Cotton Travel Kit

Phreadde Davis's article on making a Cotton Travel Kit sparked my imagination this summer. I was feeling rather manic this week and decided to try making one of my own. I went to A.C. Moore and bought some of those unpainted wooden boxes, acrylic paint, glossy varnish, and paint brushes; and after perusing as many cotton images on the web as I could find, I was off and running.

The main box is 12" x 8 3/4" x 5". It houses 2 weaving bobbins for plying, assorted bead and akha spindles, a spindle bowl, 2 cat brushes for carding fiber, 6 puni boxes, and a short sanded dowel for rolling punis. I decoupaged Winslow Homer's post-civil war painting, The Cotton Pickers atop it. You can read a little about the painting's history HERE.



For the inside bottom, I decoupaged photos of cotton blossoms from my own garden. Quite a nice way to memorialize them!



A travel kit dedicated to cotton wouldn't be complete without another nod to a key figure in cotton's history: Mahatma Gandhi. I put a photo of him reading beside his charkha on the inside lid. Adorned in 3 places on the box are spinning quotes by him (click on the photos to enlarge enough to read them).





Last but not least, I couldn't forget medieval travel writer John Mandeville who claimed cotton came from a "vegetable lamb." In his own words, "There grew there [in India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie." These don the covers of six puni boxes, which will prevent my freshly carded cotton from getting squashed and keep them in ready-to-spin condition. These small puni boxes are 3" x 3" x 1 3/4".



Total cost for this project came to $17.70 (not including decoupage glue, which I already had on hand). Not bad for something that'll serve a lifetime. So thank you, Phreadde, for your wonderful idea! I'll enjoy this little kit for many years to come.

Like Gandhi once said, "If everyone spun an hour each day, we would have world peace." Think about that! A kit like this makes that really easy to do because it is completely self-contained for spinning short fibers like cotton. It's just the thing for travel spinning, or waiting room spinning, or... well, just think of the possibilities!

Happy spinning!

Pick A Bag of Cotton

You've probably heard of and maybe even visited a corn maze in the fall before, but how about a cotton maze? Yesterday our family visited just such a maze at Dean's Farm, which is in Wilson, North Carolina-- about an hour from where we live. It was the perfect maze for the fiber nut. Our family went on the hayride, and I couldn't help peppering the owner with questions about their cotton. My first question was whether they sold any of their cotton. They don't. I asked them what they do with the cotton. They said nothing... it gets plowed under at the end of the season. I was told that since they don't defoliate the cotton for the maze, they can't get machinery in there to harvest it-- the cotton would be too full of leaf trash if they tried. However, I know cotton is perfectly clean and fluffy when you pick it by hand. I asked if I could pick some, and he said I could!



I had an absolute ball! I was in the maze 45 minutes, leisurely picking cotton here and there as I went. I managed to fill a bag. I weighed it when I got home, and it was almost one and three quarters pound of seed cotton! It was a glorious experience (you cotton fanatics will understand)... I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven! All around me was fluffy white goodness-- more than I could ever pick-- and some of it literally exploding out of the popped-open bolls in soft, cottony strips. Some of the cotton was a little damp (we've had a wet year), but I simply poured it out onto a towel when I got home, and let it air out under a ceiling fan (cotton can mold). I'm pretty sure the cotton is organically grown... there was no pesticide odor to it at all, and considering they intend for the public to walk through it, I'm guessing that's enough reason for them to avoid using any chemicals! I also saw a variety of bugs here and there, despite the chilly weather: another good sign that it's chemical-free. I'm not sure what variety of cotton it is, but the staple length is about an inch (acala, maybe?) It seems a shame all that good cotton will go to waste, but I'm sure glad I got some! The owner mentioned they'd tried corn mazes in the past, but it's a windy area and the corn kept falling down. Cotton keeps standing, despite the wind. I'm glad that there's one maze in the area that uses cotton instead of corn. It's rather unique, don't you think?

Apart from the maze, our family enjoyed the hayride. For the price of the hayride you get a access to the maze, a small pie pumpkin, a goodie bag, and a tour around their fields of strawberries, collards, mustard greens, bee hives, etc. There's also a critter barn. There's a small picnic/play area outside the maze, so dad and the kids can play while mom goes on her fiber drunk (eh hem). There's a small store on the premises so you can buy their farm goodies. We bought 2 jars of their honey (which tastes of strawberries), collard greens, and sweet potatoes. It's a pleasure to be able to buy straight from the farm. If you're so inclined, they are open every Saturday during October. Remember to ask the owner's permission first if you intend to pick cotton (and please do support their farm by buying some of their produce!) You can bet I'll be back next year!

As for my own little bed of cotton, my bolls have not yet popped open. My cotton always seems later than everyone else's, even though I start seedlings indoors in March. I can only guess it's because of my yard, which is surrounded by trees, which means my cotton probably doesn't get as much sun as it should. I posted photos of the flowers from my cotton bed in the last post, so this time I'm posting photos of some bolls. I'm looking forward to the harvest, though my little bed is meager by comparison to Dean's big field! Either way, picking cotton is a blast!

August Cotton Blooms

I've been behind in updating my blog this summer. We began homeschooling the second week in August, so I haven't had a chance. But August brought with it some of the first cotton blooms, so I thought I'd finally share them. The bolls are happily plumping by now, too. My mom, who started her pima cotton two months after mine in hot & sunny Phoenix, already has bolls that have popped open-- which just shows you can speed the process up with heat and sun-- or slow it down with cooler temps and a partially shady growing area like I have. I suspect my first bolls won't begin to pop until next month, or maybe even November.





