I have been combing and spinning, combing and spinning. The uncapping forks as cheapo wool combs are hard on the hands, so it's a good thing doing it a little bit at a time matches my attention span, because you could hurt yourself (more than the occasional stabbing) if you tried to do a ton all at once.
It has turned out that I definitely want to separate the shorter, crimpier, whiter parts of the fleece from the longer, yellower, slightly coarser ones, because they are quite different and will make different yarns. If I was carding this, they could all be mixed together to make an 'average' yarn, but they're so different doing it bit by bit. Fancy white bits in the basket, darker coarser stuff I'm currently working with in the jar. I could probably define 4 or 5 distinct grades of wool from this fleece, if I wanted to get precise, but that would drive me crazy.
You can really see the difference in my knitted up samples, too. I did each type as a two-ply and a chain three-ply, then did the longer wool a third time to spin it looser. It gets scratchy if I over spin it; in fact, to get what I think is a nice-feeling wool, I have to under spin it, by my inexpert standards. But it makes a nice springy yarn done that way! Each of these is then knit up in stockinette, on the same needles, so I can compare. Labels pictured below each sample, so you can read them. Each sample is made from one ball of combed wool.
On the spindle is the start of my "real" yarn (ie I told myself this is what I'll make my sweater out of, though in reality this is probably a bigger sample bit, before I really get started). A whopping 1.15 ounces of it. I thought it would be more! But I guess it has a good bit of air/bounce to it. You can also see the difference in color between balls of the "same" grade of wool, with the most recently spun part being noticeably darker than the yarn underneath.
