A roving is a long and narrow bundle of fiber. Rovings are produced during the process of making

spun ''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon, drug subculture. The ...

yarn from

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

fleece, raw cotton, or other fibres. Their main use is as fibre prepared for spinning, but they may also be used for specialised kinds of knitting or other textile arts. After

carding Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered with ...

, the fibres lie roughly parallel in smooth bundles. These are drawn out, by hand or machine, and slightly twisted to form lengths suitable for spinning. These unspun strands of fibre are the rovings. Roving can also mean a roll of these strands, the strands in general (as a

mass noun In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...

), or the process of creating them. Because it is carded, the fibres are less parallel than

wool top Topmaking mills make ''wool top'', a semi-processed product from raw wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as ...

(which is combed) and are not of uniform length. Carded rovings look fluffier than combed top, which looks smooth and has a high lustre. The fibres in combed top tend to be of a fairly uniform length due to the method of preparation. Though drawing it into strips may line the fibres up a bit.''Spinning Prep/Combing Lab''
International Textile Center Roving is not to be confused with

sliver Sliver may refer to: Entertainment * ''Sliver'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Ira Levin ** ''Sliver'' (film), a 1993 film adaptation of the novel ** ''Sliver'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the 1993 film * "Sliver" (song), a 1990 song by Nirvana *'' ...

as there is twist in roving. Pencil roving is a type of roving that has been drawn until it is the size of a fat pencil. It can be used by spinners with minimal drafting (withdrawing fibers from a clump). Knitters also use pencil roving, similar to Lopi style yarns, or when making a thrummed item. Regular roving can also be used in thrummed knitting.

References

Spinning Fibers {{Textile-stub