The one knitting project I completed this summer was Pam Allen's Knitting Needle Knitting Bag (the free pattern can be found HERE). It was a quick and easy pattern to work up. I hand-sewed a liner into it (not fun) and added an i-cord latch. I also added about an inch to the bag's height, to make it roomier. The yarn is berry heather Reynolds Lopi-- one of my favorites.





Happy knitting!

Marble Slab & Iron Rolling Pin "Cotton Gin"

For my birthday this year, I ordered a Marble Slab & Iron Pin Cotton "Gin" from Alden Amos's Dragonfly Farms (scroll down to the bottom of their webpage). From their website description: Primitive & effective tools for ginning cotton. Iron pin pinches, presses seed cotton against stone slab, & squeezes 'lint' from seed as pin is rolled. Simple to do & surprisingly easy. Method is authentic from circa 1300 BCE to the present. Iron pin is approx. 5/8" dia. x 8" long; the slab is 12" x 6". For all slick-seeded cottons only! Will not work on hairy-seeded types.

I've had a lot of fun playing with this. I do prefer this method over using a pasta machine as a gin (mentioned in a previous post) I found the pasta machine jammed up on me at times, whereas if you have a good solid seed, this easily presses it out. The only time it didn't work was on partially formed seeds that failed to develop, or on older cotton where the seeds had dried out... these cracked under the weight of the rolling pin and had to be removed by hand (can't have everything!) So far I've only tried this gin with Pima cotton. It works quite simply and effectively. You roll the heavy iron rolling pin away from yourself, over a fluff of cotton, and along the top of the ungiving hard marble; then out slides the cotton seed away from its fiber, just ahead of the rolling iron pin.

Could the same thing be achieved with a baker's rolling pin against a table top? Or perhaps PVC pipe? I don't know. It does seem to help that the solid, heaviness of the pin (which weighs a hefty 10 ounces), rolling against a very hard surface like the marble, is what helps to squeeze out the seeds. Something light-weight and less solid may not cut it. If you grow cotton, I consider this an excellent tool to add to your collection of fiber-processing toys (I mean tools!) It's fun to use, besides. And don't you think it's neat to use historically-authentic tools?

As you can see in the photo, the marble slab is not very large, but it is very heavy (almost 10 pounds according to my bathroom scale). If you plan to order one, know that the shipping cost will be pricey. It was over $18 to ship it from CA to NC.

* * *

I finally got around to calculating the germination rates of this year's cotton seeds. I started with 152 seeds total (5 different varieties) and ended up with 68 seedlings to transplant, which makes for a 45% germination rate. Here's the breakdown, by variety and year of seeds:

2008 homegrown Pima = 36%
2008 Arkansas Green Lint cross (from FL) = 100%
2006 Arkansas Green Lint (Southern Exposure) = 67%
2008 Erlene Green cross (from FL) = 100%
2006 Erlene Green (Southern Exposure) = 78%
2008 Nankeen Brown cross (from FL) = 73%
2007 homegrown Nankeen Brown = 4%
2008 Mississippi Brown cross (from FL) = 25%

My own homegrown cotton seeds had the worst germination rates, so perhaps I need to figure out a better way to collect and store my seeds, or else start my cotton even earlier so that the last third of its growing season doesn't fall after the first frost! I didn't gin my homegrown right away, but waited about 3 months. Could this have made a difference? I saved my seeds at room temperature in a ziplock bag... perhaps I should have refrigerated them? The best germination rates came from a home gardener's seeds in Florida (all of them most likely crosses, since she grew more than one variety together). Maybe hers were stronger, for being crosses? If I had to guess what the problem was, it was that my cotton was still finishing its growth cycle into December, when it was cold (and cotton hates the cold). I picked my final harvest on Dec. 29th, '08 in fact, well after a few freezes, waiting for those bolls to finally pop open. It's possible the seeds suffered from the cold while still inside the bolls. Anyway, if anyone has any insights to share, please do! I'm learning as I'm going.

My cotton plants are thriving so far this year. I've been foliar-feeding them seaweed emulsion. I mentioned before that I'm growing them in a bed of red mammoth clover, which acts as a "green manure" (and helps to fertilize the cotton all season long, as a "nitrogen giver"). The clover does not like this emulsion and seems to suffer every time I use it, but the cotton seems to love it (not to mention my tomatoes and peppers!) Wild rabbits like to sit in the bed and nibble the clover, but thankfully not the cotton (though I did find one cotton plant had been partially snapped in two. I'm attempting to tape it back together, figuring I have nothing to lose for trying the experiment! So far it still looks erect and perky.) At least one plant already has the first little formation of a growing flower bud, which is pretty exciting.

Here are pictures of 2-month old cotton plants from my garden (click on them to view them larger). Five different varieties are shown here, for leaf-identification purposes. You'll note there are some differences in leaf shape from variety to variety, the most dramatically different being the Arkansas Green Lint, with its pointy leaves. I've noticed all varieties have one smaller leaf that is waxy and shiny and a slightly different color green.


