Wednesday, January 28, 2009

My LIttle Kitty

Alright! Today I got the Little Kitty brand "Kitten" model drum carder that I just ordered on Monday. Wow, that was FAST! and I LOVE it!! It is oak construction, with an 8.5" wide drum that is 8" across. Just for fun I took a little each of 3 fibers I started to spin together a while back: a green Merino, a yellow/orange/slightly red Merino, and some red wool that had only been carded once. Ran them through once, and again. Here is the batt laid out flat...

and here is another view, folded in half lengthwise and rolled up. I think I will like spinning from the batt better than what I was doing, just pulling a little bit off each roving at a time. The carder works very easily. I watched some videos on youtube the last day or so, and so taking to doing the carding was also easy.


Today's block was an hourglass... also known as an X. Tomorrow's block is a string of X blocks put end to end, as a border or something for the Stupid Penguin Quilt. So what I did, was do my own thing again today, but tomorrow I am going to do 4 little bitty X blocks like the calendar shows, and put them together for my block of the day. Here is what I came up with today though, and I think it ROCKS. LOL.


Richie was off today, and worked on our bathroom a little. And I got pics of the Corriedale fleece I just got, and the Llama fur I got last November. The Corriedale fleece is 4 garbage bags full. Altogether about 40 pounds. Now you see why I "needed" a drum carder! Right now it is a dark-beige to pale-caramel color, so I think when processed it will be white.

The Llama is a silvery color, with a lot of dry hay in it. I actually hadn't opened the box since I got it in November, because it was compacted in the box and I knew I would never get it all back in! But curiosity got the best of me! I think it will clean up really nice. Can't wait to wash these and see what comes of them!

Tomorrow at 2 Des and Tony are going to look at a house, potentially to buy it. I think I will ride along. We've bought several houses (some of which were The Money Pit), so at least I know some pitfalls to look for that they might not think of.

Will let you know how it goes!

4 comments:

Desiree said...

The Sally Sweet block does rock. Cant' wait to see your finished mini!

Mommab@sbcglobal.net said...

your block is awsome as usual! and the drum carder is a dream of mine (that will probally never come true) The fleece will be beautiful! If you put the llama in a bag I used a holey washing bag and shake shake and shake it more alot of that hay and dirt will come out before washing! I can't wait to see it when done!!! Huggs and God Bless Marion PS the llama washes up nicely in cold too!

SleightGirl said...

Ooooh! Such beautiful fibers!

Liz said...

Congratulations on your new drum carder! Please be careful of your shoulder and elbow though - all that crankin' on that lever can be too repetitive in one sitting :)