Dyeing can leave the fibres in a rather felted and matted state, so to open them and prepare them for carding, they are teased out over a series of spiked rollers. At this stage the fibres are sprayed with a light coating of oil which protects them in the subsequent processes and makes them easier to manage.

Blends can be made of different colours of the same fibre or different types of fibre, e.g. cashmere and lambswool, cashmere and silk. The original Lovat mixture was created from a blend of light blue, bright yellow, dark yellow, brown and white. Such a blend is known as a 'mixture' and mixtures of this type are a traditional characteristic of Scottish textiles.

After teasing, the wool is fed into a hopper and from there it goes into a carding machine which mixes and straightens all the fibres in preparation for spinning. Carding converts a continuous web of fibres into individual ribbons of specified weight per unit length.

These ribbons are known as rovings. It is an age-old process and has changed so little that one of the carding machines bought by James Johnston for his mills at Elgin in 1868 was still working satisfactorily up to 1993 when it was finally replaced. Rovings then have to be spun to convert them into yarn.

Next: Spinning