How to Card Wool for Batting
- 1). Put the carder on a sturdy table so it is at roughly hip hight. Position it with the handle facing you. Make sure that you can turn it without bashing your knuckles.
- 2). Take a lock of the wool and gently separate the strands of fiber lengthwise and crosswise. You do not have to pull the lock apart, just open it a little. This is called "picking."
- 3). Remove any vegetable matter or other non-wool objects from the lock.
- 4). Put the lock on the feeder tray near the small drum, or the "licker-in."
- 5). Pick more locks and lay them across the feeder tray. Do not layer the locks on top of each other, just side by side, perpendicular to the licker-in.
- 6). Turn the handle on the carder so the licker-in draws in the fiber to the bottom, rather than over the top, of the licker-in. The direction of the handle depends on your carder. This is the direction you should always turn the handle. As you turn, the fiber will roll around the licker-in and transfer to the larger drum.
- 7). Repeat these steps until the larger drum is full. You can tell when this happens because fiber does not transfer from the licker-in to the larger drum.
- 8). Position the large drum so the seam in the carding cloth is on the top.
- 9). Insert the doffer pin or knitting needle, point first, in the seam underneath the fiber. Only insert the pin a few inches, and then pull the pin up from the seam. This stretches the fiber and eventually breaks it apart. This is called "doffing" or "breaking the batt." Continue breaking the batt along the seam until all the fiber is loose.
- 10
Roll the ends of the batt over the paper towel tube and pull the batt away from the drum, rolling as you pull the fiber.
