Reddit reviews The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook: More Than 200 Fibers, from Animal to Spun Yarn

Most enabling book ever: The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook

You could look into the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (I think that's the right one, anyways) for suggestions of how to spin/process the fleeces. There are a lot of sheep breeds that are primarily meat breeds in other places that still have nice fleeces!

TL;DR ahead~

I've been spinning for about 4 or 5 years now, and was using a drop spindle exclusively up until about a month ago. I just got a single treadle Ashford Traditional on long-term loan. I've only used it 3 or 4 times since then, so I'm not the best person to talk about wheel use. Spindles, on the other hand, are definitely my bag.

The most important things for a beginning spindler to have are a good spindle and decent fiber. The spindle doesn't have to be fancy, but it should be well-balanced, with a long spin time. I'm a big proponent of Kundert spindles as starter spindles; the one I have is my go-to for almost everything in the sport to aran range.

Good fiber is possibly even more important than a good spindle. Neppy, dry, or semi-felted fiber just makes the spinning process unpleasant, and you really have to push yourself to not give up when the fiber's fighting you. Super-short staple stuff is also generally not a good idea for beginning spinners; I started off with Coopworth, which is not the softest wool in the world, but it's definitely good at holding together. Blue-Faced Leicester and Border Leicester are also good options.

Related to that is the fact that fibers from different breeds of sheep (not to mention other fibers) have very different properties. These can influence the way you spin. Shorter fibers tend to be softer, but also more prone to wear. Longer fibers tend to be more wiry, but also more durable. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook is a really good source for information on sheep breeds, as is The Knitter's Book of Wool. While you don't have to spin something a certain way because it's a specific type of wool, the yarn will probably fight you less if you try and keep breed properties in mind when you work with it.

Also important to know is that there are many different fiber prep methods that you can spin from, and that these can also affect the quality of the yarn you make. Batts make for very floofy woolen (as a style of spinning) yarns, and combed top, which a lot of people call roving, makes for a more even worsted (again, a style of spinning, not a yarn weight) yarn. You can even spin wool straight from the lock, but generally you don't get into that advanced a form of fiber madness until a few years in.

Lastly, and most essential-- remember that you're going to drop your spindle. A lot. There will probably be swearing. Tears and recriminations may factor into things. The first couple months or so will make you wonder if it's really worth all that trouble, when you can barely manage to get yarn to hold together while practicing Park-and-Draft. But for me, that first awkward swatch of fabric knitted up from my first skein of yarn convinced me to keep going, because it was something I had produced from the ground up.

Five years later, I'm still spinning.

There's a lot more about spinning that I haven't covered, but I think that hits the salient points.

tl;dr-- Get a decent spindle, don't use crappy fiber even if it's cheap, listen to what the fiber wants to be spun like, and don't be afraid to screw up when you're starting off, because it's just fiber.

For starters I'd recommend the Knitter's Book of Yarn and the Knitter's Book of Wool, both by Clara Parkes. Both are incredibly informative and have some great patterns to boot. I consider both of these required reading for anyone even remotely serious about knitting.

If you want to get really serious about wool, the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook goes into crazy detail about the different breeds of sheep and the wool they produce. This book is extreme though, covers a lot of things that you probably would never encounter at your average LYS. It's more geared towards spinners than knitters.

The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook is recommended for all spinners. It's $25 so slightly over your budget but it's well worth it. My local library has it but I still want to get my own copy.

Every knitter or spinner could use another project bag. There's hundreds on Etsy to choose from. Keep in mind that some of these listings are made to order so read the description.

Indie dyed fiber makes a great gift. FriendsinFiber on Etsy has fairly inexpensive combed top and rolags.

Woolgatherings has some fiber you can probably get for under $15 with shipping. Undyed fibers in their natural color are very beautiful too.

Hipstrings has some very unique blends. Don't buy any cotton by mistake.

There's plenty of other fiber sellers on Etsy. Make sure to get her fiber that's specifically marked as suitable for spinning. There's much lesser quality fibers for felters mixed in there. Since she is a beginning spinner, get her wool.

You could also get stitch markers or extra knitting needles if she likes having lots of projects going at once.

Sorry I'm super late to reply--holiday weekends! In commercial yarn it can be hard to find a lot of variety in terms of types of wool. Anything not specifically labelled Merino is likely to just be "wool pool" wool. It'll be a blend of lots of different sheep/breeds that conform to a type & quality profile. These wools are usually coarser than Merino, and cheaper because of it too.

If you can find it, Shetland or Corriedale are wools I've seen in commercial offerings that I think are good for sweaters. I'm personally knitting an Aran sweater out of my handspun Romney wool. If you're interested in learning more about the different options, I highly recommend checking out this book!