Preparing raw fiber to spin

There are a lot of different ways to prepare raw fiber in order to spin. I've done it different ways myself.  For example, I used to wash it first then flick and spin.  The only reason I don't now is because I lack patience and didn't like waiting for the fiber to dry (it takes days to air dry).  I find it spins pretty much the say either way (though some people like to spin it clean and then some prefer to spin it dirty saying that the fibers grip better).

Of course the easier way is to spin from rovings.  But for those wanting the adventure or maybe they are just frugal (guilty here!!), there are ways to spin from raw fiber.  I have posted these before but it never hurts to show it again ~ the steps I go through to spin yarn. 
 
First to skirt = shake out the dirt, second cuts and pick out the debris (hay pieces):

Then I weigh it (I weigh out two batches so that each of my 2 strands will be close to the same length):

Tumble in my fiber tumbler (I have posted about my tumbler before, here is a link to how to make one) :

And then flick into a cloud:

My handy flicker:

I use a flicker rather than carders.  With carders you can make rag rolls which would be similar to rovings.  I started out with the flicker and it works so well I have actually never tried carders.  This is one of those things that comes down to personal preference.

My cloud that I can spin into yarn: