Carding wool: Is there a magic bullet?

I process a lot of raw wool for spinning and I really enjoy it. After the wool is scoured and dried, it can carded (by hand or machine) or combed. Clearly, there isn't a way to speed up combing wool by hand except for loads of practice. Are drum carders a different story?

After I'd been spinning for a while, I invested in a drum carder in the hopes it would speed things up. I was doing a lot of art yarn spinning at the time so I bought an Ashford Wild Carder. It worked well. With its super long teeth, it easily held 30 gms of fiber. I was surprised at how long it took me to get a batt (or six) finished so it seemed time to upgrade to an electric carder.

Between research and budget I chose an electric Fancy Kitty. What a treat, no more turning the handle! But, it still took me the better part of a morning to get six batts done. In the meantime, I'd been hanging out at my friend Lisa's house a bit. Lisa has the best of everything; she's been spinning forever and has acquired  a whole lot of tools along her journey. She has about 5  carders including an electric Louet and a Pat Green Supercard and she can't get fiber carded any more quickly than I.

I'd known about Pat Green's carders forever and I really wanted one. I could have afforded a manual one but thought I'd be happier with an electric. When a Deb's Delicate Deluxe came up for sale for a great price so I grabbed it even though it was manual. Guess what? I can card up six batts on the Pat Green as fast as I can on my electric carder!

I might mention that I also have a pair of hand cards. Spinning rolags is the best and I love long draw spinning. I need way more practice with them but it is really nice to be able to sit on the sofa with hand cards and a basket of clean wool to card. Folks skilled at making rolags can probably beat a drum carder at getting wool ready to spin.

In summary: in my experience, carding is a slow process and the carder itself probably plays only a small role in how quickly wool can be turned into batts. The type of fiber and the quality of the fiber matter more than does the specific carder. That's not to say that some carders aren't better than others but you do have to go through the same motions with every carder. So, I don't think that there really isn't a magic bullet  (carder).

What make a carder better? I think a higher ratio between drum and licker in helps. Gearing on manual carders that makes the handle easy to turn is a help. The tpi (teeth per inch) matters too. 120 tpi is going to a pain to use with coarse wool and merino will need extra passes with 42 tpi.  Personally, I think that having two drum carders is a good setup; one coarse and one fine.

Notes:
I never put more that about an ounce of fiber on either carder; I find that adding more results in a compacted batt that doesn't draft as easily as a thinner batt. The two minutes needed to remove the batt is worth the improvement in spinning experience.  Also, GIGO (garbage in-garbage out) applies to carding. Try to card fiber with a lot of second cuts, you'll get a batt full of nepps and noils. Same for chaff; a carder won't clean fiber. Yes, the licker in will grab some of the second cuts and chaff but not all. When shopping for a carder, I recommend getting a lower tpi than you think you need because you can always run the fiber through twice and you'll have more versatility in carding coarser fiber.

Tools that I love....

Yep, it usually looks about like this when I'm working.

DH asked me this morning which of the spinning things that litter our home is my favorite. I had to think about that. Alot. Spinning wheels didn't count so that did narrow things down but not by much. I defined "favorite" by most useful and here's the list that I came up with:


1. Drum carders (Pat Green/ Fancy Kitty)It is so much easier to drum card than to hand card. My old hands just aren't up to much hand carding.

2. Reel winder (antique);
Like my hands, my shoulder doesn't work like it used to so a niddy noddy was tough. The old reel cost very little and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I just count the rotations because the weasel isn't reliable.

3. Spool rack (Leclerc);
All those bobbins have a home! The rack holds all of them with room for more. It is a dream to use for plying as a sort of kate and the bobbin winder attaches to the top.

4 Bobbin winder and styrene spools (Fiber Artists' Supply and Leclerc);
You really do get a better yarn if you wind a single off the bobbin and onto a spool before plying. These two sure do make the job faster.

5. Pat Green flicker brush;
Cleaning a drum carder is just one of those jobs where you gotta do it and it isn't any fun; this brush helps.

6. Umbrella swift (Stanwood);
Makes unwinding a skein a breeze; nothing tangles and so much easier than a chair back.

7. Ball winder (Royal);
Better than I can make and a whole lot tidier to use yarn prepared into a cake than something I wound into a ball.
  


