Look look! This is my very first ever cotton yarn. There is about a metre more of it on the spindle shaft behind the whorl. This fibre was a birthday present from Erin who advised reading up before trying to actually spin it. It took me while but I finally found some information on spinningcotton with a Navajo spindle and on a style of middle eastern drop spindle (though these instructions were kind of brief). Since the Navajo instruction are more thorough I’ve been mostly working from them and trying to alter them in order to use my drop spindles.

Things I’ve learned so far:
1. Cotton has a very short staple (about one inch or so) so it takes a lot of twist to hold it together.
2. The best way to spin cotton yarn is using the “long draft” technique where you continue to draft a long length of fibre as the twist enters it. Since the twist enters slowly it hold the fibres together just enough to stop the thread from splitting while still letting the fibres more so they draft out evening.
3. This is easier if I stop the spindle between my knees while I draft out.

If you have never felt cotton roving please come by and try it out. The cotton balls you get at the drug store are nothing to this. I have one ounce of the red and another of caramel coloured organic cotton. There is a constant debate in my head as to whether I should keep them for separate projects or ply them together or knit them into the same project (stripes!). The colours are both beautiful by themselves and lovely together. Fortunately I don’t really need to decide until I’m done the singles.

 

Fibre: Merino Top, dyed by SULIFIBRES
weight: 20 grams
Length: Aprox. 127 metres
Wraps per Inch: 18

 

It’s finally all finished (for this stage anyway). The singles of this yarn can be seen in my lastentry - beautifully modelling how to use my new swift and ball winder. I plied it back on itself from the centre-pull ball that night and set the twist on Thursday. It was easy to see the difference between the beginning and the end of my yarn when I started playing; my spinning skills have improved a lot since I started this. The last two thirds of my singles were much smoother and more consistent than the first.
 
The colour variations in the wool give the plied yarn a slightly tweedy look in places where the colour difference between the two strands was greatest; it fades away in other places where they matched up. I think it gives the colours an extra level of depth. I’m looking forward to seeing what my yarn will look like knit up. I’m planning a lace scarf, probably a simple geometric pattern to match up with the felt scarf of the same wool but I might change my mind and go for something more organic.
 
On a similar note, here is a link to The Yarn Museum which I discovered a little while ago through The Purl Bee. The galleries of yarns are amazing and so varied. It’s very inspiring.

My birthday present from Rob arrived today - a swift and ball winder to help me with my knitting. I had lots of fun opening the box and setting everything up on the table. The picture below shows my singles of autumn coloured merino (I finished spinning last weekend - more details coming soon) being wound into a centre-pull ball for me to ply from. It looked so nice when I was finished I almost knit it up instead.


I also got some Blue Faced Leicester fibre in the mail today but I was having so much fun with the swift and the ball winder that it didn’t get opened until almost ten o’clock.  The fibre is beautifully soft and just a bit shiny. It still smells a lot like sheep and reminded me of trips to the petting zoo in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Zeke found it fascinating.