Cotton

For the last several weeks, I have been spinning some cotton. Actually, it's been for many, many weeks -- I don't really remember how long -- but cotton is not a very fast fibre to spin.

I located two grocery bags of raw ginned cotton; I don't really remember where or when I got them. I seem to gather lots of things with the idea that one day I would make use of them. Sometimes it is many, many years before I find what to do with them, but usually I make use of it all.

Cotton is a very short fibre. It is very fine, and quite delicate. It doesn't card that easily. You need special equipment to card cotton. I don't have that equipment. I do have some small cards, which work quite satisfactorily with wool, but is not so good with cotton. I tried a little bit, and I created a lot -- and I mean A LOT -- of noils!

I did spin those little batts, but was not very satisfied with the result. I also made some punis, and that made spinning a bit easier.
It is a whole different technique than one uses with wool. I was never very good with the long draw, but have now learned to do that. You really spin better with the long draw with cotton.
So eventually I settled on drawing a small tuft of cotton over the teeth of the carder, and "combed" it that way. It's slow, but works quite well. I didn't get so many noils this way.

You may know that cotton needs a lot of twist. In fact, you need to put in far more twist than you think is possible, and maybe just a little more. Cotton is very resilient, and can withstand much twist. It needs it. It is a short fibre, and does not have any scales as does wool. So in order to hold itself together, it needs a lot of twist. It also cannot be spun thick. For that reason, you will find that cotton is usually a multi-ply yarn to give it some thickness, and strength.

I was going to make this a 2-ply yarn to knit a special project this summer. I may not get it finished until Christmas, but there is no time limit on these things! Ha-ha-ha. But after looking at some samples of the 2-ply, and seeing how thin it still is, and seeing it is somewhat uneven, I decided that I would do a 3-ply instead. So it's a bit more spinning; that's alright. There is no deadline!

I had forgotten how long it takes to spin cotton. I remember spinning some about 20 years ago. At that time, I made it a point to spin each and every day, even for a few minutes. I was working very long late hours back then in a stressful position, so even when I came home after midnight, I always sat down and spun for about 10 minutes or more. I found that it helped me "unwind" while I was winding the cotton!! There is a meditative quality to spinning, which I used to advantage. I found that spinning for a few minutes would relax me enough so that I could get to sleep, and be rested enough to be back at work early the next morning. Very often I would sit far longer than I expected since I really found it so enjoyable.

But it took me a long time to fill one bobbin! I seem to recall that it took well over a month to fill one bobbin. I did a 2-ply, as I recall, and just doing one bobbin of plyed yarn took me almost 2 full weeks!

This past Sunday, as I was reaching the bottom of the first bag of cotton, I could see a piece of paper in the bottom. It probabnly was a label of some sort, but forgot what it said -- probably where it came from. I reached down and felt that it was a rather stiff piece of paper. Pulling it out, I can see that it was a card in an envelope!  It was addressed to "Mr. Super Spinner"! Inside was a card with a lovely picture of a lighthouse on it. Inside, a short note addressed to me saying "A box full of cotton for you".

Then I remembered: this came from a dear friend of mine several years earlier, who had some cotton she said she wasn't going to use, and she sent it to me. I remember that I wasn't prepared at that time to do anything with it, but as with all things I have, I would use it "one day". That was in June of 2006. The day had finally come.

I have been so truly blessed to have met some absolutely wonderful and precious friends through fibre. This was a friend that I have known for many years, but have never met. We were "friends" through the internet. I can't remember how long it has been, but we used to meet twice a week, most times, for an internet chat. There was a small group that used the chat room through All Fiber Arts, but sadly, that chat has now dimished. There are people from across Canada, from Rhode Island, from Ohio, and even New Zealand. Through the years, we have gone through all kinds of tribulations and joys. We had a lot of good laughs, and have helped each other through difficult periods. We still keep in touch by email. I value these friendships better than most others, because we have survived for so long, and have shared so many parts of our lives.

