Drawing Roving from a Drum Card

If you are one of the many people who would rather spin from a prepared roving than from a carded batt of fiber - this is how you can pull roving from your drum carded batt. It's not difficult and only takes a few minutes extra time after the fiber is well carded.
I am demonstrating with alpaca, but it works just as well with wool, dog hair and many blends. The only piece of equipment you'll need is a "diz" - and I made mine from the lid off a milk carton - you can also use a lid from yogurt or any other container.
Watch for my new series of 3 videos on making a multi-colored roving fromthe drum card - any drum card. I will start with dying the fiber, go into carding the fiber and drawing off a roving, and end with spinning the fiber. This will be Dying Outside the Lines 1A, 1B and 1C - -
Later I hope to do more videos on playing with color "outside the lines" on your drum card " maybe even your combs.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• fiber
• roving
• diz
• spinning
• fiber preparation
• drawing off a roving
• how to prepare a roving
• drum card
• super card
• Louet card
• alpaca

[Spin2Weave]

When I draw off the roving I am turning the big drum backwards - so the fiber is being pulled off against the teeth, opposite the way it was carded on. Hope this helps.

[Spin2Weave]

I made the hole in the milk bottle top with a trussing needle (cooking tool for trussing chickens etc) but you could use a big darning needle - or a smaller darning needle to get a thinner roving. Heat the needle with a match (I use flame on gas stove, you could lay needle on electric element) and when hot poke the hole. If you wiggle the needle around it makes a larger hole. Beware - roving pulls thru MUCH larger than you expect - Like poking hole in baby bottle. ;-)

[Spin2Weave]

I got my carder used - I was the 3rd owner but first two only used it very gently (I knew both of them). I think they are about $2,500 - at least the last time I checked. They come from Canada. I love it, but it is touchy and you must be very careful to only feed in small amounts of well teased/picked fibers or you will stall it and kill the motor. I HIGHLY recommend the Louet roving carder - not electric but works very well and much less expensive. I've had one for about 20 yrs.

[SojournerDMR]

Really nice, helpful video! It was great to see exactly how you use the diz with the carder. By the way, I have an almost-15-year-old Silky Terrier.

Diane

[elariel01]

Thank you very much - this was very imformative!

[ferbasar]

Thank you very much for the demonstration. You are a very smart lady. I am going try it. But, first I need to get myself a carder. I have so many fiber in my house. I need one:)

[jearda1]

Thank you for some great teaching. Just a question though. I followed your directions to make a roving with a cap. I have a triple carder that is hand wound. All went well except that wool came out the front as I was pulling the roving. My carder will do that if wound backwards. I assume they all do. But is there something I can do to keep that from happening when making rovings? Thats a lot of wool not getting into the roving.

[teachmyown]

How clever!! My husband is buying me a drum carder for Mother's Day, and I always wondered how I could possibly get roving off of it instead of a batt. Now I know!

[emily91ify]

You make the best videos! I am learning a lot from them. One question: what did you use to make the holes for your dizzes? It would seem that if I used a screwdriver on a plastic lid, it would make a jagged hole that would hinder the dizzing process.

[RallyJudge]

@felterone Glad to help. I used to tear in strips too, but really prefer this. It works on lots of carders, at least all I've tried or helped people with. Makes a much neater roving. Happy Thanksgiving.