Drum Carding

Today I carded a bunch of BFL roving that I dyed about 3 years ago.  I bought the roving online, it came, it was beautiful, but very thin.  So, when I dyed it, there was a felting issue.  It was challenging to draft.  I put it away.  I really liked how the dyeing came out, but it would just not spin unless I really worked at it.

Fast forward to today.  I found the bag with the roving in my stash, and decided to try carding it on my Patrick Green drum carder (c. 1987).  I have only had to replace the band once in all those years, by the way.

You can see how thin the roving is.  But how great the color and quality of the BFL is.  So, on I went.  I did four batches. Look how nice the blue turned out.

Here is the reddish one.

There were four colorways.  The dye work was good, but the rovings were just so thin, they felted a bit to the point where they would not draft.  I am very optimistic that the batts I carded will be great to spin.