One of the reasons I’ve been wanting to dye large quantities of wool is so I can make nice big spinning batts with my drum carder. I love that thing so; so much so that it has a name: Shreddica. And it’s a wonderful beast. It takes a chaotic handful of fluff and blends it into something really grand for spinning. Before I got Shreddica I mostly used hand cards, which took a while, or just shredded things with my fingers. (I still do that quite a bit with locks where I want to keep their shape.) Sometimes I have friends over and make them crank Shreddica while I feed wool through it’s hungry mouth, yelling, “Crank faster, carding-slave!” Oddly enough, people obey. I’m guessing feeding them cake and booze first helps…
I couldn’t keep my greedy mitts off the plum Shetland I just dyed, so I fed some to Shreddica, along with fistfuls of white mohair, border leister, a little merino and some leftover angora…
I also found some of my dark red had dried enough for me to play with, so into Shreddica it went, along with fistfuls of black merino and red-dyed “black” angora. I want to spin this one up myself, I think, instead of sticking it in the shop…
