More batts before bed...

"Easter Eggs"

Few more sea inspired batts before bed!!

"Underwater" 5.0 oz batt with bfl, bfl silk blend, faux cashmere, firestar, and angelina fibers.

"Underwater2" 5.1 oz Bfl, bfl silk blend, milk fiber, faux cashmere, firestar, and angelina fibers

Adventures in Drum Carding....

So I was taking pictures of the television last night while I was knitting and watching Blue Planet. Then I thought about making batts inspired by nature and the colors of nature.

Octopus

This photo of an octopus inspired this batt. It contains BFL, Faux Cashmere, and Angelina fibers. The BFL and F. Cashmere are both kettle dyed here in my home studio.

Ashford Drum Carder

Kettle-dyed merino top

Kettle-dyed faux cashmere 

Undyed roving

Sparkles

A batt that I will cannibalize...

I will re-use this batt.

I like to paint fibers onto the drum so I can control the distribution across the wheel of the drum carder. It may take more time to card the batt, but I like the end product better. I am in no way saying this is the proper way of using my drum carder, this is simply how I do it. 

Layer 1 on the carder.

I then paint on the second layer. I'm adding the colors from the background to foreground. The dark blueish purple tones were the shadows in the photo. The green is the kelp and the orange tones will be for the fish.

The top layer.

Painting the Angelina fibers onto the drum

Angelina fibers.

Pulling the batt off the drum carder revealing it's layers.

Doffer

   
Using a Doffer tool I gently pulled the batt apart bit by bit. Once that's done I can start to gently pull the fibers away from the carding cloth.

Top of the batt

cross section of the batt

"Fish swimming in Kelp"

The finished product, a 4.1 oz art batt.

www.colorwae.etsy.com

Batts for Sale!!

I've got my batts for sale on etsy if you're a spinner or felter check them out!!

www.colorwae.etsy.com