Spin-Off – September 2019

60 Spin Off • http://www.interweave.com

The drumcarder is such a versatile tool. I have yet

to find a yarn effect that I haven’t been able to achieve

by preparing my own fiber blend, provided that I

have carefully planned and designed the yarn I had in

mind. Through the years, I have tried hackles, combs,

handcards, and blending boards, but the drumcarder

calls me back every time.

Recently, I’ve noticed many beautiful, exciting

knitting patterns using marled yarns. I wanted to see if

I could re-create this visual effect by using a blending

technique rather than the typical method of spinning

two contrasting singles and plying them together. I knew

that the drumcarder would give me a consistent effect

Drumcarder

& Diz

Creating a Marled Roving

By Emily Wohlscheid

Ph

oto

by

M

att

Gr

ave

s

when blending a batt from commercially prepared fibers,

and that was my starting point for this project.

Planning & Tools

I set out to create a blend that evenly swirls two colors

together, producing a marled effect in the singles, but

that would not be visually overwhelming as a two-ply

yarn. I wanted to highlight the slow color shifts that are

possible with a hand-blended preparation, so I decided

to pull the fiber off the drum using a diz to create roving

rather than a batt. If I kept the fiber in batt form and

pulled it into strips, it would spin into a comparable

yarn, but using a diz to make roving allows a more subtle