=The next process after blending is carding.= Do you remember how cotton is carded? Long ago, when Marjorie's grandmother was young, wool was carded by hand. Look at the picture on page 77 and see how Grandmother Allen holds the cards. She is preparing rolls of wool for the spinning wheel. The manufacturer must prepare the slivers, or rolls like ropes of wool, for the spinning frames as they are called to-day. The machine which helps to produce these ropes is called the carding machine. It also helps to clean the dirt from the wool. The picture (Fig. 122) will show you how the wool carder looks. There is a center cylinder and around it revolve small cylinders. They are all covered with wire teeth which help to pull the wool apart and to cleanse it. If you were to stand before the machine, you would see a gauzy, filmy sheet of wool the width of the long rollers as it leaves the machine. The wide gauzy mass is pulled together as it is drawn through a hole at the front of the carder and is delivered or wound up in the can, just as we learned the cotton was delivered. This wool roving is then wound on spools and is ready for spinning. Do you remember the story of how cotton is drawn out and twisted and wound on spools? Wool too must be spun and made into yarn, before yarn can be woven into cloth. The manufacturer makes woolen yarn and also worsted yarn. Do you know the difference? We shall study in our next lesson about them. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 1. Ask your grandmother to tell you about sheep raising on the farm, when she was a girl. 2. Tell why the manufacturer must blend old and new wool. What are the names of some old rags of wool used for this purpose? 3. Tell how carding was done in olden times. How is wool carding done to-day? Why is carding an important process in the manufacture of cloth made from wool? LESSON 6 SOME FACTS TO REMEMBER IN PURCHASING WOOL CLOTHING Why does the manufacturer use woolen yarn in weaving some materials and worsted yarn for others? If one knows this, it will be a guide in purchasing wool materials. The Pleasant Valley girls know. =The difference between woolen and worsted yarns.= Before you can answer the question for this lesson, you must learn the difference between woolen and worsted yarns. Worsted yarn is prepared from the sheep giving long wool. It is prepared by processes which comb it until all the short fibers are removed and only the long straight ones are used. This combing prepares the long wool fibers for spinning so that they lie parallel. This makes an expensive yarn because so much is combed away. This fine combed worsted yarn is used for high grade worsted materials, as some cheviots or fine tweeds, and for underwear. [Illustration: _Courtesy of M. J. Whittall._ FIG. 123.--Wool combing for high grade materials. There is much waste.]