Mississippi Brown Cotton


Erlene Green Cotton



Arkansas Green Cotton Plant


Nankeen Brown Cotton Plant


Pima Cotton Plant

Oakie

I'm overdue in introducing the latest addition to our family. This is Heart of Oak (or Oakie for short). She is a chocolate German angora who was given to us by Elaina of Avillion Farm. Elaina retired her as a breeding bun after 6 successful litters in 2 years! She's our wooler pet now, and we're so happy to have her. Thanks so much, Elaina! Oakie has a gentle, easy-going disposition. We've already shaved her once since bringing her home, and I'm looking forward to spinning all that luscious fiber! Isn't she a cutie?

More Doggy Yarn

This month I have been mostly working on my one long outstanding project, the Barbara Walker Learn-to-Knit Afghan. I am currently up to square 19 of 63. The last two squares were knitted with luscious Samoyed fiber. It was a delight to knit with, so soft and fuzzy. The photo above shows hand-carded Samoyed punis.

Spinning yarn from dog or cat hair is not a new idea. It was practiced anciently. And for the non-spinners who stumble upon this blog, no, the animals are not harmed in the collection of their fiber for yarn-making. The brushings of the soft undercoat are used, while the coarser guard hair is removed by hand. Most people like to blend dog or cat fur with wool because it is too warm and insulating by itself, especially if they plan to knit something wearable with it. But I like a 100% pure yarn, to fully appreciate the characteristics of the fiber as it already is. They call this kind of yarn chiengora (pronounced shane-gora).



The above skein was spun on an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. If I have a favorite fiber to spin, it may very well be Samoyed.

And We're Off: Transplanting Cotton

We transplanted our cotton seedlings (70 of them) on May 9th. (The photo above shows the seedlings still under grow lights.) I've got 5 different varieties growing this year (23 white Pima, 9 Nankeen Brown, 2 Mississippi Brown, 18 Arkansas Green and 18 Erlene Green. With only 2 Mississippi Brown that sprouted at all, I do hope they survive.) I realize there will no doubt be some cross-pollination here, but I'm OK with that. I just want fiber, and I don't mind a few surprises. The seedlings were transplanted into an 8'x8' raised bed, with plenty of compost. I sowed a pound of inoculated red mammoth cotton seed in the bed on the same day-- this will be a green manure and living mulch for the cotton. I have no idea if the clover will be a good thing or a bad thing, but I always get marvelous results with vegetables when I raise them with clover.



This is a seedling the day after transplant. It's already looking perky, despite the previous day's move.



Here's a bird's eye view of the raised 8'x8' bed, the day after transplant. It's rich with compost and rabbit manure. Most of the plants are spaced one foot apart (since I had more than 64 plants, a few were squeezed in more tightly here and there). I mapped out which varieties went where on some graph paper, so I can better keep track of how the various varieties are doing.



Here's the same raised bed, 6 days after transplanting. The red mammoth clover has sprouted and covers the bed thickly. The cotton is still looking perky, even though our high was in the 60's F today (a bit too cold for cotton to grow well yet).

Wikipedia has a great entry about cotton. There was a time when cotton was a mystery fiber. John Mandelville wrote in 1350, "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie." Gardeners always know the gamble they undertake the moment they add water to a seed. But here's hoping for a productive season, that many "vegetable lambs," in many colors, will be added to my fiber flock.

Weavette Time!

Do you ever wonder what to do with all those fiber samples that come with your new drop spindles? There's never quite enough of the spun yarn to do much of anything with. However, with a Weavette weaving loom, all you need is anywhere between 2 to 11 yards of yarn to make a little woven square or rectangle, depending on the size of loom you decide on. For a 2"x6" rectangle bookmark loom, all you need is 6 yards of yarn. If you're anything like me, you have a book stash that perhaps equals or surpasses your yarn or fiber stash (or vice versa)! I, for one, can never have too many bookmarks, so the 2"x6" loom was a good choice for me.

If you'd like to spin your own yarn for use in a Weavette loom, the recommendation is 8-12 wpi (i.e. DK to heavy-worsted weight yarn). If you're making a bookmark, I recommend going on the lighter DK side, as the thicker bookmarks can wear down your book bindings with their thickness. However, the heavier weight yarns do allow the textured patterns to stand out much better. The lighter weight yarns leave you with an open gauzier bookmark. Spin your homespun as smoothly as you can if you plan to do more than plain weave... lumpy homespun definitely obscures the textured patterns, as I discovered firsthand! Each bookmark took less than an hour to make. I like to leave a yarn tail since I'm using these for bookmarks, but if you're going to join squares or rectangles for a larger project, obviously you'll need to weave in your yarn tails.

For textured patterns, I recommend the book Modular Textures: Patterns for the Weavette & Weave-It Looms Vol. 1 by Licia Conforti. Also, eLoomaNation offers tons of free vintage .pdf pattern files for these looms. Her website & blog are terrific resources. There are small loom groups on both Ravelry and Yahoo Groups if you'd like to learn more.


Here is a Weavette diagonal bookmark pattern. The yarn is 100% Samoyed homespun


Top: dyed border leicester locks
Middle: dyed corriedale/merino
Bottom: silk

Yarn Farming

Spring is here, so thoughts are turning to fiber production once again (not that my thoughts are ever far from fiber, no matter what time of year). I sowed cotton seeds in seedling trays earlier this month. This will be the first year I'm using seeds from cotton I produced myself, rather than from a seed catalog. There were plenty of seeds from last year's pima cotton harvest, and some seeds from the 2007 Nankeen brown harvest. Tucked away in my stash were some green cotton seeds I'd ordered from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in '07. I went ahead and sowed those as well, though already I can see the germination rates for those have plummeted. I've definitely learned that it's best to use the latest cotton harvest's seeds, as cotton doesn't stay viable for long. I'll be tracking germination rates this year.

