Combed preparation
Fibers are highly aligned and organized. This gives the spinner a smooth, consistent starting point and is traditionally associated with denser, smoother worsted-style yarn.
AJem Fiber School · Fiber Basics
What Is
Combed Top?
A clear, spinner-friendly guide to the smooth, aligned fiber preparation behind many AJem colorways — and why that preparation matters at your wheel or spindle.
Start With The Fiber
It starts with alignment.
Combed top is a fiber preparation in which the fibers have been combed so they lie mostly parallel in the same direction. During preparation, many shorter fibers, neps, and remaining bits of debris are removed, leaving a smooth and organized length of fiber ready to draft and spin.
Picture freshly combed hair: the strands are traveling together instead of crossing in every direction. That is the basic idea behind combed top.
The result is a preparation that tends to draft smoothly and gives the spinner a great deal of control. Combed top is traditionally associated with worsted-style spinning, but it can be explored with many drafting styles.
Structure
Aligned fibers
Longer fibers are organized in the same general direction.
At the wheel
Smooth drafting
An orderly preparation makes the fiber easy to read and control.
With color
Intentional choices
The continuous preparation makes it easy to see, split, and plan a hand-dyed color sequence.
See The Difference
Aligned or carded: the preparation changes what reaches your hands.
The preparation does not dictate the only yarn you can make, but it changes how the fibers are presented to your hands.
Carded preparation
Fibers cross and overlap more randomly. Carded preparations are traditionally associated with airy, lofty woollen-style yarns.
Fiber Prep 101
Combed top, roving, batts & rolags.
They can all become yarn, but they present the fibers to the spinner in different ways.
Combed Top
Combed fibers arranged into a smooth, continuous preparation with a high degree of alignment.
Aligned · smooth · controlledRoving
A carded preparation drawn into a continuous rope. Fibers are less uniformly aligned than in top.
Carded · airy · flexibleBatt
A broad sheet of carded fiber, often made on a drum carder and useful for blending fibers and colors.
Broad · fluffy · blendableRolag
A small rolled bundle of carded fiber, traditionally made with hand cards and suited to woollen-style drafting.
Rolled · lofty · hand-sizedFrom Fleece to Top
Where does combed top come from?
A simplified look at the preparation process.
01
Clean
Raw wool is scoured to remove lanolin, dirt, and other material.
02
Open & Prepare
The clean fiber is opened and organized so it can move through the next preparation stages.
03
Comb
Combing aligns the longer fibers and removes many short fibers, neps, and remaining debris.
04
Draw into Top
The aligned fiber is drawn into the continuous, smooth preparation handspinners recognize as top.
Then AJem Adds Color
What changes when combed top is hand dyed?
Dyeing gives an already organized fiber preparation a new layer of possibility: color placement. Depending on the colorway, a braid may contain long color runs, sharp contrasts, tonal movement, or repeating sections.
Wet processing can also compact a prepared top slightly. That does not mean the preparation is ruined. Before spinning, gently open the braid and test how freely the fibers draft. If needed, lightly loosen compressed areas while keeping the color sequence intact.
Look first
Study the color order before splitting the braid.
Open gently
Loosen compressed areas without aggressively pulling the preparation apart.
Plan the color
How you divide the top changes how often colors repeat in your yarn.
Ready for the Next Lesson?
Now that you know combed top, learn how to spin the color.
Keeping a braid whole, splitting it into strips, spinning fractally, and choosing a plying method can all change the way a hand-dyed colorway appears in the finished yarn.
How to Spin Hand-Dyed Fiber →Quick Answers
Combed top FAQ
No. Top is a combed preparation; roving is a carded preparation. The terms are sometimes used casually as if they mean the same thing, but the fiber structure is different.
No. Combed top is traditionally associated with worsted spinning, but handspinners can use other drafting approaches. The preparation gives you a starting structure, not a single required technique.
Only if it helps your spinning. Gently opening or lightly predrafting compacted areas can make drafting easier, but you do not need to aggressively thin the entire braid before you begin.
Wet processing and handling during dyeing can compress an otherwise smooth preparation. Gently opening the braid and testing the draft usually helps.
AJem Fiber Arts
See combed top in full color.
Explore AJem colorways, then use Fiber School to decide how you want those colors to move through your handspun yarn.