The Drum Carder Has Landed

I succumbed to the Duncan drum carder while I was at BSG.  I spent over an hour with the Duncan's asking a million questions and trying out their carders.  I knew I wanted an electric carder so I spent quite a bit of time doing research and asking all my questions.

Since the carders are built for each customer, and unless you were lucky enough to buy one of their models at the show, I had to wait a bit for it to come down the West Coast.

It arrived on the first day of August and it took me a while to unpack it.  It was super packed as you can see with lots of foam pieces.

After picking it up and putting it on the table - it is a pretty hefty weight so no need to clamp to any table, I did a small bit of assembly and turned the sucker on.  It made a small humming noise as it started rotating drums.  No loud gears or motor noises.  It is a well oiled machine.

Since I bought this carder with plans in mind, I spent the weekend pulling out the fiber I wanted to card.  I want to make the Traveling Sweater which calls for a wool/bamboo blend.  I pulled out all my bfl fiber as well as a bunch of bamboo.  After doing the math, I need a 60/40 wool/bamboo blend.

I calculated in 2 ounce increments which equates to about 57 grams which would consist of 35 grams of wool and 22 grams of bamboo.  My scale is not exact but I figured it was close enough.  I measured out 35 grams of wool and then added bamboo until the scale read 57 grams.

I did not have quite enough bfl, so I dug out some merino to make up the difference.  I ended up with 16 little piles of my blend which is about 2 pounds of fiber.  This should be enough for the sweater as the pattern calls for between 2 and 2 1/2 pounds of yarn.

Here are all my piles ready to be carded.

The carding can commence.