For seedlings, I like to use the soil blockers, available at Johnny Seeds. With a blend of peat, sand, compost and worm castings, I can make a pot-free 2"x2" square for each seedling. This method makes for less stress come transplant time, since you merely transplant the entire soil block into the planting hole. These were started indoors to germinate, since cotton likes it warm. The pima were the first to begin sprouting, after just a couple of days. I've filled up 4 of these trays, in hopes of getting many seedlings this year. I'd love nothing more than to inundate my yard with cotton, especially since the past 2 seasons produced such a meager harvest with only a handful of plants. I'm so excited about the new season, and feeling quite optimistic that this will be an even more productive year for cotton. Our temps have already been up in the 90's F, which will make my cotton very happy indeed.



It was also time to shave my lilac German angora bunny, Nixie. She gifted me with about 9 ounces of fiber last night. Here she is, before shaving.



She gets shaved quarterly. I tend to get between 9-10 ounces of fiber each quarter, which comes to 36-40 ounces of luxurious angora fiber per year. Shaving is a bit of a pain (it takes both my husband and I about 2 hours to do it), but when I think of all that yummy fiber, it makes it all worthwhile. And once a quarter for a shave isn't so very demanding. If you're a spinner who is dying to raise "fiber on the hoof," an angora rabbit can be a nice first step in that direction, if you don't have room/funds for something larger like a sheep. It's quite a joy being able to raise your own fiber, whether it comes from a plant or critter.

(Note: I do not sell any of my homegrown fiber, since my production is small and personal. I don't think I could ever part with the fiber that came from my beloved pets, anyway. If you are interested in raising angoras and live in North Carolina, I bought my German angoras from Avillion Farms. They also sell angora fiber in several colors. I highly recommend them.)

Tabachek Tibetan-style Spindle

Homespun llama on Tabachek Tibetan-style spindle, originally uploaded by Teri "Fiber Drunk".

I finished up a skein of homespun llama this spring. It was spun with a Tabachek Tibetan-style supported spindle, available at The Bellwether. At the right is a Kokovoko spindle lap bowl, which the spindle spins on top of, like a spinning top. It's available at the Woolery.

I'm used to spinning cotton with supported spindles, so it was fun playing with llama and putting it through its paces with such a spindle. The nice thing about this kind of spinning is you can sit in your favorite easy chair and spin right in your lap while watching TV or whatever. Tabachek's spindles are high quality and you can literally feel how well made they are in your hands. These are called supported spindles because they are not dangled in mid-air from the spun yarn while spinning, as with drop spindles. The spindle sits supported on the bowl, and no weight is ever placed on the freshly spun yarn at any time. It's perfect for short delicate fibers like cotton, but it works for longer fibers like llama as well. Tabachek was inspired by the design from a video on YouTube, where a rural Tibetan woman spins with this type of spindle. I can't say I have this woman's expertise with the spindle yet! But I did enjoy spinning with it just the same. There's nothing quite like spinning with a well-made spindle. It's one of the true delights of my creative life.

Completed skein, ready for knitting

My 2008 Cotton Harvest

Here is a summary of my 2008 cotton growing season (note: I live in growing region 7B, in North Carolina):

· Sowed pima cotton in seedling trays: 4/18/08
· Source of seeds: Cotton Clouds
· Transplanted 6 plants into 12-inch pots, with compost, some sand, and rabbit manure. The plants limped along during May-- it was too cool yet for cotton to be happy. The plants didn't make progress until temps were up in the 90's F in June.
· Foliar fed fish/kelp liquid 2-3 times a month.
· Side-dressed with rabbit manure as needed
· Blossoms first appeared: first week in August
· Height of plant on 8/8/08: 34.5 inches
· Average number of bolls per plant: 5-6
· Most bolls on a single plant: 13
· Harvest: November 16 thru December 29, 2008
· Fiber yield from 6 potted plants: around 15 bolls, which came out to .41 ounce of actual fiber (which carded up into 21 soft fluffy punis)
· Number of seeds per pima boll: 12-15 seeds


By contrast, my 2007 growing season, of which only 2 Nankeen brown cotton plants survived (direct-sown) in my garden, had a yield of .21 ounce (which carded up into 8 punis). This, too, was an improvement over my 2006 growing season where I tried to grow a green variety of cotton, and the squirrels ate all the bolls.

I hope to, in the near future, spin this all up and calculate the yardage produced from my homegrown cotton, to finish off my stats. It's kind of fun to see the statistics, to get an idea of what exactly goes into producing x-amount of fiber. My property is surrounded by trees, which probably affected yields. Cotton likes it hot and sunny. I'm still hoping for an even better growing season this year. Each year has been better than the last. I'd like to build a bed just for cotton, rather than planting in pots. The advantage would be larger plants and hopefully more bolls per plant. The disadvantage is I wouldn't be able to move them indoors to finish off their growing season if necessary. One final observation is that the germination rates for cotton seeds seems to be somewhat poor. I sowed many more seeds than what actually sprouted and made it to the transplant stage. Keep that in mind if you plan to grow cotton.

The USDA lists the following planting and harvest dates for commercial cotton in this region:

Planting: April 21 thru June 8 (with May 1-20 the most active)
Harvesting: September 27 thru December 15 (with October 7 thru November 15 the most active)



Pasta machine cotton gin!

