New Drum Carder

"Kitten"

I sold my Patrick Green drum carder on Ravelry to a nice woman.  I met her in the San Fernando Valley, halfway between her house and mine.  She gave me cash and I handed over the carder.  I bought a motorized Fancy Kitty Kitten motorized carder with the proceeds from the PG carder and some money I had been saving.  I wanted a motorized carder because I like to have both hands free to feed in fiber.  Plus the Kitten has longer teeth on the carding cloth so it makes bigger batts.  It's pretty cool although a little hard to clean because of the long teeth.  I ordered the doffer brush that goes with it but it really doesn't reach down and get all the fiber out.  I like a clean carder!

batt from the Kitten

Swatches I knitted from the navajo plied worsted weight yarn I made from the batt.

Knitting and Dyeing

 This is the Daybreak Shawl by Stephen West.  I used hand dyed yarn by Alexandra's Crafts in the Baby Silver Falls color way, and Lorna's Shepherd Sock in the Hermosa color way.

 Then I got seven skeins of Knitpicks 100% merino dk weight yarn that I had to re-skein for dying.  I needed longer skeins so I could tie knots in the yarn to create a resist.

 Here's the dyed yarn wound up into cakes.  It was impossible to capture the colors with my camera.  I divided each skein into two balls so I could mix them up while knitting.

 I started knitting the Calligraphy Cardigan by Hannah Fettig.  This is the ribbing for the neck.  Notice the size 6 Signature needles that Mark bought me for my birthday.  Yay!

In my next post I'll show off my new Fancy Kitty Kitten Motorized drum carder!