Tag Archives: Drum Carding

Drum Carding From Locks

Posted on April 23, 2014 by | Comments Off on Drum Carding From Locks

A few weeks ago, I found a pretty good deal on etsy for some washed Corriedale locks. I love Corriedale. It’s probably my favorite wool to work with (that I’ve come across anyway, I am still trying out new wools whenever I can.) I have long been wanting to play with locks on my drum carder, and while I have plenty of fleece stashed around, I haven’t really had the time or energy to wash it properly. (Horrible, I know I shouldn’t let it sit.)

The locks I got were a bit yellowed and tippy.
corriedale locks
But, the crimp was darling and the strength in them was fantastic. If I had a flick comb, I would have flicked out the ends, but since I don’t, I just picked the locks apart pretty thoroughly. There was still a bit of vm in these locks, but no too much. Most of it came out all over my table in the picking and carding process.

I ran the picked and opened locks through my drum carder sideways. I didn’t weigh them out first, as I had 8 ounces and was planning to give the whole lot the same treatment. My first batt ended up being about 2.5 oz.
first round
It’s a start.

Then, I pulled the batt apart and ran it through the drum carder again, this time pulling the batt apart in strips and fluffing out the strips and getting some more air between the fibers.
round two
This batt looks much smoother and fluffier than the first, but the fibers were still not quite blended enough for my tastes, so I repeated the process again.

round three
After a third time through the carder, I was really pleased with the texture of the batt and the distribution of the fibers. This is a super spinnable little batt. However, I am not all that pleased with how peachy it is because of the yellowing of the wool. My plan is to slowly card up the rest of the locks in this manner–slowly because it’s really hard to turn my drum carder without standing at a funny angle so I don’t hit my giant belly with the handle–and diz it all out into roving, and then dye the lot.

Besides the yellowing, I really like how this came out. It makes a girl feel a little powerful, turning some dirty looking locks into usable, perhaps even pretty, fluffy spinning fiber. I’ll keep you updated as I continue the project!

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Learning to Drum Card, Day One

Posted on January 9, 2014 by | Comments Off on Learning to Drum Card, Day One

Like I promised last Thursday, I spent some quality time with my drum carder this week, and I’m actually pretty happy with my results. I managed to make two batts that look fluffy and spinnable, and way substantially more than 1 oz.

To recap, this is what I started with
one of my first batts top
A flimsy 1 oz. batt out of mixed materials. This one is a bit of corriedale, a bit of alpaca, silk, and firestar. I was convince I had my drum carder full, only to learn after unloading it, that I had a puny, not very fluffy batt that wouldn’t be very pleasant to spin from.

Getting ready to card
To get started, I got set up with supplies, water, coffee, music, and adjusted my drum carder. It wasn’t too far off after months and months of neglect, but I’m glad I took the time to do it. In the picture you can see two unrolled puny batts. The yellow one, and another blue one that looked very much like the yellow. It’s mostly alpaca with some silk and wool thrown in for good measure, and weighed just a stitch more than yellow batt. My goal was to card them together.

After reading many blogs and watching an untold amount of youtube videos, I experimented a little bit with how I fed the the fiber.

bluebatt
The blue was mostly pulled apart and fed in straight on, like so.

yellow batt
The yellow, I pulled out into locks and fed in sideways. (This picture is not representative of how I fed the locks onto the carder. I thinned them out a lot more.)

It took about an hour to do this first batt. I was purposefully going very slow, watching how my carder fed in, watching how the drum took up fiber from the licker-in, and so on.

Here’s the finished product
blueandgoldbattrollside
blueandgoldbattroll
blueandgoldbattstratta
blueandgoldbatt
This one came out at 78.5 grams, or just under 3 oz. My carder was pretty full by the end of it. And I’m pretty happy with the results. It’s fluffy, but still layered. It’s thick and textured, and will probably spin into a really fun tweedy singles.

On my desk, I had two small balls of merino top, one dyed, one undyed, that I have been wanting to blend together forever.

orangeandcreamtop
Each little ball was about 50 grams, so I figured if I used as much of each as I could, I would get a batt near 100g.

I carded these fibers very simply, just thinning out the top and feeding them straight on to the carder in layers. It went much faster, but I still ended up with about a 78g batt.
orangeandcreambattroll
orangeandcreambatt

I’m fairly satisfied with my morning’s work.

two good batts

I’ve learned to weigh out my fibers before hand, and to go slow. I’ve watched how my carder works as a machine a little bit better, and that I can make a spinnable blended batt. I think I still need some practice, and I am certainly not going to be going into production anytime soon, but it has been fun to spend a morning at it.

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Introducing Mr. Drum Carder

Posted on January 2, 2014 by | Comments Off on Introducing Mr. Drum Carder

Last spring, about five minutes before it became apparent that we were going to be moving at the same time we were planning a wedding, which also turned out to be the same time we found out we were having a baby, I bought a drum carder!

I’m sure you probably noticed it when I showed you pictures of my new studio a few weeks back, but here’s a recap.
new studio
There he is!

Hello Mr. Drum Carder
Mr Drum Carder

When I bought this machine almost a year ago now, I had great aspirations to become the best batt maker in the world! I was going to sell millions of them to needy spinners and felters everywhere! If you’ve visited my shop lately, you’ve probably noticed that I don’t have any batts listed for sale. That’s because it turns out I kind of suck at drum carding. I’ve made a few batts here and there over the past few months, but I’m not satisfied. I’m obviously doing something wrong.

Here’s one from the side:
one of my first batts side
I like the way the blending turned out, but if I saw a listing for this guy, my first thought would be, “Eh, looks a little thin.” That’s because it’s not even 2 oz. Kind of a dinky batt. But when I was making it, I could have sworn that I had my drum as full as it could go. And I know I should be able to make a batt that’s at least 3.5 oz on this carder.

Here’s the top view:
one of my first batts top
From this view, my problem seems to be that I’m loading up the sides, but neglecting the middle, though I couldn’t have told you that while it was on the drum. Hour glass figures are not flattering on a batt, especially not one for sale.

I’ve been busy enough the past few months to get away with avoiding Mr. Drum Carder. It was in a box in the basement half the time I owned it, so it was easy to forget that I just wasn’t all that great at drum carding. But as I’ve been unpacking, I’ve been rediscovering all of my raw fiber. Take this mohair for instance,
bags o mohair
it really wants to be blending with some silk and fine wool. It’s begging to be, in fact.

So I’ve been doing a little bit of research, and watching some youtube videos, trying to figure out if I’m doing something wrong, or if I just need a little bit more practice, and all signs pointed to just needing to get to know my machine more. Then I came across Sideways, and it was like the Yarn Harlot was telling my story.

Next time, maybe I’ll actually card something!

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