I used a pasta machine to gin my cotton. A kind soul posted a YouTube video for how to do this, based on a Fall 2002 article in Spin-Off magazine. You can see in the picture that the seeds stay on top, above the rollers, while the fiber sticks to a piece of denim as it goes through the rollers. Since each boll has between 12-15 seeds, you develop a real appreciation for those who had to do this tedious work by hand in pre-gin days. Even with the pasta machine, I experienced jams and it wasn't always smooth sailing. After ginning, I used cotton handcards and a sanded dowel to make punis. Compared to the ginned cotton I have purchased in the past, my homegrown cotton was very clean and wonderfully soft and fluffy to work with (not to mention, chemical-free). Although my yields were small and you might wonder why I bother at all, it was satisfying to be a part of the entire process of growing the fiber from seed to puni. It will be all the sweeter when I spin it up (this, I'll probably do on the charkha). You can see my cotton growing at various stages on Flickr... the flowers alone are worth growing the plants!



(left) 2008 harvest: ginned white pima cotton & seeds;
(right) 2007 harvest: ginned brown Nankeen cotton & seeds



Same cotton, now hand-carded with cotton cards, and formed into punis using a sanded dowel.

Tahkli Love

My first impression of the tahkli wasn't a very favorable one. A few years back, I obtained a tahkli on eBay, one that had a rather large coin for a whorl. After taking it for a test spin, I put it down. It was pretty, but kind of clunky to use and not very long-spinning.

Then I tried ordering a brass tahkli from eTrade Enterprises. Shortly after, I had a baby. About a year after ordering the tahkli (and much sleep-deprivaton), I realized it had never arrived. I emailed the company, and they quickly informed me that the shipment of tahklis they had received that year were of poor quality so they had delayed shipping any out. But to make up for the long delay, they sent me not one, but two tahklis-- and they each came in their own little wooden case.

These tahklis spin like a dream. You'll need a little ceramic bowl or something similar to spin them on. I found it quite addicting to sit back in my favorite chair, pop in a DVD on the player, and spin cotton on my lap, while watching a movie. They are delightfully long-spinning, like playing with a spinning top. I'm hooked! So I'm pleased with not only the spindles, but eTrade's wonderful customer service. (And no, I'm not affiliated with the company, which is located in India. I'm just a happy customer.)

Happy spinning!



First tahkli-spun cotton skein

Homemade Spindles

It's been a long time since I updated this blog. Mainly because I have an old-fashioned camera (you remember those: the 35 mm film kind!) so I have to wait to fill up the roll and then get it developed. My turn-around time has been slow lately.

Just before the holidays, I made several homemade spindles for gifts. Making spindles is just as addicting as spinning on them, I found!


A Chorus Line of Baby Spindles

These were made from wood appliques and dowels, available at A. C. Moore. I sanded them, then applied two coats of Red Mahogany Wood Finish by Minwax. Then I applied 2 coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane Clear Satin, for a shiny finish. Both are available at Lowe's. Hubbie drilled the holes for me and inserted the hooks, which were made from eye hooks that were pried open with pliers. We made several of them and gave them as gifts for Christmas. I made them in 2 sizes: large (with a 9" shaft, 3" whorl and a weight of .91 oz) and baby (with a 5" shaft, 2" whorl and a weight of .33 oz). I used 1/4" dowels for the large square spindles, and 3/16" dowels for the baby square spindles. I really love to spin with these spindles because they have unlimited built-in "notches" all the way around the whorl. The baby ones are so cute to haul around. And because they were cheap to make, I don't have to worry about accidentally breaking them. The spindle below spun the yarn which I wove into a bookmark, using a Weavette 2x6" loom.



I also had to try my hand at making a spindle out of a flower applique. It weighs 1 ounce, has a 10" shaft and a 3.5" whorl. I used a 1/4" dowel for this spindle. It's very dependable. One thing I goofed on when making this spindle was that I tried using Gorilla Glue to secure the whorl to the shaft. To my horror, when I checked it awhile later, the glue had expanded and bubbled right out and dried rock hard on the whorl. It took me quite awhile to pick it off and sand it smooth. I've since learned from Miguel at the Spanish Peacock that Tite Bond III makes a much better glue for wooden spindles. You can also find this glue at Lowe's. Learn from my mistake!



All of these homemade spindles are long-spinning, and none of them cost more than $3 or so to make. A small can of stain goes a very long way with these spindles. So if you're looking to make something a little nicer than a homemade CD drop spindle, this may fit the bill. Happy spinning!

Note: A few have asked if I sell these spindles. I don't, since I got the idea from Spinsanity, and I don't think it'd be right for me to turn around and sell her idea. If you're interested in a spindle of this type and don't want the bother of making your own, please see Spinsanity on Etsy. She makes/sells the larger ornate square ones, and sometimes the flower ones. I can vouch for the quality, as I own one of her ornate square jacobean stain spindles. Thanks for the interest, though!

I Got a Moosie!

I haven't updated in awhile. November was spent noveling (is that a real verb?) with NaNoWriMo. Both my son and I met our goals.

The big news is I got a Moosie spindle from the Bosworth's! Click on the photos to see a larger image.



