Editing Carding (section)

==Tools==
Predating mechanised weaving, [[Weaving#History|hand loom weaving]] was a cottage industry that used the same processes but on a smaller scale. These skills have survived as an artisan craft or as an [[Weaving#Craft weavers|art form and hobby]].<ref name="grove">{{Cite book| title = The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Volume 1 | isbn = 978-0-19-518948-3 | first = Gordon | last = Campbell | publisher = Oxford University Press| year = 2006 }}</ref>

===Hand carders===
[[File:Rolag.jpg|thumb|Creating a [[rolag]] using hand cards]]
[[File:Rhof-kardierenSpinnenStricken.ogv|thumb|Irreler Bauerntradition shows carding, spinning and knitting in the [[Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum]]]]
Hand cards are typically square or rectangular paddles manufactured in a variety of sizes from {{convert|2|x|2|in|cm}} to {{convert|4|x|8|in|cm}}. The working face of each paddle can be flat or cylindrically curved and wears the card cloth. Small cards, called flick cards, are used to flick the ends of a lock of fibre, or to tease out some strands for spinning off.<ref>{{cite web|last=Matherne|first=Patrick|title=What is Carding|url=http://www.fromsheeptoshawl.com/2012/fiber/what-is-carding/|access-date=8 May 2012}}</ref>

A pair of cards is used to brush the wool between them until the fibres are more or less aligned in the same direction. The aligned fibre is then peeled from the card as a [[rolag]]. Carding is an activity normally done outside or over a drop cloth, depending on the wool's cleanliness. Rolag is peeled from the card.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} <!-- If the wool contains a lot of vegetable matter, much of it will fall out during the carding process, which is the reason for a drop cloth. If the carding is being done to mix two pre-carded fibers, a drop cloth is not generally necessary.

To card, the person carding sits with a card in each hand. The card in the non-dominant hand (left for most people) rests on a leg. A small amount of fiber is placed on this card and the other card is pulled through the fibre. The moving card separates, straightens, and aligns the fibres. Vegetable matter falls out as the fibres are aligned. Catching too many fibres makes it hard to pull the cards apart. This step, repeated many times, transfers small amounts of the wool to the moving card. Once all the wool has been transferred, the cards are swapped hand-for-hand and the process repeated until all of the fibre is sufficiently aligned and satisfactorily free of debris at which time a rolag is peeled from the card.-->
[[File:Quilt making 04.JPG|thumb|right|A carding machine in [[Haikou]], [[Hainan Province]], [[China]]]]
This product (rovings, rolags, and batts) can be used for [[spinning (textiles)|spinning]].

Carding of wool can either be done "in the grease" or not, depending on the type of machine and on the spinner's preference. "In the grease" means that the [[lanolin]] that naturally comes with the wool has not been washed out, leaving the wool with a slightly greasy feel. The large drum carders do not tend to get along well with lanolin, so most commercial worsted and woollen mills wash the wool before carding. Hand carders (and small drum carders too, though the directions may not recommend it) can be used to card lanolin-rich wool.

===Drum carders===
[[File:Carding llama hair.jpg|thumb|Carding [[llama]] hair with a hand-cranked drum carder]]

The simplest machine carder is the drum carder. Most drum carders are hand-cranked but some are powered by an electric motor. These machines generally have two rollers, or drums, covered with card clothing. The licker-in, or smaller roller meters fibre from the infeed tray onto the larger storage drum. The two rollers are connected to each other by a belt- or chain-drive so that their relative speeds cause the storage drum to gently pull fibres from the licker-in.  This pulling straightens the fibres and lays them between the wire pins of the storage drum's card cloth. Fibre is added until the storage drum's card cloth is full. A gap in the card cloth facilitates removal of the batt when the card cloth is full.

Some drum carders have a soft-bristled brush attachment that presses the fibre into the storage drum. This attachment serves to condense the fibres already in the card cloth and adds a small amount of additional straightening to the condensed fibre.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

===Cottage carders===
{{Gallery
| title  = Workings of a cottage carder
| width  = 276
| height = 150
| align  = center
|File:Pat Green Jumbo Exotic Carder.jpg|alt1=Cottage carder|Using a cottage carder to card white [[alpaca]]
|File:Pat Green Jumbo Exotic Carder Schematic.jpg|alt2=Cottage carder schematic drawing|Diagram showing name, location, and rotation of rollers used on a cottage carder
}}
Cottage carding machines differ significantly from the simple drum card. These carders do not store fibre in the card cloth as the drum carder does; rather, fibre passes through the workings of the carder for storage or for additional processing by other machines.

A typical cottage carder has a single large drum (the swift) accompanied by a pair of in-feed rollers (nippers), one or more pairs of worker and stripper rollers, a fancy, and a [[Doffing cylinder|doffer]]. In-feed to the carder is usually accomplished by hand or by conveyor belt and often the output of the cottage carder is stored as a batt or further processed into [[roving]] and wound into bumps with an accessory bump winder. The cottage carder in the [[:Image:Pat Green Jumbo Exotic Carder.jpg|image below]] supports both outputs.

Raw fibre, placed on the in-feed table or conveyor is moved to the nippers which restrain and meter the fiber onto the swift. As they are transferred to the swift, many of the fibres are straightened and laid into the swift's card cloth. These fibres will be carried past the worker or stripper rollers to the fancy.

As the swift carries the fibres forward, from the nippers, those fibres that are not yet straightened are picked up by a worker and carried over the top to its paired stripper. Relative to the surface speed of the swift, the worker turns quite slowly. This has the effect of reversing the fibre. The stripper, which turns at a higher speed than the worker, pulls fibres from the worker and passes them to the swift. The stripper's relative surface speed is slower than the swift's so the swift pulls the fibres from the stripper for additional straightening.

Straightened fibres are carried by the swift to the fancy. The fancy's card cloth is designed to engage with the swift's card cloth so that the fibres are lifted to the tips of the swift's card cloth and carried by the swift to the doffer. The fancy and the swift are the only rollers in the carding process that actually touch.

The slowly turning doffer removes the fibres from the swift and carries them to the fly comb where they are stripped from the doffer. A fine web of more or less parallel fibre, a few fibres thick and as wide as the carder's rollers, exits the carder at the fly comb by gravity or other mechanical means for storage or further processing.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}