I've been possessed of the desire to have a drum carder.
I don't have fiber animals (other than the Maine Coons), so I don't have to process large amounts of fleece. I don't have a cottage industry with fiber (yet . . . but I'll come back to that!). I don't have a pressing need for a drum carder. I just like tinkering with fibers . . . different colors, different combinations of fibers . . . and my right shoulder yells at me for days after I use the handcards. So -- I want a drum carder.
I've looked and looked online, and talked to a couple of folks voice to voice and a few others via email and such. I've read a great deal of advertising copy (some of it even well written) about a wide variety of drum carders. I've even looked at a couple in person. Not to mention lurking on forums that deal with drum carding, and going so far as to do a google search for books on drum carding. And of course, the inevitable (and fabulous) YouTube.
The general concensus seems to be: take a class in learning how to use a drum carder, try different drum carders with the fibers a person wants to blend, and make the best choice possible given time and budgetary constraints. Well, let me tell you! Finding a class in using a drum carder is not as easy as one might think, given the constraints on my time at this point. The budget is not as big an issue, but may be after the first of the year (which is approaching with alarming rapidity) and in the event is not equal to something on the ilk of the Pat Green Supercard.
My primary issue is having the equipment to produce batts suitable for supported spinning on Tibetan spindles (and eventually Russian spindles as well). So far, the batts I've had the best success with have been produced on Strauch carders (and one the batt creator wouldn't identify but said it's older and out of production, so in the privacy of my own twisted mind, I'm going to guess at it being a Pat Green Beverly -- mostly because that guess makes me happy!). I've bought some other batts, both locally and online. It may just be my skill level, but so far I've not had the degree of success spinning from the other batts on the Tibetans.
Which leads me to the next section of rambling . . . batts themselves. I've tended to approach spinning (and dyeing) in a more right-brained, gestalt, let it be what it is sort of mode. A kind of "hook my hands in sync with my right brain and let the left brain sleep for a while" process. I've had some really stellar (again, at least in my mind) results, and some not so wonderful results. The problem with that approach, I think, is that it makes repeating stellar results difficult if not impossible. Serendipity is, perhaps, not the best substitute for skill and planning. So I'm thinking that additional learning must take place; I'm just not sure how to speed the learning curve while minimizing the direct and indirect costs of learning.
The other thing I've been struggling with during the "great drum carder debate" has been a sort of low-grade depression. Not one of those mind-bender thunderstorms of depression, more of a dull toothache depression, probably brought about by the amount of intense research I've done on drum carders, coupled with the holidays, coupled with snow, coupled with Dad's recent pattern of more "bad days" than "good days".
I was thinking about depression while I was out and about today. I did finally find a basket large enough for all of my supported spindles to rest in, and it was lightly padded to protect sensitive tips and 40% off. That got me happy for a minute, buying it, and even happier when it fit in the cabinet in which my spindles have lived, sort of one of those "kewl, it fits" things.Then the depression started grumbling for my attention again. So I just sat with it for a minute, and I think I figured it out.
I've identified myself pretty thoroughly with my occupations over the course of my life. Put a lot of myself into what I was doing, and derived enormous satisfactions from my work; "whatever the job, big or small, do it well or not at all". Well, and good. When I decided I was done being a graphic designer, I got a graduate degree and became a professional therapist. I was a darn good one, and did it for a long time. When I decided I was done being a therapist, I revived an ancient teaching license, added some specialty endorsements, and took a whirl at teaching. I was darn good at that, but ran into some circumstances that required an abrupt change, so I went back to mental health counseling. Bad plan. And short-lived. I was burnt out when I changed directions, and I guess four years away from it was not long enough to ameliorate the burn out. So. Technically, I'm unemployed. And there's the pain. I feel lost . . . unanchored, or perhaps undefined. When I think about going back to what I have done, and pursuing any of those options until retirement, I experience an almost instantaneous tightening of shoulder and chest muscles, as well as an immediate drop in energy level. Even now, as I'm thinking about while I'm writing, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard; that's a dead give-away for me that my level of resistance about "going back" is incredibly high.
Stay tuned . . . more late about batts, drum carders, and resistance.
