I'm Going Batty!!

Ok... bad title, but I just had to. My drum carder arrived yesterday afternoon and I literally didn't stop carding for anything except making dinner and picking the girls up from school. And, when my back hurt so bad that I wanted to stop I decided to grab one of the fluffy awesome batts and test it out on my spinning wheel. I posted lots of pictures. Mostly because I just can't get over how bit the batts really are. They are huge! It's amazing to me how you can take crummy, nasty rovings and misc. pieces and turn them into these usuable super soft batts.

There are lots of pictures on this post. One of them shows some fabric that I un-wove to give me lots of shinny pretty fibers to add to my batts. This is a great way to use up fancy fabric scraps. I'll be digging through my fabric waste bin to search out more fabrics to tear apart.

Fancy Kitten Drum Carder Review:
Before reading this review please note that I have never seen, used, or in any way have any knowledge beyond what I have read and seen on the internet about drum carders. Ok... that came out weird, but you all know what I mean. I'm a total NEWB.

The carder arrived within a week after ordering. Service and communication was great! It was perfectly packaged and fully assembled upon arrival. All I had to do was screw on the handle and start carding. To get me started I chose to use the pound of mill end grab bag fiber that I still have left over from my fiber order last year. The pieces were short, messy and ugly. I mostly had black and white mix and a whole lot of fibers that I had dyed wrong. They were a bit felted and messy. I had no idea how much to put in to the carder at once, or weather or not I should hold on to it as it began to be carded. It took me 3 batts before I started to get the hang of it. It seems to like the fibers fluffed out well and then a nice layer of fiber to go through. I haven't pushed it yet, but so far my largest batt is around 2oz in weight. So far I am loving this carder. It will get a lot of heavy use and will become a staple in my fiber hobby.
Check out this huge stack of finished fiber batts. This isn't even all of it. By the time I took this photo I had already spun up one big batt and one mini batt. Today, I will be relocating the carder from our dinner table (I think the family would like to actually eat at the table tonight) to my tall drafting table. First I have to unearth it!