I went to a Spinners’ Flock meeting last week and came home with a drum carder.  Spinners’ Flock is a lovely fiber guild based out of Chelsea Michigan.  I’ve been buying fiber from their sales now for years, but last week decided to join and discovered they have equipment rental!  I’d been thinking about buying a drum carder for awhile now, but just couldn’t bring myself to shell out the $4oo.  However its a lovely arrangement to join this guild and be able to rent it the few times a year I will use it.  I’ve discovered turning that handle is a bit addictive, I processed about 5 pounds of fiber in the first 3 days I had the machine.  However its not cost effective for big batches as it takes about two hours per pound of fiber.  Better to pay the fiber mill $6 a pound for big batches and save the drum carder for dying and blending experiments.

 Here is a picture of the lovely Border Leister wool that I dyed with indigo and urine as a reducing agent.  To my patrons who may be grossed out by that, don’t worry if I make anything for sale from this wool it will be clearly marked, and considerably more expensive.   When the batt is pulled off the drum carder it is really fluffy.  The pile of carded wool at the end is several batts stacked together and is probably only half a pound.