Raving about Roving
I've had spinning on my mind lately. I've got several drop spindles going right now (though my spinning wheel and I have a battle of wills going on at the moment), and I'm itching to pick them up all the time. The act of spinning in and of itself is wonderful, but it's truly serendipidous when you find your perfect roving.
I have fallen in love with the hand-dyed softness sold by
The Arts at Eagles Find on Etsy. If my stash was not already at critical mass, I would buy out her entire stock. ;)
The fiber itself is very soft, and the perfect staple length for me. It readily splits into pencil roving, if that is how you like to spin it. It is also very easy to draft and never fights you. I've never had a problem with unintentional felting while spinning, but wet felting a finished object comes out beautifully. I do tend to run my bags through the wash a little bit more with this fiber than I do with commercial yarn, but it is well worth the extra cycle. If you do not want felting to occur at all, you can usually find superwash roving in the shop as well.
The colorways offered in the shop are all vibrant, and they send your imagination running wild coming up with things to make out of them. If you separate the wool into pencil roving, you get shorter color repeats for a more varigated look. Taking larger portions of the combed top can produce longer repeats, giving you a self-striping yarn.
Customer service from the shop has been top notch with every order I've ever placed, and as long as she stays in business, I'll always becoming back for more.
