How to Card Wool

The purpose of carding wool is to straighten and separate wool fibers making them easier to spin into yarn. Hand carders are wooden paddles with coarse or fine wire teeth, much like a dog brush. The fine wire teeth are for delicate fibers such as cotton or angora. The coarse wire teeth are for wool, mohair and other coarse fibers.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Two hand cards
• Washed fibers for carding

1. Place one carder in your left hand.
   
   
2. Lay wool or fibers across the face of the card in your left hand until nearly no wire teeth are showing through.
3. Put the other carder in your right hand directly over the other card.
   
   
4. Brush the carder in your right hand over the carder in your left hand 5 to 10 times or until the wool is evenly distributed between the two cards.
5. Put the toe end of the bottom carder against the heel end of the working carder.
   
   
6. Lay the loose ends of the fiber on the teeth of the carder and lift the wool from the stationary carder to the working carder.
7. Start over with the newly filled carder and repeat the process until the fiber is fluffy and thoroughly separated.
   
   

Tips & Warnings

• When the carding is finished, roll the carded fiber off of the card into a long roll ready for spinning.
• Be sure to wash wool and other fibers thoroughly and let dry before carding.
• Consider using a drum carder to produce larger amounts of fibers faster for spinning. You can also mix different colors and fibers to make different blends with a drum carder.