Try, try again

This post is mostly about not giving up on things when they don't go right the first time.  Or the second time.  Or the... (you get the idea).

When I first started trying to spin with a tahkli spindle, it was a miserable failure.  So I put it away and decided that the tahkli spindle wasn't for me.  Part of the problem was not being able to do the long draw very well and part of it was managing the spinning of the spindle.

The next time I tried it, I at least got some yarn made but it wasn't very good.  In fact, I threw it away because it was so bad.

Then I've tried it several other times when I was trying to show people how it worked (in theory because I did more 'splainin' that spinnin').

In all my classes, I always tell people they have permission to suck at whatever they're learning because they don't know how to do it.  It's like Captain Picard said, "Things are only impossible until they're not."  Once they're not impossible (because we've invested some time in them) then they're possible.  N'est pas?

Recently I've been working with the beautiful support spindles my friend made for me and some angora fiber that I'd had in my stash for a while.  Like this, for example.  Working with this fiber and these spindles has helped me heaps in learning how to prepare my fiber and how to keep the spindle under control.

So the other day I got an email from a local teacher asking me to be involved in an arts day they're planning for local school kids.  I'd taken part in a program they did a couple of years ago at a local school and had a blast.  Now she's got some grant money and wants to "go big" with a Saturday gig at the Hoogeland Center for the Arts for kids from a lot of different schools.

I was thinking how fun it would be to do something with cotton since it's definitely something they can relate to and I have plenty that I can let the kids have a cotton seed and see it in the boll, on the seed, spun into yarn, and made into something.  It's educational and yet fun.  Of course that sparked me to pull out and dust off the old tahkli and give it another try.  I predrafted and opened up the fibers like I'd been doing with the angora and started to spin. 

It was like magic - it suddenly all came together in my brain and my hands and this is what happened:

 Over a couple of evenings (and early mornings), I spun a section about the size of the raw cotton on the right of the photo and got what's on the spindle.  Cotton goes unbelievably far.  I plied just a little strip of the yarn as a sample (which you can see in the middle).  The comparison sample is some size 12 perle cotton (on the far left).  Here's a photo to show the comparison of the two:

It has spun so fine and I swear to you it was all by magic.  Who said I couldn't do this?  I can totally do this!  If I play my cards right, this might be the perfect handspun cotton to knit a doily with.  I love it when a plan comes together....bwahahahahaha.

Happy Spring!

The fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high....

Oh yeah, speaking of the spinning workshop, I learned a little about spinning cotton. Someone made the comment about cotton being extremely directional and spinning from the right direction of the roving making all the difference. Ding. The light went on. On Tuesday, one of the ladies in the Woolgatherers Spinning Club brought her charkha, which is used to spin cotton at a very high ratio (which cotton needs to hold together). She let me experiment and I was able to spin a fairly decent thread that held together and was fairly even. The charkha works on the same principle as the great wheel so that helped my understanding of how things should happen.

I’ve had a takhli spindle for a while now but had never had any success with it – because I was spinning from the wrong end of the cotton roving. Who knew?! So I took it out, dusted it off and lo and behold…whaaaala…

spun cotton. What’d’ya think about them apples?

Actually, it’s the most rudimentary success but far more than I’ve accomplished to this point. And with the cotton spinning workshop coming up in April, I’m very excited about the possibility of the medium. I know I should be able to spin cotton on my new Kromski but I couldn’t quite get everything to work together there so I’ll wait for the workshop and see how that goes.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Display

Jane and I took our stuff over this morning to the Library for their display of Lincoln era knitting. Jane had some great old needles that she’d been given from a housecleaning a while back as well as a copy of the most recent Piecework magazine that had several articles on Civil War Knitting that went exactly along with the display. I had my Spanish Opera Hood (both versions), my version of a 19th century jug coin purse and a couple of beaded bags. I also worked up a skein of handspun for them to use if wanted. The Librarian, Gwen, was very excited about the display and said she would call us when they got it done so we could come have a look. I’ll try to get a photo to post. I’m sure they’ll make it look grand. Since the Spanish Opera Hood was from an 1863 Peterson’s Magazine that’s in the Library’s collection, she’ll add a copy of that along with the display.

Some of Jane's needles were marked "Chesterfield." Does anyone have any information about when they were in business?

Car

I’ve got the best little car in the world - 110,000 miles and hardly anything ever done other than regular maintenance - but it’s now starting to have some little troubles and gas mileage challenges. In fact I’ve had to spend over $500 on it in the last 6 weeks or so. I keep telling myself that it’s far better than having a car payment (which I haven’t had in a number of years) but today as I ventured over to Lincoln for a day of exploring I turned off the highway and up to a traffic light. When I stepped on the accelerator, I heard the old redneck muffler tune. Arghhh…. Again to the mechanic. Evidently it’s a section of the muffler that’s given out. Guess I’ll find out how much THAT’s going to cost on Monday. A new (to me) car is starting to sound like it’s in my future.