Grace writes:
<<Can anyone point me to some good instructions online?>>
I mean, eventually, to put a tutorial on my website. In the meantime,
how's this:
Start with good clean wool that's not too long--say 5" or under.
Texture shouldn't be too silky; crimpy and soft or crimpy and crisp are
best for beginners. Don't use junk, you'll regret it :)
Either thoroughly tease the wool open, or precard thusly: Hold one
staple of wool, no thicker than your pinkie, very firmly, and draw one
end through the teeth of the handcard. Reverse and repeat. This
removes *all* junk--second cuts, brittle tips, VM, everything except the
finest dust and dirt. Work over an easily-cleaned surface, or have a
towel on your lap :) Store the precarded locks in a basket, clean your
cards well (meaning take out all the stray bits of wool and VM, and
knock out the loose dirt), and you're ready to card. Note: eventually
(took me 10 years of frequent precarding) this will damage the cloth of
your card. Protect your handcard investment and buy an inexpensive
flick card, and use that in place of the handcard for precarding. I
mounted a flick card on my workbench on a bolt so it could swing out for
precarding, swing back on top of the workbench out of the way when done.
Carding, step by step:
Take a handcard in your non-dominant hand (which I will refer to as
left, as that's true for most people and is faster to write--left-handed
people, simply reverse directions). Hold it by the handle, teeth up, on
your left thigh, with the handle pointing left.
Lay a *small* amount of wool on the card--2 largish staples (thumb thick
before teasing or precarding), 3 medium, 4 if very small. It's tempting
to card more, but it doesn't work as well or spin as well. Be sure that
wool doesn't hang off the top (handle) edge of the carder (it's OK to
have it hang off the lower edge), and just catch the wool with the teeth
lightly, don't push it down into contact with the card cloth. If you
find after a little carding that you do still have too much wool, just
take half off and continue with the rest.
Take the other card in your dominant hand, teeth down, handle pointing
right. Starting at the lower (away from handle) edge of the left card,
not touching teeth as yet, have the lower edge of the right card connect
with the loose wool hanging off the left card, and 'brush' it using the
right card in a movement away from the left card. Continue this
motion--it's kind of circular--with the right card, gradually moving it
up the left card toward the handle--***without*** meshing the teeth of
the two cards--they will certainly touch, but shouldn't actually engage.
This is important, as meshing eventually will damage the teeth, it
requires more effort and so will tire you, even cause carpal-tunnel-type
damage if done too much, and doesn't make good carding of the wool to
boot. Stop carding when you're no longer having wool transfer from the
left card to the right one.
Doff the fiber from the right to the left card: Flip the right card so
the teeth are up. Bring the hanging edge of wool on that card even with
the top of the left card. With the right card perpendicular to the left
card and just above the left card, catch its wool into the teeth of the
left card, and move the right card 'down' the left to remove the wool
and put it back on the left card. If you find the wool just brushes
across the left card without detaching from the right, it likely means
you have too much wool to card effective--remove and set aside the wool
from the left card and try doffing the right card again.
After doffing, repeat carding until as much wool is again transferred to
the right card as possible.
Second doffing: this time the wool from the left card is doffed to the
right card. Mirror image the movements of before--teeth up on right,
left card perpendicular with teeth facing right, catch the wool in the
right card's top teeth, move the left card 'down' the right, laying its
wool on the right card, lightly meshed with the teeth.
Back to carding, with right card working over left as before. Repeat
this action of card, doff, card, doff until you're happy with the
results. With a small amount of well-prepared wool, 3-4 passes usually
work well, and can be done in just a minute or two with practice.
Well-carded wool will be pretty well aligned, no folded or tangled bits
left. Do your final doff onto the left card, so the right is clean, the
left is loaded with wool.
Now the fun part--making a rolag :) Put down the right card for the
moment. I use my right hand to 'fold' the trailing edge of wool lightly
into the teeth of the left card--like folding a blanket. I then switch
the left card into my right hand, teeth down, and (wearing jeans :) rub
the teeth against my leg from right to left, to lightly press the wool
into the teeth--sort of a burnishing motion. Now I pick up the right
card in my left hand, holding it as before, handle to left, teeth up.
With the 'wooly' card still teeth down, I move it right to left, finally
meshing the teeth slightly with the doffed card. IOW, I firmly press it
into the naked card, while simultaneously pushing the wooly card toward
the other handle. Continue the motion until the cards no longer touch
teeth, and voila! You have a lovely rolag with none of this nonsense of
taking the little batt off the cards and rolling it by hand :)
Reasons to handcard:
Makes a true woolen yarn when spun long draw.
It's fast and highly portable--great for demos, vacation, watching TV, etc.
Fun opportunities for playing with color--lay a lock of one color in the
center, different colors on the edges, and you'll be spinning a
randomly-colored yarn with fast color changes.
Great way to process small amounts of special fiber--don't have to worry
about loosing a large amount to the teeth of a drumcarder, for example,
and can experiment with fiber/color blends very quickly.
In any fleece of natural or dyed color variations, carding preserves
those variations better than any other method of fiber prep other than
simply spinning direct from each lock.
And if you're spinning in a place with no access to cottage carding
mills or drumcarders or handcombs, it's the only way to go :) I
handcarded for several years before getting my first drumcarder. A
basketful of lovely rolags is a delight to spin.
Holly
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