You don't NEED an expensive wheel, a set of combs, a drum carder, or commercial dyes to spin wool or to process a fleece, guys. If you want them that's one thing, but they are not a requirement to get into spinning your own wool or processing fleeces yourself. I am a disabled spinner with literally no income who can only get tools and supplies very infrequently because of holiday gifts or people giving me free things, so trust me I would know.
You can spin wool on cheap or easy-to-DIY drop spindles, you can use cheap dog slicker brushes as hand carders, combs are literally just nails set into wood handles if you're up for DIY-ing, you can safely dye fiber with natural dyes from your yard or kitchen (which is what I do), etc.
There are plenty of cheap or even free ways to engage with spinning as a hobby. Do not let anyone try to tell you it's expensive to get into because you need this or that specific pricey tool or product, or because good quality fiber/fleeces are more expensive to buy and only lower quality fiber/fleeces are affordable—which is absolutely not true btw. All the cheap fleeces I've gotten have still been very nice quality fiber for making wearables with. You can even get nice quality fleeces for free sometimes if you make friends with shepherds online or irl who are trying to offload them because they have too many to deal with, or who have no desire to process and/or sell their fleeces themselves.
I got into spinning with a cheap $10 drop spindle that was just a rough, round piece of wood stuck on a dowel rod. That was all I used for my entire first year of this hobby, and it worked perfectly fine. I still primarily use my drop spindles now even though I have two wheels (thanks to gifts from people). They're convenient to use anywhere, they're what I'm used to using, and when you are used to using spindles they are not really any slower than using a wheel. Wheels are not "better" than spindles, they're just pricier lol
Also, speaking of gifts, when people in fiber arts hobbies tell you that you can get a lot of stuff for free from older people looking to pass their stuff on or from people looking to de-stash, we mean it. I got an entire set of very nice wooden knitting needles (my very first set of needles) and a bunch of nice natural fiber yarn more expensive than I could ever hope to afford for FREE from someone I know from tumblr who wanted to de-stash. I've had shepherd friends I made online offer me free fleeces that they didn't have a use for. Gifting really does happen if you put the energy into looking for and making connections in your hobby of choice.
Fiber arts guilds and classes for fiber art hobbies will often have people looking to get new folks into their hobbies or shove off some old supplies taking up space in their house onto someone new. If you are in a place that has a local fiber arts guild (look it up and see if you do, you might be surprised) they probably also have equipment you can use—drum carders, spinning wheels, looms, etc.
Nobody is lying to you by saying fiber art hobbies can be done affordably, and that they can even produce affordable supplies for your other fiber hobbies (in the case of spinning, which my original post was about). It's the truth. Fiber arts are pretty affordable to get into compared to many other hobbies. There is a lot of available help to be found both in person and online to get into them. Beyond acquiring the very basics needed to do the hobby, they are really only as expensive as you make them.
the best resource for getting started in spinning as well as continuing in handspinning is the community. you will learn so much and we love to answer questions, often with infodumps.
