In Part 1 of this article, I described how to prepare longwool fleece for worsted spinning using flick carding or combing methods. While you can just spin direct from these individual combed or flicked locks, you will need to keep stopping to join on the next lock. So here, in Part 2,1 will describe the next stage in fibre preparation which will stack several locks on top of each other, all facing the same way, and then draft them out into a roving, ready to spin. (Roving. 1) To do this, grasp your stack of locks (unless they are very thin locks, three or four is usually about right) with both hands, keeping your hands quite a way apart, so that at first you are just holding the ends of the fibres. (Roving.2) Pull gently, and as soon as you feel the fibres start to slide apart, stop and move your grip slightly closer together. Keep repeating the pull-and-move action until you gradually lengthen out the fibres into a roving. (Roving.3, Roving.4 and Roving.5) When you move your grip, try dropping the fibres onto your lap and picking them up again further along; this will help to stop the tendency to slide your hands along the roving, which ruffles up your nicely aligned fibres. (Roving.6 and Roving.7) When you have a roving that is nice and even and just thicker than the thread you are intending to spin, you need to make a nest to store it ready for spinning. So just wind the roving gently around your hand - the slight twist that you put into it by winding will help to keep the roving intact. (Roving.8 and Roving.9)
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