These are the tools that I use all the time and would hate to live without. As I look at the list, I suppose the reason that they make the list is that they are labor savers.  I got along without each item in the list for a long time and accomplished the same tasks but having them around surely does make the job of getting yarn made a whole lot easier.

Drum Carding Station

My first drum carder was an Ashford Wild Carder. To use it, I sat on the floor and balanced the carder on the edge of a coffee table; hardly ideal. I sold the Ashford and bought a Fancy Kitty Kitten. I have had the Fancy Kitty drum carder on an antique dry sink. It's been nice because it is taller than all the other tables in the house but the old sink is getting loose and I hate to ruin it. To further complicate things, I found a used Pat Green carder for sale and you know how that ended..................

After a lot of searching, I found a solution that I really like. It is a rolling kitchen cart. I got it on Amazon and it is pretty nearly perfect. It holds both carders and has shelves for other stuff (carded batts and etc.). The slide out cutting board serves as a great place to leave the fibers that I'm about to card and the knife rack holds the doffer and a few other tools. As an added bonus, the Pat Green carder is now at a height that makes turning it as easy as can be; I was going to add a motor to it but now there's no need.

Oh, and that basket on the wall came from Peterborough Baskets. 

Be Ruthless!

I'm working my way thru 4 pounds of delightful Bond. I might comb some of it but I'm using my drum carder (Fancy Kitty, 70/90) for the vast majority. When I first started processing raw wool, I tried so hard to use every little bit for spinning. I just couldn't bear to waste any of the wool that I'd worked so hard to get clean and carded. Well, after more than a few years, I've gotten pretty ruthless. If I see the slightest hint of a nep, a noil or a short cut that escaped my notice, I pull it out of the wool as I card it. Those little bits seem to have the power to reproduce as they go through the carder and I really don't want to pull them out as I spin. So, I'm ruthless.

Here's a pic of what I pulled out of about 5 ounces of fiber. It weighs 1/3 of an ounce (about 10 grams). So there really isn't that much waste; it just looks like a lot. Also, you can see the neps and noils and tangles when light is shines through the waste.


The truth of the matter is that you don't have to waste any fiber. Also, spinning yarn with lots of lumps to remove as you spin is a pain. So, you can use hand combs and make rolags from the carder waste for a nice woolen yarn. If you don't want to use hand cards, use the waste in textured yarns. You can even give the waste to the birds for their nests or use it for mulch in your garden. Be ruthless with less that less than perfect fiber as you process it. I think this makes for a much better yarn and more fun spinning.

Here's a pic of the finished batts:

The Dental Pick...a drum carder's best friend.

I adore processing my own wool. I meet the most wonderful shepherds; I get to hand select a fleece. Washing a fleece is a joy to me; I love seeing dingy, dirty wool change into glowing white wool. I love the smell....yep, I love it all.

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.

What's spinning....

Jacob fleece is my current project. I just adore this fiber. Here is a picture of some of the yarn that I have spun; this is from the ram named Hector.

Here is some lilac colored lamb fleece before washing:

And the clean fleece, batts and yarn after washing. This lilac was a remnant from a bigger fleece that felted on the sheep. I only have a little bit (and that thanks to the kind shepherd). It is spinning into the most lovely silver color.

The white batts are more of Hector's fiber and here is some more yarn from his fleece:

Fake Rolags

Spinning longdraw is my favorite method and to really, truly spin woolen longdraw in the purest way, you need rolags; lots of rolags.  Rolags are traditionally made using hand cards but there is a way to make them using the drum carder. Lots of folks make them right of the drum. I don't like that method only because no matter how hard I try, I end up poking my arms and hands on the pointy bit and it hurts. So, I remove the batt from the carder and:

Split the batt into thirds across the batt (as opposed to long ways);





Grasp the sides of the  fiber and pull it apart; it separates like the pages of a book. My goal is to get something close to the size of handcards;





Roll the fiber loosely around a dowel and,

Viola!



It is essential for easy spinning to keep the fake rolags a reasonable size and to keep them light and airy for a light and airy woolen yarn. The ones pictured here are made from some yummy alpaca from Great Rock Alpaca; the staple is a little long for rolags (for my taste) but they spun like a dream.