It has a 1.6" whorl with a 7.25" bloodwood shaft. It weighs .91 oz (26 g). Yes, the whorl really is made from a moose antler (and don't worry, no moose are harmed in the making of these spindles. I'd never have bought one otherwise! These are from naturally shed antlers). No two are alike. You can see the mouse nibbles on the whorl in the picture. Above, the Moosie is spinning Samoyed. Dog meets moose, you could say! It's a well-made spindle and long-spinning. There's a year-long waiting list for these babies, just in case you're interested. Out of all my spindles, this one is my favorite.



I finished the Wonderful Wallaby sweater for my daughter. This was the first project that I planned and completed, from fiber to finished knitted article. I spun the lavendar superwash merino on my Ashford Traditional. The pattern called for worsted weight, but I ended up spinning something closer to heavy worsted. It took about 29 ounces of fiber (about 542 yards). I knitted the pattern 2 sizes big, so my daughter can grow into it. It's warm and soft with a hood, and will have the ease of being machine-washable. The pattern is by Cottage Creations and was easy to knit up. The pattern booklet provides the patterns in sizes from toddler on up to adult super size, making this a really family-friendly pattern. I enjoyed seeing how the "pouch" (i.e. pocket) came together on the front. My son wants one now, so that'll be a future knitting project.



I started picking my first pima cotton bolls last month, so that's been quite exciting for me. When the cold weather set in last month, we dragged the potted plants into the shed and put them under some grow lights until the rest of the bolls pop. I'd love to see them overwinter, but they're looking rather spent by now, so we'll see.



Anyway, if I don't update before the month is through, have a merry Christmas and happy new year!

Gearing Up For NaNoWriMo

I spent October knitting, mostly. I finished up some glittens for my son early last month. I'm now trying to finish up my first Wonderful Wallaby sweater. The pattern for the glittens came from The Best of Lopi (specifically, the GSM pattern). I had to do some math and recalculate the pattern, however, because I was making them in a children's size and using much finer yarn (specifically, Knit Picks Simple Stripes, a yarn that is now discontinued).




It's been awhile since I posted and November probably won't be much better, but I just wanted to let everyone know that my son and I will be participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this month (my son will be doing their Young Writer's Program). This is a writing marathon they do every year during the month of November. Adults try to write a 50,000-word novel in a month's time (for kids, the goal is much lower, and different for each age). With homeschooling demands, my own goal will be a modest 10,000 new words for a novel I started back in August (which should bring me to 22,000 words total by the end of the month). That'll boil down to a doable 500 words per day Monday through Friday for me. My son will be trying for 3000-4500 words for the month, which is the recommendation for the 2nd grade age group. So, wish us luck! (And you can track my word count progress below on the wordcount widget, or on the NaNoWriMo website for washbear.)

Playing With Cotton Fiber

Cotton is a wonderful fiber to work with, and it is amazing all the colors it can come in naturally. There's not only natural white cotton varieties, but browns and greens as well. Sally Fox has worked hard for many years to develop color cotton varieties in this country. I drool when I see the pictures on her website! The pictures I'm posting this time really are undyed cotton... this is exactly the color the fiber comes in, right from the boll.

I only wish I could say that I'd grown the above cotton! But I'm working on it. This is my third season at attempting to grow cotton. I did grow a meager handful of brown cotton last year. This year I'm growing white pima. Here's a photo of one of the bolls on my plants, taken a week or two ago:



If the squirrels and deer will keep away, I'll have a much better yield of fiber this season than last. The nights are getting cool. I still had some flowers as late as last week, but mostly my plants are in the boll-plumping stage now. I can't wait to see them pop! But I have a feeling I'll have to bring the plants inside to finish out their cycle.

In the meantime, I do have a stash of ginned cotton to play with. Here's a stack of punis I hand-carded with cotton carders. They're destined for the charkha soon.

Spin deliciously!

Barbara Walker's Learn-To-Knit Afghan

Square 14: "Chevron" (with gray alpaca and red-brown border leicester homespun)

Since spring 2006, I've been quietly knitting, off and on, the sampler afghan from Barbara Walker's Learn-To-Knit Afghan Book. There are 63 sampler squares, each with a different technique to master. By the time you are finished knitting the afghan, you will have tackled knit-purl combinations, mosaic patterns, slip-stitch patterns, twist-stitch patterns, cables, increase-and-decrease patterns, lace, and various miscellaneous special techniques. It makes for a wonderful knitting course.

When I first started this project, I knew right away I'd want to make this a spinning sampler as well. So I've been endeavoring to include as many different kinds of fibers into this as possible. I'm spinning it as I go, so to simplify things, I decided just to stick with all-natural colors:

Color A: whites/creams
Color B: grays
Color C: browns
Color D: black

When I join the squares, I'll probably use red, the only dyed color.


Square 13: "Greek Cross" (black alpaca & cream llama homespun)

I'm only up to square 15 out of 63, so progress has been slow (I had a baby right after I started the afghan, plus I'm spinning the yarn as I go). But when I started the afghan, this was my first experience knitting with my own homespun. That was a magical moment! My spinning hasn't always been consistent, but I'm still enjoying the peasanty look of the squares just the same. Best recommendations for spinning for this afghan would probably be to use combed top and to spin it worsted, to really make the stitch definition pop. Admittedly, I've mostly been using carded fiber, which may fall flat when I reach the cable section. But hand cards are what I have, so carded it is.

If you want to learn more about this afghan, here are some links.

