Carding Fiber (By Drum Carder)

One reason I was inclined to seek out the spinner’s/weaver’s guild was their equipment rental policy for members. Of course, after visiting the monthly meetings, I discovered there was going to be much, much more to membership, but this past weekend, I took advantage of my first inclination.

I rented a drum carder.

I have some cleaned fleeces, and some even teased, from the summer needing to be carded. I have cleaned a couple more recently. It’s a little overwhelming to think about hand carding it all. I also have a whole lot of other stuff needing to be done and hand carding doesn't seem as appealing or necessary. And I also want to try my hand with one of those things.

Here is how it went.

Really fast! That’s how it went!

I took on the Strauch for fine wool, and it worked well for my purposes. I started with some rose grey alpaca already teased (which is the process after scouring and drying of pulling apart the locks, loosening any remaining veggie matter, etc).

In hardly anytime at all, I had myself carded alpaca. Done…and done!

Well, that was pretty sweet, I must say. So I went to work on the Jacob, deciding to blend the colors together with this fleece. Also documenting with photos.

Feeding the uptake…

Removing the batt…

Recarding the batt (which I did twice after the initial carding)…

I then rolled up the batts and weighed them. The alpaca lost very little, not having any lanolin. The Jacob I lost half its weight. This sort of documentation is valuable in the education it holds for me.

Anyway. Alpaca done. Jacob done. The CVM/Corriedale is up next. I have thought in the past that I surely coveted my own drum carder, but now have different thinking.

First, I will try the different ones the guild rents (there are 3, I think). And then…for the price I can rent one for a month? I am not sure I need to #1 make the investment myself, or #2 take up the space in my craft room to store one.