Ok, so some of you know that after SOAR this past Fall and taking a class with Deb Menz, I purchased a Patrick Green Drumcarder (I had been wanting one, and thinking about it on and off for about 5 years) (I bought the Happy Hybrid, btw ... basically the Deb's Delux but with two speeds). I really wanted the electric, but decided to be sensible and buy a manual until I see how much I really use it.

I had a chance to play with it in late December, and carded up some wonderful batts ... and actually got photos of the process ... I had hoped to have a sample spun before writing a post about this but, alas, I haven't had time. This is to be my Olympics spinning project, and with 18 batts at 1 to 1-1/2 ounces each, it should be plenty for a nice sweater.

So, I started first with a couple of dyed blends I had around the house. One I purchased, one I dyed quite a while ago. They were compatible colors, and I had decided that I didn't really want to spin either one of them as a variegated yarn, so they were perfect for this first experiment. The fiber on the left is bluefaced leicester top; the one on the right is polwarth.

I divided each of them into their respective colors, and divided each color into 16 equal parts (yes, I did actually cut them with scissors ... just to see what would happen ... the result was a little nepping here and there, but nothing horribly obnoxious). Then I made 16 bundles with one of each color. I think there were 16 colors, too.

First pass on the drumcarder looked like this:


I wanted it more blended, so another pass through the carder ...

Better, but I wanted it even more homogenous, so a third pass through the drumcarder ...

Three passes resulted in exactly what I was looking for: perfect, fluffy batts of a basically homogenous color, but with hints here and there of the original colors ...

A Basketfull of Beautious Batts:

And, for better perspective, here is the basket in front of my Lendrum Saxony. Just waiting for me to come and play (the color of the batts is shown better in the above photo than this one) ...

I love my Patrick Green drumcarder! This is such a well-made piece of equipment. I'm definitely looking forward to more color experiments along the lines of what I learned in Deb's class ~ I bought some really pretty white merino top from Zeilinger's last year that they had processed from some American Merino fleece they purchased (they showed it to me, knowing full well that I'm hopeless and can't resist much, and of course I bought 2 pounds). I'm planning to card this white with some other colors of merino top I have, into batts with varying depths of shade for a cool colorwork project.

Having a drum carder really opens up a whole new world of color possibility.

Stay tuned for yarn photos, later.