Card a Striped Batt: My "Layers" Method

Most of us make a striped batt by feeding thin strips of wool into our carders in the exact place we want the stripe section by section, until we have lines of color across the drum. I found that I had a few problems with this method:

1) My stripes weren't even.

2) I would gum up my drum at the edges as I fed in my first and last color.

3) It was hard to tell if I had an even amount of wool per color unless I weighed it out first.

4) Sometimes the colors wouldn't overlap well enough and the batt would drift apart once off the drum.

So I've started using a new method. In fact, I think I may go ahead and claim it as mine. I developed it out of frustration, so I'm sure another fiber artist out there is doing the same thing! But I've never seen it anywhere else, so mine it is ;)

Step 1:

Prepare each color of wool as you see fit and plan out your striping sequence.

I'm planning to make a batt that stripes with purple, gray, red and white in that order. I'll add a thin layer of gold last to tie the final yarn together.

Step 2:

Feed each color onto the drum, in order, using the whole width of the carder. Don't remove the batts between colors! You're making thin layers. The beauty of this is, you can keep layering until your carder is full without pre-measuring (as long as you don't mind different width batts!).

Purple going in.Gray going in.

Red going in.White going in.Step 3:

Remove the layered batt from the drum.

Step 4:

Divide the batt into four to five strips.

One strip pulled off main batt.

Step 5:

Turn the strip sidesways. (Ah HA!!)

Step 6:

Yup, feed it back through the carder! You'll want to spread the colors out a bit so that they fill the whole width. Feed each strip back through, gently lining up the colors as you go. You won't have to worry about overlapping because the colors have already been carded together once, and will stay put.

Step 7 (optional):

I added a thin layer of gold over the whole batt. I think it weighed out to be 1/16th of the total batt. But I like having a solid color that blends throughout a yarn to tie it all together. This is totally optional, your batt is now ready to pull off the carder without a thin layer.

Step 8:

Pull it off and show it off!!

Striped side.A peak of the back, gold side.Ta-Da! You've made a hassle-free, self-striping batt. Now go spin some yarn!