Who ever thought you could love a drum carded named Leonard?  I had no idea.  Really.  I bought my Strauch "Finest" drum carder a while ago...more than a year I guess.  And I named it Leonard after Craig's grandfather, Leonard.  That's a story in itself that I'll save for another day...

So, I used Leonard from time to time, and enjoyed making batts, sort of.  The carder worked beautifully with washed wool locks, and I could make nice batts using commercially prepared wool top, thinning it out and feeding it in.  But when I tried to use lightweight fibers like silk, angora, mohair, alpaca, or sparkle, all I got were these lousy flyaway batts that were thin and ugly.  The fiber laid on top of the teeth instead of going in.  As an added bonus, all of this flyaway fiber did just that--it flew--everywhere.  I got fiber stuck all over me, up my nose, on my face, arms, legs (which itches like crazy, by the way)  Yuck!  I got discouraged and didn't make batts that often, and was worried that I should have purchased a less "fine" carder for my big $$$

Then I read this wonderful post by Maple of North Star Alpacas, about using her Drum Carder with her Alpaca fiber.  She gave me the idea that I should buy a big brush to help get the fibers into the drum.  A few days later (and before buying the big brush from the paint store), a light bulb finally went on in my brain about the brush attachment the machine already had.  "Crank the brush attachment down" was what the voice in my head told me.  You see, I was letting the brush ride on top of the drum.  I tightened it down in place, but had never pushed it down hard enough to actually help push the fibers into the drum. On my first turn of the handle with the brush tightened down, it was pure joy!

Now take a look at some of these fabulous, big, thick and gorgeous batts that Leonard has helped me make.  This set is called "spring is coming" and they are all mine, though I expect I will list them for sale when they're spun up (soon):

And this set is "Carnival Ride" and is for sale in my Etsy shop, (along with some bright obnoxious St. Patrick's Day batts that I won't blind you with here):

There's nothing like falling in love all over again.