My favorite new activity is carding wool, which is the process of turning raw wool into nicely combed bundles that are ready to be spun.

After the animals (in this case alpacas) are sheared, their wool is full of sticks, seeds, dirt, and other miscellaneous bits from the farm so the first step is picking all of that stuff out and then combing it with a brush to get out any stickiness/curls and allow all the pieces to face the same direction.

Then the machine works it’s magic, the wool is fed in very slowly in small amounts. I love the ticking, spinning sound it makes, I enjoy the rhythmic hand movements, and all in all I find it very therapeutic! When the machine becomes full of the soft white mats, then I remove it by slicing through with a metal stick and then wrapping it into a smoothly groomed cylinder with a wooden roller.