After years longing for my very own drum carder, I finally took the plunge and invested in a beautiful fine Fancy Kitty drum carder by Anderson Originals. It is of superb quality. I also love that it is handcrafted in the U.S.A. in my home state of Missouri. I highly recommend this brand of carder!When it arrived yesterday afternoon, I immediately took it out of the box and set it up. (I even cleaned the house earlier in the week so that I could card the rest of the week totally guilt free.) I had a box of fibers all ready to go. Since yesterday, I have carded six batts and can't wait to do more! I have put both roving and locks through it and many different fiber types including Merino, Corriedale, BFL, and even some firestar. It cards wonderfully smooth with very little effort. I've been running my batts through twice, but once for most fibers would be fine. I've even been able to remove the batts rather easily. The only tricky part that I've found is cleaning it. I've been using my hand carder, but it doesn't get all the fibers that are embedded deeply in the carding cloth. I may try using my shop vac to give it a good cleaning once I'm finished for the day. I had seen someone recommend using a shop vac to suck up all the little left over fibers on a forum that I belong to. Now I can use their good advice on my brand new drum carder.
For your viewing pleasure, here's some photos of the batts that I've made so far. I call them my practice batts because I have been using the odds and ends bits of roving and locks left over from felting and and other fiber projects. I still think that they turned out rather well for practice batts though. I may use my drop spindle to make some into yarn.
(By the way, if you love Fancy Kitty carders, want more info about them, or to be a part of a great community of Fancy Kitty owners, there is a wonderful Fancy Kitty ravelry group that you can join. It has loads of great information and good discussions!)
