Using hand carders can be a quick and easy way to prepare fiber for spinning.
Unfortunately, many people make this step harder than it has to be, by scraping the teeth of the cards against each other. They actually should rarely touch. Let's see how it's done!
First, we load the carder by gently putting strips of our fiber onto the teeth.
Next, we gently begin to card the fiber, starting at the lower end of the hand card, picking up the tips of the fiber. Card slowly and gently, and work your way up to the top of the carder as the fiber from the lower edge begins to transfer to the second carder.
In this clip, you will see the processed continued. Switch the cards to opposite hands, and re-card the fiber to process it further. Watch, as Stasia turns sideways, how the card teeth never come in contact with each other; all of the carding takes place in the air between the cards, effortlessly!
Finally, we push the fiber up into a litlle "Ho-Ho" which is actually called a rolag. When you're ready to spin, you will gently tug elongate the rolag a bit (see the pre-drafting video), and then begin drafting from one short end. Spinning from a rolag will create a woolen-type yarn (thick, fuzzy, airy, soft).
Note: if you wish to keep your fibers more in alignment, so that you can spin a semi-worsted preparation from carded fiber, simply roll your rolag up sideways, starting at a short, side end of the hand card. You will have good luck if you do this by hand (not using the other carder), taking a thin dowel and rolling the fiber around it as you lift it from the carder. Then, again, spin from the short end of that rolag - all of the fibers will remain mostly parallel, as they were on the card, and you will get a worsted-type yarn (finer, denser, shinier, harder).
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