I love the colors and depth that a hand dyed top can have but I also love the quick and, dare I say fun, long draw drafting method. Considering long draw works best with rolags, which generally come off of carded batts, dyed tops and long draw have never really gone hand in hand for me… untill now.

Materials:

Top for spinning
long very smooth dowel (I used a chopstick that had a smooth finish)

1) tear off a section of your top that is about a staple length long. I was using BFL top so the staple length was about 4.5 inches

2) spread out the top.

3) place the dowel on one edge of the top and press down.  If your dowel isn’t smooth enough you will have a problem with it catching on the fibers when you try to remove it.  This will make for really funky and not really functional rolags.

4) start rolling the top over the dowel.

5) Continue rolling till you have a nice looking rolag.  Carefully remove the dowel.

From here you can spin it as is or you can make more rolags and then spin them.  Also, keep your eye out for the how to long draw on a spindle tutorial coming soon.