Going Batty (or “Oh, You Are a Card…”)

The recent parcel from World of Wool held within it a 500g bag of Botany Lap Waste – as seen on Wednesday. If you recall, I sorted the colours out into piles that might work together.

Yesterday, I dug out my drum carder (thankfully fairly clean) and I carded three greens and a yellow together.

I made five batts in total, the first one slightly spoiled by the presence of pink Shetland fibres (well, the carder looked clean!)

Very spring-like and reminds me somewhat of daffodils.

I think that the fibre was all Merino, though possibly of differing micron counts. It was difficult to card smoothly and has a few lumps and bumps in it, but I can cope with those in the spinning. I am not a spinner who expects, or even wants, a perfect yarn.

I am very pleased with the colour results, although the batts are less than perfect. The original fibres looked rather less than promising – who’d have thought that I could extract all this beauty from them?

Of course, those colours are from my almost-useless pocket camera…

…they look far prettier with the new one, don’t they? Far more accurate, in fact.

And do I not have the most wonderful, kind and generous husband?

So, what’s all this carding activity about? Two things…

Firstly, I had a vision of plying a little green into some natural black fibre – this stuff seemed ripe for the job so I carded it ready to spin. I stil have to card the black – a task that has been waiting for months.

Secondly, I have a packer brush for my carder. It has not been fitted yet. The greens are the before standard that I wish to compare with the pink/brown, which will be the after standard. Over time, I hope that the standards will improve. My carding skills are pretty rubbish, really. I’m putting much faith in the packer brush!

There was another package for me today, although it was addressed to DH, who bought it.

What could be inside?

Well, more packaging for a start…

but, ultimately, a fast data card for the camera!

Just like pass the parcel. Maybe a tad over-packaged?

I’m fairly well set now and just waiting for the sun to come back so that I can go on a photo safari around the island and familiarise myself with the new camera.

If the sun had been out I might have managed a better shot of Peter grazing with the chooks this morning…

No, the new cam isn’t rubbish – it’s my mucky windows and the haar that are rubbish.