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and never quite caught up. I haven’t put forth any serious spinning effort in a while, every once in a while I grab my spindle and work on the reddish brown baby alpaca but the wheel has languished in the closet since August. Opal knows what it takes to get a girl spinning again and [...]

A few days ago I managed to stub my toe with such force that I split the toe nail down to the cuticle. Right near the middle of the nail too. If you live within a 3000 mile radius of my house it’s possible that you heard a string of profane observations on the character [...]

Just to refresh your memory, this is the before picture of the cotton that took forever and an hour to spin. It’s 3 ply green organic cotton. And to develop the green color it needs to be in an alkaline solution with some heat. Ready? This is the after picture of the same yarn. I [...]

I have soaked, simmered and developed the cotton, still waiting for it to dry. After all my work, all that time sitting and treadling until I thought I’d go insane, seeing the yarn skeined off was rather satisfying. For once I had enough foresight to take a before picture. It’s hard to see yarn that [...]

One more step. Develop the color by boiling in alkaline solution, rinse and dry. That’s it. And I’ll have two lovely skeins of cotton litmus test green yarn. I have to wait until after dinner for that final step. I think I feel a little post-project-depression coming on. I’ve been working with this cotton so [...]

I finished the third bobbin of cotton singles. I now have a much smaller pile of unspun cotton, small enough to shove all of it in a sandwich bag and put it back in the stash. Three plies on three bobbins. Three glorious bobbins. And I’m plying the yarn now. Yay! Yay for me! It’s [...]

Since I am spinning the endless cotton I have had lots of time to contemplate this question. At first it was because I knew I could purchase raw and processed fiber cheaper than finished yarn, and because I knew that I could spin yarn. Having more time than money, it seemed like a good idea. [...]

Yes. Cotton. Cotton and more cotton. Spinning it. I have steeled myself, decided that I want these fibers out of my way for a little while and the best way of doing that is to spin it all up, ply it, put it in skeins and hang it with my other yarns. Not all my [...]

Not only is the title of this pose one of the refrains from one of my most favorite Queen songs, but it’s actually true. After being beaten up for years on bicycles, I finally have one that has front and rear shocks and is the right sized frame. Where have these things been all my [...]

I set aside the cotton spinning for a while and returned to the forlorn looking spindle of lace weight alpaca. Ah, spindling where have you been? This is the same red/brown baby alpaca that I was spinning. It so lovely and soft. It’s weird how wire hard singles can turn into the loftiest softest yarn [...]