So to you, Kessie, thank you so much for your gift of the cotton. I am spinning it now, and thinking of you often. Your generosity of sending me all this cotton, to someone you have not met, touches me deeply. I am going to use this to make something special (details will come later after I get started) and will treasure this as something that comes with a very unique story. Kessie, you are a very special lady.

Catching up

I really thought I had written something recently! I must still have it in my head and have not uploaded to the blog! Happens quite a lot.

Last week, as I was walking to work at about 8 am, I noticed the sun was now shining directly in my eyes, and it was looking directly down the avenue. Remember I told you it had happened in September, and now it is doing it once more. I thought it would be sometime in early April, but I miscalculated. This time, the sun is on its trip down south. The days are much longer now, and the weather seems to be improving, but some days its hard to tell. I didn't wear any mittens to work this morning, and it was a bit chilly, but I refuse to accept that it is still winter! Although the calendar says it is spring, I really question that. We had some snow flurries yesterday.

I was looking at the Nanking Cherry bush in the next block this morning on my way to work. I am expecting it to burst out in blooms sometime in May. We then get one more final snowfall, which knocks the blossoms off, and we get no fruit! That's what happened last year. I think I only saw about 5 green cherries last year, and never got to taste any in the fall at all. Some years are like that.

I did find some Saskatoons in my freezer that I picked last year. I decided I needed to make room for other things, so took some out (still have more left) and cooked them up, thinking I would make some jam. They didn't want to break up! I tried mashing them too, but they are stubborn things. No matter. I will eat them up as they are. They are very good -- at least, I like them -- and have been using it for a topping on my cake (I made 3 last week; yes, they are all gone now).

What have I bee doing all this time? Well, I located two large grocery bags of raw ginned cotton that I acquired from somewhere, and I started to spin it. I did spin some many years ago, and I recall it took me a very long time to fill only one bobbin. I now remember clearly all over again! It does take a long time to fill one bobbin, mainly because the wheel I was using has a very low ratio and you need to put a lot of twist into cotton. I need to dig out (and I really do mean "dig out") one of my other wheels with a higher ratio and see if I can be more productive. I have to card the cotton first, make some punis, and then spin. But I don't have cotton cards, which means that my regular cards are creating too many noils and I don't want that. So I carefully use the teeth of the cards to "comb" the cotton, and I'm much happier with the result. However, this still takes time and slows down the whole process.

I have a project in mind that I want to do this summer, and I think it would be nice to use my own hand-spun cotton. It is going to be very fine. So I was toying with the idea of doing a 3-ply yarn... and then thought of all the extra spinning I need to do, and may re-think it later. Right now, I'm just spinning the singles, and will see what I do with them later.

There have been some other spinning and some knitting that happened during my long absence. I will post some pics later on. But this cotton is taking so much of my time right now that there hasn't been much else going on. On the weekends, I sit and spin all day long, watching some old TV westerns, until the sole of my foot (not my ankle) gets really sore. But I am making a lot of progress, and think I will get enough done by the time I start on my knitting project later this year.

That will have to be all for now, but wanted to let you know I am still here, doing fine, being very busy, and I don't seem to be getting anywhere. And so it goes.

New Year

It is really bad if you have to check your blog to see when you last posted! And I was horrified to learn it was sometime late last year!! I know I've written many since then, usually only in my head as I am walking to or from work, and there are a number in my Draft folder, but they never actually were published. So are many other things in my life now too.

I have been extremely busy with a very long and horrible trial that has gone on far too long. However, the jury finally came in this week, and sentencing will proceed by the end of this week, and then there will be only some administrative work and it will be over. This one has surely taken much out of me. The financial cost is astounding, but the human cost is immeasurable! So many cases are the same.

During all this hub-bub, I have tried to keep a sense of some sanity and have been spinning. A long time ago, probably nearly a year ago, I picked up a large bag of some unspun roving at a good price. Little by little, over the summer and fall, I have spun it up and then finally plied it all. I had a lot -- enough for a good-sized sweater, I would think. It's not terribly soft wool, but would be excellent for outer wear, and I may have a few ideas in mind for it.

