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.