed on the hackle but it's not. Now your fluffed and need to chose your diz. The diz should be choosen taking into account what fiber you have on the hackle....smooth top, large chunky locks, etc. I have 3 sizes pictured, these are the ones I mainly use.
Upper left: 1/4" for smooth roving, upper right: 3/8" for really textured and chunky roving. My choice was the center diz: 3/16" for semi smooth roving that has a little texture. The dizzes I use are fender washers from the hardware store. They are inexpensive and come in a wide variety of sizes.

I came up with this method of "Parting Don King's Hair" for the longer hackles after playing with them a bit and finding this method is 1) easier on the person dizzing in the sense of the pulling that goes on AND 2) there is much less waste fiber. From the pictures you can see that when I loaded the hackle I seperated the two halves with cardboard. On the right side of the hackle we will use the "Parting Don King's Hair" method. On the left side I'll show you what happens if you try to diz across the whole face of the hackle.

Parting Don King's Hair: begin by finding the center of your fiber starting at the edge of the hackle. With your fingers work down the hackle horizontally seperating the fibers so there is a top half and a bottom half much the way you would part hair. Try and get the halves as even as possible. Once the fiber has been parted from end to end use your hands to push the lower half down and look for any fibers on the tines at the center part that may have been missed. With both hands, sandwich the fiber on the top half between your palms to sort of pat it together so the top layer is better defined. Again, the top half of the fiber should be within 1/2" approx. from the top of the tines. If the fiber gets to close to the top of the tines gently push it back down..........you really don't want it popping off while you're dizzing!

Now, starting at the top right (or left, whichever is most comfortable for you) grab the tips of the fibers on the edge of the hackle giving the ends a little twist making it easier to put them through the diz. Begin dizzing across the top. Do not pull your diz much more than the length of the shortest fiber on your hackle. Mine shortest fiber was about 3" so I wouldn't pull more than 3 1/2" max.

Okay, so you are at the far end of the hackle with only a little more on the top half to diz off. With the diz extended out toward you and the last of the fiber from the top half of the hackle in the diz reach down and grab up the tips of the fiber on the edge of the bottom half of the hackle just below you. Hold the tips from the bottom half with the top half and gently guiding the diz down, pull them both through the diz together finishing off the fiber on the top half of the hackle and starting the fiber on the lower half. Diz across the lower half until you reach the end.  The fiber I dizzed off weighed 1 oz. As you can see the waste was minimal and would not even register on the scale.......my guess is 0.2oz or less.

You can diz across the entire face of the hackle when it's full BUT I don't mainly because it is much harder to diz with lots of tugging and pulling going on AND MOSTLY because there is significantly more waste. I have noticed this with every fiber I've used and with mill combed top in particular. You can compare pictures #19 and #23 and see the difference while it's on the hackle. I was able to diz off 0.6 oz of top going across the entire face of the hackle and ended up with 0.4 oz of waste.......that's almost 50% waste and that's way to much in my opinion.

In a nutshell:
--make sure your hackle is securely clamped to a heavy sturdy table
--do not load your hackle more than 2 to 2 1/2" gently packed
--when mixing longer and shorter fibers gently tug shorter fibers to bring them forward on the hackle before putting on the next layer
--chose your diz according to the type of fiber prep you have made
--don't forget to "Part Don King's Hair" before dizzing
Odds and ends:
--the amount of fiber you get off the hackle weight wise will vary according to the type of fiber as well as the type of fiber prep you are creating (smooth, semi, textured)
--do not braid dizzed roving....it is much lighter and airy than mill combed top and when unbraiding it can break
--hand combed fleece leaves the least amount of waste of any fiber I've tried with mill combed
top leaving the most waste.

Welcome to our Wool Combs & Hackles ongoing tutorial! I will be going through each of our tools indepth covering the various ways to use them individually and together as well the many things that can be done with each of them. I will begin the tutorial posts the first week of January with our 4 pitch English style Comb and Hackle set.  Before I begin posting about the tools, however, I will be posting in the next couple of weeks concerning dizzing off of your hackle. If my 15 year old son and 12 year old daughter can do it with some instruction and the basics of what to consider before dizzing you can do it too!

If there are things you would like to see done, explained a little more in depth, or have any questions concerning our tools please leave a comment and I will do my absolute best to answer your questions. ~~~~Beth