Adventures in Carding Workshop (2025)
In June 2025, I had the pleasure of taking the Clemes & Clemes “Adventures in Carding” workshop at the Estes Park Woolfest. I loved it — a very well setup class, with exercises that led us through a variety of techniques and results. Different blends (colour and fibre makeup), different spinning preps. I got most of the carding done on the day as planned, finishing up the last project (art batts) when I got home. And then I spun up the batts into yarns.
Batt #1 — Sock yarn batt
Mixed in some nylon (blue) into a Coopworth base. I spun it short forward draft with no twist (i.e., worsted), and aimed for a fair bit of twist — i.e., to make a sock yarn.
Batt #2 — Adding silk to wool in a woolen batt
Blending CVM and a bit of tussah silk. This was carded as a woolen blend, so I spun it long draw from the fold (strips of batt). I made most of it a 3-ply, and some of it a two ply (on the right in the photo below).
Batt #3 — BFL rolags
We had two very distinct colours of BFL, which we put on the drumcarder in a gradient. And, then, pulled off in rolags! I spun them from the tip.
Batt #4 Bond Sliver
We had some bond fiber, which we carded and then dizzed off the carder. That produced a very organized sliver, perfect for worsted spinning (SFD). The sliver was nice, but it was only once I had the spun yarn in my hands that I really appreciated just how delightful the Bond fibre was — so soft, so springy, even with such a fine spin! (Why, yes, I did promptly order some more Bond fibre, why do you ask? :^) ).
Batts #5 — Art Batts
I didn’t get to doing the carding of these during the workshop itself. Instead, I brought the materials home and did the carding on my carder at home. The exercise was supposed to be one art batt, but it seemed to me to fall naturally into 2 separate batts, and that’s what I did.
I confess — I wasn’t very enthusiastic. I don’t particularly use art yarn, so I didn’t expect to be interested in the result. So, I learned that “art batt” does not necessarily spin into “art yarn” in the sense of oddly-differently-spun segments and curlicues.
I made the 2 batts from the light and darker base fibres, blending in the pink roving to each of those proportionately, to make a semi-solid batt. And, to those batts, I added the colourful inclusions.
And, then I spun them differently — the light-base batt I did SFD (with twist in the drafting zone) from strips of batt, and the dark base I did longdraw from the fold (of strips from the batt). Both resulted in interesting colourplay yarn, and yet it would be (IMO) perfectly usable in any knitting (or weaving!) context. I will be doing more art batts!
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