Spinning - a beginners' guide

[SpawnChorus]

I really want to make my own yarn. Can anyone give me the low-down on hand-spinning?

Some particular questions:

What are the pros/cons of a top vs bottom whorl spindle?

Where's the best place to find rovings/tops?

Is it easy to card your own fleece (and does that make it less £££ than buying carded rovings/tops?)

Thanks!

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I can't tell you much about the spindle, it's been ages since I did any spinning, but I always liked to card the fleece, just had hand carders, used it sit in front of the telly and work away at it, very relaxing, the hand carders are like two hairbrushes, which you put the fleece on and pull apart in different directions until they are ready to be spun.

Sorry its not a great answer but I hope it helps

That does help! thank you!

bumping again

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Hello
I know not much about spinning but wish I did!
If you are ever in south/mid Wales
this museum is well worth a visit
Free to enter and lots of hands on, have a go opportunities

A drop spindle is easier to get the feel of the spun wool before investing in a spinning wheel.

Hand carders are good for making enough rolags or for blending wool and silk or merino and cashmere for example. It is quite a dusty job but you can prepare lots in an evening.

A niddy- noddy is needed for transferring the spun wool into skenes.

You can also spin merino then felt the spun wool into lac effect scarves.

Good luck! It is a lovely and highly addictive passtime.

What type of fleeces do you have?
Yes, it is very easy to card your own. The British Wool Board in Bradford are a good place to get a quality fleece. Jacob is a great one to begin with.

Thanks for that info GentleOtter. I don't have any fleeces at the moment. I really am starting from scratch! I did briefly contemplate buying an alpaca yesterday

I've been youtubing carding, and it does look satisfying. Roughly how long would it take to card, say, 100gm of yarn? Am I right in thinking that the process is:

Get fleece
Wash and dry fleece
Card it
Form it into rolags
(Are rolags the same as "tops"?)
Do you then have to somehow make them thinner...into "rovings"?
Then you spin it
And finally use a niddy noddy to wind it into skeins?

Blimey...it's a whole new vocab!

I found this page which is full of links and sometimes you can either buy second hand tools or there may be a local spinning group which share things.

You take a small handful of raw, washed wool, card it until you are happy (usually takes about 2 minutes) then you turn the free carding comb with it's teeth the other way and make your rolag so you are left with a cylindrical shaped fluff of wool.

I'm going to find a link as that sounded really weird....making rolags

Tops are the already prepared, carded wool that you can buy. I get mine from here.