mills ends are the leftovers from top from the mill. They are typically a mix of unknown fibers. I got luxury mills ends so they are high quality fibers like silk blends, mulberry silk, merino, etc. I get them at Camaj Fiber Arts flash sales and auction page on FB and at fiber festivals. I got these from MD Alpaca Festival from Lotus Flower Designs.
@@jkfiberarts thank you for your quick response!! I will have to buy some. A huge amount of my fibers come from Marys shop. It never disappoints! Happy spinning!!
OMG, those are gorgeous! Have you knit with these yarns yet? I think I could watch you make batts all day. The more I watch, the closer I get to putting a drum carder on my "to purchase one day" list 😂 I have a feeling my shopping at MDSW this year is going to be very different then years past! BTW, did you get my email?
I was responding to your email when I saw your comment pop up here. Check your inbox.😊 I have not knit with this yarn yet. Honestly, I haven’t had much time to knit lately. I need to get back to weaving to eat up some yarn stash!
I have just purchased the same carder. So far I have put cotton thru it. Making rolags. And then merino I put it through in very thin amounts but most of it ends up on the licker. I noticed when you use yours with all sorts of different fibers you are definitely not getting any on your licker. Would appreciate it if you could help me to understand why or what I can do to make it easier. I would love to be able to have as beautiful results as you. Leonie
Hi Leonie. I have had my Ashford drum Carter for a while. My carding cloth is 72. So I cannot put cotton through it. And it is not good for fine fibers. If you do, it will break the fiber causing neps. There are a lot of reasons that fiber can stick to your liquor in. The most common one is that you hold it with your hand when it’s in the tray. Once you put it on the tray, don’t touch it. If you have too much fiber, it will be hard to crank and will stick to the licker-in. Have you changed the distance of the drum to the licker-in? That can also cause issues. Drumard will card better from the cloud. You take the fiber and fluff it up so it’s very thin on the tray. The standard teaching is you should be able to read newsprint through the layer you have on your tray. The other thing is if your fiber is too long and it’s hanging off the back of your tray it may wrap around your licker in. Another common issue is if you overpack the drum it will accumulate on your licker-in. I also remove little bits that stick to the licker-in between passes. If you start to get things sticking and don’t clean them off as you go more and more will stick. there are a lot of things to troubleshoot when it’s not working smoothly, but those are the biggies. I hope that helps.
@@jkfiberarts Hi Kirsten, thanks so much for getting back to me. Mine is the finest drum carder so ok for cotton, alpaca etc. I do put the fibers on very fine. I haven't been careful to clean off the licker as soon as it gets fiber on it as it goes on each time but I will. I think your suggestion about the spacing is what I need to work on. I will try to get that right. Any suggestions as to the correct spacing would be very helpful. Thanks again Leonie
The spacing should be correct from the factory, but if using very fine fibers it may need adjusted. The distance between the drum and licker-in should be about the width of a credit card.
@@jkfiberarts Hi Kirsten, I definitely need to adjust as it's more like the width of 3 credit cards at the moment. Thank you so much for your help. Leonie 💗
@@leoniecochrane3108I hope it solves your problem! One other thing, and this may be brand specific, but for very fine fibers on my other drum carder- Clemes & Clemes the fiber fills the licker-in first and then it transfers to the drum.
