Even though I may have one tooth fewer as of today*, there are plenty of teeth still in the household. Especially on this blending board.
I had enrolled on a fibre prep class on Craftsy a while back, and have watched it a few times. The rolags that I spun recently were made with a blending board, but that was not why I wanted one.
The reason is this fibre. It is hand dyed and if I were to spin it as is, I would get stripes. Hence the need for something to blend it all up. It is gorgeous and I want to spin it into a smooth lace weight yarn that has even colour distribution.
I thought long and hard if I should a) use my hand cards or combs, b) borrow a drum carder, c) buy a ready made blending board, or d) make one.
Option a) there is too much waste with combs, and I want to blend the fibre in larger quantities than fits on the cards. Option b) I most likely could find a drum carder to borrow, but what am I going to do next time I want to process larger amount of fibre? I haven't got the space anyway. Option c) none of them appealed to me. So, option d) I made one.
The 72 tpi carding cloth is from nunoco, and the board is from IKEA. I also bought a pair of wooden knitting needles for making rolags if I ever wanted to, but I have not bought a brush yet. Iris hantverk have some gorgeous wooden brushes with natural bristles, and I have been meaning to go there during lunch, but I've been quite busy lately.
I stapled the carding cloth to the bamboo cutting board, and oiled the board. I should oil it a couple more times, I think, it's still a bit dry. It won't win any beauty contests because the staples are super wonky on one or two sides, but it was dead easy to make.
Now to finish off Mum's yarn, knit a scarf from the green merino, then the one for Mum, and then I'll have time to play with my new toy.
* A long overdue wisdom tooth extraction.