Calcitestar's yarns

Over the last couple of years I have been meticulously putting away all the onion skins I have in order to make some onion skin dye.  I have heard a lot of people say it is really easy and skim over the details so I decided to give it a go and make up the method as I went along. First I jammed in loads of onion skins into my stainless steel stock pot and poured boiling water on as I went along to stop them flying away and to wilt them so I could get more in.  The pot was brought to the boil and was left to simmer for 30 mins then left to cool. When the dye was tepid I poured it through a sieve to get rid of the skins which went on the compost heap. I then added the wool - a lovely long haired leicester long wool which I bought at a Rare Breeds Show (see previous Blog) which I had washed to remove the grease.  It was all brought up to nearly boiling and was left to simmer for 30 mins.  The lid was then put on and the wool left in the dye pot whilst I ...

Today whilst attending my local groups spinning day and I received a message that my English combs had arrived at home.  Avoiding the worst of the torrential rain that was submerging the roads I dashed back home eager to try out my new toy. When I unpacked it and slid out the combs from their cover I was amazed how much like torture devices they looked!  They also remind me of those huge toothed deep sea fish.  With a quick trip out again to the local DIY shop to buy claps I got it all set up and ready to go being very careful not to spike myself.  As there were no instructions I thought I would look on YouTube to see if I could confirm my ideas of using them.  I thought they couldn't be much more different than using hand carders and a series of 4 videos confirmed as much and gave me the confidence to get on and try them. Adding the fleece to the combs I started with the least good sections of the white Leicester Longwool fleece bought at th...