Blending Odds and Ends on a Drum Carder
by
Pegg Thomas
We all tend to have little baggies of this and that collected along life’s
way in amounts too small to do much good. You may have a baggie each
of reddish brown buffalo, pure black alpaca, fawn angora, raspberry dyed
silk, etc. Blending gives new life to these odds and ends. Some
quite extraordinary yarns can result!
First look at your colors. Pick and choose colors that will go well
together. If you aren’t particularly gifted in putting colors together,
Deb Menz wrote a great book titled Color in Spinning that
can help you out. You may use up your whole stash or just a few choice
bits with your blend.
Now pick a nice base fiber, the ‘glue’ so to speak, that will hold your
odds and ends together. Wool is a good choice, being crimpy and willing
to hold onto the softer and slipperier fibers, but other fibers can work
as well. Decide if you want a white, natural color or dyed base to go
with the odds and ends you’ve already chosen. (And it’s perfectly
okay to change your mind and discard or add new odds and ends!)
The next decision is how many 1 ounce (30 gram) batts you want
to create. Let’s say your intended project needs 12 ounces (340
grams) of finished yarn. Weigh your odds and ends and see what
they total. For instance, if your odds and ends total 6 ounces (170
grams) and you want to create a total of 12 ounces (340 grams)
of batts, you need to have 6 ounces (170 grams) of base fiber to go
with it.
It is important that you card your base fiber fully before beginning to
blend. Weigh out 1 ounce (30 gram) at a time and card them
up into batts. Also card separately any of the odds and ends that
require carding. Very small amounts may need to be done on a pair
of hand cards. Some luxury fibers, such as angora and dog hair, do
not need pre-carding.
Now you will divide up the base fiber into the proper amounts for each
batt. Using our example for 12 batts, you need to divide the base fiber
up evenly into 12 strips. You can carefully weigh each one, or simply
‘eyeball’ it if you’re comfortable with that. Now divide up all the
odds and ends into 12 equal parts. Lay each on top of the base fiber
to create piles for each final batt.
For best results in holding many types of fibers together, tear the base
fiber for each batt into 3 strips. Begin your first batt by feeding
in one of the base strips. Now feed on half of your odds and ends.
(If you want all your batts to match, write down what order you’re adding
the odds and ends in, so you can duplicate it with the remaining batts.)
Next feed on another strip of base fiber. Now add the remaining odds
and ends, and finish with the last strip of base.
Remove your batt and take a look at what you’ve done. You can leave
the batt ‘as is’ and spin it with the layers as you see them, or you can
tear your batt into 3 or 4 strips and carefully feed them back through the
drum carder to blend them more. For a very thorough blend, you’ll need
to make 4 or 5 passes through the drum carder. However, this type of
thorough blending will bury the small amounts of odds and ends and not showcase
them. When you have the first batt as you like it, card up the remaining
batts to match.
There are several different methods of pulling a batt out into roving
for spinning. Some people enjoy spinning directly from the batt, rolled
up like a giant rolag. Some people just tear the batts into strips.
Whatever method you choose, make sure and do the same for each batt so that
the resulting yarn will be consistent. Spin up your batts and enjoy
the one-of-a-kind yarn you’ve created!
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