The Next Step In Spinning

Now that I've spun my first bit of fiber I can't wait to do more!! Thankfully I'm well aware of how I am, so I bought some roving off of Ebay the same time I bought the drop spindle and they both arrived the same day :o)

I bought 8ounces of Corriedale wool roving from Red Barn Farm. It's important to know what you're buying when you start looking for things on Ebay. Perhaps I should back up just a bit...

You can purchase what is called Roving, or you can purchase raw fleece. What Roving is is a raw fleece that has been washed and carded and put into long strands. Most fleeces need to be washed (Angora on the other hand does NOT ;) ) because the animals live outdoors. It can be a messy and delicate matter. The wool needs to be washed and gotten clean, but not agitated much because then it would felt the wool and ruin it for spinning.

Carding is the process of taking the wool after it has been washed and brushing it so that all the fibers lay straight and in the same direction. Think of it as taking big teased hair from the 80's and brushing it out into one of the smooth sleek styles that are popular today. Carding paddles are not quite as cheap as I would have thought, so when I looked at trying this I wanted to make sure that the fiber would be ready for spinning and not need any extra work from me.

This is the roving as it looked when it came out of the package. Red Barn Farm was sweet enough to even through a little free lavender sachet in with it...so the roving came out smelling wonderful! :o) It's a little touch...but one I as a customer really appreciate.

As you can see the strand is quite thick, and we're going to have to work at it some to get it ready for spinning on the drop spindle.

As you can see 8 ounces is quite the fist full of fiber! It was really hard for me to imagine how much fiber that was going to be. There is no set "1 oz of fiber will give you 10 yards of yarn" kind of conversion. It all depends on what the fiber is, some are lighter than others so you get more for that same weight, and how thick it is...you're not going to be able to spin some wools and bulkier fibers as thin as some others.

In shopping on Ebay pay attention to unit price!! Figure out how much it will cost per ounce including the shipping fees. With no reference for size in the pictures it's easy to make a one ounce ball of fiber look as big or bigger than the 8 ounces that I bought...and you'd never know it till you received it in the mail and wondered where the rest of your fiber was!

So my next project will be splitting this long row of roving into smaller sections. After that we will predraft it and get it ready for spinning. We'll see you then!