What are “tpi” and how many do I need?
Scouring Raw Fiber
Raw Wool Scouring Instructions
1. Test your water to see if it is hard. Yes, this is important. You can happily wash your wool without this step but then there is no guarantee it will be clean which is our goal. It is actually quite fun to get out your test kit. Put on your favorite mad scientist cap and try it. Science is good.
2. So now you’ve tested! Congratulations. You are aware of your water conditions. If your water is hard, you will have to use a softening agent like Calgon. Calgon not only “takes you away” but also softens your water. Don’t have a clue what I’m referring to? Click here. (Thank you YouTube.)
3. How much softening agent should I add? You can find out by testing water samples that have softening agents added to them. This is the most accurate way. It will involve some math on your part. If that is too scary for you, you could always throw in what you like and see what happens. Try small samples of wool when using the second technique.
4. How much soap? This will vary on the soap you use, the amount of water, and the amount of fleece you will be washing at one time. We use about a small handfull of Orvus paste to a 5 gallon industrial round bucket of water.
5. You will have to prepare the wool for washing before you make your scouring liquor. To get your fiber ready for the wash, break it into manageable portions and if desired, you can place the locks in mesh bags to retain the lock structure.
6. Phew, you made it through the calculation stage and are ready to start. The ideal temperature of your water should be about 120 degrees F. (Yes, please actually take the temp or set your water heater at 120F.) This is the ideal temperature that will clean your fiber and leave it damage free.
7. Put on some Blue gloves (the heat resistant kind) and let’s get washing! You’ve drawn your water at the correct temperature range, added the soap and if needed, the water softening agent. Place your prepared wool in the liquid and gently push it into the water. We are overly gently with our fibers and sometimes require a second wash because of it. Some people successfully slush their fibers around to make sure that the fibers have all been exposed to the scouring liquor. We are a little more hesitant. Be brave and do what you will but be careful not to over agitate. Let’s not felt our wonderful fiber friends at this point. Their future may be felted material but until then we will treat our fibers gently.
8. How long should your fibers sit in the scouring liquor? Five minutes should be sufficient. Remember, this is a chemical process and happens pretty quickly. If you let your fibers soak for a long time and the water starts to cool, the liquor will start to set on the fibers again. Not good.
9. Put your newly drenched wool in an old colander or set it away from the water somehow so that it can drain while you dump the dirty water out. Yuck. Did you see all that dirt? Glad it isn’t on the fleece any more. You can do what we do at this point and wuzz the water out in the clothes washing machine on the spin cycle. (Note this is the spin cycle without the rinse.) This removes the majority of the dripping water and makes the rest of the washing less messy. You could also try and gently squeeze some of that water out. Remember, gently.
10. While your washing machine is wuzzing your fleece for you, start the next scouring liquor bath for your fiber or if your fiber is clean, go to step 11 and start rinsing your fleece. If it is pretty dirty or your fleece contains a lot of lanolin or was tightly packed, you may need a second wash. If you aren’t sure, try rinsing it. If the rinse water is very dirty, you may want to rewash.
11. To rinse your fleece, simply fill your bucket, tub, etc with about the same amount of water but at the slightly lower temperature of 115 F. This is all a quick process so your fleece should not have cooled off too much yet. Place your fiber in the water and push it down in similar manner. Repeat the gentle motions you used to move your fibers in the scouring bath. Is the water very dirty? Repeat the wash. Almost clear, congrats! You are good to go. Bring those fibers to your washing machine and wuzz out the water again.
Your wool is clean. Just lay it out to dry on a clean sheet, or if you have one, a mesh platform, in a dry room but not in direct sunlight. Admire your work. You’ve washed your first fleece!
Teasing Fiber
Before using hand carders or running your fibers through a drum carder, it is necessary to tease your locks of fiber. Take a handful of fiber and start gently pulling it apart to separate the fibers as much as possible with your fingers. It is fun and easy to do and it is a good way to get to know your fiber a little better. Have fun!
Flick Carding
Flick carding is a great way to open up your fibers for spinning, blending etc. When flicked, your locks will be uniform yet airy and beautiful.
Grasp one end of a lock and gently flick the other end with the flicker using a quick downward stroke with an upward motion. Some people prefer to brush the tip instead of using an actual flick. Why not try both styles to see what you prefer? When the fiber on the first side is open, turn it around and repeat the process with the other end. Your locks can be further processed, spun tip to tip, or spun from the fold. This is an inexpensive, fast, and rewarding way to prepare fibers. Hope you like it!
Flat or Curved Cards
This is entirely a matter of preference. You may even find yourself preferring different hand cards for different projects depending on your fibers. Our advice is to try as many different styles of hand cards before you buy so you can have a feel of what works for you and your needs.
What are “tpi” and how many do I need?
Tpi stands for teeth per square inch. It is used in reference to the carding cloth used on your drum carder, hand carders, or flicker. So how many do you need? You have probably guessed that it depends on what fiber you want to card. Don’t you wish it was a one size fits all sort of thing? It isn’t but you can get away with cheating now and then. No spinning police will “bust” you because you used fine cards on a long wool fleece. Standard wire teeth cloth has approximately 72 tpi and is suitable for medium wools. Maggie Casey, author of “Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn,” recommends the standard 72 tpi as the carders most people will get the most use out of and as such the pair a beginner might want to invest in. Fine carding cloths have about 112 tpi and can be used for fine wools as well as a lot of luxury fibers like alpaca, yak, etc. Cotton cards have 208 tpi and work well with many fibers like cotton, cashmere and angora. Think of what you mostly spin and what types of yarns you like to produce if you don’t have a specific project in mind. If you mostly spin Romney and Coopworth, you would be fine getting standard carders. If you like to spin very fine yarns out of fine wools, you could use fine carders. If you do a lot of blending with short, very fine luxury fibers, you may want to try the cotton cards. You will get a lot of use out of your carders but keep in mind that not one set will work perfectly for every fiber.
