Fades are all the craze in the knitting community, and the number of patterns popping up on Ravelry is astounding. Spinners who love working with multiple colors can also “fade” – just grab some colorful fibers and follow these easy steps to blend a fade batt on your Strauch drum carder!

Supplies:

Strauch Drum Carder -The Petite was used in this tutorial. Note: The wider your drum carder, the more colors you can have in your fade!

1/3 ounce each of fiber in 3 different colors, preferably in a coordinating color scheme.

How to make your Fade Batt: 

First, take strips of your first color and feed them through the drum carder on the left side (leaving the other 2/3 of the drum carder free).

Then, take your second color and repeat the same process, feeding the strips through the center third of the drum carder.

Finally, take your third color and feed it through the final third of the drum card, on the right side.

Notice that this first pass isn’t meshed together well, so the colors may have a tendency to pull apart when removing your batt off the carder.

To fix this issue, begin drafting your batt out taking care that the colors stay in order. Then, pass the batt through your carder again, making sure to arrange your colors in the same way as the first pass (the first color should be on the left, the second color in the middle, and the third color on the right).

Now the colors should be blended together along the lines where they touch! Remove your batt from the carder; if you prefer, you can repeat this process a second time to blend the colors a little bit more.

Now you’re ready to spin your own fade-worthy yarn! We’d love to see your own “fade” batt – tag us on Instagram with the hashtag #strauchfiber to share your creation.

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