I don't have fiber animals (other than the Maine Coons), so I don't have to process large amounts of fleece. I don't have a cottage industry with fiber (yet . . . but I'll come back to that!). I don't have a pressing need for a drum carder. I just like tinkering with fibers . . . different colors, different combinations of fibers . . . and my right shoulder yells at me for days after I use the handcards. So -- I want a drum carder.
I've looked and looked online, and talked to a couple of folks voice to voice and a few others via email and such. I've read a great deal of advertising copy (some of it even well written) about a wide variety of drum carders. I've even looked at a couple in person. Not to mention lurking on forums that deal with drum carding, and going so far as to do a google search for books on drum carding. And of course, the inevitable (and fabulous) YouTube.
The general concensus seems to be: take a class in learning how to use a drum carder, try different drum carders with the fibers a person wants to blend, and make the best choice possible given time and budgetary constraints. Well, let me tell you! Finding a class in using a drum carder is not as easy as one might think, given the constraints on my time at this point. The budget is not as big an issue, but may be after the first of the year (which is approaching with alarming rapidity) and in the event is not equal to something on the ilk of the Pat Green Supercard.
My primary issue is having the equipment to produce batts suitable for supported spinning on Tibetan spindles (and eventually Russian spindles as well). So far, the batts I've had the best success with have been produced on Strauch carders (and one the batt creator wouldn't identify but said it's older and out of production, so in the privacy of my own twisted mind, I'm going to guess at it being a Pat Green Beverly -- mostly because that guess makes me happy!). I've bought some other batts, both locally and online. It may just be my skill level, but so far I've not had the degree of success spinning from the other batts on the Tibetans.
Which leads me to the next section of rambling . . . batts themselves. I've tended to approach spinning (and dyeing) in a more right-brained, gestalt, let it be what it is sort of mode. A kind of "hook my hands in sync with my right brain and let the left brain sleep for a while" process. I've had some really stellar (again, at least in my mind) results, and some not so wonderful results. The problem with that approach, I think, is that it makes repeating stellar results difficult if not impossible. Serendipity is, perhaps, not the best substitute for skill and planning. So I'm thinking that additional learning must take place; I'm just not sure how to speed the learning curve while minimizing the direct and indirect costs of learning.
The other thing I've been struggling with during the "great drum carder debate" has been a sort of low-grade depression. Not one of those mind-bender thunderstorms of depression, more of a dull toothache depression, probably brought about by the amount of intense research I've done on drum carders, coupled with the holidays, coupled with snow, coupled with Dad's recent pattern of more "bad days" than "good days".
I was thinking about depression while I was out and about today. I did finally find a basket large enough for all of my supported spindles to rest in, and it was lightly padded to protect sensitive tips and 40% off. That got me happy for a minute, buying it, and even happier when it fit in the cabinet in which my spindles have lived, sort of one of those "kewl, it fits" things.Then the depression started grumbling for my attention again. So I just sat with it for a minute, and I think I figured it out.
I've identified myself pretty thoroughly with my occupations over the course of my life. Put a lot of myself into what I was doing, and derived enormous satisfactions from my work; "whatever the job, big or small, do it well or not at all". Well, and good. When I decided I was done being a graphic designer, I got a graduate degree and became a professional therapist. I was a darn good one, and did it for a long time. When I decided I was done being a therapist, I revived an ancient teaching license, added some specialty endorsements, and took a whirl at teaching. I was darn good at that, but ran into some circumstances that required an abrupt change, so I went back to mental health counseling. Bad plan. And short-lived. I was burnt out when I changed directions, and I guess four years away from it was not long enough to ameliorate the burn out. So. Technically, I'm unemployed. And there's the pain. I feel lost . . . unanchored, or perhaps undefined. When I think about going back to what I have done, and pursuing any of those options until retirement, I experience an almost instantaneous tightening of shoulder and chest muscles, as well as an immediate drop in energy level. Even now, as I'm thinking about while I'm writing, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard; that's a dead give-away for me that my level of resistance about "going back" is incredibly high.
Stay tuned . . . more late about batts, drum carders, and resistance.
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