Cape Breton's Magazine

How to Card and Spin Sophie Deveau of Cheticamp has been carding and spinning for a long time. She was taught by her mother, and she uses her tools with the grace that comes from experi? ence and a love of her craft. We asked her to show us the methods she learned and which she, fearing the craft would die, has taught her granddaughter. You begin the carding process by teasing a quantity of wool. (1) Spread and fluff the fibers, loosening them without actually pulling them apart. (2) The carders are (1) (2) (3) flat wooden paddles with leather carding cloth containing rows of wire hooks affixed to one side of each paddle. The carders are identical but once you have used them one should be maintained as the Left-hand Carder, the other as the Right-hand Carder, It is a good idea to mark them R and L. Distribute a portion of wool across the Right-hand Carder. (3) Hold the Left-hand Carder wire-side up and resting on your knee, and place the Right-hand Carder wire- side down at the top edge of the Left-hand Carder • and holding the Left-hand Carder still draw the Right-hand Carder toward yourself. (4) This is not a heavy dragging motion. It is a gentle brushing across the Left-hand Carder. Do this several times, straightening the fibers. Now, hold the Left-hand Carder as shown in picture (5) and brush the Left-hand Carder away from yourself, transferring all the wool to the Right-hand Carder. (6) Hold the Left-hand Carder on your knee again and brush the Right-hand Carder toward yourself. This will get all the tangles out and you will have nice, smooth wool from which to form the rolag. (7) To roll up the rolag, hold the carders as in picture (8) and draw the Right-hand Carder toward yourself in short, brushing motions. At this point, (9) some people would roll the rolag back and forth between the smooth sides of the carders. Some people simply roll it between the palms of their hands. Picture (10) shows a finished rolag. The wool remaining on the Right-hand Carder makes another rolag. Spinning is the process of simultaneously drawing out and twisting the rolag of wool Cape Breton's Ma''azine/S