# Spinning-carded or combed? What's your fav?



## Cdambro (Dec 30, 2013)

Sometimes, the more I learn the more confusing it can be. Carded wool goes every which way but is fluffy and combed fibers all go in one direction. Do you prefer to spin one over the other and is there a noticable difference in the spun yarn? I am spinning some carded wool and it looks very fuzzy. Is that because it is carded? It also occurred to me that if I spin in the fold, I am folding over the wool and it's not spinning from one direction. Thanks for your input.


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## fiberwarrior (Sep 25, 2016)

From my understanding and I'm a new spinner too so I could be wrong, carding makes a woolen yarn that is fluffy and more rustic looking, while combing produces worsted yarn which has a shinier appearance so I think it really just depends on what you want to use the finished yarn for and how you want it to look. It seems like spinning from the fold the fibers would still be going all one way and you would be spinning perpendicularly from it so it would still be all going in the same direction.


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## shepherd (Feb 25, 2012)

You can card with 2 hand carders, which gives you a handful of fluff that can be drafted into the wheel pretty much in one direction - or you can use a drum carder ( and a lot depends on how you layer it on the drum) which gives you a batt to tear into strips and goes into the wheel just like roving. We even do raw wool with a flicker in small bits which are then spun one after the other. I have not spun a fold - that seems like it would create lumps - why do you fold it? Was that hand-carded or drum-carded? I have always spun hand-carded holding the fluffy ball cupped in my hand and drafted in. The wool would not always be in the same direction as it would in drum-carding or roving, or even flicked - I usually send the tips in first, then.


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

shepherd said:


> You can card with 2 hand carders, which gives you a handful of fluff that can be drafted into the wheel pretty much in one direction - or you can use a drum carder ( and a lot depends on how you layer it on the drum) which gives you a batt to tear into strips and goes into the wheel just like roving. We even do raw wool with a flicker in small bits which are then spun one after the other. I have not spun a fold - that seems like it would create lumps - why do you fold it? Was that hand-carded or drum-carded? I have always spun hand-carded holding the fluffy ball cupped in my hand and drafted in. The wool would not always be in the same direction as it would in drum-carding or roving, or even flicked - I usually send the tips in first, then.


Are you on your way to Rhinebeck and where will you be can't wait to meet up with you.


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

It seems when you card you are pulling in the same direction all the time it is more a fluff true but you can ditz it and make a roving out of it to. So my thinking would be to work with both kinds and see what you like the best combed or carded. I have seen a pretty big fluff from combing to then they used the ditz. So I guess I did not answer your question I think it is up to you I think you should have fun trying both ways.


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## JuneB (Oct 10, 2014)

This is taken from the Spinners Companion. A great resource :
Woolen vs Worsted

Worsted yarn is spun from combed fiber with a short draw
Woolen yarn is spun from carded fiber with a short or long draw
Semi worsted or semiwoolen yarns are spun from carded/ semioriented fiber using a worsted draw or from combed/ oriented fiber with nonworsted draw


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## IndigoSpinner (Jul 9, 2011)

shepherd said:


> You can card with 2 hand carders, which gives you a handful of fluff that can be drafted into the wheel pretty much in one direction - or you can use a drum carder ( and a lot depends on how you layer it on the drum) which gives you a batt to tear into strips and goes into the wheel just like roving. We even do raw wool with a flicker in small bits which are then spun one after the other. I have not spun a fold - that seems like it would create lumps - why do you fold it? Was that hand-carded or drum-carded? I have always spun hand-carded holding the fluffy ball cupped in my hand and drafted in. The wool would not always be in the same direction as it would in drum-carding or roving, or even flicked - I usually send the tips in first, then.


Why spin from the fold?

Have you ever tried to spin fiber that's got a 6-inch staple? If not, try it. You'll answer your own question.

Spinning from the fold does not create lumps in my experience.


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## ilmacheryl (Feb 3, 2013)

You can also make mini rolags from carded wool. Take a very smooth dowel (3/4 to 1 inch diameter & 6 to 8 inches long, it needs to be longer than the batt is wide), put it on the batt, roll up several inches of the fiber (you only want to use about a third to a quarter of the batt, or less) hold the dowel firmly with one hand & pull it off of the batt. You will have a small "tube" of fiber. You can then spin from either end of the roll of fiber that you just created. I haven't looked, but there is probably a YouTube video demonstrating how to do it. They might also be called faux rolags.


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## Pam in LR (Feb 16, 2012)

It depends on which wheel I'm using. If the scotch tension wheel, worsted. If the bobbin lead wheel, woolen.


