I want to spin but shipping anything here is really expensive. Would it be possible to just spin the big rolls of cotton like the kind they use in hospitals
It's definitely possible to spin cotton! I haven't tried it before, but I had a look around and found a video that demonstrates making cotton slivers/punis for spinning from surgical cotton:
Cotton is a very short fiber, and that can make it more difficult to spin than wool, especially if you're just starting out: It needs a lot of twist to hold together, and it breaks very easily if you put too much weight/pull too hard on it before it's properly twisted. You may want to look into using a supported spindle rather than a drop spindle (both should be easy to make yourself and to find tutorials for). The channel above also has a tutorial for spinning a single with just a pencil.
The only cotton I have in the house right now (that isn't yarn or fabric) is cotton pads, so as a quick experiment I just tore one up, floofed it up a bit, and spun directly from the floof with a supported spindle. Definitely not the ideal fiber preparation, but it can make a thread:
(Here I was using the lid of my mini scale to set the spindle in - normally you would use a little bowl.)
Alternatively, if you rather want to look for wool to spin: Depending on where you live, sometimes you can find wool for felting at craft stores - any wool like that also works fine for spinning. I've also seen people spin from very thick unspun yarns (wool/acrylic) that were sold for arm knitting, but I've never seen those yarns in a store where I live. And if you happen to have sheep nearby, you can sometimes buy unprocessed wool directly from the shepherd for relatively little money (but then you would need to wash and prepare it yourself, of course).
Good luck, and happy spinning!
