Self-swept erbium fiber laser emitting around 1.56 μm is reported in detail. Both sweep directions were registered: pointing toward longer and shorter wavelengths, redshift and blueshift sweeping, respectively. We describe method of determining the direction of the wavelength drift using the monochromator based optical spectrum analyzer. Possible root for this sweeping regime, i.e., the gain modulation along active fiber, is discussed with the help of a simple model calculating the overall cavity gain that can predict the direction of the laser wavelength sweeping.