How a fiber is prepared will ultimately impact your spinning experience and your finished yarn. While some prep lends itself best to certain techniques, there isn't one single "right" way to prep and spin. Below is an overview of some common fiber prep you may see in our shop, and a brief explanation of how that may impact your spinning. 

Carded Prep Methods

Carded fiber is passed through a series of short metal teeth, which opens and separates the fibers. Through this process, not all fibers are aligned, and air gets trapped between fibers. This can result in a more lofty, airy yarn, particularly when paired with a woolen spinning technique, such as long draw. Fiber can be carded on a commercial carder, a drum carder, or using hand cards. Each tool will result in a different carded fiber to spin from.

Roving is fiber that has been carded and pulled into long, continuous strips. While it can vary in thickness, the resulting fiber will be airy and cloud-like. Pin drafted roving is a type of roving in which the fiber is run through a series of pins, further aligning the fibers and pre-drafting the fiber for spinning. This is a great option for spinners who like the loft of woolen prepped fibers and appreciate a consistent, even spinning experience. It's good to note that milled roving may be directional - that is, it may be easier to draft and spin from one end than the other, based on how it came off the carder. 

Batts are made by prepping fibers on a carder and removing them in a single sheet. Fibers are fed into the carder and move through a series of rollers with small teeth before being spread across the carding cloth, resulting in a cloud of misaligned fibers to spin from. From the batt, spinners may choose to rip off strips to spin from, to spin from the fold, or to roll the fibers into small rolags. 

When using hand cards or a blending board, fiber may be pulled off into fluffy tubes called rolags. Like batts, rolags do an excellent job of trapping air between fibers, making them great for woolen prep. Rolags are prepared by hand and may be rolled tighter or looser, depending on technique.

Combed Prep Methods

Combed fiber is passed through a series of longer metal tines, which not only act to remove shorter fibers, but also aligns the fibers to be parallel to one another. This lends itself well to worsted spinning, where less air is trapped and the resulting yarn is denser and more hard-wearing. Combed prep also has the added benefit of removing excessive vegetable matter from the fiber. 

Many commercial wools will offer combed top, which creates a single, dense length of fiber in which individual fibers run parallel to one another. Some combing methods will take this one step further, aligning the cut ends and roots of the fiber to face the same direction. Fiber may also be hand combed, which results in a similarly smooth, parallel prep, often even more refined than commercially processed top. 

Other Prep Methods

While most commercial fiber is either carded or combed, hand-processing fiber allows for additional methods of prep. 

Clean wool can be flicked, which opens up the ends of the locks for easier carding or combing. This also can help remove vegetable matter from the fleece or isolate weaker or shorter fibers. Wool that has been flicked may be further processed, or spun directly into a yarn. Fiber can also be picked and teased open into a cloud and spun directly from there. Neither of these two preps requires further carding or combing, although they can be used as a starting point for either.