Where to Buy Bulk Wool and Silk for Dyeing, Handspun Yarn and Feltmaking

Want to know where to get great deals on bulk quantities of wool and silk for your fiber arts? 

Check out these sources and suppliers for your handmade fiber crafts!

I've been doing fiber crafts since about 2005 when I caught the feltmaking bug after taking a college fiber arts course. That obsession quickly turned into a small business which I playfully named "The Funky Felter" and opened an Etsy shop as well as started selling at craft shows across the Midwestern United States.

Drum Carding and Wool Fiber Processing

Adventures in Drum Carding

Processing wool fibers into batts for felting, spinning and other fiber arts

I must admit that it has been quite a while since I've had the time to card any of my own hand dyed wool fiber. I have a good sized bin full of brightly colored fiber that I dyed a few years ago now and haven't put it through my drum carder yet. I'm hoping to find time in the next few weeks before Christmas to play around with it and make some batts for felting or hand spinning. I'm a bit of a color junky and love to mix colors together to see what pretty (or sometimes not so pretty) wool batts I can come up with. 

My two Fancy Kitty drum carders are such good little handmade machines and have held up through being hauled around moving from house to house. During all the shuffling, I've kept them handy but unfortunately haven't had much time to use them. I'm really looking forward to carding in the near future and will share my results on the blog eventually.

Do you process, dye and/or card your own wool for felting or spinning? It is quite a job to do it from beginning to final product, but I've personally found that when I do take the time and make the effort, it is quite satisfying and adds something special to a handmade item.

A little peak at me carding hand dyed wool batts on my fancy kitty drum carder...

Ron Anderson, the maker of the fancy kitty drum carder, asked for some customer photos to add to his website's scrapbook page.  It is also part of the requirements to be entered in his contest at the fancy kitty group on ravelry.  I normally hide from the camera, but I made an exception in this case and had my husband snap a few photos of me working with my drum carder.  The wool that I'm working with is some that I hand dyed in preparation for carding.  I plan to combine some of the carded colors later to make funky fun batts for felting and spinning.  I will also be selling some of the wool batts at my Etsy Fiber Shop so be on the lookout for them.

So here I am with my lovely new drum carder and yummy wool...

There's also a cute one of the baby, and I just had to share!

And Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!
(It is only fitting that I'm carding bright lime green wool in celebration of the festive day.)