Drum Carder Day 2
As a beginning caveat- if you see me doing anything wrong/the hard way please feel free to speak up. I'm new at the whole drum carding thing!
More pictures!
I bet I'll be taking tons the next while, hopefully at least a few are interesting. I really like documenting how I'm learning things so I can look back and go "Oh yeah! I remember when.." I still go back and read some of my early knitting and spinning stuff. :)
Okay first up, that batt from yesterday? Turned into yarn!
174 yards of a high twist thick and thin single to be exact. I really like how it turned out! It looks almost like it's barber pole plyed because of the different layers of colour.
I found the wool to be really springy, super lofty and at times a bit slubby. It's a really high crimp wool, so it's almost like... a fluffy springy cloud.
I know that if you want perfect fiber you should stick to commercially prepared top, but I'm still a bit of a perfectionist. All in all though I'm super happy with it, and I'm enjoying the added texture. I can be really anal at times, I need perfect yarn to feel like I've been successful- which completely goes against the point of handspun. I really love seeing other spinners' rustic yarns, so why do I expect mine to come out like a machine yarn? It really makes no sense. I need to get a handle on my perfectionist self, it's simply not realistic.
Today I decided to take all my bags of dyed wool (remember that 8lb raw fleece I washed ages ago?) and make batts of them so they're ready when I want to mix and match colours. (Otherwise I start from scratch with each colour, then put them together.) I'm REALLY slow!
Welcome to my office! (aka kitchen lol)
What is it they say on MTV Cribs? This is where the magic happens? Ha. (As the day went on I got smart and put my laptop on the counter so I could watch Hulu while I worked.)
Well, here is my little set-up for the drum carder. At the back are all the bags of different coloured fiber. I weighed out 2oz (which is a good number, and I'm not over loading the carder with that amount) and then I put it in a pile. See how it's all compacted from the washing and dyeing? (I just threw piles in to dye pots to exhaust the colour when I was doing braids before.) I have to fluff that up and put it on the drum carder tray. Then I card slowly, packing down with that $2 hairbrush there. (That $2 hairbrush saved me $60 and works like a dream! To clean the drum carder I got a $4 soft bristle dog slicker brush, which is working awesome as well. No expensive burnishing tool for me! I figure I saved about $100.)
Anyways, it takes a bit because I'm super careful to get the wool picked and teased properly so it's going in nice and fluffy, then to crank super slow so I don't tear the wool and make any more noils and nubs than there already is in the fiber (and I pick those out when I can as well.)
I only got 3 colours done today, but I had fun! In time I'll have all the colours done, and can move on to other fibers to get them ready for batts as well. Eventually I hope to have everything ready so I can just pick and pull as I need to make cool batts. Plus this is all super good experience with the drum carder.
Today's finished batts!
