It is an 8 inch wide Clemes and Clemes drum carder. I am particularly enamored by the fact that Clemes and Clemes is literally up the street from me, so it is like the drum carder is coming back home. It is certainly well loved, and it arrived with one of the wooden gears cracked and broken. I was able to not only wood glue that back together, but eventually replace it with a stronger acrylic piece and get down to business…

I have been very satisfied with the batts I have purchased from Hobbledehoy and Stickyfingers on etsy. But in general I want a batt to have a blend of different types of fibers and not contain any sparkle and/or angelina. I’m not in it just for the colors; I have some specific textures in mind. Because of this I have been coveting drum carders for some time now (in fact nearly exactly one year), but they just haven’t been in my budget. So as soon as my little carder was running, I made a tiny batt of merino and mohair that resulted in this:

It was pure fun to spin…..
Next, I was FINALLY able to add camel down to some merino (I have had this camel down lying in wait for YEARS).

I am also excited to use it to process some of the fleeces I have piling up. It has done an awesome job with all of the Romney that I fed it:

More fun blends to come – I am ready to try a little colored fiber experimentation…

I have had this nagging in the bag of my head telling me that I want a drum carder. I have looked into it a few times but never bought one. I want one primarily for blending merino wools with fine fibers. It should be able to handle the slightly coarser wools that I like – Romney and wensleydale for instance. And it should be able to handle the occasional fleece. Ultimately I would like to be able to make blends with soy silk and camel down and other finer fibers. I think the one that might be right for me is a Strauch Petite. I like the petite-ness (studio apartment) and the fine cloth. The only complaints that I was that when processing fleeces on the fine cloth, the second cuts didn’t get separated but that seems preferable to not being able to card fine fibers. And I shouldn’t forget to mention that the comparatively low price is a major factor.

Here’s where you come in… What do you think? Do you know anything about carders or own one that you have an opinion about? Leave me a comment and let me know! You will be eligible to win a prize from me if you do.

Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about drum carders, you can still be eligible to win a prize. Just leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite knitting/ crafting material or tool. For instance, you might tell me that you you couldn’t survive without medium-weight Socks that Rock. Or that your Bernina is your most dear possession. Or that you cannot resist alpaca yarn. I want to hear about what you like!

The contest will be open until next Saturday, June 9th when the winner will be selected at random. I’ll send you some sock yarn, and a sock knitter’s needle case. If a non-knitter ends up as the winner, and doesn’t want the prize we’ll figure something out.

Want to see the prizes?

The red yarn was dyed by me, but never made it into my etsy shop. I dubbed it “unphotographable red” and had to screw with the photo in photoshop to get it to look kinda normal. The colors go from a red-orange to a medium red and it si a superwash wool nylon blend. The Needle case was hand sewn by me in the style of the ones in my shop. Perfect for circulars, DPN’s and crochet hooks. I threw in a little crochet hook that I got at Daiso – you’ll get that too. Finally I added two skeins of Brown Sheep Handpainted yarn. Nice traditional wooly sock yarn. So get commenting!