Faux rolags take 2

I managed to finish spinning the first set of faux rolags I made. I had to rotate the rolag so that the fiber was always presented sideways to the orifice because it would clump up and the fiber would start feeding in straight. That does not work with long draw. Also this merino is sticky. I don't know if it is typical of merino or not. I've spun merino/silk and that drafts much easier. This is 100% merino and it doesn't draft easily at all. But it isn't felted or matted either.

 This is the finished single. Not easy to spin but will make a nice softly spun yarn.

I made more faux rolags with the second half of the fiber for the second single. I modified the process slightly.

 First of all, I used a little skinny rolling pin. That made smaller rolags and I'm hoping these will work better. The previous ones were too large.

Initially, I tried to just pull the fiber apart width-wise and roll it up.

But it made a pretty wide rolag and it didn't roll up neatly on my pin.

 Then I stripped the fiber in half lengthwise and then spread it out and pre-drafted it. I thought this might help the sticking. So I not only pre-drafted lengthwise but I pulled it apart width-wise.

 You can see the difference in the before and after strips.

 Then I rolled it in the pin but when I tried to separate it from the main strip, it almost never separated cleanly.

 But I rolled up the excess also into a nice little bundle. Then I slid it off.

And there is the nice pile of rolags. Let's see if these are easier to spin. If not, I will try again with some other fiber but not for a while.