Hand Carding Basics
You got a new pair of hand cards. Congratulations! We wish you many years of happy carding. Not sure how to start off your adventure? Follow the basic carding advice below. Enjoy!
1. First, get out those gorgeous new hand cards and your fiber. Place one of the cards in your lap, hold onto the handle with your non-dominant hand and start charging your card with fiber. How do you do that? Just take your well teased fiber, and place it on the hand card in your lap with a lashing on motion. Try to use only the bottom portion of the hand cards and not the whole surface. Remember to be gentle and don’t start with a lot of fiber.
2. Take the dominant hand held card and softly and gently comb the fibers from the charged card. The wire teeth should not touch. No need to mesh the hand cards together. You are just brushing the fibers from one hand card to another. Be careful to do a full stroke so that the fibers don’t tangle upon themselves. Continue these gentle motions until most of the fiber has transferred to the other card.
3. To dislodge the last bits of fiber, hold both hand cards with their teeth side facing each other. Hold the one with the remaining fiber lower than the fiber filled card. With the handle sided bottom of the fiber filled card, gently swipe down on the top edge of the other card. Another way is just to use your fingers. Do what works for you. Place the hand card with all the fiber in your non-dominant hand. Repeat the process. You should be working with only the bottom portion of your hand cards and not the whole surface of the card. The fiber should be light and fluffy hanging off the edge of the hand cards.
4. When the fibers are prepared to your liking, ie blended or open and airy, it is time to make a rolag.
Making A Rolag
There are many ways to create a rolag. Some people lay the hand card holding the fiber in their lap and use the back of the other hand card to slowly roll the fibers into a tube. Others use the same technique but use their hands to do the rolling. Another way is to use a dowel to shape the rolag. Place the dowel on the fibers and slowly roll the dowel down the fiber making a tube.
The direction that you roll the rolag is dependent on what you would like to spin. For woolen, lofty yarns and long draw technique, roll your rolags from the wide edge which is the edge your fiber is hanging off of after carding. For semi worsted yarns, try rolling the rolag from the shorter side. A rolag made from the shorter side will have fibers that are more aligned than rolled from the wide side.
Again, the choice is yours. Spinning is a versatile craft where no way is “wrong.” Use what works for you and be willing to try new techniques. Congrats on your new fiber preparation skills! You are ready to start spinning.
Predrafting
A nice way to get your fibers to spin more smoothly is to predraft them. This is actually a very soothing process and will acquaint you with the length and hand of your chosen fibers.
Do you have to predraft? Certainly not. Some fibers are easier to spin when predrafted but you may do as you like. Predrafting is another option for you to try when dealing with long slivers, big batts, or rovings that would be easier to spin with a little more preparation.
Predrafting Roving
Grasp the end of your roving and slowly move your hand away from the main fiber source. You will feel the fibers slipping across each other. One way to judge how much to pull is to hold your fibers up to the light to see if there is a “bald spot” appearing in the strip. If there is, then you have pulled too much. You want to pull the fibers out into a thinner preparation that will be loftier and easier to spin. How thin? Not thinner than the yarn or single ply that you want to produce.
Predrafting Batts
When predrafting a batt, you may want to either break it into smaller strips from one side vertically down to the other, or start by ripping the batt from one edge to about 1 ½ inches from the end, turn it repeat to the opposite edge, creating a Z type shape. Next take these strips of your Z batt or vertical strips, and follow the directions above for predrafting roving.
Predrafting Sliver
When predrafting fiber, you will want to determine the length of the fiber you will be working with. Grasp the end of the sliver and gently pull out a small amount of fiber. Your hands will grasp the fiber a little further apart than the length of this fiber when predrafting. When you have a length of sliver you want to work with, start to split it down the middle and then again. Always keep in mind the size yarn you want to end up. You can continue splitting the slivers as needed and then start to attenuate them into the thickness that you require.
Drafting
There are a lot of excellent resources to learn more about spinning and drafting. We feel that any short explanation of drafting techniques here would not truly help a new spinner. We hope you will visit the recommended resource section at the end of this page for terrific DVDs and books on handspinning. Please contact your local guild, fiber store, or one of the teachers listed in our Teacher Registry for one-on-one help. You may also want to get a subscription to Spin-Off magazine which is a tremendous resource for handspinners.
Storing Your Fiber
We like to use clear, tight sealing plastic storage bins to store our fibers but have known other people to use old pillow cases and muslin bags. These options work well for most spinners. It is possible to store a raw fleece for years on end, rejuvenating it with a very good wash. It may appear quite “dead” but it will more than likely be lovely after a proper wash. To store your raw wool, some people recommend deep freezing it and others stuff it in a muslin bag or pillow case and store in a cool, dry place visiting it often to make sure it remains critter free. Try to think of your conditions in the area where you live when determining what storage method you will use.
Storing Your Rolags
Many people store their rolags in a pretty lined basket near their wheel/spindle. It can be inspiring to see all those lovely rolags laying side by side calling to be spun. But what if you live with children, animals, or in a dusty place? Try using a clear plastic storage container. It will still inspire you but will keep your fibers safe from helping hands and paws.