Hi, I got gifted a load of VERY mucky medium grade alpaca fleece and after a thorough wash I combed it all 3 times before it was reasonably clean of insect casings etc… now I’ve run it a few times through the drum carder and it looks good! I want to blend it with Merino tops and baby alpaca fiber which I got. In the end there needs to be a lofty woolen yarn for a sweater…
I know that combing usually is the prep for worsted yarn… Can carding the combed fibre remedy this or will it still be much denser??
Woolen yarn from combed fibre??
Hi @Kiwi3,
For a true woolen spun yarn, the answer is 'yes, you’ll need to card the fibers together.
However, you can spin a semi-woolen yarn from combed fiber if you ‘spin from the fold’.
Maggie Casey explains how this is done.
Brilliant, thanks, so if I put the combed fibre through the carder a few times, maybe feeding it in from different angles, then I’m back to where I want to be - jumbled up enough for a woolen yarn?
Alternate feeding in layers of alpaca to thinly cover the drum, then feed in the merino & baby alpaca, creating thin layers. Repeat. Remove the fiber from the drum, split it into 4 sections, and slowly feed the splits into the carder. Repeat until the fiber is combined. This could take 2 - 4 times through the carder.
Here’s a great video for carding alpaca
Thanks, that’s very helpful! I’ll do that and see how it turns out!
Is it actually much more difficult to do longdraw with a mix of short and long fibers? The Merino is much shorter than the alpaca…