Hand Carding Demo from The Spinning Barn

hello there today we're going to look at the process of hand carving wool but before we actually start looking at how we do it i think it's important that we look at and discuss why we would do it so let me finish this one very quickly and we'll get on to it so a hand carding is a woolen preparation of our fibres ready to spin a woolen spin which is effectively a long draw spin now that produces a soft rounded type airy lofty type of yarn that's absolutely perfect for your lovely winter woolies it just feels cozy and soft and lovely however because of the way that we actually spin this the the nature of the technique and the type of fibers that we choose to use generally means that we don't need to incorporate much twist to maintain the structure and integrity of the yarn therefore it is prone to abrasion which can therefore lead to pilling of your garment if you choose to wear it too often or a little bit heavy-handed with it so do bear that in mind when you're considering which method of preparation might be suitable for your particular project um just quickly by comparison if we have a look at this little skein which was prepared in a worsted method and spun in a worsted so therefore that's a longer fiber which has been combed and spun in a short forward draw which compacts compresses those fibers more excludes the air and makes a more robust type of yarn which can take a little bit more wear and tear so that helps us very briefly to decide which method we would choose so therefore having chosen the woolen method let's have a look quickly at the types of fibers that we would use i have here just some short locks from aboard a leicester it was an absolutely beautiful fleece some sections of the fine the fleece were longer stapled than others and i've chosen some of the shorter pieces which are about four inches which is the cusp really so we're looking for a woolen preparation for the fibers to be no more than four inches at the longest really um that length fits nice and comfortably onto our carters you can see from the fibers that it's soft and airy it's already looking bouncy and squishy that's big squishy one of my favorite words um you can see it's actually already got the air retained between those fibers the other thing that we can see is that the fiber has quite a lot of crimp as well and the crimp being the little zigzag pattern that runs down the length of the staple the crimp indicates that basically the more crimp the finer the fiber however it also creates little pockets where the air can sit as well so all of this is telling me that this wants to be woolen prepared and spun to create a nice soft rounded airy yarn so that's a brief look at the fibers so let's have a look at the equipment that we're going to use as well so i have here my favorite pair of hand carders which you can see that this has a curved back now this sits really comfortably on my knee i rather like this um and you have more of a a rocking action when you're actually carving your wool the alternative is the flat back you can put them two together you can really see the difference in the shape the technique is no different it's more a case of just keeping the two completely parallel as you actually card and it really comes down to personal preference really so moving on to what we actually do with our fibres now then the wool here has actually been lightly washed already i like to retain as much of the structure of the fiber as i can really when i when i prepare it i think i just like to keep it a little bit more sheepy for as long as possible so you can see we have a very definite cut end that's the butt end and we have very definite tips now i've separated out these locks individually for a reason i like to place each lock onto the cardo so secure it with my fingers here leaving a gap at the top about a fingers width as well and then just secure it down over my knee so it's off the end of the card let's open those tips out a little bit as you go now the reason that i keep the lock structure is because it helps to keep me a little bit more organized as i'm preparing my wool and as i'm carving it so you can see the tips here are still actually quite tight um and it's those tips that actually hold more of the dirt and grease depending on how you've washed your fibers um but generally obviously that's the outside of the sheet so that is always tighter when it's on the animal and stops the elements the rain the wind this not the wind where the snow and any other bits and pieces from actually getting down inside the remainder of the fleece so all the dirt is basically held out at the outside so if we start just by lightly combing sorry carding those tips so you can see that's already started to open up and the little bits fall out nicely on your apron i mean you can see my apron is getting a little bit covered in little bits and pieces always obviously choose a fleece that is as good a quality as you can don't be tempted to use a poorer quality fleece for practicing on i i don't i don't go with the idea at all i believe that the better the fleece to start with the more you're going to enjoy it and therefore the more you're going to want to do it more you'll enjoy the whole process and the more you're going to spin so having carded just that little bit on the end just move your carders up so that you card with the whole width of the top carder now as you can see i'm actually just stroking that really lightly i mean i'm hardly holding it there if you press too hard the teeth will actually just grip together um and and you can see my fingers got my knuckles they're really white i can't actually pull that so there's no point trying just be gentle with my sheet and also as i take that pass make sure you take that card right away so that you break the link of the staple there otherwise if you don't go if if you don't separate it you'll fold this back on itself and you'll end up with a big ridge and you can see already that's making a bit of a mess there what we're aiming for is for all the debris uh to be removed and for all the fibers to be nicely aligned so we haven't got any lumps and bumps in there because ultimately our our spinning and our finished project is only going to be as good as our preparation i mean that's an old adage isn't it but it really is true and i used to do this a little bit haphazard i have to say i now give it much more attention because i think you actually will achieve much better results so if i just do this one very quickly to show you the technique and then i'm going to stop and i'm going to show you step by step in slow motion so that you can follow four keep watching back over and over so that you can achieve the same results which i know you will there are several ways obviously of doing anything really but don't worry about it i'm going to show you my technique and i hope you're going to find that easy to understand easy to do and therefore