For a medium wool with a short, sproingy staple, why not? I guess it depends on the type of preparation that you want to achieve. For true woolen spinning, you want a mass of wool with no order to trap as much air as possible between the fibers. Feeding locks perpendicular to the carder is one way to disrupt the order of the lock. Another way would be to very thoroughly pick the fibers open before carding. Because multiple passes through the carder will continue to align the fibers, if you are carding multiple times, strip the batt and feed the strips in perpendicular to the drum, too. After carding, strip the batt into smaller pieces, roll perpendicular to the length of the batt to make a rolag, and spin. When spinning rolags, I always envision that it is a tube of air surrounded by a layer of wool. I am just stretching the tube - longer, narrower, but still maintaining the core of air.
If I want to maintain a more worsted-style prep, I maintain lock formation, precard to open up the butts and tips, and apply directly to the drum for the first pass. I find that style useful for finer wools and silk. For multiple passes, I feed the batt strips in parallel to the drum. ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 7:49:55 AM Subject: [fibernet] Drumcarding Holly, thanks for the site! Just came across this, and it was a revelation to me - wondering if anyone here routinely does this, and would love to hear about it. I've had a drumcarder for years, and never thought to do this, but since we're talking woolen preparation, why not? http://www.yarnharl ot.ca/blog/ archives/ 2009/02/13/ sideways. html Susan in Maine, where it's a chilly winter morning - but sunny! :) http://www.goosepon d.com/fiber [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
