Hi! I'm Tara and I'm the Blonde Chicken behind all this yarn! You can read more about how I got this While writing about organic cotton, I asked some spinners what it wanted they wanted to know about cotton roving. The overwhelming majority needed more information about spinning cotton roving.
I figured there must be numerous resources for spinning cotton but came up with very few. Every result related to spinning on a charkha or with punis.
Spinning with roving, on a wheel, is very different; the fibers are already parallel in the roving, so you’re drafting from a “web” of fibers.
While I’m nowhere near an expert on the subject, here are my tips from spinning from cotton roving.
- Remind yourself cotton isn’t hard to spin. It’s different, yes. The fibers are shorter, yes. But if you’ve been happily spinning wool, bamboo or dryer lint, cotton is not beyond your skill level. You just need to take into account that different fiber preparations will require different spinning methods. *deep breath*
- Typically the long-draw is used for cotton, but that works best if the fibers are in a web, not laying paralell. Because this is roving and not a puni, long draw won’t work very well. So yes, everyone will tell you to draft, but this fiber is ready to spin as is, no drafting necessary.
- Split the fiber down the length of the roving until it’s only a little thicker than you want your finished yarn to be.
- Loosen the tension on your wheel and set it at it’s highest (fastest) ratio. Due to the shorter fibers, cotton needs more twist per inch to make a strong yarn.
- Run your finger down the length of your roving pieces to see what is the “right” way. You’ll want to be laying the fibers down, not stirring them up. Arrange your fiber so that you you are spinning in a way that lays the fibers down. (That is, unless you want a really fuzzy yarn – which would be awesome and fun!)
- Attach your leader and start spinning! Remember not to draft (pull apart the fibers) too much. Allow the twist to enter the fiber, then take one hand to smooth down the fiber, while the other hold the twist. Allow the yarn to feed onto the bobbin and quickly let the twist enter the next length of roving.
This should get you started spinning from cotton roving, but if you have any questions, please ask in the comments!
