Animals with Verbs! Alpaca with ‘Pull’.
There is a step in getting the fibre ready for spinning called, ‘Pre-drafting’. I just learned this word this morning, trying to figure out what it is exactly that I do when I fluff and even out my roving (all the aligned fibres that came off the carding brushes). I also learned this morning that some people are very much against this step, since it might make your wool lumpy.
Meh.
I’m in the, ‘for’ pre-drafting camp. I find it makes the wool I spin much more uniform, as everything that goes on the spindle has a much more even weight/thickness than just spinning straight from the roving.
Plus, it’s really, really enjoyable.
Pre-drafting, how I do it anyway (and maybe there is a different word I should be using?), is like making clouds from wool. You have a little bundle of aligned fibres, and you pull at it, creating a big, long, and incredibly fluffy cloud tube. I love it. It’s very ‘zen’ifying.
So, for or against, here is an alpaca pulling out wool for the pre-drafting step:
Original sketch:
