Fwd: NK - Raw Cotton Report

paddy at webzone.net paddy at webzone.net
Thu Aug 17 07:22:51 PDT 2000


Cotton is kind of hard for beginners to spin--I can blithely say, as a relative
beginner who is still not good at all at spinning cotton--because the fibers
are so short that you have to be able to put a lot of twist into them to get
the thread to hang together.  The fibers are so short, as a matter of fact,
that I wouldn't even have the equipment to card raw cotton into sliver for spinning,
myself; you have to have special, fine-toothed carders.  

Much easier to learn with wool, which has longer fibers.  Although I am admittedly
better at spinning at my wheel, I would be happy to share a bit of wool and
show anyone the basics of drop spinning, or to assist someone else in running
a class, but it would have to wait a couple of weeks until after my father goes
home from the hospital and gets settled in at home again.

Here's the drop spindle page at the Woolery, although a lot of the spindles
on this page would NOT be beginner-friendly.

http://www.woolery.com/dropspinfr.html

My beginner spindle was #3 at the top, the top-whorl 2.75 oz Louet, for $9.95.
 It's a good spindle, of a good weight and size for a beginner, and I still
use it sometimes to ply.  I now usually spin on a Lollipop spindle when I drop-spin;
I bought it even though it's a little light for me, because it was so little,
and cute, and useful, and had forget-me-nots on it, which is part of my device...
 One of those form over function issues. 

-Toinette



>yes i would like to attend a drop spindle class.
>I found a website that shows how to make one.  I could print that out and
>bring it along for those of us that dont have one already.
>maidenhair
>





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