Carding Wool - Making Rolags

Handspinners who want to master long-draw drafting for woollen spinning need their fibres in a special form: carded rolags. Combed fibre won't do it -- neither will carded batts.

This introduction shows you how to make carded rolags. Start by washing your fleece....

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• spinning
• handspinning
• carding
• handcards
• cards
• rolags
• woolen
• woollen
• long-draw
• drafting
• longdraw
• spin
• wool
• fiber
• fibre

[kdvg2000]

This is a great tutorial Ruth, thanks! I have two questions.. what is the minimum staple length of the fiber in order to make a good rolag? Also, can it be done with a drum carder instead of hand carders? I am looking to make bulky yarn out of rolags but I am quite not sure if it will work. Any insight would be great! Thanks!

[ruthmacgregor]

@kdvg2000 - The Romney wool in this video had about a 5-inch staple length, lovely for spinning longdraw. For my personal tastes, a comfortable rolag comes easily from fibres between 2 and 7 inches long. Truth told, you can make a nice-spinning rolag from fibres of almost any length. These same techniques work for cotton (length 1" or less), for silk (1 to 3"), multi-fibre blends, and even longwools. When the fibres get super-long (like 12" or more), though, you might prefer to comb.

[ruthmacgregor]

For those who've wondered about the music in this video, it's a group called Lúnasa, and the song is entitled "A Stor Mo Croi".

Happy spinning!

[Caveman0713]

Hi Ruth, I have looked for a long time online and in books and have found this method of carding to be very successful, I have never done this myself but am starting to take it up. Do you have any ideas on how I might make a carder? I mean without using modern tools. I have researched this topic but have found nothing. If you have any ideas please share. Oh and BTW, I love the music. I love gaelic style music.

[ruthmacgregor]

Making a carder -- no modern tools.... Interesting question. How modern is modern? If you mean pre-modern, like 17th century -- you bet! You need wood for the backs and handles, leather for the cloth, and wires for the, um, wires. You cut and bend the wires, insert them in the leather, back to front, then tack the leather to the card back.

If you mean pre-modern, as in Neolithic -- well, they didn't have cards! To prepare wool for spinning, just do a super job of teasing. (It works well!)

[ruthmacgregor]

Hi! Some carders have stiffer wires than others, and that affects doffing. First and foremost, make sure you doff in the proper direction. The wires are angled -- seen from the side, on wires like this < < < < , the fibre will doff nicely if pulled to the right, but not to the left. Next, a thicker batt will doff more completely than a thin one (fibres like to stick together). It's normal for wool to nestle down in the wires, but it'll peel right out of there when pulled the right way.

[renpixie]

Wonderful video. By the way, if you can't afford wool cards to start with get two identical pet slickers. They're much smaller so the rolags won't be as big, but they are less expensive. Plus they fit in a small tote bag for on-the-goers. I've used mine for wool, cotton and my flax (until I can get a flax hackle).

[lovelydepth]

Amazing video thank you so much. Its cleared a lot up about carding for me.

[restinpeas1]

i love how she wrote ''be picky'' haha love ya

[merrylrosenthal]

That was wonderful--I learned so much. Thank you!

[pethos1]

Thanks

[ladymac111]

Thanks for this video! I just bought a pair of dog brushes and I'm all set to have a go carding the alpaca blanket I just washed.

[MrOnePlusOneIs3]

where would you buy a carder?

[jwallbanger]

I SAW UP YOUR SKIRT. NICE WOOL.

[zepekenio96]

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