big batts

Back in the spring, I sold my Fancy Kitty Kitten drum carder.  I was very tired of crank crank cranking a manual and only pulling off 1.5-2oz batts. They were so tiny! So much effort!  I did sell it to the schools art program where they only really need tiny batts, and do smaller projects, so it fit's their need so well.  But then... I went without a drum carder for 6 months!! It was an ultimate tragedy. I love to spin from batts, it's probably my favourite fibre preparation.  Batts are fluffy and draft smoothly, and the yarn from them is always much more lofty, even if you spin with a worsted draw due to the misalignment of fibres.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'd had my hook in the water for a great big fish (read that as I posted in every buy and sell for a Pat Green Triple Drum carder) right from the get go.  But it seemed they were always just slightly out of my price range and often in USD, which with the current state of affairs with our currency would put them way out of my price range.  So, lo and behold, many moons laters, someone asks if a Fancy Kitty Tom XL would do the trick.  And while settling for a smaller, but still excellent carder was just a bit painful, I did it.  And I'm so so very happy! This things is a great machine! Many hours and 9 big batts latter, I'm excited to start spinning!  But first, to card the 6 other fleece I have that are clean.... Never ending!

see! big batts! as big as a kitchen chair!

Well, I'd best get back at it. 6 fleeces won't card themselves!

Happily Spinning (and carding)

~Kara~

Cleaning the kitty

For level 4 of the Master Spinners program, we need to come prepared with a presentation.  I LOVE my drum carder, and I've learned a lot about blending fibres since opening my Etsy shop.  Drum carders are briefly covered in level 2, so I can do my presentation on them! Hurray!  This should be a piece of cake.
I went to get everything ready for this presentation, you know, clean my space to take pictures, get out the fibre and scale, find the camera, all that good stuff.  And of course, clean the carder.... Wow. was it ever a mess! One of the kids (the Zoo, to be exact) grabbed a handful of pulled sari silk and put it onto the carder, straight up.  The kids each had a turn with the carder, and of course, they aren't careful about where the fibre goes, so it got wrapped around the posts. It took me 2 hours to take it apart and put it back together! those pins were in there so tight, it was really difficult to get them out! But I did, with a little muscle from the husband, and she's shiny and clean now! It's wonderful.
One of those many things I felt I needed to take on is now over until the fall, leaving me with free time tonight!! It's an amazing feeling to not have anywhere to be on a Monday night.  I'm going to head on into my fluff room, with my newly cleaned carder, and work on my presentation as soon as I hit post!  Definitly looking forward to being ready for Fibre Week 2014! Less then 2 weeks now!!

~Kara

Oh hey! it's 2014!

Another year has gone by, which in and of itself is not surprising. The speed at which the years are going by, however, still seems to astonish me. With that said, I'm making no resolutions this year.  i'm just going to keep going, hoping that life does not throw me so many curve balls. Simple enough.
I'll keep blogging, selling, and doing my class work. And the mothering bits, and the wife-ing bits, and the girl guide-ing bits.  When it all fits in.

Anywho, I do hope 2014 is a wonderful year for everyone.  The best yet! One that tops all the others.

I finished out 2013 by taking a project off the bobbins.  It's 6.6 oz of Canadian grown and prepped Ets D'Laine Merino wool, spun woollen from carded roving, making it a super squishy and wonderful yarn. There's approximately 330 yards of this one. Such a lovely 3 ply.


And I'm starting 2014 by carding up some full sized batts of this llama merino yak blend that went out as samples in the Phat Fiber box! There will be approximately 12 oz (in smaller bits, likely 2oz chunks :) ) in the shop soon!



Don't forget to check out the Etsy Shop! 10% off until the 15th of January! Enter code Spingrand0 (that's a zero, not an 'o')

Happy happy new year to you!

~Kara

Drum Cardin'!!

dude!  I received my drum carder yesterday!  And I have to tell you, there just isnt' enough fibre in the world, nor less is there enough time in the day to card!
I got home with the box, with only enough time to open it up and pull it out of the box before having to get my kiddos from school/the sitters.  Let me tell you, there was bubble wrap a flying!  It was like one of those videos you see of a kid ripping into a Christmas gift, where there's a terrible mess everywhere afterwards.  I was so excited to finally have it!  So of course I had to leave my new Kitten at home to get my kids, and there it sat until I stuck the pizza in the oven.  I set the timer and told the husband to listen for the beep and take it out when it was ready.  Downstairs I flew, with a handful of random assortments of fibre (I've been collecting the remnants of my tops and rolags, the stuff that didn't fit onto the last bobbin in a cubby in the entertainment unit for a while now) And then this happened:



Don't worry though, I managed to get the whole thing cleaned off and looking almost brand new again.
This is what the final batt looks like, chunky funky and down right hideous.




But hey, it's my first try right, and I was just experimenting with what would happen if I do this, or that or what ever?
Then supper was ready.  Boooo!  And then Hubby went out to wing night.  Double boo!!!  And THEN the kiddos refused to stay in their beds!  Triple BOOOO!!!!  So of course I got no drum carding in at all after that, and before I went to bed myself.
But this morning, I made these ones, while the kids watch Thomas the Tank engine and Cailou movies.



I'd say that's a pretty drastic improvement, eh?  I've discovered that I need to manually feed the fibre onto the top of the carder in order to not waste as much of it... But somehow I think that's wrong, and I'll be asking the kindly folks over on the Fancy Kitty Lovers group on Ravelry.com why I'm ending up with so much "waste".  "Waste" I will spin into something cray cray.

Anywho, This has really been keeping me distracted from what I really should be doing, my homework.  But I'm still bound and determined to be done by April 1.  I've signed up for level 2, so I really do need to finish!

~Kara