Spinning Cotton

I started spinning on my Bosworth Charka today. I was spinning ginned cotton. I can't wait till I get my cotton cards because I want to try spinning carded cotton... I'm sure it will be a whole lot easier to spin ginned cotton if it has been combed into punis (long tubes of cotton carded and then rolled into little tubes). My charka, which I bought last year for my birthday gift (yes I bought my own birthday gift.... Hubby would never have gotten me a charka), has been staring at me all week making me want to spin cotton on it. I finally got my wool off the Navajo spindle and frankly I think my first sample is the best sample. Anyway... I digress again... I have spun a nice amount of ginned cotton on the charka this afternoon and honestly I'm fairly pleased with the results. I had to use a park and draft method to spin the cotton and pick out tons of sticks and husks and bits of stuff and the results are somewhat slubby but considering that I didn't card the cotton at all I'm very pleased that I was able to spin the fibre at all. The ginned cotton was cotton that I got last year at Olds College. A gentleman in the next level was giving ginned cotton away and how could I turn down a freeby. It is nicer than the cotton that our instructor gave us though as I said full of "stuff". I managed to fill a spool... mind you the spools on the charka are not all that big though I think they are meant for finer spinning than mine. The stuff I spun would probably be equal to a single of a medium weight crochet cotton so I thought that was not too shabby considering that I really haven't spun much on the charka and certainly not cotton.

Last year after I bought my charka I gave it a whirl with a small sample of cotton that came with the machine. I didn't really enjoy it so I thought in order to get used to the machine first, I would try something in protein fibre with a short staple. I had a bag of Yak and so began a little trial and error with that fibre. When I had spun two spools, I set it aside and really didn't pick it up again till this afternoon. So considering my lack of experience I think I am doing ok. I can see that spinning on the charka could become a very relaxing pass time. I sat at the table, which is now in the south facing sunroom, and spun while the afternoon sun sunk lower and lower into the sky. With all the snow that is outside my window, and the setting sun it was quite spectacular. All purple and blue and pink. Who would think that a gal in the north would be sitting spinning cotton, a plant that thrives in heat.

I just planted my cotton seeds and I hope they will germinate here in my sunroom. We will see how this experiment works. It is quite a nice warm room and has lovely sunshine all day. But then there is very little light as the days get shorter. Right now I am receiving about eight hours of light a day and there is still a month before the shortest day. The cotton may not do well in these conditions.... oh well I guess it is worth a try. The soil is free and so were the seeds.

I have decided to buy two sets of cotton cards in the end. The first set of cotton cards that I bought are Ashford cards and I will use them for blending cotton and the second set of cards are from the Woolery they are made by the Howard Brush Company. The Ashford cards will be here hopefully by the end of the week but the Howard Brush cards won't be here for another couple of weeks. I may keep the Howard Brush cards for Christmas.Hubby never kows what to buy for me so I buy and he wraps. For now though I spinning cotton uncarded... so there.