Square-Along Email Group on Yahoo Groups

Barbara Walker Ravelry Group

And you can track my progress with this afghan here:

My Barbara Walker Sampler Afghan Folder on Flickr


My project's progress/details on Ravelry


Square 11: "Miniature Mosaic" (moorit & black Icelandic homespun)

Solar Cooking

I'm going to break from fiber crafts this time, and write about something new we tried last week. We made some cheap homemade solar ovens and cooked our first 100% sun-baked dish! It was really fun! This was, in part, for an Earth Science homeschool lesson. What better way to study the sun, than with a hands-on activity like this one? I also see this as a great emergency prep option, for when the power goes out, in our hurricane-prone area.



Our first attempt didn't work out very well. We did the pizza box solar oven on Tuesday, but only got so-so results (that oven only got up to about 175 F for us, though the designers on YouTube said it could get in the 200's F. But we noticed there was an open hole at the bottom back of the lid when the pizza box was closed, so there's one place where we could improve on the design so heat won't escape. We baked pizza for this one (what else?)... first the crust by itself, then later added the toppings (I used the pizza recipe from New Vegetarian Epicure). The crust was still a little doughy by the time the sun started going down, so I finished it off in the conventional oven just to be safe, especially when I saw the temps starting to dip towards 150 F.) The pizza did taste good-- I just wish it could've finished up in the solar oven. I'd like to try cookies in this oven next, after we get the hole on the lid patched up. So I haven't given up on it yet!



While our first attempt sorta bombed, our second attempt went great! We had much better luck with the aluminum roasting pan solar oven (see solarcookingnuts's videos on YouTube... there are 3 videos with tips, just for this design.) I adapted a favorite cornbread stuffing recipe for use in it. The oven got up to 220 F at its highest, though it may have gone up even higher if the roasting bag hadn't come loose at one point when I went to shift the oven back into the direct sunlight... I lost a lot of heat then, but it quickly rebounded back up to 220 F within a half hour, during the peak time of the day. If I remember right, the video said this kind of oven could get to 250+ F. We used a glass 2 qt. round Pyrex baking dish inside the oven, the bottom of which we painted black with Folk Art Enamels Acrylic Paint (non-toxic paint from A. C. Moore). We left the lid unpainted so we could see inside. We looked all over town for suitable black pots, and they were either too expensive or too big for this size oven, so the Pyrex was a good solution (some cook in mason jars, painted black, too). We put black tiles on the bottom of the oven, just like the video said, to help absorb and hold heat, and we used a little baking rack on top of the tiles to elevate the baking dish for even heating (the meat rack I used was the little round one that the Rival Crockpot people sell for their crockpots). From start to finish, the recipe took 6 hours to sun-bake. The stuffing was nicely browned on top, and there were absolutely no scorched areas at the bottom of the baking dish!



If you want to try this, watch those videos first. In fact, there are quite a few solar cooking videos on YouTube. Also, be sure to use an oven thermometer in the solar oven, and make sure food temps stay above the "danger zone" (i.e. between 40 F- 140 F... bacteria proliferate in this range). Another useful temp to remember: water boils at 212 F (remember that from your science days?) A solar cooker can be a pasteurizer, too. Heating water to about 150º F is sufficient to kill coliform bacteria, rotaviruses, enteroviruses and even Giardia. (For best pasteurizing results, heat to 160º F for at least six minutes.) Also, for safety: always wear sunglasses when working around a solar oven. Always approach the oven from the side or back (never from the front!) to reduce the chances of direct reflections scorching your retinas (yes, this is a real danger). And turn the oven out of the direct path of the sun if/when you have to stir the pot or add ingredients (generally speaking, you don't have to stir solar cooked food... treat it much the same as a crockpot, and expect temps to dip big time if you do open the lid). And of course, your pot will be hot, so use gloves or pot holders. Oh, and if you have to paint any part of the oven or cooking pot black, be sure to use one that says "Non-toxic when dry."

Here's the recipe we used:

Cornbread Stuffing by Curtis Aikens (this is my adaptation for solar cooking)

4 c crumbled cornbread (we used the Moosewood Cookbook cornbread recipe... use your favorite)
2 c breadcrumbs (from homemade whole wheat bread)
2 c vegetable stock
3 celery stalks (including leaves), finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 large eggs, beaten
½ stick butter
1 t dried sage
Salt & pepper, to taste

Step 1: Place vegetable stock, celery & onion into a covered glass baking dish (bottom painted black). Solar-bake approximately 2 hours between 175-195 F.

Step 2: Add the cornbread, breadcrumbs, eggs, butter, sage & salt & pepper. Solar-bake for 4.5 hours, or until the dressing is set and nicely browned.

This was how the times/temps played out while baking the above:

10:45 AM: below 150 F inside oven-- 73 F outdoor temp -- We didn't preheat the oven first. We just put Step 1 in immediately (most people preheat first for 1/2 hour or so).

11:25 AM: 175 F inside oven--- 76 F outdoor temp

11:45 AM: 180 F inside oven -- 83 F outdoor temp

12:35 PM: 185 F inside oven -- 86 F outdoor temp

1:00 PM: dropped below 150 F because I added Step 2 of the recipe at this point -- 89 F outdoor temp

1:15 PM: 180 F inside oven -- 89 F outdoor temp

2:00 PM 190 F inside oven -- 90 F outdoor temp

2:40 PM: 160 F inside oven due to moving the oven and accidentally causing the plastic cover to come off -- 98 F outdoor temp

3:10 PM: 150 F inside oven due to shade moving over oven -- 103 F outdoor temp

3:45 PM: 220 F inside oven! 88 F outdoor temp (it must have been the peak sun time, because I really had a temp rebound here)

4:25 PM: 205 F, with the sun starting to go down, oven temps also started going down, though the oven was still in full sun. 83 F outdoor temp

4:50 PM: 150 F inside oven. 82 F outdoor temp. Stuffing was nicely browned at this point, and since the sun was going down, I brought it inside and called it done.

