handmade by stefanie

Drum carding looks so easy: you just toss in some fiber, and out pops a perfect batt, right? Like anything that's made by hand, it's simple....but not that simple. For me, a lot of my learning curve was due to my tendency to overthink things and try to fix things that didn't need fixing. Once I got over that, I found that any other little hiccups were solved simply by doing. Practice does make perfect, and here are some of the most important lessons I've learned along the way - may they shorten your own learning curve when you give drum carding a try! 1. Prep before you prep.  Sounds a bit silly, right? But the denser your fleece or fiber is, the harder it will be to process in your drum carder (not to mention, harder on  your drum carder). Pretty much everything I've come across cautions against feeding  too much  fiber into the carder; the instructions that came with my carder (a Strauch Petite) recommend teasing fleece and fiber before processing an...

It finally happened: I got a drum carder! I haven't had much time to play with it since it arrived on my doorstep, but I did get it all set up last weekend and ran a little bit of fiber through to test the waters. I got a Strauch Petite , which is the perfect size for a small table if you are short on space. It came with some very thorough instructions, but I was glad to check out these YouTube videos to get me started since I am not always mechanically inclined. But, I was able to get it set up and operational on my own, and I processed a little bit of Perendale fiber just to test the waters. Over the holiday break, I plan to play more with it and actually blend  things (now that's a concept). Thank goodness I have lots of blend-able bits and bobs in my fiber stash! I hope you have (or have had) a fabulous holiday; I'll be taking a little blog break next week to rest, rejuvenate, and celebrate the holidays with my family. I'll be back the first Wedne...