This was all spun on my wheel -- I felt guilty for neglecting my poor little wheel -- and plied on my trusty CD spindle (because it holds more yarn), and I put as much on the spindle as I could for the plying. I created these adorable little beehives! I didn't make up any skeins -- I just left them in these hive-shaped cones, and will put them into skeins later on, when I have nothing else to do! ha-ha The colour is a mid-grey-brown, rather neutral, and I may over-dye it at some stage to give it more depth. But that is another project.

Unfortunately, the masters of this site (that unnamed G-word) will not allow me to insert a photo I have prepared of these cones, so you will just have to see them here: beehives

I've also been doing more spinning with the white fleece, and that will be in another posting. The weather has been terribly cold here for a few days (-30C at times) and then it is above freezing on another! One never knows what to wear to work, because it can change by the time you go home! Still, there has only been just a skiff of snow, and it all melts in a few days. Not so where Mom lives; she has had a lot of snow, and high winds, and very low temperatures. I'm glad I left long ago, but it's harder on her now that she is older. the only bright spot in all of this is that on most cloudy mornings, I can see the sun shining on the snow-covered mountains from my apartment and from work. I do have to say that is a very nice sight to see. I may have included a photo of the mountains from here in an earlier post. More to come.

Same fleece, new skein

Early this year, I obtained a handful of fleece from an indeterminate breed of sheep, which was lovely to work with. It was beautifully fine, and soft, and a joy to touch. I combed every lock carefully, keeping them all aligned, and spun it all on my spindle from the cut end. Of course, it had to be very fine!

I like good texture when I use a yarn for knitting, so I spun them with a lot of twist. You can see what happened when I plied the yarns! But they came out very nice when I washed the skeins. So it was all well in the end.

However, while working with the fleece, I kept thinking that I would like to spin a soft yarn too, just for comparison, and to see if I can do it. So I also combed the locks, and spun it true worsted as before on the spindle. The spindle kept falling to the floor because I didn't have enough twist in the yarns! It was a delicate operation to put in just enough to hold together and not much more. I had to concentrate to hard!

The plying was not much better. Because you lost about half the twist when plying, the singles would come apart very often, so I had to splice them together many times. I wanted to use up all the singles in the skein, so I made it as big as possible. The singles also had to be aligned, so there is a definite direction to the yarn. I wonder how I should knit it?

Here is a pic of my finished skein, with a penny for comparison. I do like this yarn, it is nice and soft, and looks like a yarn. I think it would be nice for next-to-skin wear... maybe a scarf or shawl of some kind. That will be determined later.

I want to wish you all the very warmest of Christmases, and much happiness (and good knitting) in the New Year. It must have been the end of an age last week, so we are now starting something new.Let's all have renewed energy, and new outlooks on life. It does get better!

Completed work

One of the things I like to do is look through second-hand or thrift shops for something that I might need. Often times, it’s not so much that I need it, as that I could make use of it. That is how I gathered together my sets of knitting needles. I say “sets” because I have more than one complete set: I have bamboo, plastic, metal, wooden in straight, circular, double-point. Most are packed away somewhere for we all just use our favourites most of the time.

On one visit, I located a rather large bag of yarn. Usually, all I can find are the oddments – something left from a project. Not quite enough to do anything substantial with it, and yet quite nice yarn. I then have to find something else that I could mix in with that to complete a project. But this time, it was a big bag with three huge balls of yarn. It was an afghan kit complete with instructions, and even needles. In fact, there was about 15 cm (6 inches) of work started. Perhaps it was someone that got ill and could not finish it, or someone that got really bored with it. The knitting was very well done – it was not some beginner here – so I was envisioning all sorts of scenarios of why it was being given up.

I felt that this project needed to be completed. Something that was started, and then interrupted for some reason, really needed to be finished, and I felt it was being presented to me to do the job. I imagined some elderly woman starting this for a new great-grandchild, became very ill or perhaps even passed away, and the work was not finished. It was up to me to carry on and get it done.

