And now for something completely different...a working drumcarder!

Well, it always worked. But I haven't used it for a LONG time. And not because I don't want to. But processing wool in my kitchen is a long, arduous process of boiling pots of water and such and I have just been looking longingly at my beautiful machine. However, at the moment I have a couple of issues that the drum carder can help me with:

1) No money for buying fiber. Which means October Frost will go the way of all things this winter unless I think of some other way to get the wool. I wanted to use Oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester from Paradise Fibers but no way, not right now.

2) I do have 1 whole raw fleece and 2 half raw fleeces in bins in the garage. Which I haven't really been able to reach for a year and a half. But DH has been redoing the garage (since the happy end of our now ex-friend's extended stay with us) so that we can reach things like books (!) and the children can play with their large-format toys. So the fleece bins are reachable.

Yesterday, I washed some fleece. Here is the raw material: This is a beautiful fine gray fleece with tan tips that I purchased at the very last L.A. County Fair Fleece Auction in 2005? I think it's about 6.5 pounds. The first year that I competed in the spinning contest (and won the Novice Class). It is super bouncy and soft. Here is some of it drying out in the sun: It doesn't look like much now, but I will have pictures of batts later today, I hope!

Of course, the first batch was a bit sticky and had to go through one more wash and two more rinses. Ho hum. I should have better luck today as the second batch was clean after 2 washes and 2 rinses. I just MUST get the water hot enough to melt the lanolin.

I think this wool will make a beautiful gray aran sweater that I will wear for years and years. The Oatmeal BFL that I bought for sampling will make a couple of gorgeous pairs of socks. Now the trick is to spin yarn that won't pill. I plan for a true 3-ply, nice and firm. And I know there will be enough, yay!

Here goes! I'll be carding while watching MSNBC, C-Span and CNN all day. Can't miss anything!

Peace.