Hectic Heaven

Hand Carders

My ashford hand carders came in today... so I have been trying my hand at carding some alpaca wool I have here...and tips or tricks you could pass on to this newbie would be very much appreciated...

I got the last orders mailed this morning.. I am waiting on a few things to come in the mail  and the gift part of Christmas will be done... I want to make some candy... My sister mentioned in the comment section on my previous post a type of candy mom always made.. I think I will give it a try this year again..  I want to make some fudge as well.. 

For Christmas Eve dinner, since that is our BIG family dinner Im going to cook a prime rib (not much to do that, throw it in the oven)... and I think some twice baked potatoes.. since I can do some of it ahead of time...and a pumkin pie I think... I cant hardly get enough pumkin pie this year... and usually its way from from the top of my favorite pie list  lol...  For Christmas dinner which will probably just be DH, the kiddo's and myself.. I think we will have a ham dinner...alot lower key... well they are all lower key since our family tends to do potlucks for big meals.. which takes the load off of just one cook..   well heck off to bed I go... Night all

Wool

10:00, 2006-Dec-18 .. Posted by maa

MMMM....Your dinner sounds really good.
Do you have alpacas and do you spin wool?
I enjoyed reading your post.
Belle-homesteadgirls

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04:33, 2006-Dec-19 .. Posted by BlueApple

I'm still a newbie too and have no idea how to do the hand carding stuff...I still buy my wool ready to spin. That will be next on my list to learn. I'll be the alpaca is very soft, though!

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05:01, 2006-Dec-19 .. Posted by SpinnerGal

Biggest thing I have found with handcarding is not to overload the card. Too much "stuff" will get you all bogged down and nothing with card correctly. And dont try to card it all in one pass, card it, pull it off, re-load, and re-card the same fiber two or three times to give yourself and nice soft rolog.

Good fiber prep is a must also. If you have lots of second cuts in the fiber, it will card up into little knobbies that dont spin nicely. Pick out all the short bits and toss them away. Using only the best of the fleece will save you time and aggrivation in the long run. Washing the fleece before carding works better also, dirty fleece has a tendacy to glom up the teeth of the cards.

Dont expect carding to get rid of all of the veg matter in the fiber either. It will get most but you will still find some that just sticks in there. You will have to pick it out by hand before spinning or as you are spinning. Combing will get more of that out if you ever go that route.

Hope this helps!

I want to make some fudge as well..

06:57, 2006-Dec-19 .. Posted by Musketman

Fudge is good, from soap to fudge, the milk of the goat reins supreme... LOL