enjoyable but equally you might just find another way that suits you depending on how you want to do things depending on the fibers that you're working with but it doesn't matter just concentrate on making sure that those fibers are aligned that you haven't got any lumps and bumps in there okay and then your spinning will be far more effective okay so this is the row lag that we create from our hand carding which we would then long draw spin with you actually stretch as you're spinning the whole length of that and it just opens out like candy floss is just beautiful it's lovely i have to say it's my favorite way of spinning so let's do that again in slow motion so also consider that when you come to do this for real you'll be potentially sitting for quite a long time actually creating lots of rolex ready to spin so we aim generally for consistency in our spinning and therefore in our yarn now that's achieved by consistency in every part of the process really so the more that you more row legs that you consistently create means that you can keep the rhythm of your spinning going for much longer because you haven't got to keep stopping and starting and that means that your your spinning therefore will be more consistent because you can keep it going over a longer period of time having said that make sure that you find somewhere comfortable to sit relax your shoulders make sure you nice and cozy and do keep your carders down you don't want them up here it's going to put way too much strain on your shoulders and it'll be very uncomfortable and you can't keep that going for very long but once it's down on your knee and you're just working comfortably it's actually a really pleasant experience and you can keep doing that all day okay so a little bit of health and safety so let's do this again so if i just take each of my little locks i'll just start by just opening up those tips a little bit there just to help it on its way and attach the lock about a fingers width down and secure over the end of the teeth and it really is a case of less is more as well you don't want to overload the carders you just want enough to cover the teeth so that you can easily card through the whole area now i have in here which i don't know if you can see but i'm going to pull out a little knobbly bit as i keep saying knobbly bits this is actually a little second cut now it's really crucial that at every stage of your preparation as i said you remove all the bits that you don't want second cut are these little knob bubbly bits that um are created when the shearer goes back over the sheep to re to tide it up really just to remove any little bits that he's missed in such a fast process and those little bits actually get stuck in the top of the fleece which is so the underside of the fleece which should be removed whenever you find them because obviously that's going to create a little lump in your spinning and stop your process you can always save the lots and lots of those if you've got them and dye them they make quite useful little additions but also i've got little tiny little bits of something in here don't know what it is um but again needs to come out so and there we are so this is the card loaded with i may have put a little bit more on there really but i think that's actually enough to show you the process hold the carder with so this is your stationary card whichever hand you're using this is your stationary card hold it with your hand turned up and it flat on your knee and you'll find that much more comfortable to work with you're working harder again just hold very lightly you don't need to press hard here at all so just very lightly start with those tips open those tips up and then work up just stroking those fibers just checking as you go for any any lumps any bits that are embedded and again if you press too hard you will actually compress the fibers down between the teeth and then it's very very it can be very difficult to remove that and actually spoils the effect that you're looking for as well so just very very gently okay so first pass turn over your working carder lift up your station ricardo and you can see the wafty ends just place those at the top of the teeth of your working card push this one your stationary card down but at the same time lift up your working harder now all of the wool is now on this side and we're going to just turn that over and start again we've got a little bit of a thick area just here i'm just going to just try and open it out a little bit more that's fine now this time i'm going to turn this one over and place those ends at the top of the card and this time push your working card down and lift up your station recorder your wall is now on this side turn over the card again and by this time it should be looking pretty gorgeous it's amazing just how it actually transforms as you start working with it i love it and again turn this one over lift your stationary card up transfer down and up at the same time but this time we're going to go down to put the ends back on here and lift up again let me show you that again so just down and up so what we have now is the flat fibers just sitting on the top of the cardo so just make sure that it's sitting on the width of that carder so we can keep it a little bit organized and now just using the edge of these teeth so the back of the teeth where it's not not sharp hold the wool in place and just push the ends forward so that it starts to roll along the top of the teeth just hold it as you go and i always say this and every class it always reminds me of pushing a snow plow through the snow so just keep it nice and flat keep your fingers on the wall here to keep it organized keep pushing and rolling it as you go until you get to the end then you're going to just lift it up bring it back and give it another roll and there is your row lag all ready to spin okay there so i hope you enjoyed that the process as i say isn't particularly complicated it's really rewarding and i hope you found that helpful obviously i would love to hear from you i'd love to know if you have just tried that for the first time or whether you have been spinning for a long time but tried wanting to try a different way whatever and also if you have any problems along the way please ask i don't want anybody to just sit at home and worry it's only wool i can remember when i learned to spin oh gosh i loved my day but when i went home to do it on my own it was quite frustrating until i went back and asked for more help and that's what i'm here for so if you manage your carding and you enjoy your carding you will spin and that's why we're here isn't it so thanks for watching and hope to see you soon thank you bye-bye you

Channel: The Spinning Barn by Theresa George

Views: 3,295

Keywords: hand carding, hand spinning, how to prepare wool, carding wool, the spinning barn

Id: IWPh3R2Ub6A

Length: 18min 36sec (1116 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2020