The ongoing cotton project

Still catching up on the last 2 months of stuff...

These pictures are of our cotton tree...yes I said TREE! I was given the seeds for this tree by another member of my spinning and weaving guild a couple of years ago and I finally got around to planting them. She got them at a demonstration that our guild does annually in the herb garden at the Huntington Library where the parent tree lives. When I was at SOAR I met Phreadde Davis who recently wrote an article on growing cotton in the Spin Off Fall 2009 issue on natural fibers. She told me that these seeds are very special and were saved from extinction by a lady (who's name I wish I could remember) that did a lot of work to preserve cotton varieties. Phreadde (pronounced Fred) gave me some seeds for naturally green colored cotton that I plan to plant on the opposite side of my house so they don't affect each other with any cross pollination. Phreadde also taught me how to spin cotton straight off the seed. It's such a great thing to learn, now I don't have to sit around picking seeds out of the cotton balls. I plan to post video of how to do this soon!

In an earlier blog I posted pictures of the cotton bolls before they opened. Now they have!

We picked as much as we could before the rain this weekend. It's mostly mine & Riley's project but we have had to enlist Robert's help because the tree is so high we can't reach the topmost branches. When Robert helps us with the picking Riley and I run back and forth in the garden with baskets catching the cotton he throws over his shoulder! I wish I had pictures but then it would require enlisting another person in our project.

See how big our developed cotton balls are?

Here are pics of Riley & I carding cotton (before we learned the new way of spinning straight off the cotton balls), and spinning on a takhli.


I'm just now teaching Riley how to spin, pretty good for a 6 year old I'd say!

I went to SOAR!!!

It's hard to believe I haven't blogged in almost 2 months! My life is just like everyone else's this time of year, crazy busy! I'm not sure why I let this happen but I'll try to fit a few of the highlights from my calendar that are just too exciting not to share. It may take a few installments on the blog...

First of all I went to SOAR-Spin Off Autumn Retreat, a dream of mine for quite a few years now. This event is an annual one put on by Interweave Press, it has a limited amount of registrants and I think I got in because the economy is so bad that a lot of the usuals didn't go. The teachers are the most well known and respected fiber artists in the country it was a great opportunity to learn and network and be with people who share the same crazy passion I have! It was pretty expensive undertaking, I'm trying not to feel guilty about the cost! I'm just so grateful that I went.

I had to buy myself a traveling spinning wheel which fit in the overhead bin on an airplane. Here is the sweet little Victoria wheel next to my Schacht wheel.

In preparation for going I wanted to make myself one of my handspun & woven belly dance belts to submit for the gallery...although I didn't finish my project in time - I ended up borrowing a belt from Nisan, who commissioned one from me a few years back- I'm happy I will finally have one of my own belts...it's hard for me to make time to finish a project for myself.

Here is the yarn I dyed & spun for the belt

and being measured for the warp



Here are a couple of shots of the warp going on the loom



And being woven




It's hard for me to express the happiness I feel when I see a warp on the loom, it's just such a satisfying thing.

I didn't take nearly enough pictures while I was at SOAR but here they are:

This is Sarah Swett- she is an incredibly inspiring woman. She actually used to live out in the wilderness in a cabin with just a mule, and during her time there she learned to spin. She is an exceptional artist, she only uses her own handspun yarns, prepared from fleeces that she dyes exclusively with natural dyes, she then designs her own handknits and tapestries.



Unfortunately I was really sick while at SOAR I didn't feel well enough to take pictures of all the great things she brought to show us...but I did get to try on her vest, so that's me w/ messy hair and all wearing Sarah's vest.





You can see a few of her things on the table behind me in the picture.

After that class I went to a class with Sarah Anderson, another exceptional artist, on Designing in Spinning. She had a whole table of white yarns she had spun using different techniques, I was very inspired by the consistent and organized manner these women have developed to get so much work done. Here is Sarah Anderson's hand as she demonstrates how to wind yarn for Andean plying and several of her yarns that were on display.








After Sarah's class I took some pictures of paintings and the lodge to show Robert and everyone.







Then I became incredibly sick and couldn't do much else, I missed my class on spinning for socks (heartbreaking). I somehow got through the class on hand cards but I was too sick to take pictures. There is a picture of the bed I spent too much time in and the view I had of the fireplace from the self same bed!