Verdict: the stuffing was yummy! The kids liked it, too. I see great potential in these solar ovens as an emergency prep option.

We plan to make either the BYU Funnel Solar Cooker or its improved design, Fun-Panel Cooker next.

Some other useful links:
Solar Cooker on Wikipedia (gives a nice overview of the different types of solar cookers)

Solar Cooking (an email list on Yahoo Groups)

Safe Food Handling by the USDA

Solar Cooking Recipes

Solar Cooking Archive

Growing Pima Cotton

This is my third season attempt at growing cotton. The first year (2006), the squirrels got all the bolls. Last year, only 2 brown cotton plants survived, and I got only a little handful of cotton for the effort. This year I tried pima cotton from Cotton Clouds, and rather than grow it in raised beds like the last two years, I decided to use pots instead (12" wide, 11" tall), mainly so I could free up the beds for veggies. Last year I harvested the cotton in December, so I have a feeling this year's batch will finish up their growing season inside our shed, under grow lights and with a space heater (cotton likes it hot). I've got a total of six plants in 12" pots, and one in a small 6" pot that I'd intended to bring into the house this winter, to see how it does (size of the pot definitely affects how large the plant can get... that one in the 6" pot isn't even half the height of the others).



I sowed the first batch in seedling trays on 4/18/08. I transplanted the first seedlings to the 12" pots, with a mix of compost, sand and rabbit manure. Germination rates weren't very good, so I sowed a second batch about a month behind the first, directly into their pots. The plants limped along in May-- at the time, it was too cool for cotton to be happy. They didn't really make progress until temps were up in the 90's F, in June. I've been foliar-feeding them fish/kelp liquid 2-3 times a month. I side-dress with rabbit manure, as needed.



For the first batch of seedlings, blossoms first appeared during the first week in August. The height of the plants on August 8th was 34.5". The average number of buds (i.e. future bolls) per plant is 5-6. The most buds on a single plant is 13. I learned about blossom colors from Ruth (aka Twisted Spinster): "First day yellow, second day red, third day dead." So, as you can see, the blossoms don't last long.



It remains to be seen how much cotton I'll get from so few plants. It apparently takes a lot of plants to get a decent amount of fiber. I'm really hoping the squirrels will leave the bolls alone. But at least there are the photos of the flowers to enjoy year round. Cotton blossoms really are lovely.

Russian Lace Spindles

I've been swamped with homeschooling this month, and so haven't had much time for spinning or knitting lately. So I'm going to post about a project I finished earlier in the summer, one that I never got around to posting about. Some of my favorite spindles are my trio of purpleheart Russian lace spindles that the Spanish Peacock made for me. Purpleheart is probably my most favorite wood, and these turned out gorgeous!



This was my first experience using this kind of spindle, and it took me several months to modestly fill my spindles (okay, I spun on them off and on... it really shouldn't take that long, I promise!) My one-handed long draw charkha skills helped me master this type of spindle spinning easily. Also, the DVD Spindles Around the World was a big help... I couldn't have done without its instruction. I spun (support-style) natural brown cotton sliver onto one 10" spindle, and white hand-carded bamboo onto another. I spun them atop a spindle lap bowl, which I got at the Woolery. Then I wound (not plied) the two individual strands together onto the 12" plying spindle. Then actual plying twist was added, with the two threads plied directly together onto the thread winders-- the purpleheart ones were made by the Spanish Peacock, and the larger natural wooden ones were by Finniwig Studios. The only downside I see to plying straight onto the thread winders is that I have no way of being able to calculate yardage, unless I wind off onto a niddy noddy, measure, and then wind back onto the thread winders (which would sort of defeat the purpose, I suppose, of using the thread winders in the first place, as you're supposed to knit straight from them). It's Russian tradition to spin with cashmere and then ply with a strand of silk on these spindles-- but I settled for the poor man's version of natural brown cotton and bamboo "silk"! I do like the result, just the same, however humble by comparison! I'm thinking of knitting a lace suncatcher with it. One of the nice things about these Russian lace spindles is that you can spin while riding in a car, or in your favorite comfy chair. It's very relaxing, and there's something very satisfying about that little finger twirl as you get the spindle spinning.

Whenever I master a new spindle technique, I always thrill to the connection I feel to my sisters over space and time. It's endlessly fascinating to me all the different ways a person can make yarn... it's so simple, and yet so complex, too.





I'd like to point your attention to the Pipe Dreams & Purling Plans blog, where Melinda is trying to raise money to help fight breast cancer. She's even having a raffle of scrumptious fibery goodies if you donate. So please help out with the cause. At least read Melinda's touching story. Thanks!

I'd also like to offer my condolences to the family of Ruth (aka Twisted Spinster). Ruth passed away suddenly a few weeks ago, much to everyone's shock. I really enjoyed her photos and her cotton growing experiences on her blog. Though I didn't know Ruth in person (I live on the opposite side of the country), her blog touched me, and she will be missed! God bless.