Hand Woolcombing and Spinning
Author: Peter Teal
Here is a book for hand-spinners who aspire to a high standard of professional excellence in their work. The book rediscovers many of the old methods and applies modern technological principles to the forgotten trade of woolcombing.
It explains how to make the tools, how to prepare, dye and blend the fibre, and finally how to spin a worsted yarn of controlled quality and specification.
The serious student of spinning will find vital information on how much twist to give a yarn for a stated end use; how much oil to apply to raw, scoured fibre; how to assess the suitability of a spinningwheel for a specific type of yam, and how to produce a yarn to internationally accepted standards.
Peter Teal has more than ten years of self-directed apprenticeship to the trade of spinning-wheel making and worsted spinning, years in which he has carried out exhaustive researches into methods of making the tools and into the reasons for differing designs, often marrying tradition and technology.
The author has also applied his many years' experience as a photo-journalist in the commercial textile industry to provide simple, easy-to-follow instruction on the processes by which he has achieved the outstanding quality of his own spun yams.
The wool-combs, jigs, pad, diz, spinning wheels, scales, etc, illustrated were all made by him in his workshop, powered, characteristically, by a 14-foot diameter water wheel.
