If you like colorful fiber for spinning yarn, you know a drumcarder can be your best friend. Carding wool is a great way to create artful blends of color, no matter what spinning technique you prefer. Yes, there are myriad prepared fiber blends available, but nothing offers the same level of control as carding your own fiber. Push it further by plying your yarn and the result is the unique, personal aesthetic YOU want your yarn to have.
Esther Rodgers is a fiber art master. Beginning with raw wool, she washes, dyes, and spins her own wildly creative art yarns before using them to create unique textiles. While most of us may not want or be able to go quite that far, there is great appeal to being able to create our own customized colorways for spinning. In her course, Card Wool for Color: How to Spin Gradients, Ombres, Fractals, and Self-Striping Yarns, Esther shows how to do just that.
Using a drumcarder, Esther explains how to create striped batts and rolags for spinning. Don’t have a drumcarder? No worries: she also demonstrates how to tackle a hackle or use a blending board for maximum effect. Then the spinning begins: chain plying is a great way to retain striped colorways. For those wanting to spin more muted (but still colorful!) yarns, Esther then shows fractal spinning and how to create cabled yarns. Whether you are thinking of buying a drumcarder, already own one, or just want to explore the possibilities of color in spinning, Card Wool for Color is a good introduction to color mastery.
Rolags and yarn and combed top, oh my!
Card Wool for Color is available as a streamable course you can watch at your own pace, anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Happy watching!
—Allison