It was in three strong bright autumn colours: brown, orange and darker tan. And acrylic! But there was a set of circular needles, I think about 4 mm, and I’ve always wanted to do one of these. The price was right, so why not.

That was sometime early in the spring, I think. Since then, I’ve been working on it when the mood struck me, and then I really just wanted to get it done. It was a simple chevron design, quite boring to do, so it was perfect for those mindless movie-watching times. It was not very wide, perhaps a single person width. I didn’t know how long it should be, but just kept on working. I measured against myself, thinking it should be large enough to cover yourself from toes to nose. And there appeared to be enough yarn to make it so.

There were two stitches on each edge in garter stitch, but I didn’t like the way that looked, nor how it lay. The rest was in stocking stitch, which is okay for the front of the afghan, but since the other side would also be visible, I felt it needed to look good as well. I carried the yarns along the side, which was a bit cumbersome. I also felt that all three yarns should not be on the same side so I changed one to the other side… which meant that two of the colour changes began on one side and the other on the opposite side. It also meant that the pattern row had to be done for that one colour on the purl side… so that required some technical skill. Well, it was a boring job, so I had to add some interest to it!

I did consider lining this, partly to hide the ugly purl side, and to give it a bit more heft. But what do I use? Certainly, it had to have some stretch to match the knitted material, and soft and warm. I did consider knitted jersey, in some brushed finish, but decided against all that in the end. It will just have to be as it is.

As I was nearing the full length, and watching the amount of yarn I still had left, I began musing about putting a border around it all, which would finish the side edges nicely, and add some width to it as well. The trouble was the ends – because of the chevron design, how do you do a hem on that?

But I worked it out, thinking that I would like a folded hem. That is easy enough to do: knit to the width of the hem, do a purl round, and then knit the other side, grafting it on the final round. I had to be sure I had enough yarn left for the hem though!

All was working well, except for the ends. Remember this had that chevron pattern, so I was just able to continue the pattern for the front hem. I was able to pick up stitches easily on the caston edge. But the back side of the hem had to be done IN REVERSE design so that it would all lay flat neatly. I never thought of that until I actually started doing it.

So in the end, when I changed colours, I then just picked up stitches all around the sides and the other edge and continued the colour stripe. I then switched to the dark brown for the purl round, thinking a darker colour along the edge would set it off nicely, and then the colour sequence on the back side. By then, I was running dangerously close to running out of yarn, and when a colour ended, I just continued on with the next colour. If anyone examines it closely on the back side, he will see that the stripes aren’t exactly even all around!

In the end, I kind of like it. It is acrylic so won’t hold up well for long, so it was a waste of time to spend so much time on it for little use. It is on my bed already, so I am trying to get as much out of it as I can. I have collected a lot of the old Gunsmoke TV episodes (began in 1955) and watched them while knitting this afghan. Those early episodes are over 50 years old! And in black&white – does anyone remember those? I never watched these when they originally ran, but I do remember some of the later ones, in colour, when the series finally ended in 1975. This afghan took many, many episodes to complete!

Here are some pics. It’s really difficult to show you the true colour, but I think I got close to it. I’m showing you the overall appearance, and a close-up of the hem, both sides.

So while this is not the type of thing I would ever want to do for myself (not in acrylic!), I felt a sense of accomplishment that I finished something that was started (even if it wasn’t my own project at first) and that I will use it for a time instead of the intended recipient. Maybe there will be a feeling of completeness in the world now. I can only hope.

It's happened again

It happens twice a year – regular as clockwork. Well, actually, it IS clockwork!

Since the first day of summer, the sun starts its slow trip back to the south. At the height of summer, it rises far up into the north-east, makes its way to just a little south of us at noon, and then the slow descent to set in the far north-west. During a couple of weeks in June, you can actually see it sneak across the north just below the horizon to come back up in the east. At the summer solstice, we get about 16 hours and 38 minutes of daylight.

