Drum Carding
On a trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival last fall, I purchased a beautiful skein of mulberry silk, along with some wool locks which were dyed with natural plant material.
Over the Winter, I've spent a bit of time at my trusty drum carder blending these rich colors and textures with our own super soft alpaca fiber, making one-of-a-kind art batts.
Yesterday, I added the locks and silk to some of our white mohair.
I think the results are quite nice. Lots of shimmer, a fluffy halo of mohair and a bit of spring from the locks.
The surprising part is that I see a lot of white in this art batt. Predominatly white. But that's not how it spins up.
There is tons of color in it. Mostly purple with all the shine of silk and luster of mohair.
The art batts are slowly being added to the farm's Etsy site and we will have them in full force at the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster May 25 & 26.
If you're a hand spinner, you'll love all the textures in the batts.
If you're not a spinner (yet!), you'll have to beg your spinning friends to spin you up a skein so you can have your own one-of-a-kind yarn. I know for a fact that spinners can be bribed. Usually with more fiber!
Meet my new best friend.
It's my Strauch drum carder, and I love him. You've met him earlier in the year. He was just a good friend then, but as of yesterday, he's my BFF.
He made this:
My first Art Batt. The base fiber is alpaca, with turquoise and magenta Merino top, a bit of white alpaca and sparkly gold Angelina.
I liked it so much I couldn't stop.
Do you remember the children's book "The Digging-est Dog"? It's about a hound that discovered how to dig and doesn't stop.
I loved that book as a child, read it to my kids about a million times, quote from it frequently, and now, I have become the Digging-est Dog, only with a drum carder. I guess that makes me the Carding-est Dog.
After the turquoise/magenta combo, I moved on to fall colors.
Same brown alpaca base, this time mixed with olive and burnt orange Merino top, white alpaca and the same sparkly gold Angelina, not to mention a bit of red fluff thrown in.
Somebody help me, I can't stop! If I really was the Diggin-est Dog, I'd have holes throughout all 17 acres of the farm.
Today, I think I'm moving on to a black base color, just to spice things up a bit. But black with what? Decision, decisions -- what's a fiber-holic to do!
I'm going to spin up some of this beautiful fiber to see how it looks as yarn.
I think my new best friend is going to be a really bad influence on me.
