LABELS: WOOL’S DRYING AND CARDING

Do you remember it? We began 2022 talking about wool, whose softness was the perfect embrace to hug you in January. After exploring the processes of shearing and washing (you can read the related article here), it’s now time for two other crucial moments, drying and carding.

To tell you the truth, the first topic is quite succinct: raw fleece is dried outside, naturally, or artificially, with warm air.
The second topic, on the other hand, is wider. Carding is the phase that, by separating and making the fibers parallel, eliminates all the remaining impurities. Such operation is named after cardoons, whose flowers – at a pre-industrial time – were dried to obtain spines. Starting from this these premises the so-called ‘cardacci’ were created: by rubbing one against another, such spiked-handles wooden sticks were able to unravel wool skeins.

Nowadays carding is an entirely mechanical process, divided into several moments. The fiber mass, now thinned, is turned into the so-called cardoon ribbon. After passing under some rolls, making it even more solid and homogeneous, it is combed: the fibers are separated into parallel lines, in order to produce the final wick.
At this point, the only step separating us from the final product is yarning: don’t miss the next Label to discover the end of this fascinating, centuries-old journey!