Preparing the cleaned fleece can be a time consuming process. I have hand cards and wool combs and adore using them but most of the time I rely on my drum carder. Getting the wool ready for the carder is super hard on my hands because they have arthritis and protest loudly to pulling and picking apart fiber by hand. I have wool picker and it is a huge help. Even though I'm really careful, I still find neps and noils in my fiber.
(Neps are the little bumps that form around second cuts and the like. Noils are little coils that happen when fiber is stretched and bounces back. You can tell the difference by examining one. If you can pull it apart into staple length fiber, it is a noil and if it comes apart into bits, it is a nep, generally speaking. These can be saved and used in spinning either an art yarn or a tweed yarn. Also, as you spin, they kind of rise to the surface of the yarn and can be plucked off.)
I'm spinning a lavender Jacob's fleece for a sweater and so I'd prefer a smoother yarn. As you can see on the carder drum...a little nep is lurking. Enter the dental pick. It is really easy to just grab the offending mass and remove it. I stop the carder after every couple of additions of fiber and remove what I can. The pick works equally as well at removing any leftover VM. And even more.....it is a huge help in removing fiber that escapes and wraps itself around the carder's axles. A pick came with my drum carder (Fancy Kitty) but it grew feet; I got this one for a very few dollars from Amazon.
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