The avenues in our city run directly east-west, while the streets run north-south generally. At this time of year, and earlier in the spring as well, the sun rises directly in the east along the avenue. When I am walking to work in the morning, the sun is very low in the east and directly in my eyes. Everything in front of you is in dark silhouette; there is no colour! It makes driving very difficult. Walking is bad enough!

In spring, this occurred on April 9 or 10 this year. These are the only two times in the year that the shadows of the street signs and trees on the avenue are all parallel to the curbs. It’s a curious phenomenon. I’m sure that most people don’t even notice it at all, but I find it pleasingly comforting in some strange way that we can always depend on the sun appearing in the exact same spot year after year after year. I seem to like everything to line up in some way, for it all to be in the right place.

There is little in our world these days that can be said to be dependable like this. It seems everything and everyone is in a state of flux, very changeable. The only rule to follow is: “it depends”. There are too many variables in play to be able to make any kind of prediction with any reliability. We shall see what we shall see.

There is a change in the air already. I can feel a chill in the shadows, and in the air at night. The sun is still warm, but not with the burning intensity of mid-summer. I know fall is pushing its way in, and winter is not long after. This is my least favourite time of year. I have a feeling of dread, of foreboding, and of general dismay. I’ve always gone into a slight depression at this time of year for as long as I can remember. But being aware it is happening helps in the struggle to get through it.

I am working on a colourful afghan in fall colours! It has brown, rust and orange, so at least that is trying to put some brightness into my life. The pattern is very plain and oh-so boring to do, but I keep on plodding. Of course, it’s not a small item, so has been taking a long time to do, and I’m not sure of the final size. I was planning on working until I run out of yarn, but it just seems to go on and on and on! I keep thinking of doing a border all the way around it, and I may do that as well; that is still in the planning stages. It depends (see, I told you!) on how much yarn I have left when I finally determine to terminate this whole process. More about that later.

The Fall Equinox is in another two weeks, so enjoy the last few days of summer that you can. We’ve had just a hint of frost this past week, and this weekend, we are forecast to reach a high of +29!! (That is in Celsius, of course – I don’t know what that would be in American) We’ve only had a couple of days of +30 this summer as it is. As I said, everything is quite unpredictable. Very.

A fine day

This week, on our regular spinning day, I took the day off work so that I could enjoy our year-end outing. The ladies usually like to plan a little trip somewhere to go and spin and have lunch. This year, we travelled about an hour south of the city to a small farm of a spinner. It was a lovely day, with sunshine and gorgeous blue skies! We haven't seen that for ever so long. But being the first day of summer, we were so fortunate in getting this. I do think, however, that this may have been our summer! For the forecast for the next seven days is clouds and rain. Great.

The lady at the farm has a couple of sheep, of unknown heritage. They are free range, and there wasn't any control of which ram bred which ewe, so there is a large mixture of probably everything in these. She had one fleece there for us to play with. She had a pot of dye on the stove, and welcomed any of us to take a handful and dye it. She also told us to take some home with us, if we wished.

I did take a lock and spin it on my spindle. It is quite a long staple, with good crimp, and fairly fine quality. After spinning 2-3 locks, I decided I would take some home, wash it, and spin something fine with enough yarn to knit a small delicate something.

Here is a pic of the washed fleece. It wasn't too dirty, although some sections had a bit of VM in it. I tried to pick out the better section, and the longer staple. I washed it with some soapy water, not very hot, so there is quite a lot of lanolin still in it. Feels nice on the hands as I spin! I was careful to pull out the locks and lay them out all in the same direction as best I could. I combed each lock, laid them out together, and then made some roving out of them.

Keeping the direction the same, I spun the singles keeping the hairs all in the same direction. I could very easily tell if there was some hairs that were turned around, for it didn't flow as smoothly.

What will I do with it? I'm not sure yet. I will make a 2-ply and then see. I don't know how much I will get out of this small handful. But I am getting good yardage out of the little bit I have spun so far -- and so I should, seeing how fine I am making it!! I may have enough for a short scarf or something like that. That is yet to come.