Project Dates: 11/3/2022
This was a technique project to work with a diz on a drum carder. The idea was motivated by an article in Ply magazine Winter 2021 issue. It was about creating rainbow batts, but showed one of the techniques to use a diz to pull stripes off the drum carder. I picked colors from my fiber stash. I tested for grayscale compatibility by taking a picture with my iPhone and using the grayscale feature. I was targeting 14 WPI 2-ply yarn making each ply 28 WPI. This was a short project done over the course of two weeks.
I created a five layer batt on the drum carder. The spun yarn used a peach merino as the base, and then mixed in blue, blue green and yellow green unknown wool fiber in three separate stripes, then another peach for the middle, then the three colors, and a final peach for the top layer.
I found pulling the fiber off the diz a bit tenous at first. I had to take the rubber drive band off in order to make the drum wheel light enough to stop the fiber from separating. It also helped to have enough fiber to fill the diz hole. I used the largest diz hole I had which was about a quarter of an inch. I still had to help the drum carder turn at times. I love mixing the color and then pulling it through a diz. It made the fiber easy and quick to spin up.
I then picked a split complimentary yarn from my fiber stash. It is a turquoise blue that I picked up several decades ago from a now defunct mill in Massachusetts. The overall affect of the plied yarn was a bit more muted than I expected. When I was picking the second yarn to ply, the colors were very bright, so the muting was unexpected. Overall I like the plied yarn.
I love using the diz. I’ve imagined all sorts of ways to use this yarn, as stripes in a woven fabric, as a knitted panel with navy or black. How it will be used, is yet to be seen. For now, it embellishes my yarn stash and it was a fun experience!
