News — cotton fibers

What words come to mind when you think about spinning cotton?   At CottonClouds.com, we make cotton spinning easy with quality tools and instruction. But you don’t have to take it from us! We asked Rebecca, to whom we recently sent our All About Cotton Spinning kit, to put in her own words, her experience spinning cotton for the first time! Take it away, Rebecca!  A New Spinner’s Experience Thanks to Cotton Clouds for the opportunity to share my experience here! I have been a knitter for 13 years and have been practicing my crochet skills for 5 years, you can see...

I have been a spinner where I “let the fiber tell me what to do”. This is not a bad starting place However, when you are spinning for a project, most likely you will not spin all that you need in one day. The second day the fiber could “say” it wanted to be thicker or you could just be in a different mood. The size of your yarn changes and thus, your project yarn is inconsistent. Here are a few tips to help maintain consistency. Finer yarns are easier to spin consistently and cotton as a fine fiber “wants” to...

I admit that I often spin just for the delight of spinning with no thought of what I will do with the yarn.  At best, I will try and make a consistent yarn for whatever batch of roving or sliver I am spinning so I will be able to use it for a project. I usually do turn these yarns into something knit, crocheted or woven. I have also spun for a specific project. I highly recommend that at least once, you spin for a project. The exercise of spinning with a project in mind teaches you how to plan, choose the...

Spin Cotton! It’s the new luxury fiber–tenderly soft and lofty with a fresh, clean hand. Now you can spin in luxury without the expense! Cotton needs a lot of twist to hold together as a yarn! You can’t overtwist it! Practice spinning cotton on a support (Tahkli) spindle to get the feel! Begin with a long staple (Pima) cotton fiber either in lint (ginned) or Puni (carded into a rolag) form. Set your wheel’s spinning ratio (wheel to revolutions of bobbin) to the highest, or sit farther back from the orifice. Adjust your spinning wheel so that there is just...

Cotton excites me! It excites all my senses. I love the smell of it fresh out of the field. I love how soft and cozy it feels next to my skin. I love how clean and crisp it looks in my weavings. I love that I live in South Eastern Arizona’s Gila Valley, surrounded by cotton! I love everything about cotton! I love how practical it is from the sheets I sleep on each night, to the absorbent bath towels I rely on in the morning, to the jeans I pull on day after day, to the table cloths I...