Script for

Episode 126:

Product Review: Louet Mini Combs

Do you enjoy doing your own fiber preparation but find it hard on your hands or wrists? I may have a solution, and today I'm going to tell you all about it.

Hello there, darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 126 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love. This month, we're talking about fiber preparation, which is one of the eight Pillars of Skillful Spinning™, and in today's episode, I'm reviewing the Louet two-pitch mini-combs.

A zillion years ago—2010?—I bought a set of hand combs from Blue Mountain Handcrafts, which, sadly, is no longer in business. I say sadly because I adore those combs. I think they are the perfect size; their teeth are just sharp enough; the handles fit my hand perfectly. And I really thought: ok, I have found my holy grail combs. And I recommended those combs to a lot of people over the years.

But then they became unavailable, and I wanted to find a readily-available set of hand combs that I could recommend. I have a set of two-pitch Valkyrie extra-fine hand combs, but we have never gotten along very well because I just don't enjoy using them: they are heavy, the teeth are in my view sharper than they need to be, and the handles don't work with my hands. So I didn't want to recommend them to others.

I've been intrigued by the Louet mini-combs for years, ever since Deb Robson told me that she did all the combing for The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook with them. She swears by them. So earlier this month I finally ordered a pair. Mine came from The Fibre Garden, in Ontario, so shout out to John and Alan (if you're in Canada you should definitely check them out). Mine were $228 CAD; you can get them from The Woolery in the US for $175 USD.

Here's my review of the combs.

First, the basic stats: These combs are made in Holland. The handles are made of ash. Their total length is about 5.5 inches and they're about 3 inches wide. The teeth are 2.25 inches long, and the width of the teeth is about 2.5 inches. They come in one- and two-pitch versions. I got the two-pitch.

Just for comparison, the Valkyries are 6 inches long and 4 inches wide, and their teeth are 3 inches long and the teeth are set into an area that's 3 inches wide.

So the Louets are scaled down from the Valkyries in every direction. But the amazing thing about them is their weight. A single Louet mini-comb weighs just 3.15 ounces/89.5 grams.

In comparison, the Valkyries weigh in at a whopping 8.62 ounces/244.3 grams--more than two and a half times as much as the Louets. In fact, when I took the Louets out of the box I was gobsmacked at how light they were.

Now, let's talk about what it's like to use the Louet mini-combs. The handles are flat and the sides of the handles have a gentle curve to them. I found them very comfortable to hold. I think the sharpness of the tines is pretty much perfect: they are pointy enough that locks slide on to them easily, but not so pointy that you could easily injure yourself with them.

As with any fiber preparation tool, you don't want to overload these combs. The length of the tines, just two and a quarter inches, really limits the amount of fiber you can load onto them. Working with a BFL fleece, I found that I could put about 3 grams of fiber onto the comb; more than that and things became unwieldy as the locks opened up during the combine process. Would I process an entire 10 lb. fleece this way? Probably not, but for small amounts of fiber I would absolutely turn to these combs.

I felt that the mini-combs performed very well when not overloaded and produced a lovely result. I'll note that Louet doesn't make a clamping system for these combs which would allow you to easily diz fiber off the combs, so I just pulled the fiber off without a diz and I was happy with my samples. After combing around 14 g/half an ounce of fiber, I was also impressed with the small amount of combing waste I produced using these combs.

I had one more test to do: spinning directly from the combs. If you don't know about this technique or if you've never done this, you load your combs and make as many passes as you think is necessary, and then, rather than pulling or dizzing the fiber off the combs, you just take the comb to your wheel and spin directly from the comb. I love this technique because it gives me so much control over my fiber supply, and the comb maintains the alignment of the fibers and makes it easy to spin a very smooth worsted yarn.

I found that the size of these combs made them perfect for spinning from. I could easily and comfortably hold the comb on the palm of my fiber supply hand and draft with the other hand. These mini-combs are my new go-to for spinning from combs.

If you have small hands, or injury-prone hands or wrists, I think these combs could be a great solution for you. If you enjoy spinning right off the combs, as I do, I definitely recommend them. All of this provided you are also someone who's patient enough to prep your fiber a few grams of fiber at a time. I really found them to be a pleasure to use, and I can see myself on a snowy winter day in the studio—combing a little, spinning a little, combing a little, spinning a little—for a pleasant and productive afternoon.

Do you have wool combs that you use and love? I want to hear about them! There's a dedicated discussion thread in The Flock where you can comment on this episode and discuss it with me and other listeners. The link is in the show notes, which you'll find right inside your podcast app. So just open up the description for this episode, click the link, and you'll be taken right to the thread if you're a member of The Flock, or to a page where you can join for free if you're not.

Darling Sheepspotter, that's it for me this week. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back next week with a review of the Clemis and Clemis Lock Pop. You don't want to miss it. Until then, consider spinning something! I promise it will improve your mood.