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## IndigoSpinner (Jul 9, 2011)

Pam in LR said:


> It depends on which wheel I'm using. If the scotch tension wheel, worsted. If the bobbin lead wheel, woolen.


That's surprising. To spin anything, it's usually easier with Scotch tension. I can't imagine even being able to spin woolen on bobbin led.


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## Pam in LR (Feb 16, 2012)

It may have helped that the Louet was my only wheel when I was lucky enough to take a workshop on fine spinning with Mabel Ross.


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## amoamarone (Feb 21, 2015)

Aargh! The terminology sometimes makes my head spin so instead I just go spin some yarn however it wants to be. I am still learning and pretty much do whatever works! I am getting better!


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## Pam in LR (Feb 16, 2012)

That's the spirit!


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## mousepotato (May 30, 2011)

mama879 said:


> Are you on your way to Rhinebeck and where will you be can't wait to meet up with you.


Mama,

She'll probably be in the sheep barn, across from the building where the knitting entries are, if she's where she was last year, with her miniature Cheviots. That's where I found her last year.


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## Spindoctor (Sep 6, 2016)

You just described a puni.


ilmacheryl said:


> You can also make mini rolags from carded wool. Take a very smooth dowel (3/4 to 1 inch diameter & 6 to 8 inches long, it needs to be longer than the batt is wide), put it on the batt, roll up several inches of the fiber (you only want to use about a third to a quarter of the batt, or less) hold the dowel firmly with one hand & pull it off of the batt. You will have a small "tube" of fiber. You can then spin from either end of the roll of fiber that you just created. I haven't looked, but there is probably a YouTube video demonstrating how to do it. They might also be called faux rolags.


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## Spindoctor (Sep 6, 2016)

I much prefer double drive tp Scotch tension. I spin both woolen and worsted on it without difficulty.


IndigoSpinner said:


> That's surprising. To spin anything, it's usually easier with Scotch tension. I can't imagine even being able to spin woolen on bobbin led.


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## Spindoctor (Sep 6, 2016)

There is a relatively new book called Yarn-i-tec-ture by Jillian Moreno that discusses spinning for knitting. There are also multiple discussions of worsted vs woolen in Spin Off magazine (Interweave Press)--one of the few magazines I read cover to cover.


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## Cdambro (Dec 30, 2013)

Thank you all for your help. I started spinning from the fold when I was learning because that was the only way I could actually spin. Now, I am not spinning that way much at all. I do best spinning a short draw. Right now, I am spinning my first fractal.


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## IndigoSpinner (Jul 9, 2011)

Spindoctor said:


> I much prefer double drive tp Scotch tension. I spin both woolen and worsted on it without difficulty.


Yes. I prefer double drive, too.


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## Longtimer (May 23, 2013)

Cdambro said:


> Sometimes, the more I learn the more confusing it can be. Carded wool goes every which way but is fluffy and combed fibers all go in one direction. Do you prefer to spin one over the other and is there a noticable difference in the spun yarn? I am spinning some carded wool and it looks very fuzzy. Is that because it is carded? It also occurred to me that if I spin in the fold, I am folding over the wool and it's not spinning from one direction. Thanks for your input.


Not sure why carded wool would be a handful of fibers going every which way. Are you making a rolag when removing it from the carders? It is all going in one direction when on the card. Form a rolag as you remove it. The wool will then come off the rolag in a spiral. This incorporates air into the yarn which is why woolen yarn is supposedly warmer than worsted yarn. Google rolag.


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## JuneB (Oct 10, 2014)

I have to chuckle on the descriptions of wheel it sounds like we have cars standard and automatic .... too funny


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## Longtimer (May 23, 2013)

Spindoctor said:


> There is a relatively new book called Yarn-i-tec-ture by Jillian Moreno that discusses spinning for knitting. There are also multiple discussions of worsted vs woolen in Spin Off magazine (Interweave Press)--one of the few magazines I read cover to cover.


Good magazine. I've got a complete collection of the first 25 years. After that I have most copies. Lots of great info. Go to one of their conferences if you ever get the chance.


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## mousepotato (May 30, 2011)

Is anyone other than me subscribing to Ply? IMO, with 18 years of Spin-Off in my collection, Ply is a better magazine. And, yes, I subscribe to SO as well.


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## Cdambro (Dec 30, 2013)

mousepotato said:


> Is anyone other than me subscribing to Ply? IMO, with 18 years of Spin-Off in my collection, Ply is a better magazine. And, yes, I subscribe to SO as well.


I will look into Ply. Thanks.


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