Standing tall

standing from pinn on Vimeo.

Or at least, pulling to standing!

spun

Some pics of my first cotton yarn.



On the spindle.


The charkha, disassembled so I don't injure myself walking in to it.

lightbulb: ON!

Holy hell! It's all finally clicking! The yarn I'm getting is all thick and thin and ugly as hell but at least it's yarn! And I'm spinning! Actually spinning cotton! I never thought I'd ever get it! (shamefully enough I've been avoiding spinning cotton for years because I'm scared of the short fibers. meep.) But Yay!! Yay for trying things out! I'll take a pic for y'all tomorrow ok?

Things not to do in this heat.

Do not follow the link in your e-mail to the spin-off mag page. Because you know what that leads to? It leads to you breaking out your stash of spain merino in the 32 degree heat that's what. But that's what I did. And, ooh, the stuff I found there! The effect of twisting in plying (intriguing!!) Wraps per inch (Hmmm. Want to know more...) and Cables: Demystifying the mysterious yarn, gotta read that! All this talk of YARN And ways that they twist! I can feel the fibers spinning, sliding through my hands already! And so that's why there's several spinning contraptions strewn about my room. And truth be told, I'm glad to be spinning again. The smell of wool and the quiet whrrrr whrrr of my wheel has indeed been missed.

I know spinning wool in Thailand is insane, believe me, I do. But I had no choice. I tried using the Mr's Charkha to spin some of his cotton poonis first, but I suck at cotton. The strands are just too short. They slip right through my hands before I can get the twist into them. A pile of fluffy discarded cotton was building up pretty quickly around me. I had to bring out my wheel to remind myself that I can spin. Just not cotton apparently. Does anyone who spins cotton have any advice for me? Because honestly I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with all the merino wool I'll wind up spinning otherwise.

(On a rather weird note, every picture I managed to find of a Charkha spinner the person seems to be rail thin. I found a clip of Ghandi spinning, the guy on this page is thin and The Mr. who is skinny as a pole seems to have no trouble at all spinning with it either. Hmmm.. can I blame my ample figure for my spinning suckiness? Please?)