Once you start spinning, it's only a matter of time before you want to blend some fibers or card out some locks of fleece. Maybe you want to blend a bit of angora into the merino you have on hand, or perhaps you want to create a custom color by blending together two dyed fibers. Regardless of the reason, you will need to decide between a drum carder, a pair of hand carders, or a set of combs.
Last weekend I tried using a pair of hand carders for the first time. I have to say, I was not smitten. It was hard! It looked like it would be a lot of work to card together any substantial amount of fiber.
Hand cards and a drum carder essentially perform the same operation. They use meshed teeth to pull apart and align fibers. Hand carders create rolags, which are fluffy tubes of fiber that work well for spinning worsted style. A drum carder creates batts, which are big rectangles of fiber, just pull off a strip and start spinning.
The main benefit to hand cards is that they are cheap and portable. A pair of hand cards costs between $50-%75, and are about the size of two large dog brushes. A pair of hand cards can travel with you, are easy to store, and can be used anywhere. You could even hand-card fiber as you walked, if you were so inclined.
By comparison a drum carder is a much faster way to card together fibers. However, a drum carder costs several hundred dollars, takes up a pretty big chunk of table space, and is not easy to take with you or to store.
If you would prefer to use a drum carder but you don't want to spend all the money, check around with your local yarn stores and spinning guilds. Many stores and guilds have a drum carder available for spinners to borrow or rent, which can be a very affordable way to go if you don't think you will need one very often.
Image courtesy Flickr/fringedbenefit
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