Recently, I mentioned Henry Clemes neat diz for using a drum carder to make roving to spin semi-woolen.
It occurs to me that I see lots of people spinning semi-woolen from drum carder batts, that I see few but folks that I see spinning true woolen. Those that do spin true woolen use spinning from the fold or similar technique. Usually, people tear the batts lengthwise and spin from the tips to produce a semi- worsted or semi-wool product.
There is an easier way to produce true woolen yarns from drum carder batts.
see for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLFqKR2xl9c
For woolen, one can simply put a thin layer of fiber on the drum carder, and then roll the layer up around a piece of dowel, then slide the dowel out - just like Henry Clemes makes a rolag from fiber on a blending board. This produces a giant "rolag" - a cylinder of carded fiber. I use each rolag to spin hundreds of yards of yarn, so there is more drafting, and the attenuation takes more attention. However, it is real woolen spun.
My value added here is a suggestion that you adjust the size of the rolags to the grist and twist of the yarn you are spinning. When I make thinner rolags in the form factor that Clemes and Clemes use on fiber from their blending board, it spins faster, but the yarn tends not to be as uniform. I have no idea why this could be. It may be variation in the fleece I was using.
My rolags off the carder are 8" long, 2,5" in diameter, and weigh ~ 12 gr, so it is shorter, fatter, and heavier than rolags off the blending board. Using DRS controlled takeup/twist, I can simply rest the cylinder of fiber in my lap, and draft off of one end.
It occurs to me that I see lots of people spinning semi-woolen from drum carder batts, that I see few but folks that I see spinning true woolen. Those that do spin true woolen use spinning from the fold or similar technique. Usually, people tear the batts lengthwise and spin from the tips to produce a semi- worsted or semi-wool product.
There is an easier way to produce true woolen yarns from drum carder batts.
see for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLFqKR2xl9c
For woolen, one can simply put a thin layer of fiber on the drum carder, and then roll the layer up around a piece of dowel, then slide the dowel out - just like Henry Clemes makes a rolag from fiber on a blending board. This produces a giant "rolag" - a cylinder of carded fiber. I use each rolag to spin hundreds of yards of yarn, so there is more drafting, and the attenuation takes more attention. However, it is real woolen spun.
My value added here is a suggestion that you adjust the size of the rolags to the grist and twist of the yarn you are spinning. When I make thinner rolags in the form factor that Clemes and Clemes use on fiber from their blending board, it spins faster, but the yarn tends not to be as uniform. I have no idea why this could be. It may be variation in the fleece I was using.
My rolags off the carder are 8" long, 2,5" in diameter, and weigh ~ 12 gr, so it is shorter, fatter, and heavier than rolags off the blending board. Using DRS controlled takeup/twist, I can simply rest the cylinder of fiber in my lap, and draft off of one end.
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